Email Marketing What Is It? Purpose? How It Differs? How To Set It Up?

Do you serve the purpose they require?

Money not in list; in relationship you have with your list

With so many different ways of marketing and making a buck online, it’s really important to understand that while they all are ‘internet marketing’, the execution and philosophy behind each of them can be very different. Affiliate marketing, social media marketing, videos, email, PPC, PPV, CPA, SEO, blogging, are all different, even if they can and do overlap into each other.

My passion is email marketing. I love the other stuff and I’m always using a few of them at any given time as part of my campaign, but I use email marketing as the main cog in my campaigns. Here’s the important thing to understand: while some other marketing approaches are aimed at making a sale or getting a click immediately, email marketing (like blogging) is about building a relationship with your prospect; serving a purpose for your prospect.

I tend to think of an email marketing in two parts: when it’s starting and when it’s established.

When a prospect is new to your list, the focus needs to be on building a relationship and getting that personal familiar with you. A soft sell or a mention of the product is fine. When this is done right, after a few emails your prospect will 1.) recognize emails from you, 2.) trust you and respect you, and 3.) look forward to emails from you!

At this point, when you have added plenty of value and have a relationship with your prospect, he or she will naturally view your products and services as credible and of value. After all, you have been emailing them killer content this whole time, making their lives better/easier, and for free. You’re now in a position of influence because you can be trusted.

Here’s how I like to set up and start a new campaign:

Set up a data capture page offering a real solution to a problem they have
Offer this solution in exchange for their email, in the form of a free report (filled with killer content!)
email gets plugged into an auto responder sequence of at least 10 emails to start
First two emails are 100% content (more free stuff) to continue building a relationship with them.
Emails 3 – 10 I’ll make mention of a product/service maybe every other email
1. I’m always providing killer content, even when I’m selling
2. I make mention of the product, asking them to check it out
3. I come back with reviews
4. I’ll have one hard sell near the end, but I rarely send consecutive hard sell emails

can also be sending prospect to blog post (generating a click to the blog)

How I manage an existing/ongoing list:

There are some that have throw away campaigns: they set them up for a short time with the purpose of selling one product/service. It’s 7-10 emails long with lots of hard selling and then it ends. They go on and set up another campaign for a different product. This happens a lot in affiliate marketing. Now, that campaign is ongoing – it keeps generating sells. It just that after prospect goes through the selling process, that’s it. The emails stop.

There’s nothing wrong with this, and I know people that are making money this way. I just believe that a lot is being left on the table. By continually emailing and growing that same list, you build a following and a presence. Building a solid relationship with your audience takes time, but that time results in higher conversion rate; more sales; and long term viability for your business.

You could spend a year building dozens of short term campaign and make good money.

You could also spend that same amount of time growing one list and building onto the same email campaign. Always providing fresh killer content. Instead of having a few thousand customers who have bought from you at some point in time, you’ll have a list of a few thousand subscribers who are active, loyal and responsive to.

Instead of start a new campaign to sell a new product and having a generate leads from scratch, you can just email your list of hundreds or thousands of loyal and responsive subscribers, and generate sales on demand.

I follow maybe 3 or 4 people in my niche via their email newsletters. I have been getting emails from them for years – one heavy hitter in particular has had me on his list since about 2004, and I ALWAYS read what he sends, and I buy from him regularly when he promotes something. And when he promotes, it always delivers way more in value then what it cost.

RULE: Content ALWAYS outweighs selling in your email marketing!

Think about all the emails that you get on a regular basis – how much goes into your spam? How much do you delete without reading? How much do you actually read?

How much of your email do you actually look forward to opening and reading?

The worst think you can do is go through the time and effort and collect a prospect’s information, then think you can just start shooting them emails asking them to buy something. They won’t – why would they?

Know your audience:
- You should have done research up to this point just to have generated the lead. It doesn’t end here. We need to constantly be learning and growing with our audience so we’re always in touch with what they need. Use survey monkey or another service to ask them and find out what your list wants.
What is your purpose of your email to them? We all value our time, so we should respect and appreciate the time our audience takes to read our emails. Make sure there is a purpose for what you’re sending. If we just right aimless, babbling emails then we are just spammers and the relationship will deteriorate.
Convey this message to your audience clearly and concisely (I want to provide them with specific information, I want them to call me, I want to sell a video series, I want them to click over to my blog, I want to sell an ebook,etc.)
Always stay focused on providing value. How can you improve their life relative to your niche market?
Relationship + Value = $$

RULE: Content ALWAYS outweighs selling in your email marketing!

As with all marketing – test, test and test. Track your stats on your autoresponder account (opens, clicks, unsubscribes) and learn where you start losing their attention so you can remedy it. (Ask well as where you’re GAINING their attention!)

That’s a quick rundown but it gives a good idea on how to approach your email marketing. And once you understand how to approach it, everything is easier from there. Just remember – KILLER content.

Guest Post By:

Adel (‘Oddle’) Refai

www.RecruitingForMLM.com

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