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Help creating my email marketing plan.

by Hoodyy
12 replies
Hey Warriors!

I'm in need of some opinions, advice and such.

Ok, so currently I have a website - it has nothing on it. I'm compiling a free report to give away for people to join my list. Once I have that I can then finish designing my website, put the aweber form in and start blogging away, creating traffic etc.

However, i'm unsure on the approach to use with my e-mail marketing campaign. What i've been told:

  1. Have affiliate links in the first emails and then most emails after that (if you've never sent them a link and then do after 10 emails or so they'll be suspicious).
  2. Send LOTS of emails in the first week (3-4)
  3. Promote different affiliates in each email (at least for a while)
  4. Offer the big money affiliates / CPA offers after 7 or so emails
How much of that is shared opinion among people experience marketing with lists I am unsure. Q: What are people's opinions?

My current plan is to write decent quality emails which will aid my subscribers and then use a related affiliate. Q: How long should these emails be? Article length (400 words), shorter (200?).

Now, my niche has several very, very good affiliates that provide residual income because they are membership sites. I am currently unsure whether to promote them on my main website (via a banner) or to exclusively promote them to my list in later emails? I obviously want the highest conversion I can. I'd assume because it's a fairly big monetary investment for my subscribers the more they've been reading my quality content, the more likely they'll be to actually click on my affiliate links and sign up.

I'm also wondering if a different affiliate in each email is wise.. I suppose it gets a lot of exposure to a lot of different places but perhaps it removes some trust they have with me because i'm 'spamming them with as many affiliate products as I can find'. - Thoughts on this?

I also decided it might be nice to vary emails. Sometimes long quality content ones, others smaller (urgent?) emails trying to promote an affiliate.

How long should I set up follow-on emails for my list for before setting my site live? 20 weeks perhaps? I was thinking 3 emails in the first week, 2 in the second week and then 1 a week, perhaps even getting to 1 a fortnight later down the line. My plan by then hopefully will be to promote related niche sites that i've made by then to put one list on the other and so on.

I probably have many, many more burning questions to do with my email campaign, but this is currently all I can think of!


Some other questions I thought about not related to email marketing:
  • Are there any simple (non signing up, paying) guides to creating backlinks?
  • Do you think creating a product with MMR is a good way to create traffic and increase the size of my list?
  • Free products in general - perhaps I might sell it for $2 or so? Then my list is of buyers already.. and every little helps of course! If I do create a product for sale, I have no idea about how to do that and will need another guide if possible!
  • How often do affiliate blogs blog? Once a day would be ideal, unfortunately I don't have enough content to do that, or enough time... I could do it for 10 days or so probably with the content I currently have. I don't want to outsource articles at the moment either until I see some returns.

That certainly felt good writing all of that down. God knows if it makes any sense as my thoughts were just flowing from my head onto the keys... and my thoughts are all ways in a messy order. I hope people can understand what my queries are and can help anyway.

Thanks!

Matt
#creating #email #marketing #plan
  • Profile picture of the author digitalproductreporter
    if you are starting an email list with the entire intention of making money, why not start the list for people who want to buy things?

    Then it's win win.

    for instance,

    a list for people who want coupons for a niche

    a list for people that want to know about new products

    then you can send them affiliate links and they will love you for it
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  • Profile picture of the author Hoodyy
    Not sure if those ideas fit into my niche but I get where you are coming from.

    Perhaps the list will be more likely to accept my affiliate links if they've purchased an eBook or something before getting on the list?
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  • Profile picture of the author Greenwarrior
    Hoodyy,

    I have a comment on this part:

    How long should I set up follow-on emails for my list for before setting my site live? 20 weeks perhaps? I was thinking 3 emails in the first week, 2 in the second week and then 1 a week, perhaps even getting to 1 a fortnight later down the line. My plan by then hopefully will be to promote related niche sites that i've made by then to put one list on the other and so on.

