I’ve been marketing by email since 1996 on a serious
level. Studied it from many different sources, from
top experts, and read a ton of stuff about it.
Then, all this knowledge was refined and enhanced by
the only thing that counts - real experience and live
testing.
Trends have changed over this period, mainly to do
with legislation about spam and ads, and technology
(filters, ISP bans and deliverability issues).
But what I’m noticing lately is a more basic shift
in dynamics of email marketing, at least in the
‘make money online - Internet marketing (MMO-IM)
niche.
It has been my practice to act as an advisor to my
list. Which means I steer readers away from what
I think is dangerous or bad stuff, and point them
towards what is good, useful and valuable.
To make this assessment, I would spend hours on
reviewing products and services before mentioning
them on my list, never hopping on bandwagons but
putting my opinions and recommendations on anything
that goes out to my list.
Recently, noticing this was not quite understood
or appreciated by my list, I sent out a little rant
about folks who complained I was always ‘pitching’
something, and detailing the elaborate process I
went through before reviewing and recommending
a product.
And then I did something totally uncharacteristic.
I mentioned that in the future, I would be sending
out ‘generic’ messages/ads for new/hot products or
services WITHOUT my personal review or endorsement.
These ‘pitches’ would be subject to these disclaimers
Here’s the surprising thing.
I’ve sent out 2 mailings with this disclaimer at the
bottom.
One of them has made me 5 sales, at an affiliate
commission of $49 each.
The other has cookied over 300 readers for Jeff
Walker’s upcoming ‘Product Launch Formula‘ - which
might make a sale or two, each paying $1,000 in
commission, or thereabouts.
My conclusion:
The MMO-IM niche, as a general observation, has become
so used to ‘pitches’ that people respond as a knee-
jerk reflex… and are placing much lesser value
on genuine, in-depth reviews done by e-publishers.
Maybe due to cynicism (how many “reviews” do you see
which are no more than thinly veiled affiliate
promos?) or confusion (whom should you trust? or
not?).
But for e-publishers, this is information to be
considered, chewed, analyzed and tested. Because
if it is true, and this trend is widespread, I’ve
just saved myself close to EIGHT HOURS a week that
I currently spend reviewing stuff to recommend to
my list!
Thoughts?
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4 Comments Received
March 11th, 2008 @4:47 am
Hey Dr. Mani,
You make some great observations. I find from working with a lot of local clients I am better of just charging them some large fee, giving them a vague explanation, and doing it, then explaining to them what it is I really do.
Sometimes you spend more time trying to do right and just minimize your own success. Jaded? Not so sure, I do know I am inundated with product offers from every marketer out there.
Mike
March 11th, 2008 @8:47 am
As a consumer of many online newsletters and subscribers to many lists I too find myself tired of ‘constant pitches’. I think the problem is not so much that your honest review is unnapreciated, but that every email contains one and thus contains a pitch, whether its a good pitch or not.
Not everybody wants to be sold something in every single email. I would much prefer to subscribe to a newsletter where perhaps only 25% of the mailings contained pitches and the rest of them just gave me content.
These days if a list does nothing but pitch, I’ll unsubscribe, regardless of how good the review of the product being pitched.
March 11th, 2008 @10:38 am
@Michael Pine - Mike, I hear you loud and clear
@Caroline Middlebrook - Caroline, you bring up a very
important point regarding email marketing - but that’s
something distinct from what I’m driving at here.
Yes, different segments of any list prefer a different rate
of ‘pitches’ or a different mix of ‘content versus promotion’.
That’s a ratio I’ve always monitored extremely carefully -
and has not changed significantly in the past.
My list is accustomed to receiving a certain number of
promotional emails - and those who do not like that
frequency gravitate to one of many sub-lists, or just
cancel their subscription altogether.
This trend I’m now observing has to do with how the
‘pitches’ or promos themselves are perceived - with
little if any distinction being made between carefully
conducted and in-depth reviews versus ‘copy and paste’
emails announcing the ‘next hot thing’.
All success
Dr.Mani
March 11th, 2008 @2:47 pm
Hi Dr. Mani,
This is the first time I am visiting your blog (read about this post on Twitter) and must say you wrote a very interesting and thought-provoking post.
I think as online marketers we can do whatever we can to provide real value to our list members but will never be able to satisfy everyone.
I follow a very similar approach to what you used to follow, namely only recommend products that I have personally reviewed.
I hardly ever send sales messages to my list. I normally send them a weekly newsletter and refer them to my blog for specific sales & pure content posts.
This approach seems to work well.
All the best,
Francois du Toit
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