Coregistration's success in building qualtiy email databases

Ginger Conlon, Editor-in-Chief of 1to1 Media sent this note out to Morgan Stewart who heads our email strategy group.  I thought I'd share the note and Morgan's reply since co-registration seems to be such a hot topic.

Dear Morgan,

Coregistration is an increasingly hot topic, as companies work through best (and worst) practices. In this issue we discuss the strategy and a recently proposed set of guidelines to help marketers navigate the issue's complexities. Do you think coregistration is an effective marketing strategy or a confusing nuisance to customers?

[To editor from Morgan Stewart],

Several of our large clients ventured back into the co-reg space in late 2004 and 2005.  ExactTarget has conducted analysis for several B2C focused clients and the results are pretty overwhelming… co-reg is ineffective.

A couple highlights:

1) Open and click rates are consistently less than half those for house lists.

2) Co-reg people unsubscribe from the email programs faster.

3) Co-reg conversion rates are much lower than house lists.  For one client, revenue per co-reg subscriber was ~10% revenue per house-list subscriber.

4) Co-reg programs simply have a hard time paying for themselves in an eCommerce environment at current market rates.  The best performing co-reg lists we have seen to date would take 16 months to break even.  Our research to date suggests that rates for Co-Reg names should be in the $0.05/name range in order for this to be a profitable investment… a ways off from going rates of $0.30 or more.

Clearly the issues you highlight in the article are valid.  In addition to some of the intangible concerns that you have described, the fact that co-reg results are generally poor make this an email practice to avoid.

Comments

[Sucky Marketing]

Chris,

I'm sure you are right. I did a Google search on "co-registration" and this was the #1 result:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,312515,00.html

it's an article in Entrepreneur that RAVES about co-registration as a great idea.

Thought you'd find this interesting.

--SM Guy

[Doug Karr]

Chris,

Is there anyone in the industry doing 'co-operative acquisition' strategies? That is, instead of co-registration which allows me to piggy-back on a vague 'can we share your email address with a partner', how about email programs where companies work together to drive registration to each others' email communications?

Example: If I'm a home insurance company, perhaps I might lend a portion of my email to a home security business to drive 3rd party opt-ins to their e-communications. In turn, they provide the same service to me? Our target audience is the same, so why not provide an opportunity to share our customer-base.

[email marketing info]

Our link provides a lot of quality info & articles on Email Marketing check it out.

[Steve Pohlit]

Recently a video presenting the success stories using co-registration was released. Much of the focus was on the copy used in the co-registration process.

The information was sufficiently interesting so I have been doing additional research. Chris's ROI information is helpful.

Steve Pohlit
www.stevepohlit.com

[stevem]

Coreg is profitable with extreme diligence. I know of two individuals who make a million dollars a year on the internet and their main source of traffic is coregistration. Like most things on the internet, testing and perfecting make all the difference.

The keys are: 1.Make sure you have a reliable broker. 2. Break your campaigns up into several tests. Tell your broker when one works and you want to run in that universe and subsequently tell him when one is a flop and not to run there. 3. Get the opt-in emails as soon as possible, instantly is good, then immediately auto respond your email/offer back. Minutes are critical here. An hour can make or break a campaign. If it takes a day forget it.
Follow this simple format and coreg will become very profitable.
Steve
svmarler@gmail.com

[Prabhat Kiran]

That was a real Eye opener...

Thankx
Prabhat

[Doug Barger]

Hello Chris,

This is Doug Barger. While doing research for articles on list building, I have found that Co registration is the most searched term for keywords within the list building niche of list building marketing.
Since, the SM Sucky Marketing guy pointed out his findings of the entreprenuer.com article written on the subject by Cory Rudl,
I thought that I would provide the top ten most searched keyword phrases for the list building and co-registration niche.
I really must say that though I never met Cory in person, that he is someone whom I greatly admire and respect his opinions on most aspects of internet marketing.
Here is the top ten list with the keyword search term followed by the number of times it is searched for in a month's time.
Keyword: Monthly Searches:
List Building 732
Email List Building 122
building list marketing 88
building list lucrative 68
building list secret 60
opt in list building 31
list building software 25
co registration 1121
co registration lead 281
co registration secret 31

Needless to say, co registration is searched for at least 35 times a day. Another interesting fact is that 4 out of 5 subscribers to the co-registered opt-in list will subscribe to the other one as well.

