Email Marketing Is NOT Dead: Surprise! It’s alive and kicks social media’s assets - Online and Info Product Marketing

Email Marketing Is NOT Dead: Surprise! It’s alive and kicks social media’s assets

Hello,

Marlon here.

First of all, I temporarily have a new blog design up.  Tell me in COMMENTS what you think of it vs. the prior design.  Thumbs up or down?

Next:  I'm a FAN of social media.  It's FREE. Why wouldn't you be a fan, right/

Periscope,  Meerkat, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, they are ALL enormously powerful marketing tools when you do this ONE twist.

[fancy_box id=6][content_upgrade id=5566]Click Here To Download a PDF Of This Post[/content_upgrade][/fancy_box]

So today I give you that ONE TWIST that turns social media from STILL getting WHOOPED up on by email marketing TO a super power producer of sales and leads.

Are you game?

Ryan Delk from Gumroad, based on the vast amount of data in their system, they have found the following conversions rates for traffic from Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

2015-09-19_8-54-35[Tweet “Youtube converts at 2.2%. Twitter at 5.4% and Facebook at 6.3%. Email converts at 9.4%”]

email conversion ratesLook at that!

Clicks from email that go to Gumroad convert into buyers at 9.4%.

In other words, email marketing is STILL the King of the Road in terms of conversions.  Of course, you DO have Periscope, Meerkat, Facebook live stream and other live video services in the mix now.

Ryan didn't give any numbers on those.  I have no doubt that Grant Cardone crushes his conversions from his live streams.  But he's also a world class sales person.  One of the best I've heard.

With that in mind, let's just say that email marketing still rocks it out in a major way when it comes to conversions.  Not only that, in terms of CLICKS it wins also.

When I make a post to my Facebook page, the REACH of my status updates is really bad.  Sometimes only a few people even SEE a post.  I'm getting 1/2% reach or so.   And yes, I do everything I can to engage people.

Same thing with Twitter.  Send out a tweet and yes, you'll get a few clicks.

fbclicksDon't get me wrong.  In the past 30 days, my blog has 471 clicks from Facebook.  However, with just ONE email, I can send more clicks than that.

To get those Facebook clicks, I interacted, scheduled a bunch of content posts to my Facebook page and, in short, invested a TON more time and energy than I do sending an email.

Of course, when I run Facebook ads, those clicks are hands off. But you pay for every click.  Email isn't free but it's a LOT cheaper per click than ANYTHING else.

The ONE TWIST That Turns Social Media Into a BEAST!

If you have tracked with me so far, then you should be totally crystal clear that your click through rates and conversions from social media suck in comparison to email.

But what if you could turn the tables?

Yep. That's right.

Once you get those social media people ONTO your email list, then life is good again!

That seems like an obvious solution at first. And that's why the story about “Obvious Adams” rings true for so many.

[Tweet “Everyone THINKS email marketing is dead. Surprise! It's alive and kicking the crap out of social”]

Here's How You Can ACT On This Today
And Amp Up Your Email Marketing

Step one:  Send your Twitter followers to blog posts, squeeze pages and Instagram

The GREAT thing about Twitter is if you include a URL they don’t KILL your reach like Facebook does.

Once you include a URL on a Facebook status update, you pretty much ensured it’ll get very little reach.

Why?

Because they want you to have to pay to reach their audience, even if you already paid to get them to like the page to begin with.   Or the people who liked your page at the outset were your OWN customers!

LOL.

Now, if you bought the Ron Douglas training I promoted a few weeks ago, you know how to play that game and win.

But still, I LOVE that on Twitter, you just don’t have to worry about it.

Here’s a tweet sending people to a blog post that has a 1 in 10 chance of collecting an email. The post had 2 link clicks.

guerilla marketing pictureHere’s one where I send people to Instagram. It had 0 clicks.

instagram marketing

2015-09-19_10-54-37

That one had 2 link clicks.

