More Opt-ins, More Leads, More Sales – Email Marketing Made Easy
My Complete Email Marketing System
As you will have noticed I have dedicated a number of posts and videos recently to the subject of Email Marketing and Building Your List.
I had someone email me and thank me for the videos but at the same time, question why I had placed so much emphasis on recent posts on increasing opt-ins and building a list and apparently less on the Affiliate marketing side of things.
Well, to be honest, I had not appreciated I was appearing to focus less on the Affiliate side of things and if that is how it appears, then it was not intentional.
You see Affiliate Marketing and List Building go hand in hand and the bigger the list you have the greater the affiliate commissions.
It has been said before and really I don’t need to repeat it – but I will:
The Money Is in the List
Building a decent, solid list is in my opinion the best way to build a reliable long term residual income.
For me, affiliate marketing is not just about linking to products on my website. At most in a well organized Affiliate Marketing strategy that will only represent 50% of your income and the balance should come from promotions you do to your list.
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Using this WordPress Plugin I was able to increase my email opt-in rate by up to as much as 304%. It basically allows you to put a lightbox up on your blog posts promoting your mailing list. Now I can earn more money from my email promotions, oh and by the way, I created this plugin, so you know it’s amazing!
And again, as I have said before, the best way to get subscribers to your list is to:
Deliver valuable content that adds value to the life or business of your visitor
Frankly if you are not delivering value — especially in today’s competitive world you may as well give up. Today’s website visitor is more sophisticated than ever, more reluctant than ever to give up their email address and demanding more value than ever.
No use being a ‘copycat’ (not even a copycat of me) – and rehashing something someone else is putting out there. You have to have your own unique angle / approach and above all giving your website visitor a reason to follow you and opt-in to your list.
In today’s video I actually disclose the Email Marketing System I will be employing on my new website for the first time.
A term often used these days is that something or another is a ‘game changer’. My personal view is that the game is changing all the time – sometimes a little bit – sometimes a lot and if we don’t change with it, then we get left behind.
My new website will hopefully be a Game Changer – but I always recognize the need to evolve and improve on every element of business all the time. I came across this quote by William Knudsen this week which very accurately sums up my views on the matter:
In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running; if you stand still, they will swallow you
Please don’t get swallowed in business.
Enjoy the video – again I have included an enhanced transcription with many additional resources. (Thank you for the great feedback on the Enhanced Transcription – especially from those of you to for who English is not your first language) This transcription includes more than ever explanations and links not included in the video – so really it is a Must Read.
Your comments and feedback is as always very welcome
To Our Success
Michael
PS: Check out the IncomeDiary.com YouTube Channel for all my latest videos – in advance of them being published on this blog. You can also Friend me and Subscribe to my channel there.
Video Transcription – Enhanced
Today I’m going to talk to you about my complete email marketing system that I put together in the last couple weeks for my new site. There is a much more to this than most people realize.
To start with your visitors have to find your opt-in (or have their attention drawn to it by your OFFER)
Today I want to highlight 4 different strategies and some issues related to Opt-ins.
I am experimenting with some new approaches on IncomeDiary now I have redesigned the site. Note the word’ experimenting‘ — in business and marketing you need to always be striving to beat ‘control’ (i.e. beat your current best strategy) and it is not only just about number of Opt-in’s it is also about number of un-subscribes, number of people who don’t confirm and actual conversion on any offers you promote to your list. After all a list of 1000 people that converts at 10% is exactly the same in monetary terms as a list of 10000 that converts at just 1%. (I will talk about some of my own stats a little later on)
No1: strategy is driving people to the “Michael Dunlop” Squeeze Page. I do that in a number of ways – for example I will include a link to this page in my email signature, or if I give an interview I will include this link and explain the benefits of my 7 Day eCourse. However for this example I am just going to highlight how I promote the Blogging eCourse on my website.
See image below:
Getting The Attention Of Your Visitors With Good Graphics
I sort of wish I could say it didn’t matter — but really I have found, the better the graphics, the better the conversion.
No 2: Strategy for me is an offer (Opt-in Opportunity) placed in the side bar of the blog. Again a STRONG OFFER is essential. See Example Below:
Sidebar Opt-in Offer
Special Note: The “I take your privacy seriously’ notice is essential. An opt-in without it in my experience converts much lower.
No 3: A light-box Subscribe / Opt-in Form. This is a BOX that appears (hovers) over your content.
AWeber have produced an excellent LightBox Video that explains how to install a Lightbox Opt-in using the AWeber system. Highly recommended and you will see just how easy it is to do.
