Newsletter marketing

Spam to me is any unsolicited offer, but especially a recurring unsolicited offer. I'm not an impulse buyer. If I want something, I go looking for it. If I'm interested in something, say software, and I'm subscribed to a newsletter from a software site, I want reviews and information instead of an ad leading to a squeeze page or a never-ending wall of text sales page and especially not to one of those insane infomercial videos. I want someone who says "Hey, here is this software. Here is a thorough review, and how much it costs, and if you're interested in a free trial, click here." then that takes me to a site with more information and a download link. That's how I do business. I want to be that person who sends out that type of newsletter that leads to that type of offer.

I guess the 75% included people who simply block or delete and never read, plus those who sign up with tossaway emails so they never even see them. The number actually was that 75% of everyone on your email list never sees your offers. So I guess that explains why a 2% conversion is good, if only 25% are seeing your offers.

My thing is to be laser focused on people who know me, know I'm knowledgeable about this one niche, and are likely to be long-term subscribers to my newsletter. I know with most of you, it's a numbers game, and that's great if that's how you want to play it, but for my first campaign, I want to be ME and sell what I know best and what I recommend to people from experience.

It seems like that sort of marketing is scoffed at by most of you guys. I want to be ethical. If I can't be ethical, I don't want to play this game, and will just keep writing crap articles to make a living.

Not necessarily. Like I said, as long as the offer gives information and is not just a product pitch, I'm fine. Say for instance, they are selling protein powder. If they send me an offer that either contains or leads me to more info on the benefits of protein powder and maybe a comparison of their product vs the best selling brand, I'm fine with that. What I'm NOT fine with is pure product pitches that have a "learn more" link that just leads you to a hard sell page. I don't have time to read 7,000 words of sales copy. I WILL read 500-600 word well-written review of article on the true proven benefits of a product, scientific studies, etc. Otherwise, you're wasting my time, and I will never buy from you.

I'm not the only person who feels this way, or you wouldn't have to track bounce rates.

That approach is fine. I don't mind that, and I don't mind being occasionally told about sales, especially if I have thought seriously enough about purchasing to not cancel the emails after the first few. I'm all for saving money.

I'm not afraid of asking people to buy things. People who read my blogs already know I sell Amazon and eBay products, so asking them to buy isn't a problem. I put a small link in the middle of every blog post that mentions a product and a larger link or banner at the bottom.

In fact, I'm seriously thinking of doing a products page instead of having widgets as the widgets don't seem to get any sales at all. I think a banner with "Check Out My Recommended Products" would be more effective.

That's my theory too. I can redirect them to the blog, where they will get the rest of the info and see the product links, but there is no hard sell. Just "This is what worked for me, and this is where you can buy this product."

Maybe I'm crazy, but I think that people are more likely to buy from someone they feel cares about whatever issue it is they are facing, whether it be cosmetic, medical or emotional. Say I'm selling a hair care product. I might tell them how to make a comparable product themselves, knowing not everyone is going to want to do that, so I include a link to the product sale page.

I actually sold a bunch of eyedrops that way once, which shocked me. It turns out that people are not comfortable making their own eyedrops (who can blame them, it's your eyes, after all), so they would rather buy the product from a manufacturer. Still, a few used my instructions and posted how well they worked and how grateful they were so that built trust. "Oh look! Some people made these things and their eyes didn't fall out!" LOL

I don't understand what you're trying to say. I don't have any problem with selling products through links, never have. Just don't want to flood people with offers.

I've been thinking about it and this is something like what I'm thinking about doing. Say I'm selling flower bulbs. I write a short piece about how to grow those bulbs, with a "learn more about growing xyz bulbs" link to the full article, which has a link in the middle and at the end, one selling the bulbs and one selling something associated, like bulb fertilizer or something. That way, they get excited about growing the bulbs because they know how to do it now, right? Before the middle link, I'll put something like "I recommend this <dealer> because blah, blah, blah (reasonably priced, has a guarantee but never had to use it because his bulbs are such great quality and grow so well). Then at the end, I say "I also found that if I use this fertilizer, the bulbs bloom better, blah, blah, blah."

So I'm selling two products in one short article.

Once I get enough articles, I put out an ebook on how to grow bulbs, and offer it for free for an email subscription to the newsletter for awhile, then sell it.

Does that make sense? It's not hard selling or flooding inboxes, but it gives me a chance to promote multiple products.

Thanks, I'll do that.

EXACTLY what I've been trying to say!

I am thinking about them, because without them, what am I? Just someone who has a blog somewhere with some ads on it and page on FB and some pictures on Pinterest.

As far as letting them know what to expect, I was thinking of a welcome letter which explains what the newsletter is, what it will contain, that the newsletter is supported by ads, and if they ever think there are too many ads or the ads are obnoxious, to please let me know. That way, I'm telling them up front "Hey, I'm going to try to sell you things, but you don't have to buy them, and if it bothers you, I'm listening."

I feel like accessibility is terribly important. Of course, there will be a time when I can't possibly answer all the emails and messages myself, but I'll try to answer the questions maybe in a Q&A newsletter once in awhile, so they'll know they are heard. People just want to be acknowledged.

I plan to do giveaways on a pretty regular basis to introduce people to products who would otherwise maybe never buy them. If they still never buy them, so be it, but by introducing the entrants to the product, I'm bound to make some sales sometime.

I believe I'll have to work harder doing it this way. I'll have to take 3 years to get to where I want to go instead of the 3 months many promise you, but it's o.k.