Just a quick article today, to mention an amazing but very real opportunity.
One of the biggest obstacles to many would-be online marketers is building a 'safelist' of opted-in email addresses. Without those, email marketing is dead before it even starts...
And even 24 percent of nothing is still nothing.
Here's the solution: Smart Safelist.com
Roy Everitt, Writing For Smart Results
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Friday, 11 January 2008
At Least Something Works!
Hello again.
Frustrating isn't quite the word when you've gone to the trouble of directing people to a website, only to find you can't update the content to give them what you've promised.
The mysteries of Internet Explorer and/or Google conspired to prevent me updating this page yesterday, but I'm here now.
And the plan was to tell you how the death of email marketing has been greatly exaggerated. To point out that any other advertising medium that could deliver a twenty-four percent response would be lauded to the hills. And any that subsequently delivered over sixty percent of those responders to the advertised event would be hailed as revolutionary.
It wasn't lauded (except by me) and there's nothing very revolutionary about email marketing. I guess it depends on three things:
Frustrating isn't quite the word when you've gone to the trouble of directing people to a website, only to find you can't update the content to give them what you've promised.
The mysteries of Internet Explorer and/or Google conspired to prevent me updating this page yesterday, but I'm here now.
And the plan was to tell you how the death of email marketing has been greatly exaggerated. To point out that any other advertising medium that could deliver a twenty-four percent response would be lauded to the hills. And any that subsequently delivered over sixty percent of those responders to the advertised event would be hailed as revolutionary.
It wasn't lauded (except by me) and there's nothing very revolutionary about email marketing. I guess it depends on three things:
- How targeted the original list is
- How good the offer is
- How well we write the emails
So we can probably say we got three out of three for our last campaign. Fifty attendees from a list of about three hundred people (and from just under eighty opt-ins) has to be good.
So when I finished congratulating myself for that success I could only think I should be doing this kind of thing for a living!
Then I remembered I was, decided to tell a few people about it, and hit the brick wall that either Microsoft or Google temporarily threw up in my path.
Still, I'm here now, I've told you about it and I can only ask one question: how would a twenty-four percent response to your next campaign help YOUR business?
Roy Everitt, Writing for Amazing Results
Saturday, 5 January 2008
Beware the Joint Venture
Hello again...
but hold on - aren't I the one who's been telling you for months that joint ventures are the fastest way to grow a list, build your business and transform your earning ability?
Yep. So maybe I should plead guilty right now to deceiving you all along?
Yes and no.
Joint ventures are a brilliant way to build your business. That means they're also a brilliant way for everyone else to build their business, too. And there are joint ventures and joint ventures...
Just recently, it seems that every other email I get is promoting the idea of joint ventures. Most of them, not surprisingly perhaps, are promoting the idea of joint ventures with the sender of the email. Of course, they're trying to sell me something and there's nothing wrong with that. But what they suggest is not a joint venture at all. It's an affiliate scheme, pure and simple.
Not that there's anything wrong with afffiliate schemes, either. Ask Ewan Chia. But I do think that promoting one thing as something else is wrong.
In a recent email to David Congreave I used the term 'interested affiliate'. I think that's a more accurate name for the kind of joint venture offer that really amounts to 'sell my product for a commission and I may promote something of yours later'. In other words, the affiliate partners have a vested interest in the success of the whole promotion, since it builds a bigger list they may be able to tap into later. But it's not a joint venture, which entails a far more specific relationship and a more tangible return.
To me, a joint venture is where both (or all) parties bring something roughly equal to the table and share the rewards accordingly.
But if you're suddenly bombarded with 'exclusive' or 'limited' joint venture offers from people whom you know wouldn't know you from Adam or Eve, just ask yourself, as always, 'What's in it for me?'
As for me - I usually just press 'delete'.
Roy Everitt, Writing For Results
but hold on - aren't I the one who's been telling you for months that joint ventures are the fastest way to grow a list, build your business and transform your earning ability?
Yep. So maybe I should plead guilty right now to deceiving you all along?
Yes and no.
