LIST BUILDING LIVE: $150 Sponsorship for 250+ Leads with Sara Obando

LIST BUILDING LIVE: $150 Sponsorship for 250+ Leads with Sara Obando

Pat Flynn: Hey, it’s Pat Flynn, and you’re listening to List Building Live, our first ever virtual audio summit right here on the SPI Podcast, where each day we release about six mini episodes to help you grow your email list. Why? Because you don’t own social media, but you should own your audience. So each day for three days in a row, we are bringing you people directly from Liz’s and my communities to share what’s working to grow your email list today.

That’s right, no quote unquote experts or eight-figure entrepreneurs talking about what worked for them years ago, just regular creators like you who are working towards making a living online. Enough talking. Let’s get into it.

Liz Wilcox: All right, Miss Sara, we are dying to know what is one way you have been growing your email list in the last six to 12 months?

Sara Obando: Okay. Well, I wanna start with the fact that this year I started the year feeling like I didn’t know what to do with my business, and I decided that it was gonna be the year of experiments, and I was just gonna try out things that I hadn’t tried out before. And I knew that one of my goals was to grow my email list, and not just grow it, but have people that actually enjoyed reading the content.

So I’ve tried multiple things, and the one thing that has stood out to me in the past couple months has been sponsored emails. Sponsoring someone else so that they share about my offers.

Liz Wilcox: Amazing. So when was the first time you sent out the sponsored email? Like, that was the first one.

Sara Obando: So I started getting interested in them around April.

As I said, it was… It’s my year of experiments, so I’m just taking whatever opportunities come my way. And two different newsletters that I already followed for a while, and that I trust, that I know the people that read these newsletters, like, have similar values and goals to me, both of them on different occasions around April shared that they were going to open spots for sponsoring.

And so I’m like, “Okay, I’m taking opportunities as they come, so we’re gonna experiment with this.” But I was planning an event for the summer, and so I decided to give myself some time when I sponsored them so that I had time to prepare. So I purchased the spots back then, but they were scheduled for June.

So I actually just a couple weeks ago got to go through the data to see how it worked.

Liz Wilcox: Um- Yes. Tell us. We wanna know numbers. We’re dying.

Sara Obando: Okay. So this is– First of all, like, I feel like I, I got good experiences with some, bad experiences with other, and then there are some that are just, like, still in limbo and I don’t know what happened.

Liz Wilcox: Okay. Fair.

Sara Obando: But so one of the, the best experiences that I had was one of those that I booked back in April. It was meant to go during June some weeks ago, and she sent me an email before it started, and then at the end of the week. Like, it was a whole week. Like, any em- emails that she sent had my link that I w- ha- asked to sponsor, and at the end of the week, she would send me how many clicks she got on her end, like, she could see.

And so I made sure to create ways to track those links as well. I used for all of these branded emails, branded links, sorry, so that I could see how many clicks had come to those specific links based on, like, what person sent people over. And then I set up tags or segments, depending on, on what people call it in the email marketing- To see then, like, how many people actually converted from those links.

And in the, like, in the best scenarios, I had, like, almost 50% conversion rate.

Liz Wilcox: Whoa, y’all.

Sara Obando: That-

Liz Wilcox: Did you hear that? Yeah. Rewind. Hit, hit the back 30 seconds. She said 50%. And I, I love this, Sara, because you, you found the first couple just from people offering it. It was sort of kismet. It was meant to be. I love this so much.

So are there any other numbers you wanna share with us?

Sara Obando: Yes. So for example, the sponsored emails that I ran for my primary lead magnet, which by the way, I love that they’re going to my lead magnet instead of, like, using a bundle where I’m, like, giving, like, something that I u- usually people pay for, I’m giving it for free.

In this case, like, I’m paying for the email, but people go to the lead magnet that… Which then opens the funnel to, like, more possibilities. And yeah, like I said, uh, almost 50%. I have an average 48 for my primary lead magnet, and then for my secondary lead magnet, I also ran one, uh, sponsored email in June, and that it was a 46% conversion rate. So…

Liz Wilcox: Listen, that’s an amazing collaboration. That’s well worth the money. I mean, 50%, 46%, that means, you know, pretty much every other person that’s clicking from so-and-so’s email is signing up for Sara’s. So I love that. Do you mind telling us how many of these you’ve done now and how much money you’ve spent?

Sara Obando: Yes, I can give you an estimate. I’ve done one, two… So I did three paid emails in June, but then there’s something else that I think people don’t take into account. Check the perks of memberships they’re in, because sometimes some of those perks is that you get to put, like, classifiers on newsletters, on things like that.

So I’ve been using those as well. Like, it’s like, it’s getting like a sponsored email, but it’s already part of a membership that you’re in because someone that people trust is recommending you on w- with that direct link. So I’ve been doing about four of those as well. And price-wise, I think that’s important because I feel like a lot of people think, like, the more you pay, the more views you’re gonna get.

The more expensive one that I did was $97, which is honestly not that much for what a lot of these go for. And that one was for a whole week, so any emails that she sent that week were going to include my link. Then, okay, the cheapest one that I’ve done was, like, a deal that I found where it was like, buy one, get the second one cheaper.

But the buy one actually had another deal that I had on, so at the end, I ended up paying, I think, less than $30 for both.

Liz Wilcox: Wow.

