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The Best Kept Secret On the Internet is Unleashed:
Permission Marketing Separates the Winners From the Losers
If you have read the Insider's Guide, you know how important email is. Recent studies, and my own experience, have shown the dramatic impact effective, email marketing can achieve.
A new term is popping up, called Permission Marketing; it simply means you have to gain permission from people to send email to them. Most often this comes from a free, no sale initial offer; more importantly, Permission Marketing is based on the principles of direct response marketing:
- People rarely buy on impulse. How many times have you bought the first time you heard about something? You need to get familiar, develop trust, and be able to remember who you are buying from.
- People most often buy on 3rd or 4th contact. It is simply human nature. You have to follow up to make sales.
How does this impact affiliate marketing? First, most affiliate programs are run by banners, depend on impulse marketing, and do little if anything to invite consumers to give you permission to market to them. A simple gift certificate, discount, or free information is enough, but most affiliate networks think that the customer is so motivated, so energetic, that they will return on their own.
They spend all their time chasing new customers, which actually decreases sales, for you and your affiliates.
The fact is, you have to remind people of who you are...quickly. Most businesses ignore this fact religiously. They should have staff dedicated to monitoring email, follow ups, and improving ad copy.
I've seen most companies literally ignore all email inquiries (to this day, it amazes me; you would answer your phone but you won't answer email!). I've seen multi-million dollar companies actually hire 17 year olds to run their email! The results are frightening.
Email, done correctly, is professional and targeted, with an in-depth knowledge of the principles of direct response marketing. Now think hard for a second; how many 17 year olds would you trust with such an important position? Companies have found their entire lists "CC'd" to customers (meaning every name on the list was given away to possible competitors), and spam has been introduced because the message is so poorly written, not targeted, and simply a waste of time.
It is amazing that people think anyone can write and deliver email. Email/permission marketing is as important a skill as a WebMaster, a programmer, and customer service. Yet it is continually ignored because companies don't understand that the relationship you build with your customers is primarily done via email.
Meanwhile, the companies who treat this like an important part of their business are reaping the rewards; XOOM is an excellent example of a company who built their reputation on their multi-million subscriber list.
eMarketer recently released a study of email (at the request of Fortune Magazine) in 1999 that is stunning:
- "3.4 Trillion E-Mail Messages Were Delivered in the U.S. in 1999
- 9.4 Billion Messages Are Exchanged in America Every Day
- 81 million Americans use e-email
- The average American sends or receives 26.4 e-mail messages every day
- On average, people receive twice as many emails as they send on a given day
- 2.1 Billion e-mails are sent daily by U.S. Internet Users; in addition, another 7.3 billion "commercial" e-mail messages are sent."
The study notes that 107 billion pieces of First Class mail were sent in the U.S. in 1999.as a comparison. This is just the U.S. here, not the whole market!
As you can see, if you are not emailing, you are not in business. Case closed. From XOOM.com to small businesses following up via aweber systems, the figures are staggering.
Unfortunately when you talk about email marketing, many assume you mean spam. So they don't do it. This is your advantage, because the short-sighted nature of many online businesses is literally paving the way for domination by a few companies who build their lists through targeted, effective email.
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