Email Advertising and Email Lists:
The Straightest Path to Fast Sales and List Building
The best traffic you can possibly get on the Internet comes from other peoples’ email lists.
That’s wherethe most value is concentrated, where you can get the biggest bang in the shortest period of time.
One blast to the right email lists could produce more results for you than nine months of search engine traffic.If you need fast results, the first place you should start looking is email.
An industrial client I used to work with finds that if they advertise in trade magazines, cost per sales lead is about $200.The same client can buy the top advertising slot in an e-zine that goes out to 50,000 corporate buyers for $1250.They offer a white paper or guide of some kind and collect 150 quality sales leads in one day.That’s a cost per lead of about $12.00.You can’t beat that in business to business!If your sales are sluggish, the right e-zine ad could save your bacon.
See the ads on the right side of this e-zine?If you do what ABB does here – or some variation on it, a white paper, a quick guide, a slide chart, a “cheat sheet”" – you can collect hot sales leads quite inexpensively.
“How do I find good email lists?”
I’ve got a friend who’s a doctor, and wants to sell a non-medical product to other doctors.
Google AdWords is not very useful because doctors are not necessarily searching in such a way that specific keywords would bring doctors who want it.MD’s are pretty difficult to market to in general because their gatekeepers screen virtually all of their mail, docs tend to not be big readers (isn’t that reassuring?) and they’re a tad arrogant and tend to only listen to other doctors (imagine that).
He’s tried some trade journals but some refuse to run his ads because they’re off topic.And he tried in vain to find e-zines aimed at medical doctors.(He admits he’s not terribly Internet savvy.)So I offered some help.
Isearched “physician online community” and quickly found
http://familypractice.com/ and http://www.medscape.com/home
Then I go to www.alexa.com and type in those websites.
Alexa tells me
“People who visit FamilyPractice.com also visit…”
Main Street Doctor www.mainstreetdoctor.com (Site is out of date and non-commercial)
FamilyMDLinx www.familymdlinx.com This looks promising.The site is targeted at doctors in a wide variety of disciplines – Academic Medicine / Education, Adolescent Medicine, Atherosclerosis/Lipids, Basic Science / Genetics, Clinical Pharmacology… big long list. Their email subscription form requires them to submit email and snail mail information, as well as their medical specialty.They accept ads on their website and their mother site www.mdlinx.com states they are the “leading provider of online marketing solutions to the healthcare industry” including targeted online advertising.Bingo.
So hang on, before we go any further let’s check MDLinx.com on Alexa and see what sites are similar to that:
People who visit this page also visit:
Minority Health – MCW HealthLink minority-health.healthlink.mcw.edu
The Hope Chest – Patients Newsletter members.aol.com/lungnews/thc.html
Medical Newswiremedicalnewswire.com (this looks promising, so let’s see… looks like it reaches a lot more people than just doctors, but it’s got 130,000 subscribers.The home page says it’s “the only source to send your press releases announcing financial earnings, job openings, job promotions, product announcements, educational events, and anything the healthcare marketplace would have an interest in learning more about.”)
American Academy of Family Physicians’ Patient Education Doc… www.familydoctor.org This also looks promising.It’s a spinoff of American Academy of Family Physicians, even has a “health plan complaint form.” Has an article on the home page that directly relates to an issue my friend addresses.And they have a bunch of related sites.One has links to a dozen medical journals.
That’s from a quick swipe at Alexa. But Google has a pretty useful tool too – if go to the Google search box and type related:mdlinx.com we get a bunch of sites that Google thinks is similar to mdlinx.com:
This is VERY helpful.MDConsult is owned by Elsevier, who is a big trade publisher.
eMedicine is a medical knowledge base and they sell a lot of space on their website to drug companies.So they can be bought.MDchoice.com is a medical database too, and yes, you can “Advertise to our targeted audience…”
In this example I haven’t considered e-zine directories, which might be useful in some cases.But you can use Google and Alexa to keep drilling down and find “related sites” until you keep coming back to the same ones again.At that point you’ve probably tapped the entire niche.If we’re targeting MD’s, we want professional publications, probably not ad-hoc stuff.Also, I haven’t even mentioned the SRDS (Standard Rate and Data Service, www.srds.com) which though expensive is available at larger libraries and would certainly have some resources.
