Email marketing?

Has anyone had any success doing this? I'd really like to invest in it but Im not sure as to how I'll find a good company that doesnt want a body part for payment! Ive seen some fair priced ones but Im not sure how to find out whether they are reputable or not...

Anyone have a company that they use that shows a decent turn around?

Im talking mass opt in marketing of like 300 to 500 K mailings?

SPILL IT!

No one? Nothing?

[Ted S]

I think I can provide some insight but I need a little clarification first. Are you looking to send email to your own list or are trying to distribute your message in someone else's?

[UncoderMom]

I dont have a email list of 300,000 users hehe.. I need a targeted optin.. well targeted preferred but I know it runs a little more! Just want a clean company! No one that is dirty!

So if someone can point me to someone who has that and doesnt wanna rake you then im looking!

[COBRAws]

When doing email marketing only 10% of those recipients would read the email sent. You should better try some banner marketing or adwords.

[UncoderMom]

10% of 300,000 sounds good! LOL Even if only 2% or 1% for that matter signed up I think it would still be worth it!

I have tried adwords and I dont really care for it.. Its currently on pause.. Once I get more revenue coming in I'll reactivate it

Im looking into the banner idea too! THANKS!

123greatings has different options but non of there prices are listed so Im gonna give em a call! They prolly cost a fortune ..

[street tactic]

Did you ever begin this campaign ? I'm curious to hear of your results.

[UncoderMom]

Nothing so far that wasnt a wash! grrr

[Ted S]

It is unlikely you'll get a 2% sign up from an email marketing campaign unless you pay for a promotion in a very, very targeted list. The fact is, email marketing, when properly done, is very, very expensive.

"Renting" lists where you get a big data file of addresses appears cheap but it's really just spam, or a step away from it, and the results are as bad as the method. You're list might get a 10 or 15% open rate but opening an email is only step one. Step two, they have to click... that's probably 3-5% and then step three, they have register. A good site might pull as much as a 7-8% sign up rate but wait... when you do the math look at what's left.... 300,000 * 4% = 12,000 clicks * 8% cvr = 960 sign ups.

And mind you, these would be fairly good results. A well developed email campaign, a decent list, subject and body copy that passes through spam filters, a strong offer to get the click and a solid landing page that can draw a sign up 2 times that of the typical "free offer". Doable but unlikely for a first time email marketer and non-optimized forum. What's more likely is that you get a list with a lot of dead addresses, encounter spam issues, aren't targeted enough and end up with a CTR of 1-2% which takes people to a decent landing page that pulls 3-4% conversion rates. So from 300,000 emails you get 100 - 250 sign ups. If your email list costs you just $500 that's $2.50 - $5 per user -- if your list cost $1000 well, then double those numbers. There are better ways to get members.

But wait, I'm not saying email is bad... email can be great! The trick is finding a good list and having enough budget to afford a reasonable client acquisition cost (CAC).
In this day what you generally find is placements within an existing newsletter or renting a send where the company's branding and layout is wrapped around your template. These programs cost much, much more but they also come with something that generic email lists don't -- user loyalty. It's better to spend $5,000 to get 75,000 opens than to spend $1,000 to get 7,500.

Having a strong offer and taking people the right page is also crucial. Forums aren't like e-commerce sites, you don't have a discount or free shipping your have to market to the right people and provide them one heck of a reason to get to your site. When they do get there it doesn't stop. Most forums just expect people to find their way to registering, that doesn't cut it. When you're paying for marketing, you need a customized landing page with the features & benefits of signing up, a very short sign up form and limited interruptions from other features.

Good luck!

[nick!]

email marketing is not-expensive, you can get phplist for free at sourceforge and install it onto your server, and use it to get opt-in emails, you can customize the skins, create individual lists, etc. all you need is a database.

It costs nothing! You set it up, add the email opt-in or newsletter signup button and thats it, if they want to get emails they submit their info to your site and you basically push a button and email them whenever...

If you got a program like macromedia dreamweaver you can create simple html and add images to spruce up the mail, and simply copy and paste codes...It's nothing! and Free!

[hotcouponworld]

We've started using email and we like our service provider. We do articles that we write, and mix it with ads. It's paid for itself this month and then some. Our open rate is about 60%, which is unusually high, even when people opt-in to your email. So we've been pretty pleased overall with the process and the email provider.