Importance of Mailing Lists in Affiliate Marketing?

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scottspfd82

scottspfd82

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I debated posting this in the mailing forum, but I figured my question is geared more towards this one, so if I'm wrong mods feel free to move it.

A lot of people I've talked with from other forums swear by list building, but I don't see a whole lot of discussion about it here.

I realize that it depends on the offer you're promoting, but I was wondering how big of a part list building plays in your campaign efforts?

I just signed up for aweber, and I'm going to experiment on my own with split testing a landing page with the offer, and then a squeeze page offering a free guide on the niche and see which converts better.

I was just curious about what some of you guys with more experience in the game have to say about list building.

Thanks for the replies,

-Scott:rasta:
 


So no one has a comment on this subject? Maybe it's just too much of a newb question for the forum.

I'm just quite surprised that I don't hear more discussion about it in the affiliate marketing forum.

Say I was selling wine making products for example. Wouldn't it make more sense to try and build a list of customers, so I can continue to sell them wine making books, ingredients, and other new products over time, as opposed to just getting the initial sale of one product?

I think it's a legitimate question, and if you guys don't use lists I'd definitely like to know why as well.

Thanks,

Scott
 
Personally I'd say it's paramount. If you don't list build you're basically saying that you have no desire to build a relationship with your surfer.

Imagine an affiliate without a list:

He/She SEO's (i.e invests time) or PPC's (i.e invests money) getting traffic. Some of that traffic will be of the disposition to buy straight away and he makes some commission. Some of the traffic isn't of that disposition and he's lost them forever.

Now imagine an affiliate that list builds as well:

He/She SEO's (i.e invests time) or PPC's (i.e invests money) getting traffic. Some of that traffic will be of the disposition to buy straight away and he make some commission. Some of the traffic isn't of that disposition, he emails gets them to sign up for a newsletter, then after a few days emails them with some great free information and keeps them interested, at the same time he recommends a great product and makes some more sign ups.

A few days/weeks later he does the same again and gets a few more sign ups. Weeks/months later he has now built a rapport and trust with the surfer when a brand new product in that niche is launched. He emails this to his now huge list and makes a massive amount of signups right of the bat, no SEO, No PPC just 1 email. He then SEO's and PPC's this new product and makes a tonne more sign ups whilst at the same time adding a tonne more people to his list.

I know which affiliate I am in this story :)
 
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I'm a little perplexed about lists too. I belong to alot of lists, and mainly to see whats being promoted so I can jump in and promote the same thing as well. Very early on, I found out that links to recommended products on lists were affiliate links and would look for ways to get the product cheaper by hijacking the affiliate code. For lists where the readers may not be so savvy, it seems that after a few months early joiners lose interest and move on. Initially, I can see a list building, but over time, as new subscribers join, old ones burn out and your at a fixed number of people to promote to at any given time. I have a hard time imagining a list of 10s of thousands being any more productive than the last few months of sign-ups.
 
Okay, here's another question for you guys. Again, it's product specific. But, in general do you think it's better to simply build a squeeze page offering a free report or something and your opt in form, with no affiliate links, or is it better to have affiliate links on the same page as the opt in form?

Back to the wine example (just an example, I don't promote it) If you have links to say wine making ingredients, and also offer an opt in list for free recipes or something, you may get the sale initially, but lose contact with the customer. However, if you just have the squeeze page, and they opt in for the recipes, you stand a chance of selling them ingredients, books, whatever else over a longer period of time.

What's your advice on this?
 
Sure auctarb I see your thinking and to a degree you're right. But lets say you build a list of 1000 'active' subscribers, by that I mean that at any one time you have 1000 people actively reading your mails. Even if you lose 10% you add 10% in the same time period, that is still 1000 more people you have to market to than if you had no list at all.

Now lets imagine you have a list of 10,000 address where only 10% actively read each mail, but a new product comes into the market and you write a really catchy email with a killer subject and manager to get 20% of the subscribers to read it, now you have 2000 extra people seeing your marketing than the guy with no list.

Don't forget that in terms of sending out mailings you have no dupe content penalties etc like with organic SEO, so PLR content is perfect to use when creating you weekly/monthly newsletter, just amend it to include your sales pitch for whatever products you're pushing at the time.
 
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Scottspdf,

I would say that entirely depends on your traffic strategy. personally I include opt-in on all my sales site and also my social sites where i can (squidoo, blogs etc) alongside my product reviews and affiliate links.

I give the surfer the choice of how they want to access my information and advice (sales pitch). If i do offer a free report (always) then I always make sure this also includes a decent sales pitch and also my affiliate links / redirects.

Taking your wine example, I would have a site with reviews of the best ingredients and on it i would offer a free PDF ebook that gives the best recipies. In that pdf i would have links back to the ingredient reviews on my site/affiliate links to the sales sites, so that either way the person looking to make wine will come back via my links and earn me some money.
 
ThePirate,

Thanks for your advice man, If it's not obvious I'm still fairly new to all of this. Your last response was sort of what I figured would be the best route to go, but I do appreciate you taking the time to help me out.

+ rep for ya.

Thanks.:rasta:
 
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