It is the much maligned pop-up by another name I suppose. I am in two minds about the Lightbox – it will I’m sure convert very well but I’d be reluctant to ‘hit’ a visitor with it the second they land on my web-page. However if it appeared after they had read a number of articles or just on some specific pages I think the quality of conversion would be better.
I mean, there is no point in ‘forcing’ people to opt-in if they then unsubscribe after a few days – or worse still you lose the goodwill of your visitor. So I am going to start of tentatively with it and indeed many of you will not even see it to start with. As I said earlier there is little point in growing your list if the quality of the list reduces significantly and their responsiveness to offers (conversions) is very low. I know not all marketers would agree with me on this and there is a tendency to just throw as much as you against the wall and see what sticks – but that is not my style.
I would welcome the views of my visitors on this topic so if you have anything to say on it please comment below or feel free to Contact Me
Offers?
Having decent graphics as I mentioned above helps a lot – but more importantly in my opinion is the right OFFER. No longer is it good enough to just say something like signup for my free newsletter. It needs to be more substantial like my Blogging eCourse or another cool giveaway – for example some free audios or videos or an ‘underground report’ about your niche.
No4: Test and Then Test Again
After all of the above you should test and find out what works for your site and what doesn’t. You could do loads of different things, like different colors, different text, different offers. For example, I test different offers, such as my videos, my e?course and eBook, reports, you name it. This is sometimes referred to as A/B testing or bucket testing. As I mentioned above — all the time, you are trying to beat ‘control, beat your previous best.
More on A/B testing can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing
Something New On This Site
Something I have discovered, especially with my eCourse is that people don’t always act on each day immediately and then end up for example loosing day 5 and 6 emails for example. When this happens they “Opt-in’ again. The AWeber system will point this out to the visitor but I am working on a new system which points this out to the subscriber and actually gives them a PDF download of the eCourse – see screenshot below.
Message For Already Subscribed Visitor
Other Offers
It is not something I do much with myself – but something a number of my friends do is on the Subscription Thank You page include a special offer for one of their products. For example a $1 Trial on their membership website or indeed any sort of sales offer.
As I said, not something I am doing myself, but something that might work for some of my readers. I personally have found it better to Emphasis just how important it is that they CONFIRM their email address in order to receive my offer / free gift. I also give them an ‘unadvertised bonus’ such a Free subscription to my weekly blogging updates – always building the value so to speak.
Talking of confirming email addresses – ask any marketer and you will find this is one of their biggest issues with building a list. Getting people to opt-in is only half the story – to complete it you must encourage them to CONFIRM email address. I have recently created a new Thank You Page which will hopefully encourage more people to complete the Email Confirmation. Check out the new Thank You Page here
I have quite a number of email lists now – across a number of sites. Last year my target had been to get an average of 50 new subscriptions per day across my websites – which may not seem a lot but that is 350 a week or 18200 in a year. I have been beating that now for a while and my new target is 100 new opt-ins per day but as you will see in the screenshot from one of my lists on AWeber below getting people to CONFIRM their email makes a big difference to how fast you grow that list. As can see in this example if I wanted 50 confirmed opt-ins per day on this list alone I need a lot more than 50 new opt-ins to reach that target.
Confirmed Opt-ins is what counts in List Building
In the above example you will see that 12th May I got 41 new opt-ins but with Unverified (did not confirm email address) and 5 unsubscribes I actually netted just 22 new subscribers on this list. Compare that with the 19th May when it ‘only’ took 28 Opt-ins to leave me with a net number of 21 new subscribers. This is why I focus on the SUBSCRIBED (confirmed) number daily rather than the number of opt-ins that day. It is also why I am putting even more effort into encouraging people to CONFIRM email address. (And also why I am being selective about Lightbox Opt-ins – and anything that ‘forces’ visitors to subscribe — because as you can see it is all a waste if they don’t confirm.
Just in case you are wondering why I used the word “LEADS” in this post title it is because in my opinion an OPT-IN is not a LEAD or a SUBSCRIBER until they confirm their email. So you could say:
More Opt-ins = More Subscribers (Leads) = More Sales = More Income
When Might You Have a Single Opt-in?
As you will have noted, I primarily go for that double opt-in and get people to always confirm their email address. But there may be the odd occasion when you only wish to use a single opt-in.
One time you might wish to use a single opt-in is for say a webinar or tele-seminar (a one time event). You can send the subscriber details of the event (call in numbers etc) along with reminders of when the event is just about to start. (e.g. Webinar Starts in 1 Hour)
Auto-responders Make Your Life Easy
If you have not already done so please check out my Making Money with Email Marketing and an Autoresponder Series post.
