How to Manage Your Aweber Lists For Maximum Efficiency

Last week Tiffany Dow and I were talking about the best way to manage our lists.  I had sought out Tiffany’s advice because she is on a similar path as me…but she’s a few miles ahead of me right now. 

Basically I plan to have a whole portfolio of digital products covering various marketing topics and I want to use Aweber to maintain my lists of prospects and customers.  I want to be able to stay in touch with people who buy one of my products so I can sell to them again and again.

Right now the only products I have to offer are my PLR article packs and my Yahoo Answers guide. But since I plan to add a lot more in the future I really want to make sure I set up the best possible system that will allow me to keep in touch with my customers while making as little work as possible for myself.

That last part is key.  I don’t want to be stuck wasting all my time managing email lists when I can be doing more important things.  And let’s face it…the whole reason I got involved in IM to begin with was to provide for my family and have the financial freedom to do what I want when I want.  And I’d rather play games or color with my kids then fuss over 101 email lists.

So my question to Tiffany was how she managed her lists.  As you can see by her blog post on the subject she wasn’t sure what the best solution was.  So after going back and forth a little and reading Aweber’s help areas, I think I found a solution that works for me!

Basically I want to be able to have as few lists as possible but have the ability to customize a bit for the buyers of each product.  I need the ability to cross-promote new products to past buyers, and I want to automate as much of the process as possible by using pre-written autoresponder messages.

But I don’t want someone to buy Product A and then receive new emails promoting the same product!  And it will look bad if they receive the same email multiple times if they sign up for multiple lists.   And so I played around a bit and whipped up a test campaign and used a bunch of gmail addresses to map out my plan…

I’ll have one list for prospects.  This will consist primarily of a pre-written autoreponder sequence that will provide solid content and build trust.  Of course I can still blast out emails whenever I want to promote something or have something to say.

If someone from my ‘prospect’ list buys one of my products they’ll automatically be moved to my ‘customer’ list (Aweber is cool like that).   My customer list will receive a slightly different autoresponder sequence and they will be segmented by Product Name.

Aweber lets you segment your list using various criteria but I think the one that works best for me is Product Name. 

Since I already use DLGuard to manage product delivery and protection, its a piece of cake to automatically pass product names and numbers to Aweber right at the time of purchase.  All you have to do is make sure your ‘customer’ list is integrated with DLGuard and product name and number is passed.  This literally takes about 20 seconds to set up in your Aweber list settings.

I can then create as many new segments within my list as necessary.  If I want to email a promotion for my XYZ product I can simply create a segment that excludes anyone who already owns XYZ.  That way people who have already bought it won’t receive the email.  Pretty cool huh?

But what if you don’t have DLGuard?

Well first of all you should because its an awesome tool that saves me countless hours and protects my files from unauthorized downloads.  But if you want to get by without it, you’ll have to find another way to pass the Product Name on to Aweber.

Or you can create segments based on Ad Category.   If you go this route your list will be segmented by where they subscribed.   For example you’d use one web form for people who bought ABC and another for XYZ.  You’d have to make sure they were coded correctly so your buyers didn’t end up in the wrong segment.  I think this would definitely work but it would be a little more manual and there’s more room for something to go wrong.

For me the combination of DLGuard and Aweber works perfectly. 

But what do you think?    Do you have a way that works better??

Earn 75% Commissions On My Answers Domination Report

I recently released a brand new report called Answers Domination…a step-by-step guide to generating web traffic using Yahoo Answers.

And now you’ll be happy to know that I’m launching an affiliate program that will pay you a ridiculous 75% commission on all sales you generate!

You can make money promoting Answers Domination in lots of ways…

• Post a review on your blog
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To get started all you need is a free Clickbank account.  then go to the link below and grab your affiliate links to start making money!

5 Tips For Effective Content Marketing

There are a lot of different ways to get your product, service or website in front of potential customers online. Marketing with content is one of the most effective ways to do it. Here are 5 tips to making your content marketing stand out from the rest and work in your favor.

1. Varying Media Types – Don’t just rely on one specific style of delivery for your content. While articles are very useful and the most common form of content marketing, using video, audio and holding teleseminars are all equally appealing options to readers. Some of these take a little longer to create, but they all have their advantages. Using multiple forms of content delivery makes it easier to reach a larger audience.

2. Social Networking – Social networking sites such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Digg are perfect vehicles to create your business networking contacts. You can link up with people who are interested in your service and even create partnerships with other people to increase your exposure.

3. Referral Programs – Use your clients or customers to help bring in more people through referral programs. You can offer a reward for the people they bring in or make it a contest for whoever brings in the most over a certain period of time.

4. Affiliate Programs – Set up an affiliate program so you can have other website and blog owners online market your content for you, while also referring people to your products or service. The ability to earn a commission on any sales they send your way is a must for this type of program. This costs you nothing unless the affiliate sends you a sale, but drives people who are interested in what you have to offer to your site and increases the chances for a sale.

5. SEO – Search Engine Optimization is the means to better placement of your website at the top of online search results. This is a fantastic way to position your content in those search results directly related to your product. The more keywords you are linked to, the more likely people will find your content through online searches. There are free tools available to help you streamline your keyword efficiency.

Using one or all of these marketing techniques will bring the customers to your website and have them already interested in what you have to offer.

Why Mini Sites Make So Much Money

Visit almost any restaurant, and you’ll see evidence of the increasingly common belief that bigger is better. Fast food restaurants zealously encourage their patrons to upsize their drinks and fries, and upscale dining establishments pile food high on their customers’ plates.

Many websites have taken the “bigger is better” theory to heart, too. Superstores like Overstock.com and Walmart have websites consisting of thousands upon thousands of pages. And they are doing quite well for themselves.

When there are so many large sites online, it may seem futile to try to get a piece of the pie. The average person doesn’t have the time or money to set up such an operation, let alone maintain it. But you don’t have to. A mini site can flourish in a land of Internet giants.

The reason mini sites work is because they do not directly compete with the big guys. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, a mini site simply seeks to do well in a small niche. In this case, smaller is better.

The most successful mini sites go after a small but underserved niche. They find a need that isn’t being filled, and they fill it. This puts them into a position to get better rankings in the search engines, because the keywords that people would use to find their offerings are not often targeted by webmasters of larger sites. With some good SEO, they can get targeted traffic at very little expense.

Once the visitors are at the mini site, the sales letter grabs their attention and, hopefully, convinces them to make a purchase. Those who are on the fence may sign up for a newsletter or free course. This provides the opportunity to maintain contact and persuade them to buy later.

A mini site can hold its own, even with millions of other web pages online. You just need a good niche, a quality product and a strong sales pitch.

Ready to learn more about mini sites??  Sign up for my newsletter at http://mikecollinsmarketing.com to receive your free Mini Sites Explained report.