I guess that most Internet marketers have heard the marketing proverb, "The money is in the list." The idea is that if you are to make money online it is no good simply putting up a site and adding a bunch of affiliate links and banner ads to it then sitting back and waiting for the mula to come rolling in.
It isn't going to happen.
No, the idea is that if you are going to make money online your first aim is not to sell to your visitors straight off the front page of your website but to CAPTURE your visitor's name and, more importantly, email address. Your visitor will then be automatically placed on your auto-responder's mailing list and will automatically start receiving your mailings, which you previously loaded into your auto-responder.
As your list grows, so will sales from the links you provide in your mailings. To add to your income, you will be advised to send out an e-mail broadcast from time to time with a special offer.
This is all well and good, up to a point. But a one off e-mail broadcast is not much different from a one off visit by a surfer to your website. Indeed, it might be less effective since the surfer quite likely initiated his own visit to your site, whereas your broadcast arrives in his inbox for him to delete or ignore without taking any further action at all if he wishes.
A one-off broadcast or a series of preloaded mailings that skip from subject to subject is therefore not the best solution no matter how big your list is.
What is needed is a concerted campaign in which an initial mailing is followed-up with two or three more messages, each one different in style or perspective, but each helping to reinforce to basic "buy now" message of the first.
It is said that 60% of sales are made not in the initial approach, but in the follow-up. Hence, my title: The money is in the FOLLOW-UP rather than in the list.
Now you might reasonably object that without a list there could be no follow-up...
...but I say unto you that with no follow-up there will be no money!
Or at least, not as much of it sloshing around your bank account as there could have been if you'd followed up your initial approach with, well, with follow-up letters.
Here's what I suggest to improve your sales, using a Clickbank product as the example and a mini follow-up series as the model.
First, choose a Clickbank product that fits in well with your niche, then BUY it and thoroughly familiarize yourself with it.
Now, write a review of it in three parts.
In the first part you will need to focus on a strong curiosity-arousing headline to get your message opened by a reasonable percentage of your list.
Next, in the main body of the article you will want to focus on the key BIG BENEFIT of the product. Don't waffle on about the features - focus on HOW those features will BENEFIT the reader. Be benefits focused, not product-features focused. One way to go is to write "Feature - SO - BENEFIT"
For example (to take something near to hand for someone who lives in Japan), the humble Mitsubishi pencil might not be thought to offer too many benefits, but you can always dig deep and find something:
"The Mitsubishi pencil has an eraser firmly attached to the top by a metal band [FEATURE] SO when you screw up your sketch you'll never have to go searching around your cluttered desk for an eraser [BENEFIT]."
You know, stuff like that.
The aim of the first review should be to build rapport with the reader and introduce the major benefit from the reader's perspective, dampen scepticism and arouse sufficient curiosity or eagerness to cause the reader to click through to the main product sales page - the one provided by the Clickbank product provider.
Now, if you get your reader that far you will have done well.
Two or three days later, follow up with your second review. This one should be in a "Question and Answer" format. The questions anticipate the objections and immediately weaken them simply by showing that they have been thought about already. The answers serve to kill them off and reinforce the benefits the product offers. Of course, a link to the product purchase page is provided here too.
Allow another two or three days to pass and then send the third review. This time it is seeking to strike home with the accumulated points made in the previous two reviews. The third review is blunt, a series of bullet points, and has a sense of urgency and in recapitulating all the points it reinforces them in the mind of the reader and - ideally - leads the reader to click the link and purchase the product.
It is important that you track which of your subscribers is converted into a purchaser, and when. Don't keep trying to flog something to someone who has already purchased, because that sends out a negative signal that you are not treating your customers like individuals, but like, well, email addresses in an opt-in list!
As soon as you get a sale move the customer from your "Subscribers" list to a new list designated "Customers".
That is the list with the real money in it - and it is essential that you follow up your follow-up mailing campaign with some new, exclusive, special product offers.
If you don't know what to offer them in the follow up, simply head back to Clickbank and you'll soon find something!
Thank your customers for purchasing and make them a special deal. Go on, make each one of them FEEL special about being your customer! Adopt a more intimate or personal style. They and you are part of an exclusive in-group.
Treat them special, follow up your offers and you really will find that the money is in the list after all!
|
Contributor's Note
I talk about the importance of following up on your offers to increase your sales. I am offering a series of mini follow-up e-mail campaigns for five hot Clickbank products (including one residual income product) - 100% FREE. This article explains the thinking behind the campaigns I'm offering. (To get the campaigns click on the grasp-the-nettle.com/clickfree.html link.)
|
