David Bass - "Top 10 Email & Marketing Promotion Tips"
By: David Bass
David Bass is widely known in the Internet marketing world for his expertise in seven-figure launches, email marketing and backend tech. He has spent over 10 years in information security working on and running large multimillion dollar projects at top organizations such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG Consulting, NASA Headquarters and more.
During this time he was trusted with Top Secret clearance. With his experience in this highly sensitive work, he developed the deft and brilliant mind required to process, comprehend, and organize massive amounts of data and, more importantly, know how to utilize it for greater returns. He began his internet marketing career working on the team responsible for the original Stompernet launch which was widely reported as the largest internet marketing promotion in history.
Along with his business partner, Jim Kwik, for the past four years they have mastered the process for repeatedly creating high profile six to seven-figure online product launches and promotions in the business, health and personal development fields.
TAMMY LAWMAN: Email marketing is about building a relationship and creating trust with your audience. What are some of the biggest mistakes people make in email marketing?
DAVID BASS: There are a few different areas. One area is to not give enough content for the amount of time that you throw out pitches and actually send someone to a sales page. It's important to make sure of one of the common calculations or percentages, which is 80/20, or sometimes 90/10. It's 80% content for every 20% of pitches you actually give to your audience.
That's not to say that you can't give content that eventually will lead to some kind of sale or pitch, but when you're sending out messages you have to give a tremendous amount of value to make sure that you've earned the right to ask them to consider an offer. It's definitely something that's critical to make sure that you're giving enough value to your audience to earn the right to eventually ask them for their money.
Another major problem with marketing is the basic system and technology people use to get their message out. There are a lot of systems that, although less expensive, are definitely not as good for getting your email into a person's inbox. That is obviously the difference between someone reading or not reading your message. That's another major mistake that people make. They will go for the cheap route as far as getting their message out. Because of that, it doesn't get out as effectively.
TAMMY LAWMAN: Great information! Now, for people who have had lists a long time, do you feel that they make certain mistakes that people who are trying to build new lists make, or vice-versa? Have they already earned the right to promote more often?
DAVID BASS: There are a couple of things. I think one of the common fallacies about people who have had their lists for awhile is that it's nice and stable and is as good as it can get as far as getting the message across. In fact, over time, depending on what system you have, it can actually deteriorate … not your relationship with your list, but your email server and your email server's IP.
It can deteriorate over time to the point where people who have had lists for a long time will think, "The relationship dies. It's been awhile. I haven't built it up. I haven't maintained it." In reality, what is being destroyed isn't your reputation. It's the reputation of your email server and the IP that your email server is on. That's one of the mistakes that people who have email servers for awhile make.
They get too comfortable with the situation they're in and don't realize that slowly over time their server has gotten worse. There is something they can do about it if they switch technologies. No matter how long you've had your list, you still need to maintain that percentage of content to pitch. In fact, the longer you've had it, the more you have to make sure you maintain it because over time, people's willingness to listen to you might go down.
In order that you maintain their willingness to listen to you, you need to continuously give them value so that they continuously open your emails. That's something that people who have lists for a long time need to maintain. People who have fresh, new lists need to make sure they start off right. I've met people with lists that weren't what is called 'trained properly'.
'Trained properly' means that although you're giving content, you are still pitching.
You are still asking them to consider offers. If you don't do that enough, people will be trained that all you do is give free content, and they'll never buy. I've seen very large lists in which there is very little purchasing going on. That's because the entire list is based on a free offer. In the first year of the list's existence the list owner never sold anything. Because of that, they were trained not to buy.
It becomes very difficult to un-train them not to buy. That's something for new list owners to realize. You do want to give value, but you still want to make sure that you are trying to sell something. If you don't, and you think, "I'm going to wait six months before I try to sell anything," you are literally training them not to look at offers and not to purchase. That will lead to a list that won't do what you hope it will do.
TAMMY LAWMAN: Awesome tips! What suggestions would you give to a new marketer to build a list quickly?
DAVID BASS: That's a good question. There are a lot of different ways to build lists. Some of them are easier, but are more expensive. Some of them are cheaper, but are more difficult. A great way to build a list is through affiliate marketing which is when you have a promotion and you invite affiliates to market your offer for you. As part of that promotion you'll put an opt-in page up.
Some people call it a data capture page or lead capture page. When these people send their audience to you, their audience will leave their information. Obviously, when they leave their information, your list will be built. One of the ways a list is built is through affiliate marketing. You will have other people with lists who will essentially build your list for you.
Another way to build a list is becoming more difficult these days. It is through paid advertising. You actually buy advertising through media buys or pay-per-click advertising. The destinations where you send your traffic is to a squeeze page or opt-in page or lead capture page. Through that you will buy traffic where you get your leads. That's another way that a lot of people built their lists.
It's one of the ways I don't work with because the pay-per-click paid advertising world is an expertise unto itself. These days especially it's becoming more difficult with Google cracking down on what they're tolerating or allowing. They're not being forthright with the information on what it will take to get you banned. A lot of people these days are getting their Google accounts banned.
If you can master the art of paid advertising, it is another way to build your list and do it consistently and well. A third way is through natural search traffic, in which you'll optimize your website for specific keywords. Based on the traffic you get from people doing natural searches with those keywords, you will put a data capture page up and capture people's information. You will build your list that way. Those are three different ways that lists are built these days. It is through affiliate marketing, paid advertising and natural traffic.
TAMMY LAWMAN: What kind of budget do you recommend for people who are serious about building a list to put into their affiliate marketing and paid ads and to make sure that their website is optimized?
This article is just a small portion of an hour-long interview, and is only one of several interviews conducted for Internet Marketing TNT. If you'd like to see the full call, as well as other interviews in this series, simply visit Internet Marketing - Very Important Profit Systems
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