Who is Andrew Palmer?

Follow me on Twitter: Twitter.com/pandelong

Andrew Palmer is an experienced online business builder who pioneered many of the marketing strategies and online name accumulation techniques that have since become best practices in the publishing industry. An innovator with a proven track record of successfully managing multi-channel marketing campaigns, this pacesetter has cross-functional expertise in Direct Response Marketing, Email Marketing, List Building, Search Marketing (Organic & Paid), Affiliate Marketing, Market Analysis, and Web Analytics.

A unique combination of organizational and technically creative savvy, his extremely profitable direct-mail style free email business model has been copied throughout the industry. Experienced in providing executive level assistance for law firms, non-profits and publishing companies, he deems leadership, management development, and innovation of marketable web initiatives as his strengths.

Andrew has been marketing online since 1998. He founded the position of Director of Web Marketing for Agora Publishing when he was brought in to create an Internet business for Bill Bonner’s initial online venture The Daily Reckoning. Its success has been described by one industry leader as “the most effective online direct marketing program of any publisher on the planet.”

Andrew’s newest online venture, Cabot Wealth Advisory, has grown exponentially since he took over the reins based on his “Create Value or Die” philosophy and his PPC expertise. Andrew is an in-demand speaker on all areas of Search Engine Marketing as well as Online Name Acquisition & Conversion. He has acquired—without exaggeration—more than two million “opt in” names and successfully monetized them online for millions.

This executive doesn't believe in spending large budget dollars on new websites, but taking the existing material, analyzing it, and making relevant changes that increase the value for the client base, and bringing in new subscribers to your community.

Involved in every aspect of online business from promotions... to brainstorming new product ideas... to formulating marketing strategies at the highest level, this trendsetter believes in science rather than hunches. He says the "the answers are in the numbers."  Or as Claude Hopkins wrote in Scientific Advertising, "Almost any question can be answered, cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that's the way to answer them - not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort - the buyers of your product."

A licensed California attorney, Mr. Palmer gave up the practice of law to enter the fast paced field of online/email marketing.  Andrew has advanced degrees in Law and International Business and is a multiple graduate of University of Pacific.  His career has taken him throughout Europe and Asia, with extensive time developing new markets in China.

Read the Blog: A Historicall Document: Create Value or Die

"As a part of an overall online marketing strategy, a copywriter should be involved in every step... from the idea to the final execution. The more a copywriter knows the big picture, the better the copy and conversions. The days of tech guys editing or producing landing page copy are over, and with the ease of free multi-variant testing via Google AdWords the need for online web-savvy copywriters is greater than ever.



"One of the most important things I can do as an online marketer is partner with a professional copywriter who understands the process of convincing a random surfer to sign up and enter an email address." 

—Andrew Palmer, AWAI Advisory Board

More on Andrew Palmer... From MarketingSherpa.com Originally published April 30, 2009

Marketing Sherpa Case Study #CS1832: Grow Subscriptions with a PPC Campaign That Capitalizes on a Major Event: 7 Steps

SUMMARY: 

Want to grow your in-house list using a highly effective PPC campaign? Replicate the success of a financial newsletter company that tied its efforts to a major event. As a result, they got a 36% boost in free e-newsletter subscribers. Includes step-by-step process, tips and creative samples.

CHALLENGE: 

Founded in 1970, Cabot Heritage Corporation is one of the oldest, independently-owned investment newsletter companies in the U.S. When Andrew Palmer became Cabot’s E-Commerce Marketing Director in early 2007, the company needed a little help bringing its ecommerce marketing strategies into the 21st century.

“When I first came to Cabot they did not have a free e-newsletter,” Palmer says. “They didn’t have any vehicle that could acquire names for a really good in-house list, which could then sell their paid products.”

Cabot didn’t have an active website with updated content to encourage repeat visitors. Once created, the new content-rich site sold more newsletters in the first 30 days than the old site had in the past 3 years.

But Cabot still needed to grow its list of free e-newsletter subscribers, so that it could continue growth of its paid subscribers, especially since the economy had slowed and stock market faltered. Find out what Palmer’s team did to get a 36% boost in free e-newsletter subscribers.

CAMPAIGN:

Step #1. Monitor Google Trends

Palmer watched Google Trends to see what “hot” terms people were searching. It was during the 2008 presidential election, so tons of people were searching campaign-related terms.

“One of the things I wanted to do in our PPC strategy was capitalize on the elections,” Palmer says. “I wanted to create a Cabot campaign that somehow could embrace and ride some of that increasing traffic.”

