Traffic Through E-mail Marketing & List Buying

Posted by writer | Seed launch tactics »

Email marketing is one of the pillars of our communication with prospects. We have different email campaigns running in parallel for different sets of lists. We’ve already talked in detail about how we’ve gathered followers through our networking strategies on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. All of these followers have been added to their respective lists and into our email campaign categories. We use aweber.com to manager our email lists and content - its a great tool that simplifies the process of managing multiple lists for different audiences going out at different instances of time. 

With so much of our focus being on launch implementation, loading and locking the emails ahead of time has saved us from last minute confusion. Our email marketing campaigns slowly guide the readers through different steps of our sales cycles - thus giving them a chance to directly enter the sales funnel. For example, we may direct them to our survey or a specific blog post - which will lead them to our tours - which would lead them to sign-up as a user/member/promoter (depending on the list category). We currently have six list segments that all have separate email campaigns. 

Essentially, you can consider every step of the process like a sales call. Every step has to lead to the other to eventually close the deal. 

Lists are the key to your success in online marketing. If you have lists, you have contacts and relations and if you have those, you are bound to have money in the bank. We are a member of toplinked.com, a service that provides us with lists of members with open gates on LinkedIn - i.e. LinkedIn people who are open to networking with anyone. They send these lists off for a low price/month, which is almost nothing compared to the value that you get. These lists are like gold to us - as it helps us add a huge number of people to our contacts in one go (without any restrictions or limits). Once you have them on your contact lists, you can communicate with them directly. 

Similarly, if you’re interested you can choose between 60,000 lists to rent at http://www.nextmark.com. Make sure you search through the lists and qualify the list source before renting leads per thousand - since irrelevant contacts will only add junk to your lists. Each list has a different price and you can pay between $80 and $125 per 1000 or 8 cents to 12.5 cents per lead.

While qualifying a list, carefully check the source and exactly where it was derived. Do check if it has been generated through filling out or completing forms. If the people on it got there simply by clicking a link, then it’s not much better than cold calling. Were list recipients required to second opt-in to confirm email addresses or was it just a ‘fill out a field’ list in which case the quality of recipients will be low.

All this data is available to you when choosing a list so use your common sense and choose wisely.

When writing the content, ensure that recipients open the mail. Have a subject line that appeals to them. The main content of the mail should be worth the effort and time spent reading it. Marketing through e-mail is not simply sending mails to people. It needs to be carefully thought out and phased. 

a- Your initial mail should be an ice-breaker. Introduce yourself in a way they can relate to. Find a common ground related to the eventual event that you’ll market but do it subtly. Engage them in a conversation by asking questions and their views. 

b- You should always followup with another email after 3-4 days. 

c- In the later emails, you may want to offer quality stuff for free, e.g. to make them blend in; you can send a PDF containing all the responses you got. In the email, send a link to ‘opt-in for the free offer’.

d- In the next phase, you can send out another interesting email with quotes of well-known people or authority figures regarding your product or service. This will build a sense of association. They need to feel that something big is coming. While doing so, send them links to the landing page again. Basically give them a feel of what to expect from the event.

e- With the next email, send a link to a short demo video that highlights all the interesting aspects of your product/event. This will get them excited, feel exclusive and will invariably help in building hype.

f- Always send an email every few days before the launch. Tell them how thrilled you are about the launch and that you are looking forward to their feedback. After this they shouldn’t want to miss the event/launch. Here you can show them another video clip to build social proof and enthusiasm.

g- Email them on the launch day and keep them updated about availability of tickets etc. Send another email as soon as you launch to notify them that your launch site is live and they can get going. 

h- It’s vital to send an email afterwards telling them how cool the launch was and how it exceeded your expectations. Get their views as well and remember to thank them for their participation.


| Case Studies, Follow Our Launch, Launch Strategies

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