There are many myths about online selling. Only constant and extensive testing can provide you with useful and usable information about them - that’s applicable to YOUR business.

How Much Email?

One such is the myth that emailing a list daily is bad for responsiveness. That’s a myth I have tested and found wrong for my list - over 7 YEARS. The question here is not one of ‘frequency’, but of ‘value’.

If you give me value in every email, I don’t mind if you send me 5 every day. If you don’t give me value, I don’t want you to waste my time even once every month!

So am I saying daily emails are the best? Not necessarily - for your list. Test it. Then decide based on data, not theory.

Giveaway - Or Not?

Another myth is that freebie giveaway events bloat your list with worthless subscribers who will expect everything for free and never spend money with your business.

While in general it is true that a subscriber gained through a giveaway event is not as eager or ready to buy again as a cash-paying customer, the issue isn’t one of how you pick up that prospect so much as how you nurture and educate and market to him/her after that.

If your approach is to give away a freebie and then hit them with one hard-sell offer after another, you’ll get a certain response. If, on the other hand, you take an educational - consultative approach, though lead time may be longer, the quality of response you get will often be higher.

Cutting Prices - Good or Bad?

Here’s a third myth: price discounting is bad for long term business.

In an interesting post on his blog, copywriting genius Michel Fortin addressed the issue of going overboard to increase conversions by using exit pop offers, throwing in a straight price discount.

Michel makes a convincing argument about how getting new clients with a ‘last ditch’ tactic like price cutting indicates desperation, and more important, attracts bargain hunters who won’t buy easily or at higher progressive levels.

Again, the issue is not primarily about hooking that ‘lost client’ so much as handling future transactions with a client you secured that way.

Price discounting is rampantly in practice as a tactic for one simple reason - it works. And the tactic is effective to bring new customers in the door.

But make it an integral part of your overall selling process, and you’re teaching your clients to expect lower prices - and they’ll out-wait you, to slash your profit margins to the bone.

Let’s get back to the main point, though. Since it’s harder, takes longer and is less effective to upsell and cross-sell such a customer, should you even bother trying to get them in?

Easy. You have 2 choices when a prospective buyer has finished reading your sales letter and offer:

* Add an incentive, even a straight price cut, to hope they’ll take it, do business with you, and give you another chance to sell other things to them.

* Do nothing, let them go, and probably lose them as prospective customers forever (in the vastness of the online marketplace, chances of you ever running into them again are infinitely low).

Michel’s post goes on to address more effective ways to present the exit offer.

But that’s tactical. The strategic question is not how to do it - but whether or not you should try to, considering the quality of the prospective buyer.

And there, as a curiously innovative marketing scientist, your approach should be to

TEST IT!