Every marketer has made mistakes. You’ve made mistakes, and I’ve made mistakes. Some of us try to hide it and pretend we’re perfect at everything we do. I’m not that type of person. I don’t hide my mistakes – I embrace them.
Those on my email list know all about my mistakes, including this one. Often, I get to hear their mistakes as well. Together, we learn. We become better. We make progress, and avoid making the same mistakes over again.
Today, I want to share with you one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. A mistake many others are bound to repeat if they are not prepared to avoid it. A mistake that may end up costing you thousands and thousands of dollars as it did for me.
Many marketers claim their number one mistake is failing to build their list from the beginning. Fortunately, this wasn’t the mistake I made.
I built my list, and I built it well. Within 2 and a half months I had reached over 350 email subscribers. However, I was clueless. I was using the list to bring traffic to bring back to my website, but not to sell.
Here I had the most powerful monetization opportunity possible, and I was failing to utilize it. Still, this wasn’t the mistake.
Eventually, I learned all about monetizing my email list. I learned how to build value, help out my subscribers, and eventually promote to them. As I built more and more value, I made more and more sales. My subscribers loved the value I gave to them, and also loved the products I offered because I did such a good job at tailoring my marketing to fit their needs. Things were great.
And then I made the vital mistake.
One day, I woke up with a notification from Mailchimp delivering heart-sinking news. I had reached the maximum amount of subscribers for my email list. I had two choices – either keep my list and pay a ridiculously high fee to keep my current subscribers, or move to a paid email marketing service.
Saddened, I knew that the smartest thing to do was transfer to a paid service. I sent out a hopeful email letting my current subscribers know that they’d have to resubscribe to my list if they wanted to continue receiving emails from me. Unfortunately, most people didn’t. In one day, I lost 81% of my email subscribers and all the money that came along with that list. I was heartbroken.
I’ve since recovered, but you have to stop and think – how much wealthier would I be today if I had used a paid email service from day 1? We’ll never know.
But this article isn’t about me, it’s about you. Are you using a paid email marketing service? If you are, great! You’re doing exactly what you should be. If not, you had better watch out.
The fact of the matter is, there will come a time when you’re making a killing with your email list. Please don’t be an idiot and lose all of your subscribers like I did. I was in your shoes at one point, and I still kick myself in the back every day for making such a horrible mistake.
How you can avoid my mistake? What email marketing service should you be using?
This was a question I asked myself for a while before making a decision. If I was going to shell out money for something monthly, I wanted to make sure I was making the right choice. I ended up testing out both Aweber and GetResponse, and ended up settling with GetResponse. While both services had very similar features, GetResponse was cheaper ($15 a month vs Aweber’s $19), and I felt GetResponse was easier to use, especially for someone new to email marketing. I’ll have a comparison article out soon.
I know $15 a month can seem like a lot of money, especially if you aren’t making any right now. The thing is, email marketing is so incredibly powerful that you can easily make so much more than that your first month alone.
Heck, GetResponse even has a 30 day free trial! If you can’t make $15 in two months, chances are it’s only because you aren’t trying hard enough.
If you’re still feeling worried that you’re going to end up losing money, make sure to sign up for my free 7-day traffic building course. If you take the time to implement the strategies I talk about in the course, it’s guaranteed GetResponse will be paying for itself within two months. If it’s not, I will personally work with you one-on-one until it does. You have my word!
I’m not trying to make this sound like some crumby advertisement so I can earn a commission off of you. I’m not afraid to admit that I do earn a commission when you sign up, but I’m sure you already know this. The truth is, I wouldn’t have wrote this article (or promise to work with you one-on-one) if I didn’t know for a fact that a paid email marketing service would guarantee you and your business more money. I get a commission, yes, but you get the ability to make a ton off of your email list, which will likely become the biggest moneymaker your business will ever have. We both win!
Failure to invest $15 now may just result in thousands lost later. If you’re currently using a free email marketing service such as MailChimp, or you’re not building an email list at all (gasp!) do yourself a favor and sign up for GetResponse’s free 30 day trial. It may just be the best investment you’ll ever make!
And of course if you ever have any questions, please ask me! I look forward to hearing from you.
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