After all the years we’ve been creating web sites and ongoing marketing strategy for clients, we find that most “start-up” folks to the web don’t have a strong or big list of emails of existing prospects and/or buyers.
You don’t want to buy these lists (too scary for SPAM issues) and you must exercise extreme caution when sending anything to the emails you DO have if they haven’t formally opted into your site, asking for information – that, too, is spamming.
So, we often set up affiliate relationships to quickly build a list on the front end. Find a complimentary company that has an e-list they’ve built on their own and offer to pay them a portion of commissions of your sales for anyone they bring to you who purchases. Next steps:
- Tie down a formal date with them for their sending an eblast to their list.
- Supply them with the ad and follow-up ads so that they just have to load it and click “SEND.” (If you ask them to do more than click “SEND,” you’re asking too much.)
- Remind them nicely a week before and 48 hours before the send-out date that your “agreement” is coming up.
There are many ready-made affiliate modules out there that can be attached to your site. If you don’t want to get involved in multiple Affiliate efforts, you can also do joint ventures with one or two big entities. Same concept, but you’re setting up a landing page for their e-list contingency that shows interest in the product or service you’ve asked your affiliate partner to mail out in your behalf.
Questions? Contact me directly, Diane@Armitageinc.com