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Emailing Effectiveness?

by Ehanson
13 replies
What has been everyone's experience with emailing potential clients? I'm testing the waters with emailing but want to know if it's a waste of time before I start to invest more time in it. I get most of my clients through Craigslist for now but am looking for other means of contacting people.

Do many people email back? What about the CAN-SPAM act? The last thing I'd want is someone thinking I'm spamming their inbox.
#effectiveness #emailing
  • Profile picture of the author P1
    I don't do email marketing but from what I read:
    Just like anything else it's a numbers game your best bet is to buy a program that will harvest Google Places etc and return the owners contact email because doing it manually is going to take you forever.

    I don't think it's considered spam since you are trying to help the business just like if you owed a website and a advertiser contacted you to run there ads.
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    • Profile picture of the author IndieRetailer
      Originally Posted by P1 View Post

      I don't do email marketing but from what I read:
      Just like anything else it's a numbers game your best bet is to buy a program that will harvest Google Places etc and return the owners contact email because doing it manually is going to take you forever.
      Google Places is a great resource, but they don't include email addresses in the listings... probably for this reason. You would actually have to visit their websites and see if their email address is listed on their contact page.

      Otherwise, Places is still a good resource if you do want to start a postcard mailing campaign. And if you can find a Places info extractor program, you can harvest the mailing addresses and get a good targeted mailing list. Yes, there will be a bit of an investment, but there are companies that will print and mail any quantity of postcards for a fairly reasonable rate. You can start small and then reinvest. I would recommend using over sized postcards though to stand out a bit better among all of the other mail.
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  • Profile picture of the author TopGun38
    Yes, emailing is a numbers game. The more prospects you send an email to the more chance of landing a customer. Don't worry about spam issue as you're contacting the business to make your pitch. They normally choose to respond or ignore and not hit the spam button.
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  • Profile picture of the author Qamar
    I have tried emailing and managed to get some response and sales. But to be honest, you have to email somewhere around 150 emails to get 2-3 responds. I find that emailing prospects is workable but the result is very little and the job is tedious unless you want to outsource them.

    I think direct mailing is even better although there's some capital involve for this method to work.

    Qamar
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Man... picking up the phone and cold calling is going to help much more than sending out hundreds and hundreds of emails just to get a few leads which may or may not become anything, and even if they do bite, you have a good chance of not having a high perceived value since you're chasing. To me, I have higher sales by phone than closing sales by email.

    I have sent out about 600 emails this week with about 5 responses. 2 I closed... spent a couple hours calling today and closed a sale. A lot less time consuming than searching craigslist for emails.
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    • Profile picture of the author TopGun38
      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      Man... picking up the phone and cold calling is going to help much more than sending out hundreds and hundreds of emails just to get a few leads which may or may not become anything, and even if they do bite, you have a good chance of not having a high perceived value since you're chasing. To me, I have higher sales by phone than closing sales by email.

      I have sent out about 600 emails this week with about 5 responses. 2 I closed... spent a couple hours calling today and closed a sale. A lot less time consuming than searching craigslist for emails.
      Yes, cold calling is quite effective but can be quite intimidating for a lot of people. Perhaps record a video of your pitch with slides to upload to youtube and then email the youtube link out to your prospects. I know someone used this youtube method to land his clients.
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  • Profile picture of the author Real-TechGuy
    If you build a good permission based marketing system - it'll be your biggest asset in Internet Marketing.

    I use craigslist to market apartments - push to a landing page where they can either call or opt in - my autoresponder sends them emails that have a CTA to call me.

    Works in just about ANY niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rocket Media
    You'll never get any big sales unless you get really lucky. It's about positioning and being an expert, not numbers (if you wanna land the big fish and make a career out of this)
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    • Profile picture of the author McGruff
      Originally Posted by Rocket Media View Post

      You'll never get any big sales unless you get really lucky.

      I respectfully disagree. I've landed a big sale and it wasn't about luck, it was about proper targeting with the right message.


      Originally Posted by Rocket Media View Post

      It's about positioning and being an expert, not numbers (if you wanna land the big fish and make a career out of this)
      I would say it includes both. It's always a numbers game simply due to the fact that for a variety of reasons your targeted message came at an inopportune time. Proper and persistent follow up can increase your odds of finally catching the right prospect with the right message.
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    • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
      Originally Posted by Rocket Media View Post

      You'll never get any big sales unless you get really lucky. It's about positioning and being an expert, not numbers (if you wanna land the big fish and make a career out of this)
      When I hear big sales, I'm thinking 75-100k for a project. Sure that would be nice and it will take a more seasoned vet to get those contracts but chances are you don't need that.

      There are plenty of 2-4K projects out there, and one of them a month is enough for some of these people starting out to make a living off of.

      Mostly, emailing without previously touching base is less valuable. Doesn't mean it doesn't work, but you're talking more projects under $1,000 instead of project 2k+
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      • Profile picture of the author dtaylor
        I have experimented with cold emailing quite a bit but have had very limited success with it.

        For the amount of time invested it was inferior to other methods I use.

        If you are going to market this way you will dramatically improve your results if you follow up with a phone call the same day the email is sent. Even if you don't speak directly but leave a voice message it will improve the open rate of your emails.

        If you are going to go to the trouble of creating a video it works a lot better if you cold call first, get the persons name and email address and send the link to the video or the video itself in the email. Follow this up with a 2nd call and you will get some business.

        If you want to spend your time avoiding talking to people why get into offline in the first place?

        DTaylor
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  • Profile picture of the author BackLinkingNinja
    Email targeting can work, but it's not only a numbers game but it needs to be well targeted numbers at that. A little research up front can be very effective, also ensure you're targeting well and you have a catchy (but professional) subject line and a brief but focused email. Put yourself in the recipients position.., you first need to get your email to the right business then person - then you need to get their attention so as to intrigue them to open the email. Then of course tell them 'what's in it for them' and have a call to action...

    Email is much more effective if you combine it with a telephone follow-up. Sometime a pre-call to get the details of who's in charge of marketing and check their email , then email and tele-follow-up. If you're not so comfortable with the phone a following-up my email call is an easier place to start from.

    Expect 1-3% response on your email rate - if you've targeted. You'll get much higher if you pre-call (confirms name and contact details) , email and then follow-up!!!
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