The results are SMALL but I’m not that active on Twitter. I don’t engage a lot. And tweets can be automated via Hootsuite, although it’s better if you just send ‘em when you have a spare second. You’ll get more interaction.

Then you can work FACEBOOK.  I already showed you the 471 clicks earlier.

Those are clicks to my BLOG. At a 10% conversion rate, I would have captured 47 email addresses. I found a new type of page from BACKLINKO that will allow me to double that.

Step Two:  Snag 21.7% Opt Ins On Your Blog

This one shows how to create a httpsqueeze page with high conversions on a blog.

backlinko

Here’s what the page looks like:

backlinko squeeze page

If you bought WP Leads and Sales Dashboard before, I recommend you take what you learned from it and then combine it with all the latest, greatest stuff from Backlinko. He has THE BEST white hat linking stuff. Bryan at Videofruit.com has also taken a few of those ideas and created a system to outsource them.

Anyway, the POINT is you CAN drive your Facebook traffic to a page like the above. You can also take them to a pure squeeze.

What I do is program Hootsuite to post blog articles, squeeze pages, links to Instagram and Twitter onto my Facebook page.

It takes an hour to publish them. And I slacked off this past week. The payoff for doing it isn’t huge. But you do get subscribers from it.

The BETTER approach is to create a funnel so you afford to do what Facebook wants you to do which is to buy clicks. If you can get opt ins for $1 to $3 on Facebook, that’s great.   My friend Peter Visser gets them for as low as .59, which amazes me.

Will Irish over at 22social.com is able to do the same thing. I subscribe to Will’s Facebook newsletter which is inexpensive and always has good updates in it.

Step Three:  Use content upgrades on your blog to get as high as 50% opt ins

It's crazy.

By using content upgrades on your blog posts, you can get 30% to 50% opt ins.

[Tweet “Want 30%+ opt ins on your blog?”]

I don't know WHO originally created the content upgrades concept.  Was it Brian at Backlinko?  Here's is Brian's guide to content upgrades.

Kim Roach?  Someone else?

I found out about them from Bryan Harris at VideoFruit.com because he has a BRILLIANT article on how to do them.

He has a genius blog post called Lead Magnet:  11 ways to turn readers into email subscribers.

content upgrades exampleI'm doing this on my blog here at Marlonsnews.com also.

Step Four: Funnel People From Periscope and Meerkat

If you’re on Periscope or Meerkat, all you need to do is offer a juicy incentive and give your url.   THAT could be a real game changer in terms of percentages.

Still, the REASON email beats them out is because there's a lot  of resistance to people getting onto your live stream.  It takes more effort than subscribing to an email list.

Step Five:  Launch sooner rather than later

Did you know when you launch a product, you get MORE than just your buyers?

When you launch a product, it creates a lot of buzz that ALWAYS brings in an abundance of subscribers. Product launches are the #1 way I’ve built my own list hands down.

Step Six:  Remember that email is STILL da King!

The FUNNY thing about Internet marketing is everyone is hyper sensitive to the latest, greatest thing.

Some people won't buy one of my products with a 2013 copyright date, EVEN IF it's all evergreen content!  That's a head scratcher for sure!

You're twistin' my melon, man!

The point is, YES email is so 2001!  But you know what?

NOTHING beats it yet.

None of the buzz words do.

NOT native ads.

NOT retargeting.

NOT Facebook.

NOT Periscope

NOT Meerkat

Step Six:  Remember it's not either or. It's both and.

I'm NOT saying dump Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope, Meerkat and Facebook live stream.  LOL.

Not at all.

As much as time and energy allows, use them ALL.  But make SURE you're funneling EVERYONE onto your email list.

Step Seven:  Raise  your email game

In the Rising Tide Workshop I explained how to get more conversions.

The PROBLEM is that while email is still king, open rates have gone down as have clicks.   You have to work at solving these issues and getting conversions.

