Email marketing v CPC

We are exploring internet marketing options and have been going round in circles as it's not our main area of expertise. We have an agency working on SEO but need to explore additional marketing initiatives. We have an online travel magazine and I feel that the marketing efforts are not really joined up - maybe a marketing strategist is the answer?

Anyway on email marketing v CPC (here im looking at such things as Adwords and alternatives, eg Advertise.com and Facebook advertising) I keep coming back to the idea of buying in good lists but according to MailChimp the average click through rates for the travel industry is 2.8% which means that even if I can find a good email list (and there is masses of rubbish out there) at £/$ 20 per 1000 names the actual cost per click works out at something like £/$ 0.70 whereas £/s 0.15 is achievable through other methods.

On the basis of the above, and I know these are gross generalisations, that email marketing is lets say 4 times more expensive for the same results, is it still worth doing, and if so, why?

Also, again, according to MailChimp, average open rates of emails for travel mailshots is 27.7%. Does "open rates" on emails correspond to "reach" on facebook promoted posts or "impressions" on CPM advertising?

Any thoughts are very welcome

 

If you have a good, opt-in list of followers of your newsletter (or whatever), then email marketing seems to be best. There are so many browsers with default privacy settings, ad-block plugins, and a higher general user awareness, I think cpc is dying. I think there may be better, new ways of effectively reaching an audience. We just need to figure out what they are...

 

We have a list of around 2000, but I was really looking at buying a list of 100,000 people interested in travel. So what do you think is replacing CPC, social media?

 

Yeah, social media, especially mobile-friendly media. People are relying more and more heavily on word-of-mouth (so to speak), and less from ads, in my opinion. I think people are becoming desensitized ads and essentially ignoring them.

Enticing visitors to "like", "favorite", or "recommend" something is where its at.

 

What we eventually want them to do is click on adverts or subscribe to the magazine. A "like" seems a bit remote from that

 

Hmm, I can see your point. Although a "like" could still be a positive sign for Google, it doesn't pay the bills for you. Traditional advertising may still be one of your main ways of getting subscriptions.

However, you can easily do like many online newspapers, and magazines have done. That is, have enticing article titles and let the reader read maybe the first two paragraphs. Subscribing, or even just paying to read that one article, would be their next option. With that in mind, you could Tweet provocative tweets with a link to the respective article. You could do the same with other social networks. Using your email list, you could do the same things. All the free articles to be read, to keep them interested, but most would require a subscription to read them all fully.

Furthermore, individual articles could be shared and liked as well. You might even be able to entice your subscriber to share and/or like articles or features by rewarding them with fancy titles, ie "Super Reader", or discounts.

Then there's specials, such as 'get 2 others to subscribe and we'll extend your subscription another year!'.

Lots of options. Many of which cost little to no money.

 

Sounds like a good idea. We are currently moving from a free flip page magazine (you can view it here www.eurotravelmag.com/current) to an Apple Newstand/Kindle/Android paid for subscription basis which will be something like £2.99 a month or £29 a year. Actually, once we move to that it becomes easier to promote - we can offer free subscription in return for likes + something or we can produce white label versions for third parties but where the paid subscription model falls down is by being less attractive to advertisers as the circulation figures for a paid for publication are going to be very much lower than for a free publication

 

Nice magazine! Very impressed. I like the flip book feature. The quality sells itself.

What if you were to offer free subscriptions. Possibly a contest (weekly?). You benefit in two ways. One; you would get the name and email address of people that are interested in your mag (for your email marketing list!). Two; you could greatly increase your subscriber base. Since it is electronic, the overhead costs are minimal, as compared to print. You would have a larger subscriber base in order to woo advertisers.

Could you also offer it in US currency? I think offering only in BR pounds could dissuade some potential customers from subscribing. At least in the US.

Have you considered creating an affiliate program? Affiliate programs are fantastic because you only pay the affiliate when someone buys a subscription. Since there are so many travel blogs out there, you could probably have quite a few affiliates who would suggest your magazine to their readers. It's a great form of advertising and it would cost very little in the long run.

In your case, a Facebook page could be really good. Include updates and mention articles on Twitter and Pinterest.

You could even have a simple site describing your magazine, that could handle the contests, etc. Also, you could include the 'best photograph' photo submissions from your subscribers, in which they took while on a trip somewhere. You may find a picture of great quality or interest suddenly goes viral, as people share the image with all their Facebook and Twitter friends and family. People love to tell others that their photo or story made it into a magazine.

If you decide to do email marketing, check out Sendy.com. Its much, much less expensive than any other service. Plus, since you're hosting, there's no turning over your valuable email list to a third party.

 

Thanks for your comments. Each free subscription costs £0.25. On an annual subscription, after Apple and others cuts have been taken, I'm left with about £18 so there is money to offer incentives but Apple insist that everyone pays the same price. I like the idea of an affiliate program - typically what would they get out of the pot available? Is Clickbank the place to go to set that up? There's already a Facebook page eurotravelmag and Twitter plus the www.travelmag.com website

 

Apple doesn't allow contests for a free subscription? If not, what else could you offer as an incentive for people to join your email list? A special, non-Apple edition of your magazine? A gift certificate?

There are services available for creating an affiliate program. Most of the affiliate management services cost money, I'm sure.
One that I found is http://www.affiliatemanager.com

Also, Wordpress has a plugin that I know of simply called Affiliates. There are others as well.

Basically, you would provide a unique tracking code (or referral id) to each affiliate that signs up to be an affiliate for you. You would pay them monthly via PayPal and possibly other services. You could require the prospective affiliate to provide you with their blog or website address, so you could have a level of control over who becomes an affiliate for you.

 

both are good, CPC is better while email u dont know how much user come or not to see ur website. at CPC u know about every click.

 

Email marketing is better becase the people on your list are at least interested in what you have to offer.

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

do not buy email lists - waste of time and money.

Any one that does business online should have and grow an email list organically.