Email Marketing Campaign

[touray]

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Hi All,
Just need a few tips as to what to look out for... I have a meeting tomorrow to discuss an online marketing campaign (PPC, Banner Advertising, Email Marketing) with a "professional".

I have never been involved in any such meeting before but what I would like is to be able to leave the meeting fully equipped to be able to make an informed decision. I would really appreciate it if anyone could give advice on what I need to look out for, what I need to ask for and this is all based on the fact that I am running as an affiliate and ROI is very very important.

Does any of you have an idea of costs, effectiveness of the different campaigns or even a combination of some or all of the above mentioned.

Anything would help. I am really that ignorant/naive about the cost, efficiency and processes.

Thanks in advance

Touray

[Divrie]

Are you looking to become a Merchant or a Publisher?

[touray]

I'm looking to be a publisher.

Thanks

T

[Divrie]

Hi unfortunatly I dont think I can be of much help
I was in the same position as yourself but I am a Merchant so I was looking for which group to join and decided in the early stages of my affiliate scheme cost was an issue so joined www.affiliatefuture.com very helpful people.

Hope things work out for you if your interested in travel you are more than welcome to join my affiliate scheme. Sorry I couldnt help any more.

www.reserveahotelonline.com click on affiliates at the bottom of the page

Thanks,
Ivrie

[touray]

I'm looking to be a publisher.

Thanks

T

[BenKowaBunga]

I don't know exactly what you're doing but you should be 100% clear on what they are doing and what is expected of you. Also be clear on what you are paying for. You may pay 100 quid for PPC, but only 50 quid goes to the actual PPC because the other half goes to them for a management fee.

Clarify deadlines and when things are going live. You may need to have things done on your end, if they are not in place then the whole campaign is screwed and it's YOUR fault.

Also clarify exactly what and how they are tracking the emails, ads, etc.

The important thing is to be clear on what YOU want out of it. Is it sales, exposure, sign ups, members, etc? The more info and clarity you can give the agency, then all the better. Also, trust the agency to some extent and let them do what they do best - there's nothing worse than a client phoning up every 5 minutes asking dumb questions

[Dynamoo]

Hi Touray,

Most affiliates do the entire process themselves which means that you don't have to pay a third party.

Margins are generally pretty tight, and I would say that the real trick is to be able to reach out to customers more cost effectively than the merchants.

[touray]

Thank you BenKowaBunga. Very handy. Just the sort of thing I was after = harsh but true.

I know what I want to get out of it - Sign ups and Sales.

Does anyone know how effective email marketing campaigns are in general? I'm getting everything from 1% to 20% for Click-through-rates.

Thanks again BenKowaBunga

Touray

[Guswold]

Touray,

Just out of interest how did your meeting go? If you're willing to share your thoughts on whether or not you were convinced I think it migt be interesting to people - including me!

[touray]

The meeting was very informative. I left feeling that if done properly, an email marketing campaign could be very effective.

I need to make sure that I'm in a position to capitalise from any response I may get from one. In other words, I don't think it's cost-effective for an affiliate site due to the fact that anyone that responds is probably going to be lost to the Advertiser anyway and all you end up with is a 10 or so percent cut depending on who you're with.

So I'll be working on the site and concept a little bit more before going back.

Regards,

T

[Dynamoo]

Errrr... so where are you getting your lists from exactly? The only mailing lists I trust are double opt-in ones I've collected myself.

[touray]

These lists would be double opt-in too. Nothing's been decided but this is a reputable company dealing with the likes of Tescos, BT, Freeserve etc. They offer a choice of mailing list depending on budgets.

Are you offering your list for sale?

[Dynamoo]

No, my list isn't for sale.

Unfortunately, I've had several cases where I have received unsolicited mail through "reputable" lists.

One problem is that the list holder sometimes "forgets" that you asked not to receive mail from third parties and then sells it on (VNU Publications do this to me). Also, sometimes "opt-in" lists become contaminated with scraped addresses.

I think I would want some sort of financial guarantee of the quality of the list.

[touray]

How do you mean "seek a finacial guarantee"?

[Dynamoo]

Well.. if they sell you a so-called "double opt-in" list and it turns out that it wasn't, what sort of comeback do you have?

The worst case scenario is that you could lose your hosting and internet connection and end up with legal action being taken against you. Admittedly, that's the very worst case, but the larger the mailing list, the more the risk increases.

A somewhat more likely scenario is that your mailshot is anonymous reported as spam via a service such as SpamCop. In this case, the recipient name is "munged" so you can't see who it is to remove them. If this happens, then your mailing list is effectively useless. Again, the larger the mailing list, the more likely it will be that there'll be a problem.. it just a statistical probability.

Ideally for a mailing list, the vendor should have a record of exactly how and when each address was acquired and by whom. What tends to happen in real life is that lists get merged together, and this is where "contamination" comes in.

You can mitigate the risks somewhat by researching the company you are buying from thoroughly. Get a sample of the data and check it for obvious fake addresses and spamtraps. Real testimonials from genuine customers are useful too.

But ultimately, most affiliates that I know *don't* use bought in lists because of the risks.