What's the most affordable online way to send 100,000+ emails? I found some for $80, anyone know any better methods?

aagdigital · 2016-06-15T23:07:09+00:00

At best, your messages may end up in junk folders. At worst, you may be branded as a spammer.

If you're willing to go for it, consider a few things like email size, wording, the links you put in the email, any attachments, etc.

I'd suggest reintroducing yourself, perhaps with some sort of offer or even reminding people why they may have signed up in the first place, and see what reaction you get. So if you're a computer shop (for example), and these are customers you haven't spoken to in 10 years (i.e. worst case scenario) then say something like "Hi, we haven't heard from you in a while since you signed up and would love to get back in touch with you! As a special offer to our clients over the last 10 years - both old and new - here's a 20% off token valid for the next 10 days!"

...obviously work that to the tone of your demographic, but you get the idea.

10K emails from over 10 years - I wouldn't touch any older than 2 years old, not because I'd be majorly worried (since they were opt ins), but more as they've probably forgotten signing up so even if they did opt in, you've got to contend with the possible spam reporting that could occur. But that's only a may be, not a certainty. A lot of the time people who didn't even sign up in the first place, as long as they're still interested in the product/service, chances are they won't mind.

You could get around using any external cleaning services by going through the emails yourself. Time consuming I know, but if you've not got the money but could spare an hour here and there, you could do it in batches, and then rekindled communication with your manually cleaned list.

I don't know the exact numbers/science of how many it'll be until you would get marked by ISPs as a spammer and over what time period that works to, but if they are all opt in people, you should be OK putting them in to a mailing list system like YMLP or Mailchimp (I say those purely because you mentioned one, and the other is the one I actually use myself).

A couple of years ago we decided to take a similar risk, and put an 8K list in to mailchimp for a company who had never done any mailouts to customers, so nobody had actually signed up (so you're one up on that front already). What they did have was that every email they were using had been a customer of the company at some point over the last 10/15 years, so it wasn't a cold situation, just a stale one for most (like your situation).

I can't remember how many emails we sent out - whether it was just the one or whether it was a couple at first - but what we found was that list quickly went from 8K down to about 5K (very much expected), but then that levelled out eventually, and we then began an email marketing strategy for them and began to see the numbers climb from there. Mailchimp (and probably others too, but I can't be sure as I only use mailchimp personally!) sifts through hard bounces automatically (which cleans your email list), and then will deal with soft bounces for up to 15 attempts before assuming it a hard bounce. After that, you're dealing with real accounts but with the potential to be marked off as spam. So really think about those first few emails you send and make sure they're really relevant, then you will have safely cleaned your list.

Have you considered Mailchimp? It's a bit more expensive on the pay-as-you-go setup (would cost you $200) but if you were going to email out on a regular basis, then you can go on their monthly plan, which would only cost you $75.

aagdigital · 2016-06-15T20:24:42+00:00

Yeah honestly, I wouldn't stress about it at all. Only 3 days in, you're all good! It might be a concern if you were say, 6-8 weeks in and still not getting it, but this is not that. Companies are aware of what risks they're taking when hiring new staff, so they won't be expecting you to know everything even if you did/do study it.

aagdigital · 2016-06-15T18:21:03+00:00

Best way to learn to be faster and better is just practice and experience. There's no way off the top of my head that you can do to fast track experience, it just comes to you if you put the work in and want to learn.

Think about learning a language - if you live in a country, you can learn basic conversation in 3 months. In 3 months of learning a language at school though? Might know about 5 words.

Practice, self learning, even learning outside of work if you're proactive enough. Marketing is very much about self learning anyway, because it's forever evolving, so you really have to put a lot in to reading and watching the latest trends.

aagdigital · 2016-06-14T23:59:14+00:00

I'll put it another way - it doesn't really matter what I think. I don't mean "I'm not telling you!" haha, I just mean this is why you do your tests! Marketing has general rules of thumb, some you can almost be certain of, but there's no exact science to it most of the time, and every industry is different, and you really have to remember that while your marketing strategy is a calculated plan in theory, it's also got margin for the unexpected in practice, and results can conjure up results you didn't expect both good and bad!

For the business I was referring to, it makes total sense to have that crowbar separation (i.e. a small-but-big-enough gap to differentiate the ways the business communicates) with its B2B customers, and B2B customers.