Step #2. Connect trend to campaign

Palmer found a way to connect Cabot’s products to the election the day Barack Obama became the President-elect. Obama had been talking about how he wanted to increase funds for infrastructure projects and renewable energy.

“All these things, to us, said he wanted to invest in companies that were solid in the long-term, meaning value-type companies and value-type stocks,” says Palmer.

Palmer had the editorial team – mostly experts in investment analysis – create a report on value stocks. The free report was titled “6 ‘Warren Buffet’ Stocks to Own before Sen. Obama Takes Office.” He created PPC ads and a landing page to promote the free report.

Step #3. Connect campaign to free e-newsletter

Access to the free report required opting-in to the free e-newsletter. Palmer knew that’s the only way he would get a high subscription rate, since most people wouldn’t purchase a subscription for a free report. Asking people to sign up for the free e-newsletter created a lower barrier to entry.

He knew he could use the free e-newsletter to upsell Cabot’s value-investment-focused newsletter titled, Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Letter, at a later date. Sold at $87 per year, the newsletter was one of seven paid subscription newsletters Palmer had to promote.
Because it was about value investing, the newsletter was the perfect focus for the campaign. Palmer would target the names collected from the campaign with Benjamin Graham promotions.

Step #4. Use relevant keywords

In order to reach the right audience, Palmer built the PPC campaign around keywords, such as “Warren Buffet,” “Buffet,” “value,” and “value stocks.”

“We were looking for people who would be asking questions about value investing or asking questions about Warren Buffet, who is one of the gurus of value investing,” Palmer says.

Step #5. Create an incentive to click
To entice people to click, Palmer used PPC ad copy that read: “How Obama Can Make You Rich – Free Report: 6 Buffet Value Stocks.”

Step #6. Inspire a sense of urgency

The landing page promoted the report as a “limited time offer” in the headline. Red text under the report’s title read: “Only [time period] left! Offer ends January 20th, 2009.”

The red text counted down the weeks and then days to when Obama took office in Jan.

Step #7. Ride out its success

The PPC campaign was so successful that Palmer’s team decided to ride it out. After Obama was elected, they used the same keyword terms linked to the same PPC ads and landing page, but with slightly different wording.

After Obama became president, Palmer changed the PPC ad copy to read: “Free Report: 6 Buffet Value Stocks for President Obama’s First 100 Days.”

He changed the report’s title in the landing page to read: “6 “Warren Buffet” Stocks for President Obama’s First 100 Days.” And he removed the red text counting down the days to Obama taking office.

Tip: Test the opt-in button

Palmer wanted to increase free subscription conversions, so he tested the wording on the opt-in button (i.e. the button next to the box where people were asked to enter their email address).

He changed the button text from “Send My Free Report” to “Start My Free Subscription.”

“I think if you say “free subscription,” people know they’re getting a free e-newsletter,” Palmer says. “When you say “send my free report,” people think they’re getting a free report and they may not know they’re getting a free e-newsletter even through it says so very clearly.”

RESULTS:

The Obama-oriented PPC campaign got a 36% conversion rate during the first few days it ran. It settled into a 15.41% average conversion rate during the entire campaign.

Note: Conversions, in this Case Study, are people who subscribed to the free e-newsletter by entering their email address and clicking the button on the landing page.

Average clickthrough rate from PPC ads to landing page was 2.1%. The campaign helped boost subscriptions to Cabot’s free e-newsletter to about 170,000.

“This campaign did exceedingly well,” Palmer says. “Just the concept of tying in the election, which was so popular, and Obama’s victory gave us a good extra spike in our PPC name collection during those months.”

The result of switching the button text on the landing page from “free report” to “free subscription” was a 22.9% decline in conversions.

“We really got a kick out of that because one of our direct mail principals that we apply online is that you test big things,” Palmer says. “This is one of the smallest tests I’ve ever had but it’s a huge result.”

~~~

Andrew Palmer, a licensed attorney, gave up his career in law to enter the fast-paced field of online and email marketing. His strength is helping online businesses create innovative, marketable web initiatives. His track record is impressive. He's an industry leader with his cross-functional expertise in Direct Response Marketing, Email Marketing, List Building, Search Marketing (Organic & Paid), Affiliate Marketing, Market Analysis, and Web Analytics. Andrew is an in-demand speaker on all areas of Search Engine Marketing as well as Online Name Acquisition & Conversion. He has acquired—without exaggeration—more than two million “opt in” names and successfully monetized them online for millions.