How much is an email newsletter worth?

[dctrpl]

OK, I realise this may be somewhat of a "how long is a piece of string" question but are there any rules of thumb for determining the advertising value of an as-yet un-monetized email list?

We have a project that has yielded a bit of a list and we're wondering what other resources to throw at the project's continuation. To know this, we're trying to get SOME idea of what possible cash there will be at the end of it all. As yet, we have only used the list to send out the specific news that our subscribers asked for. We haven't run any affiliate or other ads.

List details:
Size: about 2500 and growing roughly 300 per month
Permission: all fully opted-in
Mail frequency: weekly
Open rate: about 50%
Targeting: All subscribers are in Scotland, are mums (or dads, but 95% of subscribers are female) with young families. All subscribers are interested in saving money on the cost of raising kids.


If you don't know how much advertising revenue that could yield, can you think of any ways of setting about answering the question. i.e. do you know any good, specific forums where such expertise can be found?

Happy New Year!

 

[darren atkinson]

Sounds like you have a great list building method in place.

In terms of value you are right, how long is a piece of string?

I guess it depends more on your relationship with the list more than anything else.

Are people joing the list with the expectation that they might be sold to? What niche area are these people joining in? Would there be relevant affiliate products which would appeal to them in your niche? Are there any other niche areas which may also appeal to your demographic with strong affiliate products in?

I like Jeff Walker and he runs the Product Launch Formula which is all about lists and selling products to a list, in one of his videos he claims that on some of his lists he gives each subscriber a value of around $30 USD, based on the types of offers he will run past them and historic conversion rates of similar lists he has owned / marketed to.

I think the only real answer you will find for your list is to try selling to it and see what happens really...

Good luck with it.

 

[DaleB]

You state all of your subscribers chose to sign up to your list which is the most valuable type of list as they weren't forced to sign up to get a free gift and you didn't harvest from other people.

The most important thing with a newsletter list is are you providing any value (or are you going to be?). What will you be selling - yourself, products or information? Do newsletter subscribers get something that regular visitors to your website or shop don't?

There's also the question of whether you will be offering space in your newsletter for advertisers?

But as Darren has said, the only way you'll find out is to try and sell to the list and see what happens.

 

[MatthewOgborne]

Howdy,

If you've never sold to the list before, picking on something that you personally have used would be a brilliant start.

You'll feel confident in talking about it and can add a personal dynamic to the content and the readers will pick up on that.

 

[glencooley.com]

To be honest, its a tiny list.

Couple that with the fact its targeted to people wanting to save money the value slides downwards.

Lets work the numbers backwards as its easier.

2500 people

10-20% open rate

Average spend ??? but lets say its £100 for the life of the customer. Depending on proposition.

Unsubscribe rate???? Lets say its about 4%

Realistically you would need a highly motivated buyer selling something that would return a huge amount from a limited market.

I cant give you numbers but from a list almost 10,000 times that size we see numbers not as optimistic as I have stated and these are opt in repurchasers.

It would get valuable if you could quantify basket values etc. Other than that its depressingly easier to just buy a list of more people and scatter gun. Especially considering that you have no affinity (if you bought the list or advertised) with the recipients.

 

[maxine]

Actually I am going to go out on a limb here and say that if you have a 50% open rate currently and this is for a very niche list (consumers, female, with kids, interested in saving money) then provided you try to sell this to the right type of promoter you should get some interest.

Why not just ring around a few potentials and ask them outright what they would be prepared to pay for an advert?

At this stage you could offer to a small number at either free or low price to simply help test it for you and track what the 3rd party click throughs might look like? That way you will have more information ready for when you offer it out to a wider audience.

Another option would be to offer on a pay for click through basis only.

Other than that you could just come up with a price, start selling it and then see what feedback comes back

Good luck

 

[darren atkinson]

To be honest, its a tiny list.

Couple that with the fact its targeted to people wanting to save money the value slides downwards.

Lets work the numbers backwards as its easier.

2500 people

10-20% open rate

Average spend ??? but lets say its £100 for the life of the customer. Depending on proposition.

Unsubscribe rate???? Lets say its about 4%

Realistically you would need a highly motivated buyer selling something that would return a huge amount from a limited market.

I cant give you numbers but from a list almost 10,000 times that size we see numbers not as optimistic as I have stated and these are opt in repurchasers.

It would get valuable if you could quantify basket values etc. Other than that its depressingly easier to just buy a list of more people and scatter gun. Especially considering that you have no affinity (if you bought the list or advertised) with the recipients.

I have to disagree here I'm afraid.

Every market and email list is different, if the list is full of super interested people in a good market then who is to say that he will not be ale to generate any money from it?

Let's just say that the guy had built an online course or training that he was selling for £100 (just to keep the numbers easy), if he built up a strong relationship with his list and offered people really high value content or information for free then introduced his own course, even a 2% conversion rate would generate sales of £5,000.

That's just for the initial run against his current list, if it is growing as he says then he could run the course a few times a year or develop further products to sell them.

Also, he would find that if he was offering top notch content to his list that this would naturally attract more people to join up further increasing his numbers and profit.

You then are able to enter into joint venture partnerships with other list owners and grow from there.

It's all about the relationship with the list rather than the size.

Sending out only self promotional offers to a purchased list though would get no or little results, even if it did have tens of thousands of subscribers on it.

 

[unet]

Op, I think the list is a great targeted list.

I would be wise when emailing to make sure you have good content and your "call to action" is subtle and not too obvious.

I think once a week mailshot is perhaps too much - maybe in email to new subscibers and then an email every month.

I have various sites and subscribers upto 500k in a few games niches. just a simple 1 page survey via cpa brings in about 1k a month.

not sure what sort of site you run but keep your "offer" in theme and make sure the offer is a good one

All the best