Joint ventures are a brilliant way to build your business. That means they're also a brilliant way for everyone else to build their business, too. And there are joint ventures and joint ventures...
Just recently, it seems that every other email I get is promoting the idea of joint ventures. Most of them, not surprisingly perhaps, are promoting the idea of joint ventures with the sender of the email. Of course, they're trying to sell me something and there's nothing wrong with that. But what they suggest is not a joint venture at all. It's an affiliate scheme, pure and simple.
Not that there's anything wrong with afffiliate schemes, either. Ask Ewan Chia. But I do think that promoting one thing as something else is wrong.
In a recent email to David Congreave I used the term 'interested affiliate'. I think that's a more accurate name for the kind of joint venture offer that really amounts to 'sell my product for a commission and I may promote something of yours later'. In other words, the affiliate partners have a vested interest in the success of the whole promotion, since it builds a bigger list they may be able to tap into later. But it's not a joint venture, which entails a far more specific relationship and a more tangible return.
To me, a joint venture is where both (or all) parties bring something roughly equal to the table and share the rewards accordingly.
But if you're suddenly bombarded with 'exclusive' or 'limited' joint venture offers from people whom you know wouldn't know you from Adam or Eve, just ask yourself, as always, 'What's in it for me?'
As for me - I usually just press 'delete'.
Roy Everitt, Writing For Results
Thursday, 3 January 2008
Why Rivals Should be Allies
...and that applies to public speaking as much as anything
Hello again.
As a public speaker, especially an inexperienced and nervous one, you're quite likely to feel anxious and defensive about your position or status. Don't worry - that's quite natural and normal. If you had no nerves you'd have no adrenalin and probably no energy to perform.
Still, away from the stage you need to be more clear-headed about things.
One of the great things about business (that I wouldn't have believed before I gave up the 'day job' a year ago) is the level of cooperation you get between people who could just as easily be rivals. It's the quickest way to grow a business, bar an unfeasibly large cash injection, so it makes sense all round. Often, though, people cooperate and help each other despite having little to gain. I suppose that's because most people are, basically, nice.
So it was good to read a newsletter from David Congreave today, celebrating that fact. David created Lucid SEO, The Nettle and Networking Nightmares, so he knows a thing or two about success and cooperation.
As a public speaker you might well feel all alone and pretty vulnerable up there on the stage. Actually, there's no need if you're prepared to share the limelight, the kudos, the profits and the stress with a 'rival' who operates in the same niche as you.
Think about it, and think about the value your audience gets if they get two experts' views and ideas, two voices to make things more varied and two people essentially reinforcing the principles you're trying to espouse. It makes sense to me.
You'll be marketing to two lists, as well. And that never hurts...
Roy Everitt, Writing For Results
Hello again.
As a public speaker, especially an inexperienced and nervous one, you're quite likely to feel anxious and defensive about your position or status. Don't worry - that's quite natural and normal. If you had no nerves you'd have no adrenalin and probably no energy to perform.
Still, away from the stage you need to be more clear-headed about things.
One of the great things about business (that I wouldn't have believed before I gave up the 'day job' a year ago) is the level of cooperation you get between people who could just as easily be rivals. It's the quickest way to grow a business, bar an unfeasibly large cash injection, so it makes sense all round. Often, though, people cooperate and help each other despite having little to gain. I suppose that's because most people are, basically, nice.
So it was good to read a newsletter from David Congreave today, celebrating that fact. David created Lucid SEO, The Nettle and Networking Nightmares, so he knows a thing or two about success and cooperation.
As a public speaker you might well feel all alone and pretty vulnerable up there on the stage. Actually, there's no need if you're prepared to share the limelight, the kudos, the profits and the stress with a 'rival' who operates in the same niche as you.
Think about it, and think about the value your audience gets if they get two experts' views and ideas, two voices to make things more varied and two people essentially reinforcing the principles you're trying to espouse. It makes sense to me.
You'll be marketing to two lists, as well. And that never hurts...
Roy Everitt, Writing For Results
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)