Some list owners will send solo emails for you, instead of just selling you a spot in their e-zine.This can be very useful.However I would be very wary of anyone who offers to do this who is not an SRDS style, brick and mortar publisher.And if anyone offers to sell you the list outright, run the other way as fast as you can, it means the list is worthless.You want an audited double-opt in list.
Perry Marshall
This is excellent information Perry. It opens up an area of marketing possibilities that hadn’t even bleeped on my radar. So I do appreciate you sharing this insight. I’m a freight broker always looking for ways and means to market our services. Thanks Perry.
Fantastic e-mail. One of the best that I have ever read! Thank you Perry!!
Perry, personally I think your one of the best. you consistently give me little nuggets that I never knew.
Thank you.
Great information as always.
Everytime I read another installment or email from you it gets me all fired up to go in to the marketing battle again ! Keep up the good work Perry.
Awesome, Perry! You truly rock, dude. I love the concrete steps you take us through in this.
Is there a way to make this work on a local level for small business?
Tim,
Your ability to do this for a local business is ENTIRELY dependent on your ability to get local email lists. Which generally are pretty hard to find. But they can exist. You need to think in terms of local businesses who collect them. Chambers of commerce, restaurants with birthday clubs, anyone who communicates with their customers via email.
Perry
Thanks for this hot, hot, hot tip! Just what I needed for a client. I am have been urging them along this route and when I next meet with them, I’ll have a list of related industry newletters. They use trade journals to advertise in and have no idea if they’re actually gaining any leads from them. And yes, it’s expensive.
Perry. Another gem buddy, thanks!
Franco
I’m going to do this tomorrow…can’t believe I haven’t thought of this.
I didn’t realize list owners were able to sell ad spots in their e-mails. That’s kind of cool. A nice way to make even more money off their lists.
Cool article.
Perry!
This is great – Thx! Yet another hot tip that can save us all some hard earned cash on the Google Adwords account
Hi Perry,
thank you so much for writing about your friend. It thought me about a lost of research I did not consider or know previously. Great information!
As marketing list brokers, we have located several sources of large (80 million & up) consumer email databases that are purported to be double opt in, CanSpam compliant. All of the eblasting is done by these companies; the list is never sold or relesed to others.
The problem is, that there is no way to verify which of these suppliers and lists are legitimate and which are just junk. One never gets to see any of the names or email addresses; and you just have to take the word of the supplier that the emails were actually sent, and that their “report” of deliverables, opens, and click-thrus is real, and not made up to impress the client.
My question is, how can we tell the goodies from the no-so-good suppliers?
John,
The best you can do is buy a sample of their list and send an email and see what the response is.
Then you have to be wary of brokers using the best (ie most recently subscribed) names for the test then renting you the bad ones for the big blast. Oldest trick in the book.
Above all you have to methodically test and never blow your wad on one big promo.
Perry
Thanks, Perry. Great, practical and immediately useable information!
Hi perry,thanks for sharing your wonderful ideas with us.It works like magic just keep up
you the man Perry, as always thanks
It is a great piece of advice, and if it is free, it is doubly great and good. Thanx, Mr. Marshall
Short, sweet, concise & super-informative article Perry. I always thought you had to ‘rent’ a list and send mail directly to those subscribers, & that seemed unethical. This makes perfect sense. Thanks a million.
As usual, quite informative, and giving new ideas. Thanks Perry.
Perry – As usual, great material and insight. Your assert that this is useful for getting fast results, but I tend to start up new ventures and that is always when I need and look for the kick start. Problem – some list owners will not “partner” unless it is a long established venture – i.e. website running for a long time, etc.
Any pointers or tips?
Keep it up – love your depth of sharing.
Most partners only care about your ability to make money NOW, not how long you’ve been in biz. Start with the ones who’ll take you.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew about the related: command for google – but I was not thinking of it as I’ve been looking for a way to find a few more sites for my client to research.
Now I won’t forget! I just used it and found some more sites.
By the way- the use other people’s email list tactic works wonders for the music biz. If an artist with some credibility sends an email to their fans endorsing an unknown artist –it drives attention and usually sales (if the unknown artist’s music is perceived as good by the audience that received the email.)