I can see this being a profitable practice when a group of five or more host a giveaway where the subscriber must opt-in and agree to receive promotional email from the companies in return for downloading a product that is of interest to them in the related niche. This at least ensures that the subscriber is targeted by niche and because all five are combining to host the giveaway, there would be no costs. Any sales generated would be pure profit and of course every visitor to the site would see the logo, name or company branding for extended market web presence. Gary Baker is an expert in the field of co registration list building. I would also recommend reading any articles by Gary Baker on co registration list building.

[Brian]

I couldn't agree more about the positive comments made here regarding Coregistration. I struggled for months and months trying to make money and build an opt in list using Google Adwords, Ezine submission, press releases, forum posting, ebay etc...all with limited success. After about 1 and a half years of studying different techniques to making money online, I found that Coregistration is by far the most cost effective (if you know how to do it the RIGHT WAY) and easy method to generate a solid steady income. I also believe it's important for you to have several lists, and not just one huge list. Its great to have a huge list of 50,000 + but I would much rather have 10 lists of 5,000 or so spread across I wide variety of niches so that I can constantly market to any group I want when I find a great affiliate program. AND its always best not to put all of your eggs in one basket...This is all stuff that I teach my subscribers as well because I believe in quality list building. Coreg is also a very popular topic as of late. Especially since the release of "Coreg Ninja". Every so often you get a great Info product that comes along and revolutionizes the industry. Like Day job Killer did, or Adwords Miracle, or one of those biggies...Seems like Coreg Ninja might be the next big one??? Either way, it has a cool ebook cover and I loved it!!! www.coregninja.com

[evans]

Chris I understood all the info provided by you. But plz give more info on open and click rates.

[Dave]

If you intend to make amount of profits you will need to learn the affiliate internet marketing tips that will give you a competitive edge.

[richard]

A step-by-step instructions on this could be very well appreciated.Just the kind of information a marketer needs.

[Tom]

A good way to explore co-reg is to sign up for Pontiflex's Gen List. Its a like a yellow pages for lead gen publishers, and the only way I have found to get real reach and diversity of leads. Also, you can access all their pubs in a single buy instead of having to go to each pub and do a new deal, data setup etc. pontiflex.com

[Multiple Income Streams]

Excellent article and commentary!

[Mark Kostner]

Hi there guys,

I'd have to agree on co-regsitration - it does work although not as well as targeted list building.

On the other hand I don't know how much I would trust Gary Baker the so called expert.

Gary "Sold" me his co registration "Business" for $11,000 back in 2006.

Once I bought the business he informed me I still had to purchase all the leads through him.

He provided 0 support and wouldn't answer any of my emails. In the end I simply had to close shop - then he simply started selling the lists himself again!

If you're going to be dealing with this shady character - Beware.

I'm more than happy to verify the story if anyone has any queries. contact me through www.infoweblink.com

Mark

[Learn internet marketing strategy]

Thanks for providing this information and really it is very useful.

[Tyler Lubbers]

Co-registration is a great way to generate leads. But to make it effective the person must have a good real time back end system to ensure that they are utilizing these leads to the fullest. Auto responders and good tracking are all necessities. The client also needs to find out exactly where they are going to be running and avoid all incentive sites, they just do not produce good quality.

[Jeff Paul Scam]

I just want to say that I'd have to agree on co-regsitration - it does work although not as well as targeted list building.

[Pay Per Affiliate]

How many ads can I put on my website? An internet affiliate will make money by understanding the way that internet search engines work. There is no limit to how many ads you can run, but experience as a pay per affiliate will show you that there is a way to maximize interest in your site.

[Federico]

Hi Guys ,

We are ready to lauch coreggy.com next week, We have been in the industry for more than 4 years with Revenuegateway.com CPA affiliate network. After a lot of work , finally we are ready for Coreggy.com
Hope you can join us!!!