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Mailing Lists Search Engine -- Marketing Ideas???
Posted By: jpych* on 10/24/2006 1:59 PM (CST)	500 Points
Hello, Marketing Experts, I am hoping you can solve a difficult marketing challenge... We (NextMark) just re-launched our website and want to create awareness of the mailing lists search engine on our website here: http://lists.nextmark.com Anyone who uses direct marketing knows how important the mailing lists are to the outcome of the campaign -- whether it be postal, email, telephone, or other. The list is often cited as the single most important factor in direct marketing. After all, if you are not talking to the right people you are wasting your time and money. However, despite its importance, most marketers don't have any good tools to find mailing lists. We are helping to solve this problem with our new mailing lists search engine. It's a free tool that enables you to search our database of more than 65,000 mailing lists: postal, email, telephone, and other. This tool is based on technology we have used for many years in our high-end list research systems for advertising agencies and list brokers. We took the search module and put it on our website. People who have used this mailing lists search engine love it. They say things like "it's like google for mailing lists" and "I never knew there were so many good lists out there." Our challenge... The problem is not very many marketers know about it. How can we spread awareness among the marketing community? One problem is nobody expects to find a mailing lists search engine so they don't bother looking. As far as I know, our website is the only one that offers such a tool. We are also unique in we don't actually sell mailing lists. We simply help you find the best mailing lists and connect you with the vendor. More than 700 list vendors are represented in the database. It's akin to using Google to search but buying from the vendor. For example, suppose you wanted to buy a tent, you might use Google to find the best one, but you buy it from LL Bean. Likewise, this tool helps you to find the best mailing list and to get in touch with the appropriate vendor. And since this tool is free, we don't have a huge marketing budget that can be ROI justified. So, we have this very unique marketing tool that nobody thinks to look for. We're doing some direct mail and email, of course. We've started search engine marketing and are learning a lot the hard way. What else should we be doing? How can we create awareness? Thank you... I REALLY appreciate your ideas! Best Regards, Joe

Posted by: Eric	Accepted Answer
10/24/2006 2:20 PM (CST)
Dear Joe, Today, the Web has real marketplace need for high quality, informative content development.”The Web is the #1 source for people who are looking to buy new products and services. That's according to Editor & Publisher Magazine in their April 2, 2006 edition. So, if you want marketers to know about your unique marketing tool that nobody thinks to look for -- then you need to be all over the web. The most effective, cost effective method -- is to write a 500-750 word "how to", "tips", "problem solving", or "trends" article and submit it to highly traffic, highly credible directories, websites and ezines that your audience is reading. Such publications include ChiefMarketer.com, MultiChannelMerchant.com, B2BMarketingtrends.com, CEO Refresher among many, many more. However, I do warn you although this is the most effective, most cost effective method, it is very tedious and will take away lots of time that you could be using to build your business -- so you should think about an article marketing service like the PR LEADS Article Marketing Service. You can check out the link in my profile or email me at [email address deleted by staff] Good Luck Eric Gruber Director of Operations PR LEADS Article Marketing Service [phone number deleted by staff]

Posted by: jpych*	Author Response
10/24/2006 2:31 PM (CST)
Eric, That's a good idea. Yes, it will take a bit of effort, but seems like a good time investment. Thanks, Joe

Posted by: Harry Hallman	Accepted Answer
10/24/2006 5:22 PM (CST)
Your site is needed and I thank you for bringing to out attention. It is now in my favorite’s folder. Keep doing what you just did. Get the URL on sites where marketers go. It is virtually free and the word will spread. Other than that the suggestions of Eric are right on.

Posted by: AndrewS	Accepted Answer
10/25/2006 1:50 AM (CST)
You definately need to look at your search engine optimisation, there is plenty of stuff you could do to improve your ranking. Currently for "Mailing Lists" you appear nowhere on Google! I would also consider (if you haven't already) a small PPC campaign. If you need any further help get in touch offline Good Luck Andrew black and white marketing

