Honest Advertising - Sincere Offers
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I often join a mailing list or subscribe to something because they offer something for free. (We all like free stuff, don’t we?). But why is it that most often then not, we get those “join my mailing list and i’ll send you my free product and blah, blah, blah!” And then check the e-mail and click a link that leads to a sales page, only to find out at the bottom of the page, that the thing is actually $49.95?? Wasn’t supposed to be free?
Where’s the “unsubscribe” button now?
To me, that’s not a way to do business! If you want people to join or subscribe to your mailing list by offering some freebies, well… give them freebies! Don’t advertise free stuff, when you’re actually trying to get them to buy! I would never ever buy something that way! Ever! Free, means free!
So how should you advertise it then? Well, it’s pretty simple. Here are some things you might want to consider if you use e-mail lists as a way to promote your business and want people to join your list.
1- Never buy e-mail lists from companies or anyone - The people you will send your mass e-mails to, have never heard about you, and i don’t see how this can be effective and actually convert to sales. Probably some will say the opposite, but i think it’s just not exactly “honest and sincere”. (any opinions and/or thoughts or results on this?)
2- If you say you’re gonna give something for free, give something for free! You can, for example, write in your ad that you are willing to give a free ebook if someone subscribes to or joins your list, and have a little check box with a text like this next to it: “Check this if you want to recieve special offers from us from time to time”. That will help your retention!
3- Be honest, and say upfront what your product is about, and why should someone subscribe to your mailing list? (benefits and features) If you get people to join because you tell them they will recieve relevant and useful information every week in their inbox, that’s cool! But don’t send out e-mails that only promotes some other products or services! People joined because they thought they would get free updates and information, not because they wanted you to send them affiliate links!
Of course, if you run a blog, and would like people to subscribe to your RSS feed, that’s another story! People can easily unsubscribe. And you provide them with relevant information (which is also available on your blog), since they signed up because they liked to read your blog and found interesting posts and topics.
Sorry for the ranting, but i just thought it would be interesting to know what other people think about that! I would also be interested if someone who actually use e-mail marketing techniques or have a free informational product mailing list thing, would share their results. And how is the retention? How many subscribers, what converts better, how do you get people to sign up?
:)
Now stop what you’re doing, and subscribe to my mailing list! And I will send you a truck load of affiliate links in your inbox right away!
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