I use an Autoresponder to deliver my 7 Day eCourse but in between I will email important updates (Helpful blog posts etc) plus I also will do promotions such as $1 Trials and Product Launches by other people in my niche that I respect / endorse. I really don’t over-do these promotions – sometimes there is one every week or so then other times a month or more will pass. Basically I don’t promote unless I think what is on offer is something I would be happy to buy myself.
In Conclusion
As you can tell I am a huge fan of List Building. It is also very important to not spam or email anyone who really doesn’t want to hear from you. (Always include an un-subscribe link)
AWeber offer what to me is an amazing service. Indeed I have to say there are lots of AWeber features that I have not even applied yet.
One however that I plan to do soon is to send email ONLY to people that had not OPENED a previous email I sent. Open rates are rarely better than 50% and 10% – 20% is considered good, so as you can see there are a lot of people (busy people) who never see that well crafted email you sent out. But what if you could email the ‘un-opens’ only again with out offending those who had already opened their email?
Well that is now a feature that is available through AWeber and by all accounts it is very powerful.
I have heard of this strategy doubling the overall open rate – especially if you change a few words in the subject line but resend the same email.
Not only that, but it allows us to learn more about our list and their emotional hot buttons and what they respond to – which ultimately makes us all better business people.
But that is another subject and a big one at that which I will leave for another day. For now I hope you have enjoyed today’s video installment and this transcription, I hope it helps.
Let me have your comments below and as always you are very welcome to email me your suggestions and questions you would like to see answered in future posts by contacting me here
Note:
Check out the IncomeDiary.com YouTube Channel for all my latest videos – in advance of them being published on this blog. You can also Friend me and Subscribe to my channel there.
About Michael Dunlop
I'm Michael, I created this site back in 2009 and since then it's received over a million visitors from all around the world. We offer tutorials and inspiration for online entrepreneurs wanting to achieve more.
34 comments so far… Leave a reply
Bronson
May 21, 2010 9:17 AM
Hi Michael, I love the new look, it's nice to see an already great site still has room for improvement. As for the post, thanks for sharing your approach, I really think you've done a great job of highlighting the importance of a strong offer and great call to action but underlining that with the fact that your content also needs to rock hard to deliver results. I look forward to more of your insightful posts, all the best in continued success for 2010 and beyond.
Gabriel
May 21, 2010 9:37 AM
Awesome post, Michael! I am also a fan of list building. I am really sorry I haven't started to build my list earlier. I was more focused on increasing my RSS Subscribers, without realizing the business potential of a big quality email list. The Action Popup is an awesome script. It indeed helps you increase dramatically your opt-in rate. I am usually skeptical regarding the quality of products that are sold through Clickbank, but this one definitely worths the money! I also have to point that that if you buy Action Popup you will also get 2 bonus scripts: Action Optin and Action Comments. They can further help in getting more email readers.
cory shanes
May 21, 2010 9:43 AM
WOW Michael. I can barley believe how much FREE value you gave away in this post. Getting 50-100 double opt-in's daily. That's awesome. Great job. I know for a fact I'm going to take some of what I learned here and apply it directly to my blog http://the247entrepreneur.com Thanks again for just giving away content others would charge for!
Luke Etheridge
May 21, 2010 10:02 AM
Michael, Lovin' this post mate and the idea of paintballin' sounds great, just let me know when and where. This was a really great eye-opener for anyone who thought list building was simple and easy. I have always known that list building is something of an art and you have proved this exactly in one post. I am a bit of a self confessed obsessive when it comes to list building and I'm loving the fact that you are too! - I like your little bit about quantity and quality - so so true and something I am working on. Once I have got my new design and plans completed I will be starting with some regular testing to see how I can increase my 'quality leads' while implimenting some of the tips in this post - so thank you! All the best mate - hit me up with a good time to meet up. Luke Etheridge
Michael Dunlop
May 22, 2010 1:50 PM
Hey Luke, Sounds good, paintballing will be good, will get a email out to you all about it so we can decide on a date. Glad you enjoyed the post, definitely can be a lot easier if you follow everything above. Michael
Damian
May 21, 2010 10:23 AM
Thanks for all the info, Michael. I've been trying to build my list for a localized site for a bit now using Mail Chimp. I don't have the flashy graphics so maybe that is something I should change. I've been using Facebook to drive folks to the page and also developing a fan page. Aweber seems like the most used solution among all the email I get, but the cost is a bit prohibitive for me because I'm not really making money yet. Is there a resounding reason to switch to Aweber? Just curious. Thanks again for all you're sharing.