    I would go live in 10 weeks. I would send out e-mails every other day. I have found people forget you and unsubscribe. Keep yourself in their face . Have you ever used chipmonkey?

    Best wishes with your new site
    Signature

    Please no affiliate links in your signature! Thanks!

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  • Profile picture of the author Hoodyy
    No, what is chipmonkey?
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    • Profile picture of the author Halmac
      I have always found shorter emails to get a better click through rate than long ones. I think its wise to vary the length depending on what the actual email is saying and trying to accomplish.

      If your email is meant to give them quality content without a link to anything, then I think it can go longer, but as I said I find that the short emails are better.

      From my own point of view as a reader, I prefer shorter emails. Especially after I have been on a list for a while. You KNOW that most likely there is going to be some sort of link in the email, so just give it to me! I don't like reading looooooong emails!

      But thats just me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Hoodyy
    That seems like good advice.

    Would you perhaps say longer emails at the start and then the shorter emails nearing the end?
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    What i've been told:
    Have affiliate links in the first emails and then most emails after that (if you've never sent them a link and then do after 10 emails or so they'll be suspicious).
    1. Send LOTS of emails in the first week (3-4)
    2. Promote different affiliates in each email (at least for a while)
    3. Offer the big money affiliates / CPA offers after 7 or so emails
    How much of that is shared opinion among people experience marketing with lists I am unsure.
    I would think that little of it would be shared opinion among people with successful experience of marketing to lists.

    Difficult for me to reply here, as so far there's virtually nothing in the thread that I can relate to even enough to converse intelligently about it. If you'll excuse an unusual-sounding comment, I think you need to be very careful whose advice you take on this subect.

    The important thing to bear in mind is that you're writing email to a list of specific people who were brought in a specific way (or sometimes in a mixture of specific ways) to a specific site at which they opted in to receive a specific free report. Write to them accordingly. Try to put yourself into the mindset of "that average (potential) customer".

    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    How long should these emails be? Article length (400 words), shorter (200?).
    It depends who the people are and what length they expect and prefer. You can judge this, to some extent. I write a lot more than 400 words because the people on all my lists have been attracted onto them by articles that were far longer than that, and they've more or less been told that by opting in they're going to get "more of the same". I think it's not unreasonable to assume that many people attracted as PPC traffic may prefer something much shorter, though.

    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    Now, my niche has several very, very good affiliates
    You mean "good products/services", perhaps? :confused:

    You're the affiliate yourself, I think?

    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    I am currently unsure whether to promote them on my main website (via a banner) or to exclusively promote them to my list in later emails?
    I suggest that you should do both unless there's a compelling reason to do only one.

    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    I'd assume because it's a fairly big monetary investment for my subscribers the more they've been reading my quality content, the more likely they'll be to actually click on my affiliate links and sign up.
    There may be an element of that involved, yes. But the single factor that will affect, far more than anything else, whether they'll click on your affiliate links and sign up, is how well matched the offer is to the market. In other words, how well that membership matches the traffic you're generating to and by your opt-in and free report.

    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    I'm also wondering if a different affiliate in each email is wise.. I suppose it gets a lot of exposure to a lot of different places but perhaps it removes some trust they have with me because i'm 'spamming them with as many affiliate products as I can find'. - Thoughts on this?
    Again, it varies according to the niche and traffic-sources. It's certainly good to have more than one product available, and it's certainly good to have things at widely differing prices, if you can.

    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    How long should I set up follow-on emails for my list for before setting my site live? 20 weeks perhaps?
    What did I misunderstand here? Why wouldn't you have your site live before doing anything else? :confused:

    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    I was thinking 3 emails in the first week, 2 in the second week and then 1 a week
    This part sounds very reasonable, though your own testing may be more reasonable still. (Personally I prefer to "settle down to" one every 5 or 6 days, partly so that they're not always going out on the same day of the week.)