Sara Obando: But that one actually was a bad experience. Because, like, there was no communication. They never told me. Like, I booked for specific weeks in June, and they never gave me any results.

Like, they never emailed me before or after. They didn’t… Like, I didn’t see anything coming through the click, so we’re actually right now communicating to see what happened because I was out of office, um, in June.

Liz Wilcox: Yeah. So- So- It sounds like, you know, you get what you pay for sometimes, right?

Sara Obando: That one is not someone that I trust.

Like, that one is not a newsletter that I trusted as much. That one was just a good deal that I saw, and then it happened actually a couple weeks ago, just, like, two weeks ago, that I saw another one like that, like a very, very good deal, and I clicked through just to see, like, to learn more. But that person had, like, no information about their audience, no information about how many people they had, no information about how many emails.

Like, there was just, like, a checkout page, and I’m like, “Yeah, I’m not gonna buy that anymore.”

Liz Wilcox: Well, I love that lesson of, you know, you can do this, and it actually… When you said $97, I was expecting you to say, like, $1,000 for a whole week, right? And so I think if you’re listening, you know, you can start this for much cheaper than you probably originally thought.

And then if you wanna use this as a product, right, you wanna have that checkout page that Sara goes to and gives you her $100. Make sure you put some information about the newsletter, about who’s on the newsletter, and what the benefits are so that you actually make the sale. I love this so much, Sara. Is there anything else you wanna share with us today about this strategy?

Sara Obando: Just a couple things, because actually, landing pages is one of the things that, that are my strength. I am traditionally a web designer, and now I work just with overall online strategy, and so I help people find out how to connect better with their audience. So that example of the person that I didn’t buy from, like, I feel like that applies to someone who’s, like, buying Because like me as a buyer, I just didn’t have any interest in buying something, even if it was cheap and it was very low risk, just because I didn’t get any more information.

I couldn’t trust that person the moment I was there. So when we’re doing our own, purchasing our own sponsored emails, we wanna make sure that the link that we provide is actually attracting people, because it’s not just going to be, “Oh, I’m gonna pay this person that has a lot of followers, and she’s gonna send people over.”

We also need to do our part to have a landing page where people actually feel like, “Oh, yeah, this relates to me.” This, even if it’s a free lead magnet, I looked at my, the average for my bundles that I’ve done, like, um, collaboration and bundles that I’ve done throughout this past couple months, and the conversion rate was just about 30%, even though people are getting a product for free.

So, like, it doesn’t matter that you’re giving something out for free. If you want good conversion rate, it’s both, like, finding a trusted person where you c- that can promote your link, and then doing your part in having a landing page that actually attracts them, that explains them, that, so they know what they’re gonna get.

Liz Wilcox: That’s such a good point, y’all. You can’t just point people to nothing. It’s gotta be strategic, intentional. It’s gotta grab the attention of the ideal person. So I love you for bringing that up, Sara. Can you tell us really quick before we go, how many new leads have you had since you started sponsoring newsletters?

Sara Obando: Okay. What I can tell you right now, this is what I have in my notes, is in June, I had a bit under 200 people sign up to my newsletter.

Liz Wilcox: Amazing.

Sara Obando: My newsletter is, is fairly small. It’s, it’s more niche, and so that’s, like, a big number for me. I looked at some other numbers, and, like, the average was between, like- 40 to 50 people a month that sign up to my newsletter.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So it was four times that.

Liz Wilcox: That’s amazing. Wow, what a return for less than $150. I am so excited for you. I cannot wait for you to do more. I cannot wait for you listening to try this out as well. So Sara, why don’t you tell us what you do, what your newsletter’s about, and how we can get signed up today if we’d like to.

Sara Obando: Yeah. So I am the owner of Stargazed Studio. Like I mentioned before, I help people with strategy to help their website-centered marketing, which is why I care a lot about my newsletter. I feel like it’s one of the best strategies that works with websites. Well, first of all, there’s gonna be a freebie attached to this interview that is actually one-day website audit, so it can help people improve their website with just, like, a couple quick little things with their audience in mind, which is what we always wanna do when we’re working on marketing, is think of our audience.

And if people just wanna sign up to my newsletter, like, just because they wanna learn more, I share about all these experiments that I’ve been doing this year. I share about the strategies. Right now I’m having a series of, like, how to deal with troubles on your website, like when you’re being hacked or when someone tries to scam you via your website.

So that’s what I’m tackling right now on my newsletter. People can sign up just by going to Stargazed.studio/newsletter.

Liz Wilcox: Awesome. Thanks so much, Sara. I am so excited for people to give this a try.

Pat Flynn: Okay, another great list-building strategy from one of our amazing community members. I just love seeing people find ways to grow that I didn’t even think of.

That’s something I’ve always loved about being in communities with other entrepreneurs. It’s just so inspiring and motivating at the same time. If you need that in your list, a group of business peers to help you take what you’re learning here at this event and turn it into real action, come join us inside the SPI Community.

Not only will you finally have people keep you accountable, you’ll have all the resources you need to make a living online, not just with email marketing, but content creation and monetization as well. And right now we’re offering 50% off and some other fun bonuses just for List Building Live listeners, and that’s you.

Just go to SmartPassiveIncome.com/listlive and use code 26LIST, that’s 26LIST, to grab this special rate. SmartPassiveIncome.com/listlive and use code 26LIST.