Any alternatives to email marketing?

Creating a facebook page with a strong following is a good alternative, this allows you to get in touch with your subscribers as well.

One other method would be to start a blog under your own domain and add in an opt-in forum for your latest updates. But IMO, the difficulty for building a profitable blog can be one of the hardest paths in IM.

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agmccall

10 years ago

Originally Posted by sarahswansea

If I could not use email marketing then what are alternatives to email marketing?

I have to ask. Can you give one example of someone that can not use email marketing?

Seriously, another waste of time thread

al

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discrat 10 years ago

Its advisable you learn the nuances of email marketing and embrace it.

But you can also utilize CPA and Adsense without it

- Robert Andrew
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Brent Stangel

10 years ago

If I could not use email marketing

I would wonder why?

What is your suggestion?

Learn email marketing and put an opt-in form on your site!

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Steve B

10 years ago

Originally Posted by sarahswansea

If I could not use email marketing then what are alternatives to email marketing?

Sarah,

I can not think of reason why someone that can keep a blog going can not use email marketing. Can you explain?

I understand if you don't like using email or if you would prefer not to make the effort to build a list, but not wanting to do something can easily be overcome. When you say you "could not use email marketing" . . . well that tells me you are just choosing to avoid something that may not be pleasant for you.

Emailing for a business owner is critical and there is no substitute as Sid has offered.

Steve

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TimothyTorrents

10 years ago

Do you mean you can't use auto-responders for email marketing? If you can't use one of the more popular companies (for some reason) I'm sure there are other ones you can try out for free. I don't see why someone would want to avoid email marketing all together when it has been proven to bring in plenty of sales and it's one of the most powerful forms of marketing out there.

There are still plenty of other types of marketing that you can engage in, like social media marketing, content marketing, and what not, but email marketing is one of the best. If you purposely choose to avoid email marketing it's like shooting yourself in the foot.

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Popche

10 years ago

Fan Page or groups.

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Raydal

10 years ago

You are using one right now, forums. FB groups are becoming the hot
alternative to forums these days. Even most programs I join they are using
FB groups as their mastermind platform.

-Ray Edwards

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Randall Magwood

10 years ago

Blog and forum advertising is cool but make sure you generate a lead from this traffic. No one knows if/when email marketing will die, but for the meantime... use the heck out of it to get more customers in your database. This is where all the money is.

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Teravel

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Sid Hale

Sure there are "alternatives"... but no substitute!

Originally Posted by agmccall

Can you give one example of someone that can not use email marketing?

Seriously, another waste of time thread

Originally Posted by discrat

Its advisable you learn the nuances of email marketing and embrace it.

Originally Posted by Brent Stangel

Learn email marketing and put an opt-in form on your site!

Originally Posted by Steve B

I can not think of reason why someone that can keep a blog going can not use email marketing. Can you explain?

Emailing for a business owner is critical and there is no substitute as Sid has offered.

Steve

Wow...

I'm shocked that you guys would suggest Email Marketing is the 'Be all, End all' of list building. While email is a powerful tool, it's only one small piece of the marketing puzzle, and it's definitely not a required one. In fact, more people fail at building an income through email than those that succeed.

What it really comes down to isn't the tool you use to communicate, but the COMMUNICATION itself. It doesn't matter if you use email, forums, social media, or membership sites... If you can't properly communicate through the sales process, none of those will be worth anything!

It's just as easy to build a list on a social platform or using a membership website, as it is with email management software (or 'Autoresponders'). In fact, both Social Media and Membership sites can provide better organization of content. They are also more likely to be shared by their members, generating free "Word of Mouth" traffic.

To suggest that Email Marketing is required to build a list, is ignorance of how to properly use other forms of communication in your business.

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Steve B

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Teravel

I'm shocked that you guys would suggest Email Marketing is the 'Be all, End all' of list building.

Teravel,

Please tell us all who said the above. No one.

Originally Posted by Teravel

To suggest that Email Marketing is required to build a list, is ignorance of how to properly use other forms of communication in your business.

And again, those are your words and no one elses.

You are arguing a point that no one has disputed.

About email you also said: "it's only one small piece of the marketing puzzle, and it's definitely not a required one."

No one here has said that email is the only way to market or that it is required and the only piece of the marketing puzzle. Go back and reread the posts from those of us that say email is important.

