I recently received an email
from a client which wrote: “Help! I’m
getting so much spam that I can’t keep on
top of my email messages. It just started a few
days ago and I don’t know what to do.”
After investigating, I discovered that my client,
wanting to be proactive with marketing efforts
of her own, had found a link on a random website
stating that she could receive advertising in
e-zines to thousands of subscribers free of charge.
My client, a savvy business
owner, had heard that e-zine advertising is considered
the gold standard for online advertising receiving
a whopping 14% response rate on average. Realizing
this and noting that a “free” price
tag fit within her budget, she opted to receive
her free e-zine advertising.
What’s so bad about
that, you ask? She got free advertising, right?
Let’s regress for
a moment. It has long been said that there is
no such thing as a free lunch. Translation—free
is never free. There is always a cost, even if
that cost is your time. In this case, my client
received lots of free advertising. But the cost
to her was thousands of emails on subjects which
didn’t interest her, flooding her inbox.
This doesn’t mention the nearly 4 hours
she spent unsubscribing herself from each of the
safelist e-zines.
My client made a critical
mistake in advertising; she didn’t ask enough
questions. She simply opted for the price tag
and didn’t realize the consequences of her
failure to investigate into the free offer.
It’s like buying items
that have a generic label versus a brand name
label. You have to investigate to find out which
is best. My husband always laughs at me when I
send him to the grocery store specifying name
brands for certain products. Take for example,
plastic wrap. I’m a bit partial to the name
brands. Why? Because I long ago discovered that
if I paid more for the name brands I would get
*more* for my dollar. My experience taught me
that buying the generic forms meant that the wrap
was thinner, stuck upon itself and I usually wasted
more than I used. In the long run, it ended up
being cheaper (and more productive)to buy the
name brand product in the beginning.
My client had a valuable
learning experience and has graciously allowed
me to share it with you. She lost four hours of
business unsubscribing to all the e-zines that
extended her “free” advertising. She
estimated that she earns $100 per hour. In the
end, her “free” advertising *cost*
her over $400 of her time.
Just to show my client what
she could have purchased with a $400 advertising
budget, I used my membership to the Directory
of Ezines (http://www.directoryofezines.com) and
the free ezine adverting resource, E-zine Locator
(http://www.ezinelocator.com) to find $400 of
advertising in quality e-zines targeting specifically
the types of prospects my client wanted to reach.
I found 15 different e-zines reaching over 14,000
(total) quality subscribers and the cost was $385.
My client, up for the challenge
but still a little skeptical after the “free”
advertising fiasco, opted to only spend $150.
In the end, she profited by over $1800. The paid
advertising was clearly more productive not to
mention profitable!
States, my client “I
learned my lesson. Paid advertising is really
the way to go. You just have to be clear about
your target audience and know the best e-zines
to advertise in.” And, she’s right.
As with any advertising
campaign, you need to understand your target audience.
To whom are you marketing your products or services?
Next, you need to understand the various types
of e-zine marketing—safelists, opt-in lists,
double-opt in lists, and pay-per-click lists.
And finally, you will need to understand the demographics
of the e-zine (e.g. who reads it, what subjects
are published, how often is it published, how
does the e-zine publisher gain subscribers.)
Once you have the basic
questions covered, you’re ready to tackle
marketing your business through e-zine promotion.
