Just started my first list and I have about 200. It is easy to find affiliate products to pitch, but what are the freebies I should be giving my list to keep them happy?
Also, is there a good place besides WF to look for ad swaps?
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Just started my first list and I have about 200. It is easy to find affiliate products to pitch, but what are the freebies I should be giving my list to keep them happy?
Also, is there a good place besides WF to look for ad swaps?
Hi Sterling,
There are many freebies out there you can give to your list like re-brandable reports and e-books with master resale rights, but in my opinion, the freebies you should be giving are something created personally by you. Or at least commissioned by you.
You are trying to 'build' a list, therefore you want to give something of value so that your current list readily refers other people to you - because of the value you provide.
It may take a little longer but works a lot better.
cheers,
Darren
Sterling,
Why do you want to give your list "freebies"?
Take a step back and ask yourself what you want to achieve
with your list and then think about how giving stuff away will
help you to achieve your objectives.
I'm not saying you shouldn't give your list freebies. I am saying
that you should use freebies to reward the people on your list
who take the action you want them to.
Why train your list to become freebie seekers when you can
train them to take actions that make you money?
Give freebies to people who buy through your affiliate link in the
form of bonuses.
John
I agree with John.
You have to train your list.
I certainly respect John's opinion, and I agree 80%, but I also believe that a big part of your list maintenance work involves relationship building so I sometimes think it's important to meet them a little more than half way and give some good stuff once in a while.
Another thing about lists I've been playing with is the idea of setting time limits. Here is what I mean. It's easy for subscribers to say, "Hey, I'll read that later" and move on to something else. On a couple of my lists I've use a title such as, "12 hour incredible download". Of course it's important to give them an incredible download or it falls apart. Having said that, I've used this with an annoyingly unresponsive list to move it from an 18% open rate to over 30%, which is in my mind quite significant.
This gives them a reason to open your emails NOW. Sure, I get a couple complaints from people who say they didn't check their email until a day later or so--but overall, doing this once in a while seems to have a positive impact. Still testing, but it seems to work.
Hi Michael
Thats a great Idea i may try that myself, Do you take the offer down after 12 hours though?
I do agree about what you said regarding giving your list free stuff now and again, and one of the best ways is to find some free software that they may find use of. It makes a big change to them receiving a report.
Garry
I agree...
1) Give them free PDF's or videos that you've created yourself
2) Don't give them too often, maybe once a week and/or as bonuses to buy through your affiliate link.
3) Take them down after 24-48 hours, it will train your list to open your emails NOW.
I believe it to be an important part of relationship building to offer free quality content to your subscribers
Sure you want to train them to invest and spend money but this wont be accomplished usually without building that trust and letting them know you are someone that a) they should listen to and b) that you can help them.
They can be on any number of 100's of lists that can send them sales emails but if your mixing that with free content that you have created to help them then you will do better IMO
Hope that helps
Dean
I guess it really depends on what you would consider a "freebie." I have found that to keep your list on the hook and pay attention, first offer part 1 of the freebie for signing up and tell them that you will give them part two in a couple of days, this way it's an ethical bribe to continue to open your emails.
Future emails themselves should contain great tips or advice allowing your viewers to absorb the information inside the email itself. In other words you are "training" your list to read the emails and a small portion of the emails (about 20-30%) will have a valuable download. This teaches them to 1.) open you emails. 2.) Read your emails 3.) click on any links in your emails.
I have lists that are quite responsive as much as a 30-40% open rate, consistently and 9 out of 10 times a 95% click through rate just using this method.
But remember to always, always give great content. One crappy email can kill it.
Cheers! 8)
For adswaps, you can visit the IMAdswaps forum, Safe Swaps or List Swapper.
If you Google them you'll find them..
Hope that helps.
My thought is use ad swaps for the free content. If you're doing it correctly, your partners are putting their best foot forward with their free give aways and you're building you list in the process.
I wrote a free guide on list building that you can grab at www.adswaps.info and you can also find partners to ad swap with there as well. (All free).
Talk to you soon,
~Mike Cowles. <><
Agreed! Work out exactly what you want and then work out the best way to present it - a freebie, or a 100% commission item? Maybe a blog post or a low ticket paid item.Quote:
Originally Posted by John Taylor
Decide on the desired outcome first then work backwords
Tony
I would record informative videos (you could be on camera or a Camtasia/Powerpoint tutorial) and post them on your blog once or twice a week.
Then you could write emails to your list and say "Hey, check out this new video on my blog"
You're likely to build a better relationship with your list that way, and that's the way IM is going in my opinion.
Hope that helps..
good question and great answers.
You guys have answered a question for me that I had plus added a few positive twist that I'm sure will help me.