You're putting words in our mouth to make the point that there are alternative ways to communicate. We all know that. No one has said otherwise. Please get your story straight next time.

Steve

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Teravel

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Sid Hale

Sure there are "alternatives"... but no substitute!

Originally Posted by Steve B

Emailing for a business owner is critical and there is no substitute as Sid has offered.

Originally Posted by Steve B

Please tell us all who said the above. No one.
And again, those are your words and no one elses.

You're putting words in our mouth to make the point...

I may have slightly altered the context, but the point remains the same...

The definition of "Critical", as used in the context you provided is: "having a decisive or crucial importance in the success, failure, or existence of something."

The definition of "Substitute" is: "a person or thing acting or serving in place of another."

Your previous posts suggest a person may fail if they do not use Email Marketing, and there is no other tool that can replace it.

The truth is... There are several tools to replace email. Suggesting otherwise is, as I said before, ignorance (a lack of knowledge or information) on how to use other forms of communication in your business.

Don't take my post personal. It's not an attack on any of you. It was simply a shock to see so many long time members, who I have seen a lot and agreed with many times over the years, suggesting Email is above and beyond what it actually is.

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Sid Hale

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Teravel

I may have slightly altered the context, but the point remains the same...

The definition of "Critical", as used in the context you provided is: "having a decisive or crucial importance in the success, failure, or existence of something."

The definition of "Substitute" is: "a person or thing acting or serving in place of another."

Your definitions are pretty good. I think I would only add that an acceptable substitute must also deliver comparable results.

The truth is... There are several tools to replace email. Suggesting otherwise is, as I said before, ignorance (a lack of knowledge or information) on how to use other forms of communication in your business.

...or perhaps the problem is your "lack of knowledge or information" with regard to how to use email.

I'm no "guru" but I do own multiple successful forums, multiple blogs, multiple "social" accounts, multiple affiliate sites, and have published a range of my own products.

Personally, I find that email to members lists on most of those sites is one of the best ways to "remind" my members to visit those sites and increase my interaction with them - and their interaction with fellow members.

All of the alternatives you mention have their own set of shortcomings, most of which result in a fairly limited ability to contact the same visitor multiple times over a protracted period of time.

When forum participation (on one of my paid forums) falls off, a simple email is all it takes to get my members minds off of their latest shiny new object and to re-ignite discussion on the "topics of the day". About 50% of the members on that particular paid forum have been with me for over 3 years now, and in the past year of that time, attrition has become almost non-existent.

Unlike most affiliate marketers, I don't use email to push multiple affiliate offers per day. Instead, I give them a reason to re-visit/login to my member areas where I can not only strengthen our relationship, but recommend both affiliate offers and my own products... in the context of an interactive conversation.

I also run my own private affiliate program. Email is an ideal way to announce new products and/or new sales campaigns to my affiliates, or just get affiliates back to my affiliate center, where they can see just how productive their promotions have been and any upcoming product launches or discounted offers they may want to promote.

Like I said before... any comparison of the "alternatives" may be lacking simply because of YOUR lack of knowledge or information.

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Teravel

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Sid Hale

I think I would only add that an acceptable substitute must also deliver comparable results.

I completely agree.

Personally, I find that email to members lists on most of those sites is one of the best ways to "remind" my members to visit those sites and increase my interaction with them - and their interaction with fellow members.

Sounds to me like you aren't training your web visitors like you would your email list. Just like getting subscribers to whitelist your email messages, you should be having your audience bookmark your websites.

All of the alternatives you mention have their own set of shortcomings, most of which result in a fairly limited ability to contact the same visitor multiple times over a protracted period of time.

Interesting, coming from someone that's been a member of a forum for the last 12 years...

Seeing how most small businesses fail within the first 1-5 years, I would say 12 years is pretty good for a Forum.

Nice use of the word "protracted", by the way.

When forum participation (on one of my paid forums) falls off, a simple email is all it takes to get my members minds off of their latest shiny new object and to re-ignite discussion on the "topics of the day".

Unlike most affiliate marketers, I don't use email to push multiple affiliate offers per day. Instead, I give them a reason to re-visit/login to my member areas where I can not only strengthen our relationship, but recommend both affiliate offers and my own products... in the context of an interactive conversation.

It sounds like you are using email to recapture your audience, if and when they start losing interest.

Why couldn't you accomplish this with any other platform? There are more people using social media than email, and they spend more time actively participating.