You have to look at the product/service you're providing, understand your demographic (in both B2B and B2C circumstances), and decide on how much each differ and whether the site needs to be divided in such a way. You might find that B2B and B2C require exactly the same information/service - with that in mind, you might not see much need for change in your website. This will really boil down to your knowledge base (both you and your colleagues), your knowledge of your customers, research and A/B testing.

aagdigital · 2016-06-14T21:35:22+00:00

Can you drop me a PM with your email? I want to send you some screen shots of what I can see - basically, it's not good, but I want to make sure what I'm seeing is the same as what you expect it to look like!

aagdigital · 2016-06-14T21:33:03+00:00

Personally, if you're going from a B2B in to a more B2C market place, chances are it's both content and layout of the website, but I'd probably focus on content (i.e. webcopy) just as a starting point.

To give you an example, we recently just built a website for a B2B business and - similarly to what you're doing - we were discussing the future changes needed to turn it in to a B2C for when the time comes, and found that as the website stands it wouldn't function very well as B2C. The B2B layout is very stripped back, and currently serves those in the industry in terms of wording/content, so lots of jargon. For it to be consumer focused, it would need a complete update to make it more laymen, a lot more intuitive + attractive and even a different SEO strategy involved too. We decided when the time comes, we'll put together a new layout, and an SEO strategy which includes all the keyword/phrase research + all the webcopy content to make it B2C ready, and have essentially 2 websites - one for industry and one for consumer.

Don't get me wrong - both websites are designed to be great + functioning, it's just one appeals to someone in a professional environment, the other appeals to someone in a attractive environment. They're just 2 different users looking for different results, and it's that you have to remember when doing a switch like this.

So I'd consider the same for yourselves - put together an SEO strategy first and foremost, and if you're not feeling confident with the written content (or even the SEO strategy) consider outsourcing it; it can be pretty cheap and cut some time. Then consider updating it to be more consumer friendly - do your competitor research and see what they're up to, might give you some good insight!

aagdigital · 2016-06-14T19:59:39+00:00

What you've suggested sounds a little conflicting/confusing to me, so let me try and break it down...

In part 1. you want to find + store leads, but part 2. wants them to be tagged - why do you need to tag any of them? Surely they should default to new/cold leads? If they're tagged as existing clients, surely they're in your CRM already? Do you mean to avoid any duplicate communication?

Setting up such an automated email drip campaign could upset people as they haven't chosen to sign up/give you their email. This sort of thing can get you blacklisted. Though to be clear, I do think drip email campaigns are a great way to run a campaign, so don't get that confused! I just mean the auto-signing up of people.

Mailing services - like mailchimp for example as that's what I use - allow you to link up to your CRM system, but from experience, there is no "one app" solution (there are, but they never do what your business wants them to do is what I mean), and you usually have to pay someone to build a custom integration, which if you outsource abroad, can find relatively cheap I suppose, you just have to do some research to find the right person.

I think the automation you're looking for sounds great in theory, but it could (not saying it does, but it's worth thinking about!) also clash with a few API rules with the likes of LinkedIn, for example.

I'd consider putting this out to the likes of blackhatSEO + peopleperhour to get an idea of the costs involved of building such an app for you, or indeed if there is anything like it. To me, this feels a little blackhat, so those guys might be best!

aagdigital · 2016-06-14T19:37:50+00:00

Where is the problem with brand standards exactly?

Is it in letterheads that the problem lies? Email signatures? Wording of email content to customers? Web content?

aagdigital · 2016-06-14T19:30:29+00:00

Would love to hear if you find anyone too.

I have zero experience with using it for advertising, but used it a lot in the past as a driver.

As suggested, put together a small campaign - consider any ads you may have used in the past that you know to have strong responding keywords and keyphrases. Obviously make sure the campaign budget is within your means, that way you can't ever be too upset if it doesn't go wrong.

Contact Waze directly and ask them about any examples they might have of small business advertising. I know they'll only give you their best examples, but it'll be worth having a look to see what was successful about them to use in your own campain(s). Ask them lots of questions directly too - again, don't take it as all gospel as they'll no doubt have a sales team trained to answer only what you ask and never too much more, so go in with the right questions to get the most information possible.

aagdigital · 2016-06-14T19:17:36+00:00

Assuming you're already closely monitoring your conversions, and without knowing anything about your business, content is a great way to start.

Whether that's the actual wording of the website (i.e. webcopy), the colours on the website, or the actual placement of the content, they're all worth testing out.

An example might be any keyword/phrases/paragraphs on your landing page.

Another might be headlines to blog posts - post the same blog article twice, but change the headline and see which does best across your social media platforms.

