True story:
Once upon a time, I attended a conference that was supposed to reveal a bunch of “cutting edge” email marketing info.
I was eager to go.
Had my note pad ready.
And, was ready to get my learn on.
But, there wasn’t much to learn.
I’m not saying the conference was “bad.” Actually, for their target market, it was great. (Corporate drones who are clueless about email.) But, much of what was taught was old in 2002. Like making your emails interesting (wow! really??), and using offline methods to make sales too, and telling stories, etc.
Again, not bad info by any means.
But cutting edge?
Nah boo.
Another true life story:
Sometimes I get pitched by auto-responder companies (not personally, but just because I’m on their list) to attend their conferences, trainings, etc.
I rarely bother beyond a good skimming.
(Or if someone shows me something I should see.)
Why?
Because an auto-responder’s agenda is NOT the same as mine. The ones I’ve seen always seem far more interested in open rates, and clicks, and reducing opt-outs, and analyzing every little soft metric… with nary a mention of sales.
But, here’s the thing:
My agenda is not lots of opens.
(Couldn’t care less about ’em)
Or to have fewer opt outs.
(I celebrate opt outs, they mean more sales)
Or more clicks.
(Why would I want unqualified or uninterested people seeing my sales pages?)
Or having a giant list.
(Why would I want to pay for leads who are never going to buy?)
All those things can be nice, I suppose.
Just like it’s nice if your website gets lots of “hits.”
But, they can come at the expense of sales.
How so?
Because if you are mailing in a way where you get lots more sales (i.e. the way I teach) you will likely have way more opt outs, a smaller (but tighter and FAR more qualified) list, and you may or may not have lots of opens and clicks.
I know a few people who disagree with this
And that’s okay.
It’s not a crime for them to be wrong.
But, remember this:
Opens, clicks, less opt outs, big lists, don’t put food on the table.
Sales do.
And like it or lump it:
Higher opens and clicks does not automatically equal more sales.
It’s just the opposite sometimes.
Frankly, even some spammers get super high opens/clicks, but that doesn’t mean they’re making a crap ton of sales. And I have seen enough tests from multiple sources (not just my own) where high open rates and high clicks resulted in LESS sales, not more.
But, just to be clear:
(For the hyper literalists)
I’m not saying auto-responder company training is bad.
Or that tracking opens, etc is worthless.
You can get good intel from that.
If the spirit moves you, do it.
But, make sure you take all those tracking results with a big fat grain of pepper if you aren’t tracking to the sale.
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Ben Settle
