Has Anyone Tried Solo Emails?
Has Anyone Tried Solo Emails?
Solo emails are where you pay someone whose business model is collecting email addresses and categorizing them to send out your email to their list.
I've never used them before, because there's a lot of warnings around that they're a waste of money.
But I do prefer to try things out for myself.
I'm creating a training course called Happy, Fit and Slim in the weight loss and fitness space, to be launched on February 23.
But I need to have a list to launch it to.
I'll get some from organic search to my website blogs, but I need more.
So I'm giving solo emails a try.
I've paid $50 to an organization who say they'll send my email to 5,000 recipients a week for the month that my $50 subscription covers, so roughly 20,000 potential subscribers.
The email I crafted is very simple and points the reader to an 80-page e-book lead magnet I created called "Happy, Fit and Slim" (yes, that's also the name of the course, the name of the website and essentially the brand). Anyone who downloads it will get added to my list.
I've asked them to target people in the US, the UK and Australia who are interested in diet, health and fitness.
I have no idea how good their targeting is.
I have no idea how responsive their lists are.
But here's my idea of the metrics:
If 1% of the 20,000 download the free lead magnet, I'll add 200 contact details to my list.
If 1% of them end up buying my course, that would be 2 new customers.
That would give me a 4,000% ROI!
On the other hand, of course, I may get nothing at all, which means I lose $50.
It seems to me a worthwhile gamble.
Especially as there's almost zero work involved, given that I already have the lead magnet.
What do you think?
Does anyone else have experience of solo email ads, positive or negative?
Recent Comments
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Hi Phil,
I wish you all the best with this solo ad. There's the luck of the Irish 🍀
As everyone stated, “It's a numbers game.”
If it works, then you can ”rinse and repeat.”
I used solo ads back in the late 1990’s. At that time, it was called e-zine solo ads. I was using that for my mortgage and life insurance business. I generated some sales from those ads.
As for using solo ads in today’s market, I did not attempt to do this type of advertising.
Some call solo ads as “e-farming” leads to get email subscribers. I did think about it some time ago then dropped the idea when I found out that I would be getting emails from others trying to sell their other make money online programs just as Brad explained.
I hope it works out for you.
Doing your due diligence is helpful. I hope that the provider gives you great results. Let us know how it goes for you.
I’ve attempted SoloAds.
Be prepared to receive a plethora of other offers, as YOU will also be put into the lists.
If you are doing the make money, online niche, then solo ads are probably a good way to do it, because it’s a bunch of make money online people promoting make money online systems to other make money online people.
There are also solo ad networks, that offer a service of multiple solo ad providers where you can pick and choose different providers with different ratings.
I would look at the $50 investment as an investment in education.
In my opinion, you would be better off, creating your own health and wellness podcast and webinar event series to attract people that are interested in health and wellness.
I wish you luck. (Sincerely)
Why not try it! $50 is a nominal investment that may yield you a substantial return. It sounds very reasonable to me!
Providing value in your email is key! Do that and you are ‘sharing valuable free info’ vs ‘selling’! And not spamming.
Yeah some won’t be interested (usually because of timing or it isn’t relevant to them. And that’s ok! Life is a ‘numbers game! Always!
Internet email sents raw usually have a less than 3% conversion! So your 1% numbers is SPOT ON!
I’d invest in that venture all day long!
In fact I’d like more info please if you’d send it to me via private message please as I don’t have a source?
(My niche is real estate related- not buying/selling homes tho- lol)
#justdoit as long as your comfortable with their sourcing!
Best of luck!
Holly
Thanks, Holly. As I said, the email I've given them to send is a simple one with a link to a give-away, so we'll see.
You can find companies doing this by searching "solo ads". The one I'm using is called Advertyze but clearly I'm not recommending them as I have no metrics yet.
About your calculations: "If 1% of the 20,000 download".
But "they'll send my email to 5,000 recipients a week for the month that my $50 subscription covers, so roughly 20,000 potential subscribers."
In other words they will spam those 5000 people 4 times.
Your total number of potential subscribers is 5000.
You're assuming that they'll send the same email to 5,000 people 4 times, whereas i was assuming they'd send it to 20,000 different people. Clearly, that's a huge difference. Do you have metrics to support that belief?
I was just using your words. From what you write it looks to me this is 5000, otherwise why not sending to all 20k immediately. This is what they typically do, send several times to the same people.
Note, this is the strategy that they teach officially even on this platform, have seen it many times here in various "trainings", and this is something I always disliked. Nobody wants to be spammed that way, easy to understand, yet this is what they teach.
They advertise themselves as "spam-free, 100% opt-in" etc. but of course the proof of the pudding is always in the eating.
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I hope you get some results, but personally, I stay away from solo ads. The sellers tend to be unethical and, in some cases, even do illegal things. You have no idea who they are sending to or how they got the emails. Sometimes, they are just reusing each other's lists without consent, and other times, they scrape the net. It can potentially end up making a brand look bad to do spam outreach like this, and for $50 for 20000 emails, you can be pretty sure it will not be a person who cares about quality. But hope the best for you and looking forward to hearing how it goes.
Yes, I take all those points. That's why I made my email as inoffensive as possible. Basically, if this is something you're interested in, here's free book you might like.