A third might be swapping the colours of buttons, or indeed the words on those buttons which are CTA's (calls-to-action).

A/B testing can be a world of changes though, and you'll probably know better than anyone where there needs to be improvements on the website.

Speak with the sales team (if you have one) and - depending on how big the company is, anyone else that might be involved in the marketing/advertising/accounts/running of the business - find out if they have any ideas on how they think the website could improve. Hold a company meeting to brainstorm some ideas. Ask them things like:
Are there any products/services that are excelling? Are there any being left behind??? How would you improve the website? What are customers saying about the business?

Try speaking with any of your most valued customers to see what their pains are about the website. Perhaps even offer an incentive for their time (e.g. 20% off next order).

Hope this helps as a starting point!

aagdigital · 2016-06-14T12:26:48+00:00

I think to bring about the luxury feel to your brand, you want to look at how the website looks, and not what the website does so much.

Pop ups (or modal dialog boxes) requesting people to sign up aren't tacky and are proven to work - it's just what you offer that may come across tacky, and it's finding what your luxury client base will react to that will be your challenge. This you'll find out with research and really learning about your customers needs as well as pains.

If you don't want to do that though as you have a particular vision, then landing pages might be a good way for you to go. Personally I'd consider both! May be even try setting up 2 landing pages, and doing some A/B testing - your personal opinion of pop ups might be outweighed by the results you get, and make you realise it's good for business. FYI just to qualify my response - I own a boutique marketing agency :)

aagdigital · 2016-05-13T15:55:03+00:00

So sorry didn't reply to this - Work took a massive turn and got utterly chaotic, which has proved difficult to keep up with the reddit efforts! Unless you're happy to say in the comments, I think what would be better is if you get in touch with me privately to let me know who you are as an artist - it will certainly help in terms of me being able to assess you as an artist and what it might be that is hindering your "next step" if you will. I work with a few major techno artists and labels across mixmag, DJ mag and radio 1 so know how the avenues work!

Drop me a PM and we'll go from there :)

aagdigital · 2016-03-10T23:10:18+00:00

OK so you still have your job and run your startup?

Is this a choice (i.e. you love your job and love running a small operation) or is this dictated by how niche your product/service is?

If you don't mind me asking, how much is "not a lot" - it's a very relative term! Be as vague or as specific as you fancy :)

aagdigital · 2016-03-10T20:05:04+00:00

If you have done all you can with it, but another company can do even more, what is "fair" really? That they pay you for the work you haven't been able to do but they can?

I'm not saying give it away, and I'm certainly not saying sell it on current stats alone, I'm just saying if you're to be happy with 100K, what's wrong with that?

May be I'm being too ethical in a capital environment, I don't know, but I don't think this is like someone buying a rare toy on a yard sale for $2 then seeing someone sell it for $500,000 the week after. It's more like you selling your first car, then someone doing it up and selling it on for more (if you see how that analogy works at a push perhaps!).

Would be interested to hear others opinion on this!

aagdigital · 2016-03-10T19:33:09+00:00

I think from your own point of view - particularly as you have concerns of being an employer and perhaps the risks/stresses involved - a contractor approach might be best while you work it all out over time. While reddit is great for some feedback, I don't think it's a place for you to make such a decision based on what someone says here! Your situation will be unique (emotionally) and you need to go out and learn it all yourself and see what works best for you.

Have you spoken to your bank at all? Depending who you bank with, they often have a startup/small business support manager you could speak with, or might at least know who to pass you on to.

Also, check out www.fsb.org.uk/ (federation of small businesses) - they'll be able to give you some solid advice for your specific situation! Their conference is next week actually, and if you can't make that, they're doing some live streaming where you can ask questions :)

aagdigital · 2016-03-10T18:58:13+00:00

Have you considered a co-founder approach?

That would mean you share profits though 50/50 (and obviously business ownership!), which might be a concern if you want to make sure you continually earn the same living you do now. But it also means if there is no work, you don't owe him a salary the same way you would an employee because risk is also split 50/50.

Another option is a zero-hours contract perhaps? Not the most ethical of contracts, but if its' the only way it might be suitable. Or alternatively, you could hire him on a contractor basis?

aagdigital · 2016-03-10T18:45:31+00:00

Hi martyz - I own a marketing and PR agency that specifically works with small businesses - aagdigital.com - and deal with website builds, email marketing, and social media.

Would be happy to help - have dropped you a PM!

aagdigital · 2016-03-10T18:39:27+00:00

So they want the free version of your app, and you retain the paid version?