As for Forums and Membership sites, I can send the same content from your email, directly into my members pockets. No email required.

I also run my own private affiliate program. Email is an ideal way to announce new products and/or new sales campaigns to my affiliates, or just get affiliates back to my affiliate center, where they can see just how productive their promotions have been and any upcoming product launches or discounted offers they may want to promote.

All of that can be achieved without emails.

Like I said before... any comparison of the "alternatives" may be lacking simply because of YOUR lack of knowledge or information.

You haven't really shown me anything that email can do, that I can't do with another platform.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not here to suggest people stop using email. It has a wide range of uses, most audiences are accustomed to using it, and it has a fairly shallow learning curve.

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Sid Hale

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Teravel

Sounds to me like you aren't training your web visitors like you would your email list. Just like getting subscribers to whitelist your email messages, you should be having your audience bookmark your websites.

Bookmarking??? Are you serious?

How many of your repeat visitors get to your site by looking up the bookmark in their browser(s)?
Maybe you should send them an email reminding them that they bookmarked the URL (provided that they, in fact, followed your suggestion).

Interesting, coming from someone that's been a member of a forum for the last 12 years...

Seeing how most small businesses fail within the first 1-5 years, I would say 12 years is pretty good for a Forum.

I see the comparison you are trying to make, but you're forgetting that WF is a FREE forum. First, I was referencing a paid forum. I thought I was clear on that point. Second, for most of that 12 year period, I was relatively inactive here.

Inactive paid members wouldn't stick around.

It sounds like you are using email to recapture your audience, if and when they start losing interest.

Why couldn't you accomplish this with any other platform? There are more people using social media than email, and they spend more time actively participating.

Explain just how one might do that - specifically. Not the audience that just happens to be visiting the platform that day, but YOUR audience, the one's who have specifically registered an interest in what you may be publishing. Maybe they are your "friends". How many of them actually see your post to that platform?

All of the alternatives mentioned require your "audience" to login to their account. Or here's an idea... maybe the platform sends them an email

As for Forums and Membership sites, I can send the same content from your email, directly into my members pockets. No email required.

I'm guessing that you are referring to SMS texting.
How's your opt in rate with that? While you're at it... check your opt-out rate, as well.

I think it is a good addition to email marketing - but hardly a substitute.

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Arshalan008

10 years ago

you can use fb fun page about your site. and many other fun page like linkedin, google etc

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247acheiver

10 years ago

Email Marketing alternatives ==>

Video marketing - You Tube, Vimeo, Daily Motion...
Traffic Exchanges, Traffic Swarm, My Advertising Pays, etc
Lead Providing Services - Lime Leads, Safe-swaps, etc.

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Chris Chicas

10 years ago

I'll throw this out there because I don't believe it has been mentioned...

How about knocking on doors?
How about cold calling?

Those 2 are some of the most effective ways I've seen people just hit it out of the ball park. Although I would still recommend building a list.

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kevin timothy

10 years ago

While it's tough to "replace" email (or marketing courtesy of it), the 2nd best option would be social media. The act of following or being friends with someone on a network is the closest you'll get to duplicating the importance of being able to follow up with a prospect - much like you would via email.

Of course, you want the convenience of contact management an autoresponder service provides, but if that's not available the social media connection can help you.

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KevinNonvize

10 years ago

Social Media Marketing is the right answer. Use Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter resources to promote your business, start your fight for the followers and likes.

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art72

10 years ago

Syndicated content.

Guest blogging, contributing articles, and 'stepping in front of traffic' (as I've heard it referred to) can bring a flood of traffic, and in turn build your following, and your credibility/authority.

Obviously, social media.

And, once that following is built, I agree learning to 'cultivate' a list is definitely a powerful marketing tool... Maybe not the 'ONLY' but from years of marketing advice given here, has been largely responsible for a many marketers success.

PS- You could always consider 'outsourcing' your email campaigns and list management, if you feel its not your 'cup of tea'

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jdjenkins

10 years ago

You said you wanted "traffic for my site" - but what is the purpose of it? Do you want traffic to sell a single product, or is your site a blog for which you want to create a audience that will return regularly? If you do want a regular audience, then using an email list is a pretty useful thing to use, but social media can get huge results, and very quickly sometimes too. Paid adverts, combined with retargeting, can have quite a low cost-per-acquisition of subscribers.

