Friday, April 07, 2006

Do You Know Who's On Your List?

Since many subscribers say selling to their own list is the hardest part of internet marketing let me ask you:

Do you know who is on your list?

No, I don't mean their names and email addresses.

I mean the types of people on your list.

Basically there are 4 types of people on your list:
  1. Those who will never buy or join anything you offer. They don't even take your freebies.
  2. Those who never buy but do take some of your free products.
  3. Those who buy your primary product.
  4. Those who don't buy your primary product but will purchase other things if the "right" offer is presented.

So how do you use this knowledge about your subscribers?

  1. Don't worry about group 1. This group is of no value to your business because if they don't ever buy from you they probably won't buy from any of your paid advertisers either. It's because of this group that many online publishers clean their list regularly.
  2. For group 2 to be of value you must periodically give some form of viral product away. Make sure it's something of value and it's branded with your information. Then, hopefully, some of those in this group will share your free product and help you with your viral marketing efforts.
  3. Groups 3 and 4 are where you want to focus most of your effort. You need to send them additional offers on a regular basis.

    The offers you send them should primarily be for products and services related to why they joined your list. You can surprise them occasionally with offers aimed at a different target market but don't do it too often and don't expect too many sales.

    If sales are still slow in coming from these 2 groups you should investigate and find out what types of products they are looking for and you should start testing different ads, sales letters and product prices. While selling to these groups may not be "rocket science," it's not always as easy as everyone claims it is either.

Many beginning online marketers think they will make enough income by selling 1 product or service to their own list. While this is always possible it is highly improbable.

Instead, you've got to keep growing your list and market additional products and services. After you've mastered the art of selling to your own list you're ready to venture into the other many ways of growing your business.

To Your Success,
Susan