Michael Dunlop
May 22, 2010 1:48 PM
Hello Damian, You can't transfer your email list I don't think, so it's best to start at the best place. Also you get a lot more options and features then other company's such as Mail Chimp. If you wait till your list is big, then you will find yourself having problems. Michael
Cory Shanes
May 23, 2010 10:50 AM
Damian - I actually just transferred a small previously created list to aweber. Aweber allows you to import the previous list, however they will email them a confirmation email again. So if you are using something like mail chip, first they have to opt in. Then then have to confirm the email, then when you import it over to aweber they'll have to opt in again. That's a triple-opt in. If you wait too long to do this move over, you should expect a lot of slippage. Imagine building a list of 500 on mailchimp (which is when they start to charge you) . Then transferring them over to aweber, when you realize that the paid version of mail chip is nothing close to the paid version of aweber, and then aweber re-emailing your list. Your well built list of 500 is going to drop down, even if its only by 25% you're down to a list of 375 people. (Imagine if you lost 50% of it!) Long story short I don't recommend building a list with mailchimp, then moving it to aweber later. Since Aweber is only $1 for your first month, then $19 the next month, consider it a 30 day goal to make $20 online to break even. PS What does this mean? "I’m not really making money yet." Are you making money or are you not?
Michael Dunlop
May 24, 2010 7:14 AM
You can definitely break even if you can grow your list to 100 quickly which if you have the right offer, is very easy. Then all you need to do is email them once a week about an affiliate product to break even or even profit. Let us know what you decide. Michael
Dev | Technshare
May 21, 2010 11:14 AM
Hey Michael, Another cool ..awesome post . I just started building my mailing list .. Really buddy... It doesn’t take that much effort, especially if you consider how much more money you’ll be going to make.. ! I just love your creativity. Keep it up. Btw.. Video..is awesome. !! amazing work ..dude.. :D Thanks !
Asif
May 21, 2010 11:36 AM
Once Again, A very Nice post which tell everything about List building. Have learned few things from it. thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
John Paul Aguiar
May 21, 2010 11:58 AM
Mike, this post def takes you by the hand and shows you that email marketing doesn't have to be something people are scared of. Getting the opti in, real trick is to keep the opt ins you get.
Michael Dunlop
May 22, 2010 1:44 PM
Provide value John and they won't leave ;-) tried and test ;-) Michael
Helen
May 21, 2010 12:18 PM
Super post as you said it would be! Now that I think I'm ready to start building my list ( although now I realize that I should have started a year ago or two), but better late than never. So the main question now is what I can offer to the subscriber, right. Have to take the time to come up with a good free ebook or product to offer. WOW I can't stop wondering how you get the patience and the time to come up with such insightful and interesting posts! Keep up the good job!
Michael Dunlop
May 22, 2010 8:58 AM
Thanks Helen, always like to offer a lot in my posts. As for a free product.. can be anything, just an exclusive video, interview you did with someone or a free report on how to do something. Michael
Aaron Darko
May 21, 2010 1:40 PM
Its all about building your list. Needless to say this was very valuable information. Let me know how you go with the offer on the thank you page. I see that alot in the IM niche but not much with people who have blogs. There is normally a standard thank you page. It makes sense to have an offer on the thank you page because thats when the person is hot. Personally I think its all about getting a designer and making your site better - with the opt in box especially to improve optins.
Michael Dunlop
May 22, 2010 8:10 AM
Hey Aaron, Totally agree.. also it's important to make your optin offer clear, because otherwise you will get people sign up that aren't interested in buying and you could miss other sign ups. Keep cool, Michael
Robert
May 21, 2010 2:21 PM
Great job Michael, your post makes me more than willing to learn about this tactics, thats why I'm following your blog to learn more about email marketing. I find it hard in email marketing but because you share your knowledge, some things make easier. More Power
innocriss
May 21, 2010 10:53 PM
Hi Micheal, Thanks for this info. I've been having lot's of problems trying to create an ebook cover. I also had problems with my Opt-in form. I will certainly apply your suggestions. Keep up man
Shaun
May 22, 2010 7:03 PM
Nice post. In 'today's' ever evolving blogging game, the squeeze page is the foundation of the blogs long term existence. Right now, we all know that the only way to make a stand in this internet game is to approach the niche at a unique angle. You can read this blog, that new ebook, watch that new video from a guru or what ever. The only thing you have to take away from it all, is that you need to get creative. THAT IS WHAT NO ONE CAN TEACH YOU! Only you have control over that, It's just like the bodybuilding game. What may work for one person may not work for another. You have to find your own map, find what works, tweak and scale it. Any how, squeeze pages and email capture is the heart of the long term existence of a blog. Email capture = - Beginning of a new relationship (Trust) - Increased readership Then you play with Auntie AIDA (Action/ Interest/ Desire/ ACTION) by offering affiliates/ ebooks etc, through the funnel process. Important, because they are 'hot' at that moment in time. I think Michael has covered what I've mentioned here in various posts. But as you can see from this post, The devil is in the detail! Start testing now!