Posted by: jpych*	Author Response
10/25/2006 7:42 AM (CST)
Harry -- thanks for the kind words. Andrew -- You are right. We are not even on the radar in Google's results when you search on "mailing lists." That concerns me because we have this really helpful resource, but nobody knows about it. So, I have been trying to figure out how to get a listing towards the top of the results. We have been improving our site to be more spider friendly. We still have a long way to go. Do you see anything glaringly wrong from an SEO perspective? Also, yes we are doing a PPC campaign in google right now. Our ad is the one with the headline "Want Mailing Lists?". It performs fairly well, but it also costs a lot. The cost/click is ~$2.30 (mailing lists is competitive term) and the cost per conversion is ~$28 where my "conversion" is a request for more information on a given list (not an actual list sale because we don't do the transaction). So, the million-dollar question is how to get on the first page of Google's natural search rankings? Thanks! - Joe

Posted by: Frank Hurtte	Accepted Answer
10/25/2006 7:58 AM (CST)
Very cool site. I too recommend the use of articles placed in marketing based magazines to get the word out on your site. I would suggest articles targeted for marketing magazines first but also branch out into magazines that cater to marketing intense businesses, such as distribution and direct sales.

Posted by: jpych*	Author Response
10/25/2006 8:06 AM (CST)
Thanks, Frank. I am thinking maybe I should hire a good writer to help with this effort. - Joe

Posted by: hEREE.G	Member Response
10/25/2006 11:33 PM (CST)
As far as I noticed and being as a marketing junior, your web name is not giving me any hint, idea or incentive to click on it or cross my mind if I ever needed mailing list search engine. Of course your headline want mailing list is composed from your end but not from the customers' end I guess. If you are selling you might be quoting that phrase but why don't you try compose it from search makers end such us my mailing list, our mailing list search etc. Absolutely agree with Frank, but you writer should possess copywriting skill, then you can get more hooky artilce or column for your search engine. Why don't you have some testimonials to put on your website, sing best companies or well known marketers etc. The last but not the least, you mentioned you have over 65000 mailing list = you have 65.000 voluteers to support and promote and communicate your engine as well. I am definitely not going to miss this opportunity. Plus, once you mentioned that the listed companies have to be reliable and good, you should strengthen you database as well encourageing and expanding your list through special campaign devoted for the listed vendors or companies. It will help you to spead your search engine reputation and awareness through word of mouth as well. GL and hope my petty ideas are helpful for your business. hEREE.G

Posted by: shghosh	Accepted Answer
10/26/2006 12:30 AM (CST)
Use your own mailing lists and email across to Mktg professionals in the Top 500 Mktg focussed companies. Make semi customised mailers to different industries and give them results using your search engine vs google. Release small print ads in Advtg & Mktg journals just advertising your url. The product will take care of the rest.

Posted by: jpych*	Author Response
10/26/2006 7:47 AM (CST)
Thanks for the ideas. Of course, I am "pre-sold" on using direct marketing. We are ratcheting up the budget for printing and stamps. I've tried advertising in trade journals online... the results (which are hard to get) are not very good. When I do the math and go beyond cost per impression into cost per click and cost per inquiry, the numbers don't look good. Cost per click is $30-$70 and cost per inquiry is in the hundreds. Not a very good business model. That makes CPC marketing look so much better. Of course, I am still looking to find the "holy grail" of high natural search rankings. - Joe

Posted by: Eric	Member Response
10/26/2006 10:02 AM (CST)
Hi Joe, Along with being an Internet Marketer and an Article Marketer -- I am a writer. In fact, my passion is writing. If you would like, call me at [phone number deleted by staff] and I can go over article writing and marketing more thoroughly. I'd give you a free consultation. Also, I am starting an Article Marketing Secrets & Breakthroughs Newsletter very shortly. Email me at [email address deleted by staff] if you'd like to subscribe. Eric

Posted by: ozeworks	Accepted Answer
10/26/2006 11:19 PM (CST)
If you want natural search then it is very very basic and nothing holy grail about it. 1. make sure your site is technically SE friendly (see to be) 2. optimize your "person" readable content (not) 3. set your meta-data (title, descriptions, keywords - wonky) 4. get some good backlinks - didn't look :) Just a quite visual it seems to me that your home page is optimized for "Nextmark". You selling Nextmark? Get Andrew to do a free report for you ... it may open your eyes to what you are doing versus what you think you are doing.

