We’ve all heard it … “the money is in the list”. But lots of people seem to miss the fact that there are multiple ways to monetize an email list, besides just reminding people to come back to your site and buy your products. Using some of these methods can increase your bottom line greatly.
The first and most obvious way of monetizing your list of existing customers is with “upsells” and “cross sells”. It’s MUCH easier to sell to someone who has already bought from you, than to win a brand new customer, so don’t overlook this strategy.
Many people segment their lists … when a “prospect” buys, they then move over to the “customer” list. From then on, the emails that they receive are not the same as those sent to “prospects”.
“Prospects” get the promotions for you least expensive product, while “Customers” get promotions for related, more expensive ones. In addition, it’s much easier to promote products for which you are an affiliate to that “customer” list.
As the size of your list grows, however, other options become available to you. Most of these are variations on renting your list to other publishers. Consider one or more of these:
SOLO ADS – Other marketers will often pay you to do a one-time mailing to your list, promoting their product. How much they will pay varies with the price and conversion rate of their own product, as well as the size and responsiveness of your list.
SPONSORSHIP ADS – These are little two or three line promotions that you stick into the middle of an email, usually set off from the rest of the text with a line of symbols such as =======.
The revenue from these is much less, of course, than for a solo ad, and you have to think about whether the sponsorship ad will be a distraction from the rest of your email, or worse, will be in direct competition with something you plan to promote in that particular email.
TOP SPONSORSHIP ADS – These work just like standard sponsorship ads, except that they appear at the top (or sometimes the bottom) of your email. The price of these is usually at least twice or three times what a standard sponsorship ad runs. As with Solo Ads, the amount you can charge for Standard and Top Sponsor Ads will laregly depend on the size and responsivness of your list. And of course potential advertisers will nee to know their own conversion rates.
PAID SUBSCRIPTIONS – A few years ago, you could get away with this much more easily than you can today. There are just too many free online newsletters. On the other hand, if you are in the fortunate position of being something of a “guru” in your chosen area, it is not unheard of to get several hundred dollars per year for a subscription. You need to promote this, however, more as an ongoing “ecourse” than as a newsletter subscription.
Some list owners will start out with an inexpensive “ecourse” that is little more than an expanded version of a “mini-course”, which is normally given for free. Taking it one step further, however, some people have begun to offer “e-courses” which can span a period of days, weeks, or months, with “lessons” delivered via
email and a modest fee paid up front.
That then lends itself to converting a certain number of the participants to a more expanded, in-depth subscription on a monthly or yearly basis. The newest version of this involves a physical mailing of some kind, usually a print newsletter and/or a CD, in addition to frequent informative emails.
An example of one of this (which by the way, is one of my most valued subscriptions) is this newsletter.
The main thing you have to do is to keep building that list, adding subscribers, and building up your credibility, and the “warmth” of the relationship between yourself and your list.
The bottom line? Any way you cut it, your list is probably the single most valuable asset that your business has. Nurture it, cultivate it, grow it, and it will reward you handsomely.
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