Great posts! When it comes to giving away freebees, I find that it's a double edged sword. After all, the perceived value of something free is that old saying, "Something for nothing is worth nothing." Two things. Include a price value of the freebee, and make sure you follow up to over deliver. Meaning that if you new subscriber has taken the action you want (they signed into your program), that you send them a few follow ups indicating that you have the free offer waiting for them. This tells your new subscriber that you value them and that you are a person that follows through and that you are worthy of their trust. That's the first huge step in building a relationship of value in the long run. Currently, I am seeing these type of result in the program running this spring. Hope this helps. ~ Mike Larkin
Great post, and great answers guys.
When it comes to list relationship I don't think is such a big mystery.
We are all subscribed to many newsletters, I don't know about you but I am really annoyed when a marketer just pitches once a week. There is no relationship that can be built on asking for money once a week.
Would you be my friend if once a week I knocked on ur door or call you to sell you something? Of course not. So why do people think it is different in the I.M. Space?
Give more ask less attitude, is the lists I stay the most and buy from the most and recommend the most.
Weather you are training your list this or that way mentality has a fundamental flaw in the thinking process.
You are viewing people as cattle, as your personal ATM and they are not.
People stay in any diet, program, school etc for one reason and one reason only. They receive information that produce results.
Good post, I beleive in giving freebies bacause it helps build the relationship, and gives your list something to be looking forward to with out always having to buy something at that moment.
Hope it helps
God, it's more like 4-5 times per week with most of the IM guys I've sub'd to in the past.. I've recently unsub'd from most of the lists I was on for the simple reason that we all have our limits and I no longer believed they might finally send me something of actual value. I've stayed on one young (fairly new) WF member's list because I though he might be different, however so far he's going down that same road.Quote:
Originally Posted by David Carreno
/rant off
Kelly
This thread is a fascinating read ... I'm experimenting with many of these things myself at the moment.
One idea to add to the discussion ... surveying your list.
I sent out a survey recently which brought in some excellent information about preferred price points for products, what they most wanted to know, what their aspirations were.
I know many people use the free version of Survey Monkey for this http://www.surveymonkey.com/ but I used Google Forms because a) it's free b) it stores the info in a Google Doc Excel spreadsheet, meaning that you can extract and manipulate the data easily afterwards.
Here's the form I sent to my list: http://bit.ly/9VUDrl
You can even add a custom message after submitting, so I added a thank you gift after the person clicks on 'submit'.
I got some great replies and it will inform what I send to my list in future.
This is freaking awesome! More info here than a lot of the Warrior Forum posts as of late.
I definitely see the advantage of training your list subscribers to buy...
What do you guys think of providing 2 things for free right away. 1 really bad ass video or pdf or software, and an additional high value freebie on the 2nd day? Then go into your offers.
This has worked really well for me so far. It really helps with open rates. Before implementing this tactic, my average open rate was around 10%. Now its up past 30% in a lot of cases. Now working on 50% open rates :)
Speaking of training your list...
Mike Filsaime did a really good job at it.
I open a lot of his emails even though I know they are offers...
Still have yet to get mad because of it. I guess as long as you are consistent...
I'm just trying a new technique with my list as I've not really been happy with ad-swaps.
If I'm seeing the same offers doing the rounds, I reckon a lot of people on my list are.
I just made an offer to my list today for 4 x 1 hour coaching sessions via webinar, free of charge.
I've given them a simple questionnaire asking what they want me to show them, or what question they want answered, and promised it will be a pitch-free zone.
I'll see how it goes.
I'll record the webinars and use them as a product, but I thought I'd give it a try, see if I can make a more personal connection.
I've been inspired a lot by people like Lee McIntyre and Alex Jefferys who keep talking about the need to offer value to a list.
I'll let you know how I get on :)
I've never done something as interactive as this but I can see it working and giving value and creating a real relationship with people.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Teague
We do something similar in that we ask our newsletter for product / album recommendations regularly, tell them what others have suggested, what is coming up and even though it is through a newsletter it sort of feels like a bit more of a conversation / discussion.
I got this idea from the hypnosisdownloads.com newsletter - they mail just once a month, not with a big sales pitch, but just a couple of articles, site updates, new experiences, but importantly a little section at the end which shows which products were recommended last month and sold well (the suggestees get a free iPod for best sellers), and what the new albums based on suggestions are for this month. Really simple formula, but I really like it and it is one of the few newsletters I actually look forward to and seriously read.. and I know this wouldn't be the case if they were mailing me 5x a week with junk articles and overhyped offers..
Hi Sterling,
You can simply made valuable and helpful video blog posts and tell your subscribers that you have them up. You do not necessarily need to constantly give them freebies. What they need is information.
Now I do agree that you have to define how you are going to approach your list. What kind of personality do you want to evoke and what kind of outcome do you want to happen? Defining these will make your campaign more targeted to what you want your subscribers to do. It will result in a highly responsive email list.
Hope that helps,
Aira