How To Increase Website Traffic Using Purchased Email Lists

[KHALID HASSAN]

If you really want to increase website traffic the first thing you need to do is to update your attitude about what exactly spam is and how to do email marketing properly. There are many people out there who propose different ways of spamming in order to increase website traffic. These methods could possible deliver results, but if they do it is only for the short-term. I guess a short-term boost in traffic is o.k. if you have a good conversion rate on your site. Conversion rate means the number of people who take the action you want them to take in relation to the number of people that visit your site. If you are getting a lot of people opting in to your list or buying your products, then maybe spamming is worth it...but I still wouldn't do it because it is bad business practice. Spamming people's emails usually results in very low quality traffic. These people are usually freebie seekers and tire kickers that don't end up buying anything. The email open rate is very low so very few people are even seeing your offer. If you are experimenting with these types of lists you are likely wasting your time and money and getting a lot of people mad at you. Getting people mad at you is certainly not a good business building idea. Email spamming involves buying hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of emails or joining a network where you have access to email addresses of people who have not specifically requested what you are selling. This type of marketing used to work when the Internet was new and people were happy to get any emails. Now that people are used to the Internet and get lots of emails every day, unsolicited email is considered spam and is seen as a big problem. On the other hand, there is a right way to do email marketing with purchase email list. First, we need to be clear about email marketing that is not spam. When you have advertised something and people sign up to receive more information, then you have every right to send emails regarding what you got permission for. This is not spamming. It's called permission based email marketing. People welcome these typed of emails because they asked for the information. In fact, they don't mind if you keep them on your list and send them more information and promos in line with what they originally expressed an interested in. If you have this kind of list, your email open rate is likely to be good and you will also have a good conversion rate. You will find email marketing to be a very profitable business-building method. Taking this to another level is when you have not specifically advertised and people have not asked for more information from you specifically. Could this type of list be in the category of not spam? In this case, someone else may have received permission to send information and email promos and because of that you have inherited the justification for sending an un-invited email promo. For example a financial planners association could have permission to send emails to its members. As a means of raising money for their association they allow businesses to send promotional emails to their members. This is NOT spam because the association will screen out people who are not offering something that their members would be interested in. If you send a promotional email regarding a new financial software, you are sending your offer to people who would be eager to find out about it. You are sending permission-based email to a list of people who are expecting to receive this kind of information. You will find that your open rate to this list is very high...possibly even higher than your own mailing list. This is because when Financial Planners get email from their association, it could be news regarding changing regulations, new investments or other useful, desirable information that they need for their profession. They pay their association to provide that kind of information to them. The thinking is that if their association has given a company permission to send them an email, "it must be important". Being allowed to send emails through association lists is definitely a way to get more credibility and a higher profile in your niche! Getting the right to send emails to these types of lists is not easy. You really have to have a targeted offer. However, if you can get permission to email private and semi-private lists it could prove very profitable for you.