    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    Do you think creating a product with MMR is a good way to create traffic and increase the size of my list?
    Are you involved the "internet marketing advice" market? And if so why (if you'll excuse the question!), when it seems you have no experience of it, to be offering people advice? (But who's going to want MMR apart from other marketers?)

    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    Would you perhaps say longer emails at the start and then the shorter emails nearing the end?
    What "end"? Why would there be an "end"?

    Originally Posted by Hoodyy View Post

    I hope people can understand what my queries are and can help anyway.
    I promise I'm not trying to be impolite or critical, but if you'll excuse the observation, I'm far from convinced that many people whose answers might potentially be most helpful to you will be able to contribute to the thread, as it is, because to be honest some of your questions are far from clear! It may help people to reply if you describe in slightly more detail what you're doing, and so on. (I do appreciate that you may have reasons for not wanting to "give your whole game away", but at the moment, again if you'll excuse the comment, you're coming across like someone who doesn't actually have a game to give away ...).
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Parkhouse
      my advice would be to throw any email marketing plan out of the window and start testing.

      Try all kinds of different emails on your subscribers and see what works.

      Once you have some results then you can start thinking about an email marketing plan.
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      • Profile picture of the author Bingo123
        I've found that the best strategy that works for me is to first build a solid relationship with your list. The only way to do this is to provide solid content without trying to sell them anything. When they open their email account and see there is an email from you, you want them to open it in excitement as they are expecting more valuable content.

        Then later down the line, add in a few suggestions or recommendations to products that you have used, and think may help them.
        They will be far more likely to buy something from you then as you have built up a solid relationship with them.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Profit Parky View Post

        my advice would be to throw any email marketing plan out of the window and start testing.

        Try all kinds of different emails on your subscribers and see what works.

        Once you have some results then you can start thinking about an email marketing plan.
        I hear you, and understand your point completely, but when you're just starting off, you still have to decide what to test, you know? There's no point at all doing a split-test of 20 people because the results won't be statistically significant (to put it mildly), and you can't let them go stale after they've just opted in, otherwise they'll be unresponsive whatever you send them. So you have to start somewhere.
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        • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
          Well, here are some suggestions based on different models I've encountered:

          First email is your giveaway/freebie. Don't put affiliate links in it.

          You are building trust. You want to help your followers (I hope)

          Even 2nd and 3rd emails should not have affiliate links. Yes, more helpful information.

          At what pace should these things go out? Some will tell you 3 times a week, some will tell you twice a week, etc It really varies and is something you will need to play with a bit. Personally, unless I'm sending a "course" where the user knows they are getting an email every day, I would not suggest going beyond 2 per week - but this is my personal preference.

          You may even find a monthly newsletter will do the trick. It really depends on the niche.

          As for the length of the emails - I think they need to be as long as they need to be. Share something helpful. Some may be longer than others based on what you need to cover.

          1. Have affiliate links in the first emails and then most emails after that (if you've never sent them a link and then do after 10 emails or so they'll be suspicious).
          2. Send LOTS of emails in the first week (3-4)
          3. Promote different affiliates in each email (at least for a while)
          4. Offer the big money affiliates / CPA offers after 7 or so emails
          I'm curious as to who gave you this advice.

          Anyway, realize you will tick some people off if you are too aggressive and pushy and you will get unsubscribes when this happens. You can even be really nice and get unsubscribes.

          You won't be able to please everyone, but you can be yourself and really focus on helping people - not sticking affiliate links in every email like they are a hurd of cows.
          Signature

          "May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

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        • Profile picture of the author LegionNate
          I've asked a similar question before, but it kind of goes along the lines of this thread....

          I've heard that you can (and should) start a list in ANY niche. Do you guys believe that? I sell in a lot of physical product niches, and just can't figure out how to get a niche going outside of information type niches such as MMO, stock trading, etc.

          As an example, I sell things like bean bag chairs (dropship), and headphones (through Amazon), etc. Do you guys believe niches should be started in these kinds of niches? If so, how might you go about it?
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