Email Marketing Experiment

I’ve never really done email marketing to the full extent. I’ve tried it in the past with not much to varied success but I’ve just never found it to be much of a lucrative marketing medium for me. But the other day I watched a video on email marketing on John Chow’s blog as I was going through his Archives (I was bored).

After watching this I randomly decided to do a little email marketing campaign myself. So, I went onto the Top 100 list of ‘make money online’ blogs (which was actually what the video was on) and one by one visited and contacted the top 50 blogs on that list… give or take a few. All in all I probably did about 45. The emails I sent to each of them were unique each time and promoting some of my ‘best’ work on this blog. Such as; Making Your Blog Unique and 10 Ways to Fail at Blogging.

Of the 45 (probably about that) that I contacted, 6 replied. So far. Though I doubt anymore will reply. The following bloggers / blogs are the ones that responded:

1. Adnan from Blogtrepreneur.com

2. Ades from Adesblog.com

3. Carl from Carlocab.com

4. Patrick Altoft from Blogstorm.com

5. Seth Godin from, well… it’s Seth Godin!

6. Daniel Scocco from Dailyblogtips.com

So thanks to all of those.

Now with Seth Godin, I actually sent him my John Chow interview. The reason I sent this is because… I assume he is very busy and gets tons of emails every day from people promoting all kinds of rubbish. So by sending him this, it’s a little better as it’s technically not my content, it’s an interview. The questions are mine, but the content, realistically is John Chow’s given that he gave the answers. Also it was a little name drop as it may of caught his attention more with John Chow in the subject title.

I actually saw a rise in traffic after these emails. Obviously because of the bloggers who opened and clicked the links but Andy Beard also Stumbled me which helped a touch. Every little helps.

Emailing this volume of bloggers can result in a lucky backlink, mention or feature. Or just generally help establish awareness of your blog.

So, I would say - if you haven’t already, go do what I did and try your hand at email marketing. It’s free and you’ve got nothing to lose.

Here are a few things to remember when conducting your emails:

Do not try to sell anything - Whatever you do, don’t do this. If you email a bunch of professional marketers or bloggers and try to promote a product or an article stuffed with affiliate links… it’s just not going to work so you could just put yourself on bad terms with someone for no reason. Avoid this.
Don’t be too formal - If you are immediately too formal in an email such of this nature, it may seem as you are trying to gain instant professional approval therefore probably selling something. Some may not even read on. Remember, they’re only people on the other end of your email, address them casually.
Don’t ask for a link - Asking for a direct link when you don’t know someone won’t work. You might get very lucky but I seriously doubt it. It will just seem a bit… cheeky to email a well established blogger and ask for a free backlink. They probably won’t even respond so don’t bother. At best, hint at one but don’t ask directly.
Be honest - Make sure that you’re honest. Marketers can be bullshitters if they chose and you should remember to never shit a bullshitter! Just tell them why you are emailing them. Don’t be too upfront but just explain why you are contacting them right away. Busy people are busy people. Make them want to read on!

As you can see from my results… I didn’t have the best response rate. At all! but… some of the ones that didn’t respond, backlinked me and at the end of the day. Some responded. Getting any blogger or marketer to respond to an email promoting your content I think can be rare. Especially if they’re big bloggers.

Let me know how it works out for you.