If you’re an affiliate marketer looking to make extra cash, you may find success with email marketing. Email marketing involves building up an email list and sending newsletters and promotional material to your subscribers.
Affiliate email marketing offers several benefits, both for affiliates and businesses, such as:
- Cost-effective: Affiliate email marketing typically requires minimal upfront investment. You don’t need to create your own products or services, handle inventory, or manage customer support. This allows you to focus on promoting relevant products or services to your audience.
- Targeted audience: Email marketing enables you to reach a specific and engaged audience. Because subscribers have voluntarily opted-in to receive emails from you, they are more likely to be interested in the products or services you promote. This targeted approach increases the likelihood of conversions and higher commission earnings.
- Diversification of income: Affiliate email marketing allows you to diversify your income streams. By promoting products or services from different affiliate programs or merchants, you can reduce reliance on a single source of revenue. It further mitigates the risks associated with changes in market trends or program policies.
- Relationship building: Through email marketing, you can develop a strong relationship with your subscribers. By consistently delivering valuable content, recommendations, and offers, you can build trust and establish yourself as an authority in your niche.
- Flexibility and scalability: Affiliate email marketing offers flexibility in terms of when and how you promote products or services. You can choose the frequency of emails, the format of your content, and the timing of your promotions. As your email list grows, you also have the potential to scale your affiliate marketing efforts and reach a wider audience.
- Performance tracking and optimization: Email marketing platforms offer valuable insights and analytics that allow you to track the performance of your campaigns. You can monitor open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and other metrics to optimize your strategies. This approach helps you refine your email content and promotional techniques for better results.
How to Start Email Marketing as an Affiliate
As an affiliate marketer, you can promote affiliate links through email marketing. If you don’t know where to start, simply follow these steps:
Build an email list
Start by building a targeted email list of individuals who are interested in the niche or products you are promoting. This often means collecting email addresses through opt-in forms on your website and landing pages, or by offering valuable content in exchange for email sign-ups.
Under no circumstance should you ever buy an email list. Not only is buying an email list illegal in many countries, but it will fail to generate the results you’re looking for. When you buy an email list, you are sending emails to people who didn’t ask to receive them. Most recipients won’t be interested in your content or offerings, so they might ignore the emails or, worse, mark them as spam. This can severely damage your sender reputation.
Choose an email marketing service
Select a reliable email marketing service provider that fits your needs. Popular options include Mailchimp, ConvertKit, AWeber, or GetResponse. These platforms offer features such as email automation, list segmentation, and analytics to help you effectively manage your email campaigns. Make sure to choose a platform that supports affiliate links.
Create valuable content
Develop high-quality and engaging content to share with your subscribers. Offer valuable information, tips, product reviews, or exclusive deals related to the products or services you are promoting as an affiliate. Focus on providing value to your audience, rather than solely promoting affiliate links. Try to be consistent with the quality of the content, and don’t hesitate to invest in a content writer if you feel like you can’t produce the quality you’re after.
Segment your audience
Segment your email list based on characteristics such as age, location, preferences, and more. Doing so will help you send tailored email campaigns to groups that are more likely to open them. This is especially helpful if you’re an affiliate for various brands and products. You can segment your list and send individual email campaigns based on which links you think each group will click on.
Include affiliate links strategically
Integrate your affiliate links naturally within your email content. Avoid being overly promotional or pushy. Instead, focus on educating, informing, and helping your subscribers by recommending products or services that genuinely meet their needs.
Track and measure results
Use the tracking and analytics features provided by your email marketing service to monitor the performance of your campaigns. Keep an eye on metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and revenue generated. Optimize your campaign strategy based on this data.
Comply with regulations
Familiarize yourself with email marketing regulations, such as the CAN-SPAM Act, and ensure that you comply with them. Include an unsubscribe option in your emails and respect subscribers’ preferences.
Test and optimize
Continuously test different elements of your email campaigns – such as subject lines, email content, CTA placement, and visuals – to identify what resonates best with your audience. Optimize your campaigns based on the insights you gain from testing; this will improve engagement and conversions.