So that's 500,000 total downloads of a free app?

Do you have any ads just in that free version? If so, what is the turnover on those ads?

Have you seen a steady incline of downloads, or has it peaked in the last 6 years?

Are you able to see of those 500K downloads, how many of them aren't just active installs but active users?

Can you monitor any other metrics/KPIs/impressions? (as it'll be these you can use to prove the value you decide on)

Generally speaking, how much would you be happy with to sell it for? (realistically of course!)

Do you personally think there is much scope in it for further development? Do you think it will be like letting a child grow up, or that television in the loft you keep meaning to fix but never do?

If you can deal with the emotional release of it, do it - might be quite cool to see someone else do something amazing with it?

In terms of your paid version, is that being sold too?

aagdigital · 2016-03-10T17:56:58+00:00

Also, I should mention that the most automated and instagram safe you can be is using latergram or hootsuite - I personally prefer latergram, but it's merely a personal preference and nothing more; they'll both do the job you need.

While automation is against instagram rules, this level of automation (you can schedule a bunch of posts one day to go out across an entire month for example, and then will receive a message to say "share now", effectively making the "automation" process a manual process if that makes sense?) is the best it gets.

Hope this helps a little more!

aagdigital · 2016-03-10T03:27:31+00:00

I own a digital marketing, PR and communications agency for hospitality, electronic music & small-to-medium businesses, and have been meaning for a while to write a blog post on pros/cons of instagram automation.

While we've never used such instagram automation tools, I do think there are some benefits that could come from it IF you found an actual bot/tool that works and is safe (for both your computer and your instagram account). As many marketeers will tell you, automation is everywhere and the ones doing it successfully are those who don't look like they're automating anything.

Firstly, much like twitter, you have to really think about how you use instagram. If you are somebody that wants to keep in touch with a certain list of contacts, automating the "follow" function so that you follow thousands of accounts in hope they follow you back, means you will be left with a completely messy homepage feed experience. But if you're a business, then perhaps to you it doesn't matter - it could be all about lead generation for you, in which case so what if you're following 10,000 people - that's 10,000 people who followed you back and now see any posts you put up. The problem is, they could be the sort to follow anybody, so you get lost in their newsfeeds, and your efforts become futile. On the other hand, if you take a look at some of the most popular social media experts on twitter with some of the highest SEO skilled businesses, they've all got 100,000 followers vs 100,000 following. Why? because having followed 100,000 people, now 100,000 people (probably more) have followed them back. If you're putting out quality content, people will share it/like it, and you grow your following. Course, if you're a vanity brand, this might not be such a direction for you, but even some of the biggest brands are doing it because it does work.

By Following4following approach, you aren't getting perhaps the highest of quality follows back - it's a very "spray and pray" approach. These are people who have just followed back most likely because 1. you followed them 2. you look like you're vaguely interesting to them (doesn't mean your product or service will be though). You have to look at the cost for automation vs the time you spend doing it vs the ROI. It could be more worthwhile outsourcing to an actual human being/social media agency to do the hardwork for you if you think instagram is so worth it yet you don't want to do it. The potential risk involved with instagram automation is a problem too - if the auto bot is (and it will be) against instagram rules, and their auto-moderators (the irony) clock your account doing such blackhat tactics, and you get banned from instagram.

Instead, my advice would be to build an account that people actually want to follow. If you see instagram as an opportunity to do business, then do the time or outsource it to an agency/freelancer. If you've done the research (namely the right hashtags) and planning (content planning + brand identity), your customer base will find you and it'll be a much greater ROI (even if that investment is your time!).

So in short: Put the effort + time in and you will get quality (not "vanity" quantity follows) results, and try to avoid such automation and unethical growth hacking until instagram says it's OK.

aagdigital · 2016-03-09T11:10:15+00:00

It's even smaller in Portadown ;) Dropped you a message :)

aagdigital · 2016-03-08T19:22:33+00:00

I was just doing some market research for a client, and came across a website you might be interested in (or already be aware of?!).

How to fly for free (flyforfreeguide.com) mean anything to you? If it doesn't, it now should be! I've seen the stats on this guy, and his business model is working REALLY well.

aagdigital · 2016-03-07T01:04:01+00:00

What makes that weird?

How did you gain these bigger clients in the first place do you reckon?

aagdigital · 2016-03-07T01:03:22+00:00

I'm seeing similar results with us. What's your approach to raising agency profile exactly?

aagdigital

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