Most of what I write deals with either reviews of programs and/or guidance on making a successful income online. I’d like to change things around for just this post because I feel it’s subject is of utter importance, especially if you’re doing online marketing and are being sold on the idea that email marketing is the only way to go.
In this post, I’ll show you how I messed up and destroyed an email list of over 30,000 subscribers that I had (and how you should avoid my mistake because it’s easy to make it).
I have run email marketing campaigns in the past and out of the 10 or so that I have/had, only 1 remains successful. What made the other 9 fail?
Well this is what I’m going to be talking about in this post so that you don’t make these same mistakes I and other marketers do if you decide to try email marketing yourself.
Before I get to the actual mistakes, I want to mention that in MANY of the reviews I do on programs which deal with MMO (Make money online), the most common strategy I find within them is in fact email marketing. In fact, most of the programs which preach this form of online business really try their best to give you the impression that if you want to succeed online, you need a list.
Is this really true? Not quite. Yes email marketing is very lucrative, but it’s not for everyone (see why the money is not always in the list), certainly not beginners.
I always tell people to start with SEO to get hands on experience with how the business works. This alone could be enough to earn you a full time income. But if things do go well, you CAN move into email marketing to further enhance your online business.
But if you do, do NOT make the following mistakes:
Mistake 1: You oversell to your email list.
Recently, I unsubscribed from basically EVERY single email list I am subscribed to where I get sent information/tips on online marketing.
Overtime, with each list I was signed up to, what happened was that EVERY single email I’d get from each person would be one sale’s pitch after another. I kid you not. Every email I’d get would basically come down to this:
- “Hey Vitaliy, hope you’re doing well! I want to tell you about an AMAZING software I just started using that’s making me “Insert crazy $$$” and it’s currently being offered at a discount! Get it here (affiliate link).”
- “Vitaliy, there is a MAJOR disaster approaching the online marketing world. Soon there will be major changes to search engines which will absolutely “kill” SEO. If you want to avoid the upcoming disaster, check out my latest blog post on how to adapt to it!”
After I click through the link, it’s a sale’s page (surprise…). In either scenario, if I see this kind of stuff happen too often, I stop subscribing to these people.
In some cases, I used to stay just to review the crap they would promote me and tell others to stay away from it. But now it’s just become annoying and whatever email I was once subscribed to is now headed straight for my spam folder.
Congratulations people who got me to sign up. You’ve just lost a subscriber and I’ll bet I’m not the only one whose had enough of your sales pitches.
Mistake 2: You’re not consistent in your promotions.
Don’t recommend 1 product as a solution to fix all problems then after awhile promote a completely different product/program that promises the same thing. That’s just bad. I am actually guilty of doing this and lost 1,000’s of subscribers as a result. Be consistent! If you’re going to recommend future products, make sure they don’t contradict your reputation, but only supplement it!
Mistake 3 (The 30,000 emails lost case study): You ignore your list and/or fall of their radar.
Another thing i am guilty of. For those of you who have email marketing campaigns, I suggest you turn away now because what I’m about to say will make you shed tears, honest! OK you’ve been warned!
I once possessed an email list of over 30,000 subscribers. This email list was giving out dieting advice to people and I had a lot of trust. I sent people tons of useful tips, even gave them a free eBook to help them get going.
I even made over $10,000 in my whole time promoting products to that list. But as time wore on and I moved into other niches/subjects I was interested in, I just stopped keeping in touch with them. I stopped sending out follow up emails and basically fell off their radar.
Eventually I had to delete the entire email list because 99%+ of the people just didn’t remember who I was. Plus, I was paying extra to keep all of these subscribers (I was/still am using Aweber). I did try a few times to salvage anyone I could, but out of the 30,000 people who I had subscribed, only about 100 remained.
Oh how much potential there was with this list…
- I could have made a diet blog and linked it to my list every time I wrote it. This would get me tons of comments, exposure and a MUCH faster/better authority with search engines. I wouldn’t even have to sell them anything…
- I could have kept making money by selling this list programs that could help them.
- I could have…well you get the point…
I still run one successful newsletter that is based on a different niche and has a VERY enthusiastic crowd. Though this email list is nowhere near the 30k mark, it’s still got a lot of potential. I will not be making the same mistake with this list as with the previous one. You shouldn’t either.
Mistake 4: You stop giving them GREAT information to keep them happy.
Without giving people a reason to sign up, OR for that matter keeping them ON your email list, you’re never going to succeed in email marketing.
You absolutely need to provide people with information that keeps them on the edge of their seat, constantly anticipating when your next email is going to arrive.
Email marketing does have a lot of potential to earn you money in the short/long run, but most people fail in it because of a lack of experience which mainly comes down to overselling and just not providing enough value to their list.
You seriously need to put the needs of your list ahead of your need to sell. This mentality will go a long way. Don’t get into email marketing in hopes of compiling a huge list of people and then thinking the profits will come in on auto pilot. That is NOT how it works.
If you have trust from your subscribers, which is something you have to earn, then you focus on selling, but only something that TRULY helps them. Otherwise you’ll just be falling into mistake #1.
In the end, as I suggested earlier, if you’re new, don’t do email marketing. Start with SEO, or better yet with places like Wealthy Affiliate which can get you going on the right foot. Then as time goes on and you see your online business growing, then perhaps move into email marketing. This approach in my opinion yields greater success, but does take time to develop. Remember there is NO get rich quick scheme in this business.