“Back to the Basics, part 3
3 Ways to Make Money with Email Marketing”
By Boris Mahovac, Your Ezine Coach
1. Have something to sell.
This may sound simplistic and obvious, but let me elaborate on that, so you'll see what I mean.
Several of my existing clients whom I am coaching in taking their business on line, thought that they had nothing to sell on line. They are professional service providers such as life coaches, alternative health practitioners, etc.
For example, I have a client who is a Spiritual Life Coach. After our initial session it turns out she's also a singer & songwriter! So, I said to her: "You've got plenty of product! It's your motivational songs!"
Then, after our 2nd session, I hear about a book she wrote a few years back! It's 80 pages, and she didn't know what to do with it! Now it's for sale on her web site! and the songs are coming next.
Now, what I'm saying is you need to have something to sell, and to figure that out you should look hard at all aspects of your business to find product opportunities.
For example, if you do live group sessions with clients you can record them on video or at least audio and sell them as digital, downloadable info products. Obviously, privacy of your clients is an issue, so make sure you have proper permission from any participants.
2. Collect money on line.
The easiest and quickest way is to set up a PayPal account.
First of all, let me dismiss any notions you might have about PayPal being a Mickey Mouse solution that's not appropriate for serious on line business transactions. I know of several, successful internet marketers, who make millions on line, and they use PayPal as their payment processor, so why not you, too? I use PayPal myself.
As a side note here: You may already have a merchant account to accept credit cards off line, but the same company you currently use may not be the best way to go for your on line transactions. By all means, if you have a merchant account, talk to them first and see how they compare to PayPal.
Why I like PayPal - it's free, in the sense that there are no monthly fees, so you only pay a small processing fee per each transaction.
First of all, PayPay will provide you with secure payment processing technology so you can take credit cards, but also e-cheques, and money transfers from checking accounts.
Secondly, PayPal will provide a shopping cart, with enough bells-and-whistles as you need to create those lovely "PAY NOW" buttons you can use either directly in your email promotions, but also on your web site.
3. Send 'Solo Email Promos'
First, let's talk about your ezine, or e-newsletter. If you intend to publish an informative ezine, do not expect much direct sales from it. Why is this?
Because the primary purpose of your newsletter is to establish your credibility, expertise and to create that relationship - we keep returning to this relationship thing all the time, don't we?
In you ezine, you must provide relevant, useful, content to your subscribers. Do not think of your ezine as an advertisement for your services or products.
By all means, do promote your products and services in your ezine, but do not make it the most prominent part of the newsletter. Here it should be a reminder, and shouldn't take up more than 20% of the space.
For example, at the bottom of the newsletter you can have a section titled "About Me", and here you can provide a brief summary of your business, and also mention that you are the author of such-and-such book, or creator of a product. Provide a link to your site where there's more information.
Now, the most money you're going to make is through so-called promo-emails, or some people call them solo mailings. While your ezine may have several articles, reviews, comments, recommendations, etc., in a promo email you will concentrate on promoting just one particular thing: it could be a new product you developed, a new type of service that you offer, or something like that.
Typically, your promo emails will be much shorter than your regular ezine. In case you're sending your ezine in HTML format you may want to experiment and send the promo emails as plain text. Be sure to split-test this.
BTW, for those who are not familiar with the term, split-testing is when you send one version of your email to half of your list and another, different version, to the other half. You compare the results, and from then on use the format witch produced the highest response.
These promotional emails will usually have response rates that are several times higher than a response from your ezine.
Copyright 2008 Boris Mahovac R.G.D.
YOU MAY USE THIS ARTICLE in your ezine or your web site if you include this complete resource box with it, with active hyperlinks: Email Marketing Coach Boris Mahovac, "Your Ezine Coach," publishes the award-winning Contacts 2 Clients biweekly ezine. If you want to jump-start your small biz marketing, make more money while working less, get your FREE tips now at www.YourEzineCoach.com
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In other news, I will be starting my tele-seminar series next Wednesday, July 30.
