Solo ads are a highly scalable pay per click traffic source. They refer to clicks that originate from email blasts or campaigns. Prospective customers will receive an email about an offering and if they are interested and click through, they will be directed to the email opt-in page. Often the business can create an email list from this, allowing them to capture their own leads and upsell to them via email. Solo Ads are different from Facebook Ads and Google AdWords. The person receiving the email has requested information or to sign up to a newsletter meaning that this is a less slow method than other traditional PPC. Targeting is imperative in solo ads, and the list must be a good fit. When setting up a solo ad business you may focus on a niche market to start with, as you expand so can your email lists.
How to Start a Solo Ad Business
To first start selling solo ads, it is imperative that you curate an email list of targeted people. Your customers will want to get their information to specific people. Important demographics include people of a certain age, income level, family status, gender, and interests including many others.
You will need to pick a market, this will be a specific topic or category, these can include marketing, health, social, fashion, finance, etc. You will be selling your solo ads to customers in that market.
Once you have found your market, you will need to get web hosting. A reliable provider is crucial as you will need to test your website and landing pages ensuring they are easy to use and effective.
Now you have your web hosting provider it is time to look into email marketing software to collect your email addresses. An ideal software is one that includes sign-up forms, landing pages, inbuilt eCommerce selling tools, and automation.
Marketplaces will enable you to sell your ads, they can help you to get a head start. Joining a site where your ideal customer frequents will help you to make sales faster and develop your brand. Although it is important to note that most marketplaces will take a commission of your sales. You could also utilise social media for your solo ad business to find customers without the commission.
Once your system is set up it is now time to begin filling orders. You can send emails up to twice a day. The first to send the information out and then a follow up to those who didn’t open the original email. It is really important not to over saturate your email lists throughout the day. Try to keep it short and simple and avoid making the recipients feel like they are being spammed. You and your customer will decide whether they write the email or you can offer an additional service using your expertise knowledge of your email lists.
When running your solo ad business, you may need to invest in traffic. When your campaigns don’t reach the guarantee of visitors, you could purchase a solo ad from another seller to ensure you fulfill your guarantee.
Adding a thank you page is an additional option that can be helpful to your solo ad business, you can add other links on this page to direct traffic to other products you offer, your customers sales page, or to an affiliate offer.
What Not to Do When Starting a Solo Ad Business
Constantly sending adverts and not providing your subscribers with relevant information will be doing your customers a disservice. Through cultivating your email list, you can provide your customers with value. To do this you should ensure that the information you send is valuable and educational material. Your subscribers will be looking for information relevant to them so help them to stay up to date through offering free content or articles. Not doing this could lead to you losing subscribers or avoiding or moving your emails to spam.
Spamming your subscribers. Doing this will create ad fatigue. None of us enjoy receiving loads of emails that are irrelevant to our interests. Sending too many ads can make your subscribers unhappy and lead to a decline in open rates. Have a schedule where you send a certain number of emails to that list within a month. Continue to record responses and make changes as necessary.
Not using growth strategies to increase your subscribers. Naturally, with email lists, some drop-off is expected. No matter how amazing the content you provide. Sending adverts and educational information may mean that your list decreases quicker than if you didn’t send adverts. It is likely you will lose a few subscribers each email you send. To counter this, you should make sure that you are growing your list at a faster rate. Using growth strategies, creating lead magnets, investing in paid adverts to grow your list for example.
Conclusion
As a solo ad business owner, your customers will benefit from assured traffic from their campaigns. Your active list of mailings means that their probability of gaining followers and subscriptions is quite high. You will provide them with better visibility, assured traffic and possibly their own lists of emails. With solo ads you can offer your customers flexible pricing options, either fixed or performance-based. It can provide a cost-effective method for marketing. Starting a solo ad business can be extremely fulfilling. It provides a steady stream of extra income and can give you more flexibility. Whether starting from scratch with your own list or choosing to buy from others to start you off. It is an excellent industry that can be entered in a few steps.