Posted by: jpych*	Author Response
10/27/2006 7:49 AM (CST)
ozeworks, Thanks for your reply. What do you mean by "optimize your person readable content"? The website was written for people to read... but maybe we missed the boat on the optimization? Also, I know we did try to clean up the metadata... can you be more specific about what is "wonky"? And, yes - agreed... it would be good to get another set of eyes to look at the website. I feel like the recent update moved our website from bad to fair. Now we need to strive for good. And then maybe strive for great... one step at a time. I appreciate all your ideas. Regards, - Joe

Posted by: AndrewS	Accepted Answer
10/27/2006 11:18 AM (CST)
Just come back to this, drop me an email as a reminder and I'll do you a small free SEO Report, I am still offering mini repiorts free via my website also. I think you need to get the keywords researched. "Mailing Lists" is a highly competive word (although the report will highlight basic areas for improvement). There are other keywords that you should optimise for too that are less competitive and hence easier to get good rankings for and will attract people ready to buy. (i.e. direct mailing lists, mailing lists services, consumer mailing lists, mlm mailing lists, business mailing lists, free mailing lists, mailing lists for sale, email mailing lists etc). I guess as well as this, you know if conversion is an issue, how many sales to website hits do you get? If conversion is low, then you need to look at usability and possible copywriting too. I agree that you need more backlinks, so a program to get more sites linking to you would be excellent. good Luck

Posted by: jpych*	Author Response
10/27/2006 2:35 PM (CST)
Andrew, Good ideas. I have been struggling with which keywords to optimize on. On one hand, our core value is in getting access to every and all mailing lists, so "mailing lists" makes sense. On the other, as you said, the general phrase "mailing lists" is very competitive so maybe we should optimize on less competitive terms. But I am concerned that we get pigeonholed if we optimize on "doctor mailing lists" or "apparel buyer mailing lists" or "republican mailing lists" or any other narrow terms. No easy answers here. I/we need to give this some more thought. Thanks! - Joe

Posted by: shouq.s	Member Response
10/28/2006 3:21 AM (CST)
Dear Joe, I think you have enough data base and email list to mail and advertise your website!!! You should take the advantage of all the mails you have and send a small informative Email for all the marketers of all industry in your lists and inform them of how effective your website is for them to reach their market, this way is direct, and not costly. Then you should be listed in the Google and Yahoo and all other search engines for mailing lists and expand your opportunity to be found by simplifying the keywords that lead to you , like mailing list , list, mailing…. Regards Shouq

Posted by: shouq.s	Accepted Answer
10/28/2006 3:58 AM (CST)
Dear Joe, also I think you should ad a simple registration data, so you can know how many people enter your website, are they increasing, what is the percentage of whom enter to whom actually buy lists, which will help you later to conduct a small study and contact all those who didn’t buy , to ask them why they didn’t buy , who they bought from ( if they bought from any one else) so you can know your competitors better and know how you are doing in comparison to them, but make sure to make the registration short and simple, only name, job and Email and password, you shouldn’t just depend on the actual sales, it will not provide you with real figures for your visitors. Now if it is costly to include a registration system to the website you can include a counter just to know how many visits the website and how many really buy lists or use your services, this will help you to develop your faster and notice problems on the spot. Regards Shouq Salameh

Posted by: jpych*	Author Response
10/30/2006 7:40 AM (CST)
Shouq, Thanks for your ideas about the website tracking. We have begun tracking site visits and our "sales funnel" so we can understand which efforts cause improvements. Regarding the survey of non-inquirers... that's a good idea but we don't know who they are since the users are anonymous to us. However, it's worth some effort because knowing why they don't inquire can be used for more effective marketing. Regards, Joe

Posted by: AndrewS	Member Response
10/31/2006 1:15 AM (CST)
Joe, I understand you do not want to promote individual lists, my suggestion was to promote the range using the actual search keywords that your prospects would probably use. Remember different keywords can be used for different pages. So, you have some good landing pages that could be optimised separately (i.e. "How to Choose a Mailing List Supplier" as a keyword could point to your Learn about Mailing Lists page to again increase traffic). If you are particulary proud of a section (i.e. consumer email addresses, then we could optimise based on that). IF you would like a no obligation proposal from us, then just get in touch. Again, good luck Andrew

Posted by: jpych*	Author Response
10/31/2006 7:43 AM (CST)
Andrew, Thank you for your continued ideas. I am still trying to get the strategy together. I can envision thousands of keywords, but this could be unmanageable because the value of each keyword is low and the time to manage is relatively high. Are there tools to help with this? Also, yes, I am considering some outsourcing to help with this. Again, problem is low budget because this is a free resource. - Joe

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