As my day job, I work for a marketing company that creates products to help builders with their marketing and I wanted to draw from something that recently happened at work – and try and pull a few keys that will help you with you list building efforts.
You see, we are always told that we need a massive email list if we want to make big money – but I have found that doesn’t have to be the case.
When I started working with the company about a year ago, I designed their website and decided to add an Aweber account to start list building from the website. All we did was offer a preview of our paid products – but we consistently see about 5 new subscribers a day. And now we have close to 500 subscribers of our email list.
Just in the last week we launched our latest product that retailed for $990, and one of the first things that I did was shoot out an email to our email list (and also contacted our regular clients). Just from the list we had two builder contact us and decided to purchase our product – and one of them decided to also purchase an up-sell that was an additional $1,500.
So we made close to $3,500 from one mail-out to our email list. Not bad hey?
But if you add one of our previous clients (who had first come from the email list), who also purchased our product and is paying us to redo his whole corporate image, you can see out Aweber account is very profitable – from about 500 subscribers!
How To Profit From A Small Email List
So, as I mentioned, I wanted to draw a few things from this event that will show you how you can profit from your email list – even while it is still growing.
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Have A List Interested In Your Product
I would much rather have a very refined email list of subscribers who have are interested in what I have to offer, than a massive list of people who signed up just to get something free.
This is why so many internet marketers, that have a product they are selling, give away a ‘leaked chapter’ or ‘free video’ that is a part of their product.
What you are doing here is screening your potential clients. Only keeping the ones that had displayed an interest in your actual product.
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Have An ‘Unable To Refuse Up-Sell’
If one of your list purchases your product – do you have anything else to offer them? What we did at the company I work for is offered a selection of our older products at a very large discount. As the products we create have such a minimal production cost (like most information products), we could discount the product by 60% or more and still be making a very nice product – and as they had already seen the real price of the products, they know the up-sell is an incredible saving (and hopefully unable to refuse!)
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Don’t Sell Low Priced Items
If you want to seriously profit from a small email list you can’t focus on the $10 affiliate commissions. The reasons we were able to make so much in sales from one email was because we had high ticket items.
Now I am not saying that you have to aim that high (but do you think it is easier to make one five $10 commissions or one $50 commission?
By focusing on higher commission products, you will also have to send less sales based emails to your list – leaving you with more time to provide quality content to your email list ( building their trust).
So don’t stress if you only have a small list at the moment. Everyone starts somewhere and you really can start to profit while you list is still growing.
And if you have not already, sign up for an Aweber Account and start to BUILD THAT LIST! (They even give you a 30 day trial!)
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I’d love to see more in depth details on your marketing campaign, like open rate, the subject you used, if you did more follow-up sequences, and so on.
.-= Codrut Turcanu @ Affiliate Blogging Tips´s last blog ..The Best PLR Article Pack Offer =-.
@Codrut. That is a good point! I might make it a series, or possibly will make it exclusive content that I’ll send to my email list. But if I choose the second option, I’ll make sure to let you all know so you don’t miss it.
great tips …thanks for sharing….currently about to start building my list..your tips are very helpful..i will file this in my head
You’re right, you can definitely make money from a small list, though to many of us 500 subscribers is not that small. One thing you have to keep in mind is the cost of Aweber or whichever mailing list service you choose to use. If it’s $30/month and you only turn a profit every 3 or 4 months, you can’t attribute that profit to that single email you sent out after 4 months of paying for the service. Of course, in your case it still pays for itself and leaves you with a nice profit. I’m just saying it’s important not to forget all the costs you incurred in the meantime.
This is a very important point for all the businesses that want to use the web to market their product.
James, I agree that the cost of Aweber is to be taken into account. However, this is small compared to the profit a good list can yield. Everything is in the quality, not the quantity (like everything in life, no?). Sometimes, that level of quality can only be achieved by thinning out a “quantity” list. It’ also interesting to note that not all products can be marketed the same way. Everyone has to find the right tools to build that quality list. It requires a huge effort and amount of work, but it’s worth it. And, Tom, I’m sure that your customers also recognized the quality of your service and products after the first time they bought from your company. I think that marketing is a package of good things we offer to our prospects and customers and we must strive to be excellent. I’d be glad to keep up this conversation because this is the way to improve every one’s business: sharing our experience.
Thanks for your insights.
.-= Nadia´s last blog ..Mastering your emails =-.
Came over to your site from StandOutBlogger link.
It’s definitely all about the quality of the list these days and not the pure numbers. I’ll take a list of 25 people who are passionate and ready to spend money on the subject over 2500 who don’t take action any day.
.-= Tim Bourquin – MemberCon.com´s last blog ..The Crucial Step Most Membership Site Owners Miss =-.
@James – I definitely understand. In fact with my list on this blog, I have not even reach 50 (as the blog is only brand new), so I am well off 500. However, I listed this as an example of what can happen when you have a responsive list.
In regards to paying for Aweber before you start turning a profit. I guess that is one of the costs of business. If you are building a responsive list. Then it wont be long before you are covering this costs and more – even as your lists is still quite small.
@Nadia – That is exactly right. And with our regular clients, we find that we probably have a 60%+ rate of retention with each new product.
@Tim – Thankyou for taking the time to visit my blog and I couldn’t agree more.
I don’t have any product yet to sell, Do I need to start building mailing lists? What shall I make use of it?
.-= Suresh Khanal´s last blog ..Sexy Share Plug-in or Widget for Blogger Blogs =-.
@Suresh Khanal – That is a really good point. I would always say that you should start building your list right from the start – even if you do not have products on your own. I will focus on this in my next post, but in one word – affiliate. Start promoting other peoples products.
Thank you Tom and I”m impressed with your prompt response.
I tried Amazon affiliate products but what I am facing is its very difficult to generate leads for a new blogger like me who has just started crawling in this field. I would be extremely grateful if you write some suggestions in this regard. I’d love to be in personal touch with you.
.-= Suresh Khanal´s last blog ..Sexy Share Plug-in or Widget for Blogger Blogs =-.
You’ve just got more all motivated to work on my email list. It is very much neglected.
.-= Paula from Affiliate Blog Online´s last blog ..Our Secrets for Success: How to Get to the Next Level in Your Online Business =-.
Nice article, thanks for sharing your experience.
.-= Nathan Rodriguez@Tirinhas Engraçadas´s last blog ..Tirinhas Engraçadas 82, 83 e 84 =-.
Well stated regarding getting a profit on e-mail listing. It really proves that using e-mails really classifying your targeted and potential buyers on your product. This is an easy way of knowing your buyers without any difficulties regarding your resources like the internet.