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Jacebeeny50

10 years ago

I was listening to an interesting podcast (Rise of the Entrepreneur) and his guest was saying how gathering people's facebook ID is even more important than email to him. I don't necessarily agree because I don't think people know what their facebook id is like they know what their email is.

His point was that you can gather all of the information from someone if you know what their facebook ID is because you can market to them where a lot of people spend their time and will actually see things as opposed to email where things get filtered, deleted, put in promotions, or marked as spam.

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art72

10 years ago

Ding... Ding... Breaking out the popcorn gentlemen.

Being I am for email, I too am curious to know more of the alternatives teravel is NOT disclosing...

What rotating billboards? - Good Year blimp? - maybe bus stop benches?..what are these alternatives?

Not trying to get betwen this debate, although for the six or eight posts you guys have been back & forth now... Sid's expressed his experience and methods, even the whats? and the why's... You haven't shared your defense, other than attacking why you don't prefer email.

Ding... Ding... Resume!

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Platt

10 years ago

it's good to do advertising, but it's not the only thing you should do. E-mailmarketing is still really effective so I should reconsider.

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maxsi

10 years ago

emai marketing is => FUNDAMENTAL part of a business
you can go in contact with potential customers by using social-media

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JohnMcCabe 10 years ago

[Cue Andy Rooney impersonator]

"Did you ever notice how many emails the social media platforms send out?

So-and-so updated their status...

Here are people you may know...

And so on..."

[Cue Seinfeld impersonator]

"Yeah, what's up with THAT?"
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graceallen

10 years ago

Search engine marketing, paid campaigns and promotion on social channels could be better options for you.

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alexawrenchc

10 years ago

Originally Posted by sarahswansea

If I could not use email marketing then what are alternatives to email marketing?
I am going to buy advertising on some blogs or forums to increase traffic for my site. are they good ways? What is your suggestion?

Of course I support the Forum posting & relevant blog commenting. These are good. Beside these you can use the Social Media sites. Nowadays the there is no ways to ignore the Social Media sites. It is one of the best way. You can try, if you want. Thanks

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krishparmar

10 years ago

Hello,
SMS marketing is a very valuable tool right now for marketeers as it has almost 90% open rates..Other ways like posts on social media can also increase the traffic to your site...but I must say that email marketing is irreplaceable due to it's approachability and credibility.

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sammiejoe

10 years ago

Originally Posted by sarahswansea

If I could not use email marketing then what are alternatives to email marketing?
I am going to buy advertising on some blogs or forums to increase traffic for my site. are they good ways? What is your suggestion?

Facebook and other social media platforms are a great alternative if you have an engaged audience.

Also retargeting can have a really good ROI. Retargeting ads can be set up in such a way that you show ads at intervals like an autoresponder might send emails.

There are always alternatives, but I would still build an email list if you can.

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InternetMarketingSmarts

10 years ago

The other warriors have given you some great feedback as to alternatives. So run with the ideas. But what's the purpose of driving traffic to your site if you don't plan to capture their email address. Your list is the only thing you can control for the most part. Social media sites will come and go but your list is a fundamental marketing concept that hasn't changed for years and won't regardless of whatever medium happens to be hot to get traffic.

So it's definitely important that whatever you do ends with you capturing leads. Because when you have a responsive list, that's an instant source of traffic and income. A lot of times people won't take action on any of your website offers until they hear from you often enough and you've built a rapport. So having a responsive email list is a must and should always be party of your marketing regardless of whatever traffic methods you try here.

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HelpingYouBeAnExpert

10 years ago

Direct mail list still work and no one uses it anymore

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SmartTim

10 years ago

Alternative is social media marketing like Facebook likes, Twitter followers and more.

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Rory Singh

10 years ago

SMS is a powerful alternative to email. But it's very expensive.

BOTH Email and SMS marketing is how you build a relationship with your leads.

You need either one or the other or else you will be leaving money on the table regarding your primary marketing campaigns that are bringing you traffic and leads.

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brewmeister

10 years ago

Native ads to advertorials marketing.

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kingleo101

10 years ago

Originally Posted by sarahswansea

If I could not use email marketing then what are alternatives to email marketing?
I am going to buy advertising on some blogs or forums to increase traffic for my site. are they good ways? What is your suggestion?

I think advertising on social media would be a good alternative, combining this with email marketing can be very effective in building a good list.

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Any alternatives to email marketing?

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