Glad I clicked through to read the article.
Jason
Perry
Excellent article – as always!
Can I ask further to Ken’s question – you mentioned being wary of list owners who offer to send a solo email who are not an SRDS style, brick and mortar publisher.
I have a “Learn Massage at Home” product I am looking to get off the ground, and I would definitely like to pursue your method (I’ve tried AdWords, Article & Forum Marketing, and it’s going very slowly!)
If I’m looking for a JV partner / list owner, should I be looking for such a brick and mortar publisher?
Before I read your article I was just thinking of finding a list owner in a related niche (e.g. yoga / stress relief). Don’t know where to start in finding them yet but that was my thinking!
Great information again, thanks for sharing
Regards
Aidan
http://www.planetself.net
Excellent, Perry. We’ve experienced the same thing.
A good offer in a respected e-newsletter drives downloads.
Thanks for validating and inspiring us to do more of it…
Absolutely Fantastic Perry, this is just what i needed to know today, right now.
I just put up my first ad on google (using your book of course). This post about the list has given me ANOTHER route to success.
May I ask how does a person build his own list from ZERO? Spam rules apply no doubt.
Buy Google clicks, send them to an opt-in page. Get traffic from any other source, do the same. Put a flash popup on your site.
Perry
This is an absolutely brilliant strategy.
I’m going to use tools like this to help some of my marketing clients increase traffic, not to mention for my own websites.
Thanks so much, as always, Perry. You are truly the only ‘guru’ that I actually trust anymore.
Not only an excellent article on search techniques but also a template for writing Work Instructions. A great example of turning technical complexity into clear, actionable tasks. Can anybody guess what my passion is? That’s right, training / technical writing!
Great article Perry, I had question, how could I get this to work for me I write copy for non profit and for profit organizations What are some of the email lists I should look for ?
If you subscribe to http://www.srds.com you will find there are THOUSANDS. Especially if you use direct mail.
This is a great article, Perry. The related sites aspect of Google search can turn you on to lots of things that are hidden under the surface!
Hi Terry,
Thanks for the tips and as usual you always provide
value to your readers.
Charles
Dear Perry,
Just got a chance to read this ariticle. Great information. We are a chiropractic office that does Fibromyalgia. You had said to go for it locally. Do list exist locally on that subject that are for sale?
Sincerely,
Karen
Karen,
Sorry to say, I’d be surprised if there was such a thing.
Thanks Perry for a great information given by you. Really it has expanded the area of marketing in a real sense.
Perry, Great info! Can you recommend professionals who have their arms around this whole quality of list subject and who are available on a contracting or consulting basis? thx
I keep coming back to you Perry.
I’ve been reading late agin from my mentor Franco and ended up here from his blog post.
He said you would explain ezine marketing better than him.
Not sure if that’s true but another great peice of info from you.
Thanks
I wonder is the same true of mobile number lists, I appreciate there is less space for advertising copy but will it still offer value.
John
Great stuff, Perry. It’s amazing how you consistently provide golden nuggets – every article has useful/hands-on info.
I have discovered only one downside: between your B2B system I am starting to implement and these great articles, it is hard to pull myself away from marketing my business and actually work on the many client projects we have going – marketing has never been so interesting and exciting. Thank you!
Too many clients…. ¡Que Lastima!
I’d like to say I love You Perry, but I don’t “get down” like that. One thing is for certain, however, my bank account and wallet are head over heels for you. Thank You. & Keep on lighting the path…
As always, a blow by blow account of marketing perfection.
I’m still on the sidelines with Perry’s stuff. Adwords, newsletters, white papers and such.
I have a nice travel portal, collecting basic advertising, but I have this gut wrenching feeling, everytime i read something of Perry’s.
A feeling that there’s a way and means of making a good good income using my existing position on the Net. But exactly what that is, it just hasn’t come to me yet.
White papers? Knowing what you’re good at? Telling who you know …. as I said, i’m still on the sidelines, waiting …. for what?
Thanks Perry, another reality jolt for my procrastination.
Perry’s marketing ideas go through the clutter like a hot knife on butter. Clear and to the point. Even the affiliate marketing you recently did for Bob Bly is miles ahead of the pack.
