I got a lot of positive feedback about the list building & email marketing case study i’ve been doing. I initially planned on stopping the case study at 100 subscribers and reporting back what happens. Since the results were not awful I decided to increase the test to 500 subscribers. Although a list of 500 email subscribers is still a very small list, I feel like it’s at least a little more statistically signifigant then 100 subscribers.
The list should be hitting the 500 subscriber mark by the end of the day today. I will try a few ways of monetizing the list and report back some new numbers to give you a better idea of how the case study is going.
To be quite honest this case study does excite me. List building is really not a place i’ve gone in the past but I am seeing potential in it. It’s totally different then straight PPC because you need to wait for the payoff. What I’m trying to find out now is if the payoff is worth it. Let’s find out together.
I implemented a newsletter a couple months ago (I’m up to 6,700 subscribers) to an already successful campaign, which results in instant profit + long term profit. If you can manage that, that’s the best case scenario.
How do you do with sending campaigns to that list and how do you implement it as part of an instant sale?
I’m definitely making decent money sending offers to the list (which I mix in with regular content). I basically just added a subscribe form on the page, but always test location. First time I tried it I got lots of sign ups (as I had it pop up a subscribe box when they clicked on the link to the product) but my ROI dropped from my sales. So now I don’t have it in an “in your face” place, but rather a bit further down the LP, and I get less sign ups, but ROI for the LP stayed the same.
Great job man, I’m liking this case study a lot.
I know the money is in the list, but not knowing what source the future converting traffic came from worries me, especially when I’m paying for it.
Do you have a way of tracking what original traffic/keywords convert for you through the mailing list offers down the road?
@Adam: Are all subscribers double opt-ins? If so, do you offer a goodie to make them subscribe?
Thanks
I work with someone that has a 50k list and I can tell you that subscribers do buy from you after awhile and consistantly. Everytime this guy wants to gather up some cash, he creates an offer of some sort and ends up making over 5k in cash. seriously …
we work on the “work at home” niche.
Nice case study, I’ve just read all of it and its going well so far.
I’m in a similiar situation as you were wanting to get into building a list but don’t know what to exactly expect or where to start. You did the best thing just jumping in and letting the numbers tell you if your on the right track.
Good job!
@Phrench Yes, all subscribers are double opt in. Confirm rate is about 55%-60%, so I’m happy about that. Because getting subscribers isn’t the main focus of the site/landing page (I’m promoting a product), those who find the subscribe form are more likely to want to subscribe. I do offer an incentive – I provide info/tips on the genre that I’m promoting, and send out an email every 3-4 days. Every 3rd email is an attempt to sell something. And I do use a signature that’s an affiliate link in every email that gets good results as well.
Adam, thanks for elaborating on this. Very interesting.
Do you mind sharing how much revenue you generate with the list compared to the landing page?
The list makes several thousand a month. The landing page much more. But as I grow the subscriber base, the income for the newsletter should continue to rise so as long as I continue to send out regular mailings. Right now I have 30 autoresponders set up and I add 1-2 a week, staying just ahead of the first subscribers.