Affiliates need email marketing in the same way that LeBron James needs a good pair of shoes. You could do what you do without them, but you would never want to. Email marketing (and LeBron’s shoes) makes you achieve greater results and make more money.
But $2 Walmart shoes are not Nikes and sloppily emailing your entire list is not a campaign optimized for peak monetization.
Email marketing tips for better deliverability
1. Don’t sell anything
Wait…what?!? That’s right, our #1 tip for affiliate email marketers is not to sell anything. You see, subscribers are often absolutely allergic to being sold to. Instead, engage them, provide them great content, pique their interest, but don’t be that used car salesman that ends up in “Deleted Items” without being opened.
2. Get your subscribers to work for you
Forget multi-level marketing schemes. When you stop selling to your subscribers, you will turn subscribers into fans, followers, likers, and social sharing machines. Add social sharing icons so that your brilliant campaigns can be easily shared on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
via email
By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service
Your data will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy
3. Choose products carefully
If your email list includes mostly new mothers, obviously – do not hit them up for business software. But choosing products is not as straight-forward as that. Affiliate email marketers must try to find products that are not working through affiliate networks to reduce competition. Match your list profile and their pains to products that serve their needs within their budgets.
4. Manage your lists carefully
We recently explored some critical rules for email marketing list management. Always segment your lists and send relevant messages to each segment, use tools to ensure list hygiene, and use multi ESPs or vendors for each segment.
5. AB Test Everything
You already know to AB test your subject line, from name, offer specifics, call to action and other elements of your content. But have you thought of AB testing other factors that could have a great effect on email deliverability and eventually, your profitability? AB testing the ESP you use, for example, has been shown to have tremendous impact on deliverability.
6. Step it up a notch
There are advanced features available to you when you are ready to take your affiliate email marketing operation to the next level. When you need an extra edge that can save time and money, consider using third party data, HTML dynamic feeds, or RSS and XML Feeds.
7. Be data-driven
Not every campaign can be the best campaign. As LeBron James says, “You have to be able to accept failure to get better.” When you track every element of your campaign, you can analyze your results and understand the insights they offer to improve your email deliverability, open rates, CTOR, or other KPIs you measure.