I can’t imagine how a guy like Perry sold vaccuum cleaners on the street. Your transformation is amazing and I am soaking up every bit. Like Tony Robbins says, to be successful, simply act, think and even eat like the person that you are emulating.
So, what do you have for dinner, Perry?
Thanks for the all the advice Perry.
I’m a bit new to this. Can I ask you – these email list you buy – are you allowed to email them with an autoresponder – isnt this spam?
No, you should never buy a list that someone would actually allow you to buy. If it’s legit it’s sent from their server.
So what sort of emails are we talking here? (Frequency?) The article mentions finding a quality list, and paying the owner of said list for an email send. Since we’re talking even better results than Adwords, banners, etc. How many sends to a 3rd party list are we talking.
I ask this because I’ve already looked into this method of marketing in my niche, and the CPM that is charged by these companies is pretty hefty. 4 – 5k to send just once.
Just wondering what your thoughts are on what is a reasonable cost, and expectation as far as frequency to get the best results?
Cost is entirely proportional to the responsiveness of the list, the match between the list and your offer, and the value of a response to you. Normally you’re skimming the cream off the top of that list so the goal isn’t to have lots of sends. I wouldn’t sink 4-5K into a list just for one test. I’d find a way to do a smaller test. Lists will vary widely in their ROI so you have to test cheap. Oh, and most of this stuff is negotiable. Don’t take the first price they give you.
I continue to be amazed at the quality of marketing information you share freely. When I have any money, I’ll be sure to buy some “face time” with you! Thanks, Perry!
Great information, Perry. Thanks for the additional info that the price is negotiable (response to comment #41). I once saw a newly hired IT Director re-negotiate all the software licenses for a technology start-up company, and he saved the company 30-40% off the prices they were paying.
In the above example, 150 sales leads were developed from 50,000 buyers, for a .3% response rate. Is this a fairly typical response rate, or in your experience does it vary widely based on the list, offer, etc.? With this response rate it seems a minimum test would be around 1000 names as this would lead to 1-3 leads.
What is the minimum list size you would run a test with?
You generally need about 30 actions on both A and B for a good split test. In your scenario 1000 names would be only enough to give you a crude idea.
I think you are a wonder! So glad I stumbled on to you.
Great info Perry. Do you have any data on typical response rates to these sorts of opt-in emails? We operate in the Veterinary marketing space but the big budgets of the big pharma companies have inflated the prices that the trade magazine can charge. E.g. we can rent a list of 3,000 to 9,000 double opted-in emails for our target market but the cost is $425/M! If you can give us some idea of typical response rates we can work out if it would be viable. We give away a physical booklet/CD as our ‘cheat sheet’ with the aim of getting them to take our a $1 trial of our $97/month continuity program.
See http://www.perrymarshall.com/adwords/renaissance/list2/
Funny, I have a service targeted at MD’s and have been struggling to find quality ezines/JV partners.
Nice timing.
I have to believe, that if one goes by the rule of thumb, of sticking to the area, and/or niche that you personally have a knowledge of, (as has been mentioned in past articles) work that area, until you are an expert in it, only branch off slightly, one should be aware of most used sources, from your own research and work. there is no real way to buy your way thru life. the quality list & leads, are the the one’s you work to cultivate! but i keep all of these tricks and tactics i come across, in my pocket, to not be slaving away 26hrs a day,on end. trying to work smarter. peace.
Your B2B tips on whitepapers are inspiring. How to market them while doing autoresponders?
Great article on tracking down good places to advertise.
I signed up for the SRDS mailing list a couple months ago but got nothing from them.
Do you know how much it costs to be able to subscribe and see what lists are available?
Their website is kind of unclear on how to get access other than call them.
Really interesting and very generous of you to teach us this technique, Thank you. I will call when I get time. Monte
As an active medical marketer I can say you are right on and your suggestions are great. Good article, thank you.
Practical, get-to-work, content like this is why we’re likely to keep spending money with you Perry. You give a lot… thank you.
I’ve found the Google/Double Click Ad Planner to be pretty helpful…maybe more helpful than Alexsa.
It will give you some demographic info, other sites visited, audience interests, and keywords searched for.
Thanks for the helpful idea!