Comments on: My Thoughts On eMail Marketing http://www.obannonsleap.com/2008/03/15/my-thoughts-on-email-marketing/ Tips and ponderings from a webpreneur Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:13:25 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: John Stewart http://www.obannonsleap.com/2008/03/15/my-thoughts-on-email-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-3726 John Stewart Sat, 17 May 2008 09:48:27 +0000 http://www.obannonsleap.com/2008/03/15/my-thoughts-on-email-marketing/#comment-3726 Email marketing is a probability calculation: p1: chance of addressing the right person p2: chance of bringing the appropriate message p3: chance of sending at the right moment Thus the total chance = p1 times p2 times p3 Something like: 0.3 x 0.1 x 0.05 = 0.0015 or 667 emails for one click on your website. And then the visitor needs to visit pages on your website in order to qualify him as "Lead". Hence the need for massive amounts of emails. On the other hand, people do find your website by natural search. This requires content and links. Content you can write, obtaining links depends from others. In case of B2B, a website visitor identification solution, which reveals company names of your visitors is a completely different approach. In that case you need to have visitors on your website, but these are people who are probably interested as they came "naturally". Email marketing is a probability calculation:
p1: chance of addressing the right person
p2: chance of bringing the appropriate message
p3: chance of sending at the right moment

Thus the total chance = p1 times p2 times p3

Something like: 0.3 x 0.1 x 0.05 = 0.0015 or 667 emails for one click on your website. And then the visitor needs to visit pages on your website in order to qualify him as “Lead”.

Hence the need for massive amounts of emails.

On the other hand, people do find your website by natural search. This requires content and links. Content you can write, obtaining links depends from others.

In case of B2B, a website visitor identification solution, which reveals company names of your visitors is a completely different approach. In that case you need to have visitors on your website, but these are people who are probably interested as they came “naturally”.

]]> By: Paul Broni http://www.obannonsleap.com/2008/03/15/my-thoughts-on-email-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-2818 Paul Broni Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:08:48 +0000 http://www.obannonsleap.com/2008/03/15/my-thoughts-on-email-marketing/#comment-2818 It's pretty far from dead. We've been at it for almost ten years now. Done right, it can be an important part of an integrated marketing effort. You may not be able to build a whole business around it as a marketing tool, but it's useful and cost effective. It’s pretty far from dead. We’ve been at it for almost ten years now.

Done right, it can be an important part of an integrated marketing effort.

You may not be able to build a whole business around it as a marketing tool, but it’s useful and cost effective.

]]> By: new zealand news http://www.obannonsleap.com/2008/03/15/my-thoughts-on-email-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-2817 new zealand news Thu, 20 Mar 2008 01:36:34 +0000 http://www.obannonsleap.com/2008/03/15/my-thoughts-on-email-marketing/#comment-2817 I have to admit I consider email marketing to be dead. Getting through spam filters is tough enough, and that doesn't even guarantee the reader will even open it. Let alone respond the the email as you would like them to. I have to admit I consider email marketing to be dead. Getting through spam filters is tough enough, and that doesn’t even guarantee the reader will even open it. Let alone respond the the email as you would like them to.

]]> By: Paul Broni http://www.obannonsleap.com/2008/03/15/my-thoughts-on-email-marketing/comment-page-1/#comment-2815 Paul Broni Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:38:20 +0000 http://www.obannonsleap.com/2008/03/15/my-thoughts-on-email-marketing/#comment-2815 First of all, John should not borrow money for this kind of education. There are many good resources for information on email marketing. For example, the MarketingProfs forum is full of professionals willing to give away their knowledge if someone asks a genuine question in their search for help. There is very little "noise" there. As for email marketing, it's not a magic bullet. It can't take a bad business and make it better. People get drawn in by the idea, however, that they can assemble a free email list of 50,000 people and then market to that list as often as they want for next to nothing. Thing is, it's a lot harder to build a list--let me qualify that...a QUALITY list--than most people think. I like to think about it this way. A truly good quality email list that is available for rental will cost anywhere from $150 to $400 per thousand names. Please note that I am not talking about the garbage-sellers in Florida who will rent you names for a buck a thousand. So each time a good email address gets rented, that's between 15 cents and 40 cents in income for the owner. (Let's ignore commissions and all that.) If the name could be rented for twice a month for two years before going bad, that would be between $4 and $10 in income per email address. That pretty much means that the value of an email address is at least a few dollars. This is probably low, too, when you consider that just getting a single click from PPC can cost you anywhere from a quarter to five bucks or more. As a result, a 50,000-name email list would be worth at least a hundred thousand dollars, wouldn't it? And yet people think that they can build such a list for a couple hundred dollars or a few hours of their time. The point here is not that my numbers are accurate, but rather that a good email list is a valuable asset that does not come cheap. As they say, "If it were easy, everyone would be doing it." First of all, John should not borrow money for this kind of education. There are many good resources for information on email marketing. For example, the MarketingProfs forum is full of professionals willing to give away their knowledge if someone asks a genuine question in their search for help. There is very little “noise” there.

As for email marketing, it’s not a magic bullet. It can’t take a bad business and make it better. People get drawn in by the idea, however, that they can assemble a free email list of 50,000 people and then market to that list as often as they want for next to nothing.

Thing is, it’s a lot harder to build a list–let me qualify that…a QUALITY list–than most people think.

I like to think about it this way. A truly good quality email list that is available for rental will cost anywhere from $150 to $400 per thousand names. Please note that I am not talking about the garbage-sellers in Florida who will rent you names for a buck a thousand.

So each time a good email address gets rented, that’s between 15 cents and 40 cents in income for the owner. (Let’s ignore commissions and all that.) If the name could be rented for twice a month for two years before going bad, that would be between $4 and $10 in income per email address. That pretty much means that the value of an email address is at least a few dollars. This is probably low, too, when you consider that just getting a single click from PPC can cost you anywhere from a quarter to five bucks or more.

As a result, a 50,000-name email list would be worth at least a hundred thousand dollars, wouldn’t it? And yet people think that they can build such a list for a couple hundred dollars or a few hours of their time.

The point here is not that my numbers are accurate, but rather that a good email list is a valuable asset that does not come cheap. As they say, “If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.”

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