Alex
May 24, 2010 6:50 AM
Fantastic stuff Michael. This is the first time I am commenting here as your posts are usually so chock full of value that I go off and start executing and researching. Just had to quickly say thanks and although you dont need me to tell you, The way you approach everything is unique, extremely valuable and best of all - easy to follow. I am just going back to your post on email marketing, but if you want something to post about next, go through the process of how you fill the email followup with content, and what ratio of sales to value etc? I am starting to build my list, but between the blogging, the study, the seo, the sitebuilding, and the two young children, I just cant find the time to create even more content for my newsletter. Surely there's a smarter way to leverage this? Thanks again Michael. (from not so sunny Sydney)
Michael Dunlop
May 24, 2010 7:16 AM
Hello Alex, Thanks very much for your kind words - their is a easier way, I often use my autoresponder to just link back to past successful/profitable posts. I will try put together a post on this for you. Michael
Mo "Mad Dog" Stoneskin
May 28, 2010 12:30 PM
Interesting post mate. Interesting because I've considered the lightbox technique for a while, but to be honest I'm reluctant to shove a popup in anyone's face, especially those of my regular readers. Going from my own gut reaction to popups, I hate them more than anything! I'm seriously considering the email list idea. Reason why I haven't implemented it? Well I don't yet have products to sell, though I am working on them, and also because like many online chaps, I hate getting tons of email - and I've experienced in the past that you subscribe for something by email and then find you are getting tons of the damn things and it's very irritating. Presumably there is a balance?
Steve Watson
July 14, 2010 5:26 PM
Hi Michael, your site is indeed in my opinion "a game changer". To tackle this whole subject and present it in such a clear, concise & step by step manner with all the subtle money making links weaved throughout is quite frankly absolute genius! I have read & reread many of your posts in the past week and have learnt so much.. bit worried about the 'ol to do list but its all good fun :) My enthusiasm for making a living online was starting to dwindle BUT since I have found your site I've got it all back. Today I finished my revamped free report and installed the lightbox pop up & a new squeeze page and as of this evening I have had 27 new sign ups! Thank you Steve.
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Bryan
October 17, 2010 10:38 PM
WOW! I love this post, as I have just started to create a marketing list. What you can do with that is is out of this world. Going to go back and read it again, let more information sink in. Thanks for sharing this valuble information.
Altug
October 30, 2010 7:38 PM
Hi Michael, Thanks for this post mate, makes perfect sense apart from one thing - You said you don't like throwing up a lightbox up in front of people first thing? I just purchased pop up domination - Isn't this essentially what Pop Up Domination is? Maybe I'm a bit confused..or have you changed your stance on this since this post? lol I hope to have success building a list finally..haven't had much luck before but in all honesty it was my own fault. Didn't contact my list enough at all and so they got unresponsive. I'm just not very analytical lol, testing is my worst nightmare! However, it's going to be a big part of my strategy now because it's all about being more efficient. Work smarter not harder right? Maybe even if you get time, take a look at my blog/site n give me some quick tips :) (its hyperlinked in my name) Just changed the template so that it's more user friendly (hopefully - before there were too many trafffic leaks..adsense and such) and have just made the header smaller so I can stick some call to actions underneath it as well as my recent posts. Whoops went off into ramble mode lol..sorry. Thanks again for this great post - Keep up the good work with your blog! Al
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Steven | Business Diaries
December 17, 2010 7:36 PM
Hey Michael, Really great tutorials as always. I've been learning a lot from you the past couple weeks and I am already noticing improvements. Where is the best place to find relevant affiliates with good conversions? Thanks again for all your efforts. - Steven
remco
December 20, 2010 7:35 PM
Michael, Yes this is a good vid. Why don't you use a lapel mic? You're definitely already on the level to use that. On another note, I've been experiencing that aweber keeps on telling me that only about 40% of my list has read my email. I don't want to keep on mailing them, as I am afraid they will get fedup and opt out. I just doubt that the aweber stats are correct.... any ideas on that?
Brent
February 14, 2011 3:12 AM
Great work with the product Michael. It's increased my opt ins significantly.
Fazal Mayar
March 19, 2011 1:59 AM
Thanks for this video Micheal. You make things so simple by writing it on the board and explaining all of it. I havent used anything besides popup domination and my opt in box.
The comments are closed.