Best  wishes,

Marlon Sanders

If this blog post / newsletter sparked some ideas for you, share the word:

[Tweet “Marlon's Marketing Minute Newsletter rocked my world”]

Let me hear your thoughts in comments.

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  • trevor says:

    Hi Marlon,

    I’m not an Internet Marketing legend either but here’s a tip I’ve used to get my customers to open more of my emails. It might help your readers too.

    And by the way, thanks for all your helpful information which has cleared up any misconceptions about operating an Internet Marketing business. Much appreciated.

    Subject: Your Powerful Subject Line (tip)

    Here’s a simple way to increase the chances of getting your emails opened.

    When you write your next email message try to put the word “Your” in the
    subject line like you would if you were writing an headline for an
    advertisement you were creating.

    When you use the word “your” in a subject line you are indicating to the person
    receiving the email that something belongs or relates to them in some way.

    They will then more likely open your email to get what is “theirs” or to find out
    why it relates to them (curiosity)

    See how I’ve done this in the subject line for this message.

    Hope this has been helpful.

    Regards,

    Trefor

    [email protected]

    Copyright © 2013 Trefor Jones

  • Will Irish says:

    Hey Marlon,

    Cheers for the mention of both my newsletter and 22Social.

    Your pointers on email marketing are spot on and you most articulately ended with the most relevant issue facing email marketing in the future… Declining open rates and how to solve for that.

    Here’s one way I’ve been working on the problem and it actually incorporates both email and FB ads.

    By sending an email out first and segmenting those that didn’t open within 24-48 hours (depending on time sensitivity) I’ve uploaded only those that didn’t open the email into a Fb custom audience with a specific retargeting ad copy.

    Remember it’s only going to unopened so it saves in targeting time and click cost, with a great deal of personal relevancy. Something like… “Looks like you may have missed what I sent you… Benefit, promise” etc as ad copy

    That ad then sends them to either to a text version of email if it requires educating with pixel to exclude further ad spend or to a specific page post with pixels for same reason and conversion tracking.

    It’s not perfect but it is a war waged profitable as I pay only for clicks on the retargeting not impressions.

    Most importantly it trains them to look for future emails to open. (Still experimenting here)

    Also as you said in your post… It’s not either-or, it’s strategically using both.

    Love the new layout!! Keep up the great work.

    Will

    PS I’m going to look for you on blab. 🙂

    • marlon says:

      Will, you are awesome. How are you? Two things. One, man, I’ve called my “opens” in Infusion. I don’t know what they can’t as an open but it isn’t a live human being opening the email. MOST of the people I talked to on the phone didn’t in fact open the email. One guy didn’t even remember who I was! lol. I don’t know of a way to fix this, do you? I think it’s something on the server that scans the mail or something and triggers it as an open.

      The other issue is cpm on the retargeting. I see other people claim to get really cheap clicks on retargeting customers. Mine come in at a buck a click. It’s kinda pricey to get your customers to consume content. Are you able to get these clicks a lot lower? How?

      • Will Irish says:

        Hey Marlon!

        Just so we get this straight… You are the legend here, not me. Had it not been for your products back in 2000 timeframe I wouldn’t be here today marketing online. Now that this is clear…

        First) You are absolutely right. Open rates are absolutely not foolproof. Especially confusionsoft, no offense intended. The query strings for list segmentation and actions surely trigger some bot faux opens. You will find more credibility in open rates from lower end services without using tags such as aweber or getresponse.

        There are 2 and a 1/2 solutions to chose from:

        1… create a custom audience from those who click onto your page that was linked in the email and exclude any buyers. Then run newsfeed ad.

        2… Create a custom audience from those that didn’t click on a link and show open or unopened, and retargeting them with qualified personalized copy.

