Timing is Everything When It Comes to Having a Responsive Email List!

On November 21, 2006, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving,
a highly respected Internet marketer who lives overseas emailed
his lists about a sale of one of his valuable Internet marketing
products. If I recall correctly, he was selling it for $197, but
during the 21st and 22nd of November, he was selling it for $97.

However, there was also a limited number he would sell at that
price, and if you weren't one of the first 500 (I think,) he was
going to raise the price, even if the 22nd had not passed yet.

The big problem I had with this was, did the Internet marketer
realize that this was the week of Thanksgiving? During
Thanksgiving in the United States, most people are away from
their computers, getting ready to take trips back home to reunite
with loved ones or getting Thanksgiving meals ready to welcome
loved ones back home.

The closer it gets to Thanksgiving Thursday, the more time that
is spent away from the computer and the more time that is spent
getting ready to take trips or make meals for those coming over
to your home.

Now, granted, the Internet marketer still sold out his quota
and made a nice profit, and there were still plenty of responsive
subscribers ready to purchase his Internet marketing product,
but the main problem was, he didn't give a fair chance to the
U.S. market to purchase his product, and chances are, his
email lists probably had many U.S. customers on them.

In essence, he likely disappointed many of them because they
didn't have a chance to purchase his product for that price -
in fact, they likely didn't see the email for his sale until after
they returned home, likely that Sunday or Monday (November
26th or 27th,) at least four days after the sale was completed.

This is something important to keep in mind - you need to take
into account the time of year it is when you have special sales
such as these. For one thing, you could have a lower buying
rate than you expected because many of your prospects could
be away from their computers, which could lead to them missing
your messages about your sale. This could lead to lower-than-
expected profits for you.

For another thing, as in this case, even if your sale is a success
and you earn a high level of profits as you expected, it's likely
you're going to annoy and disappoint many of your subscribers
because they're going to miss out on your sale and not have a
chance to take advantage of the special offer you are offering
them. This could lead to them unsubscribing from your
newsletter and/or spreading bad publicity about you online, which
will hurt your business long-term.

So, what can you do to avoid these types of situations? Three
main things you can do are the following -

1. Try to keep in mind the major holidays of the countries that
your subscribers represent. This isn't always easy, especially if
you have a diverse list of countries represented, but for the
countries that are most represented on your lists and for the most
important holidays, you should try to avoid having special
limited-time or limited-quantity sales during these time periods if at
all possible.

2. If you must have a sale during these time periods, you should
try to alert all of your subscribers as soon as possible (say, at least
a week or two ahead of time); that way, you put the responsibility
on them to make arrangements to make the time to take
advantage of the sale. This was a mistake the above Internet
marketer made - there was no notification that I was aware of
about this sale - it was very last-minute.

3. If you do have a sale that several of your subscribers missed,
due to the fact that their country was having a major holiday during
the time of the sale, and you receive several complaints stating this,
you could consider holding a special opportunity for them to take
advantage of the sale after the holiday has passed.

This would require extra work on your part, including verifying
that they are from the country they claim they are from, only
submitting the second-chance sale offer to those specific
subscribers, and compensating your other members who did
take advantage of the sale the first time with something special
that only they would receive (another infoproduct, exclusive
Master Resale Rights or Private Label Rights to the products in
the sale, etc.)

Like I said, it would require extra work on your part, but it would
appease those subscribers who missed the sale due to a major
holiday, while also appeasing those who took advantage of the sale
the first time. And keeping subscribers happy is the key to having a
responsive and profitable list.

Therefore, keep in mind what is going on in your subscribers' lives
when it comes to major holidays and such; by doing so, you keep
your list happy and responsive to your future offers.

Article Source: http://www.yourecommerceinfo.com/ecommerce-articles

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Joe Chengery III is an associate editor of RatingsHub,
the first site that allows you to read unbiased reviews
on Internet marketing products by other users and submit
your own reviews! Get your fre*e membership at
www.joechengery.com/ratingshub.html?YourEcommerce
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