        2 and 1/5… segment all opened and unopened who didn’t click on a link and send a rebroadcast email to only them with a PS “I forgot to tell you… ‘Insert valuable tip here'”

        In the end, the best way to get opens is to put the important messages in your entire list newsfeed via ads, while excluding visitors via pixel along with rebroadcast important emails.

        On Tuesday, I’m doing a hangout interview with my friend Wilco who just released a killer Fb Api approved software to retarget email opens and I will ask him how the software detects opens and combats bot triggers. I’m putting the interview in my next newsletter.

        Second) when retargeting a warm audience that you know saw your content (guaranteed visitor is pixel) stay away from impressions and bid for clicks. I find bidding .20 higher than suggested max bid always saves me a lot of money as the ad gets auction distribution and because you’re only paying for actual clicks, it’s now warm revisit freshly stoked interest.

        I bid for oCpm on initial ads and let Fb do their thing but for 1-7 day audience retargeting I bid for clicks only.

        That way I’m getting a result I can quantify and I’m happy to pay for someone that saw my page yesterday, didn’t buy, but is interested enough to click over again.

        I’m measuring more about return and relevancy which drives costs way down.

        They click or you don’t pay.

        Warm audiences highly engaged will give you high relevancy scores keeping your costs down, so when able get them to comment, like or share the post with a killer value based ad retargeted with strategic language outperforms the best copy I’ve written.

        Just a few ideas.

        Keep bringing the heat Marlon!

        Will

        • marlon says:

          Wow, thanks Will.

          I think that tip on the clicks is the TRICK! Awesome.

          Because when you’re doing short term targeting, the cpm doesn’t work.

          Fb Api approved software to retarget email opens: I’ll look forward to hearing about this.

          Now, I JUST ran a FB newsfeed ad sending people to my article last week that you commented on. BUT FB shows the relevancy as 5. Freaking 5. And that is to my OWN customers. Why do you think that is and how do I fix it? The ad was for the EXACT title of the article. So I don’t see why the relevancy is so low. Do you have insight into this?

          Marlon

  • David says:

    I don’t mind your “orange” shirt mate, (or am I colorblind?)…. lol
    As usual extremely valuable content here and you give your all – always, I have used many of your products and been an affiliate since the late 90’s – and there’s no better Mentor than you man. Take Care and keep us informed when you are next “Downunda” Cheers Mate, David

    • marlon says:

      Hey David, nice to hear from you! Well, I think the problem on the yellow shirt is I had this expression on my face like I was yelling…’cause it wsa during a speech so probably was. lol.

      Marlon

  • Vance Sova says:

    Hi Marlon,

    I enjoyed the post. Everybody says that open rates are way down. Email Marketing still rules but it’s share among the things you mentioned is not as pronounced as even a few years ago. I wonder if it will keep going down or if it has reached a plateau from which it won’t budge downwards anymore.

    • marlon says:

      Hi Vance,

      We can’t foresee the future. And it could go down. The plan is to:

      1. Drive people from all social media onto your email list
      2. Develop skills in using other channels as time, resources and energy permit
      3. Build multiple types of lists, including retargeting, sms, direct mail

      But for NOW to forsake building your email list and cultivating it is a big mistake. The data says it’s still the #1 thing driving conversions. Gumroad is a very large processor of transactions. So the data is strong.

  • Tom Justin says:

    My first impression of your new page was positive. I took a second look and it’s even more so. Great job.

    I also like the option of reading the MM in your blog or downloading it.

    Great job, Marlon. Thanks for the ever helpful information.

  • Awesome email tips Marlon!

    Reach on facebook is pretty bad if you’re not willing to shell out some benjamins.

    Just my opinion though.

    Have a good one!

    ~TR

  • Beth says:

    Your info is always the best Marlon but I don’t like that image of you in the yellow shirt. It looks scary.

  • Steve M says:

    Neat Web 3.0 blog theme Marlon but it may be a bit distracting to your message. I can’t remember what the old theme looked like but I sure remember your messagers. Just my thought.

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