There are some brilliant and successful affiliate gurus out there and I’ve learned a lot from them. The experience they offer is invaluable, especially for new affiliate marketers. Following their advice blindly to the letter can get you into trouble though.
There is one common recommendation many of them share in regards to e-mail marketing that may set you up for failure. They advise affiliates to send multiple e-mails about the same product, service or event, often using auto-responders. They advise this because it has worked for them time and time again, but that’s largely due to their target market. Their subscribers are affiliate marketers who expect this constant contact. They want to be the first to know about new offerings and receive the latest useful information.
The unfortunate fact is the average Canadian is e-mail saturated, especially business professionals. Managing their inbox often results in unsubscribing from e-zines and newsletters that constantly slam them. It’s difficult enough to hang onto subscribers without in-your-face tactics. You really shouldn’t be sending them e-mail about products at all, unless they’ve signed up for it specifically through a “receive special offers” option. Otherwise, chances are they’ll view your repeated e-mails as spam. You’ll have to be more creative than that, working affiliate sales pitches into useful content and presenting it as more than an “act now” ad.
Mind your market. Get to know your target audience and master your own effective ways to reach them through e-mail. If an e-mail results in a larger than average unsubscribe rate, examine it closely to determine the problem. Add a simple “Why are you leaving us?” question to the unsubscribe page with easy radio buttons and a place to comment.
Learn from the affiliate masters, they have much to teach you, but you must master your own target market. You’ll learn as much from your failures as you do from the success of others.
What clever ways have you come up with to make e-mail marketing more friendly?
✔ You may also be interested in reading:
2015 North American eMail Marketing Trends
Overcome the Big 5 Challenges Facing Email Marketers in 2014
10 Ways to Reduce Newsletter Unsubscribe Rates
——————————————
© CanadiansInternet.com – Content on this website may NOT be used elsewhere without expressed permission. Content theft will result in legal action. Thank you for respecting the effort that we have put into our original content.
DISCLOSURE: We may receive compensation for links to products on this website.
COMMENTS ARE MODERATED – Legitimate comments will be published after a short delay.
Melody McKinnon is an internet entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in a wide range of online business models, backed by a formal business/marketing education and enhanced by training and mentorship. She has owned or managed both educational and ecommerce websites. Her book, 7 Recession Proof Online Businesses to Start From Home, is available from all major ebook retailers.
Melody has worked with many businesses in a multitude of capacities. She can often be found on CanadianDigitalMedia.com, CanadiansInternet.com, CanadianFamily.net, and AllNaturalPetCare.com, as well as other quality digital publications. Her content has earned reference links from highly-respected websites, magazines and university textbooks.
I agree, Google is now more strict about bulk mailing and thus email marketing is doomed. You got banned or your account is deactivated if you send too many email through it. Also most of the emails of this type go straight to the spam folders of the receiver which is no use to us. A successful affiliate marketing requires good web design and niche. I was having trouble building a good affiliate website so I searched on the internet and found a good convenient solution. Anyhow email marketing is history when it comes to affiliate marketing. now there are other good ways to promote your blog and get niche. Quality content is one of the biggest factor in affiliate marketing success. Also Jamie is right that open rate is very low now and only smart people read their emails before deleting them. Well Melody also make a strong case for email marketing, that it still can work if you know what to do. I should also try these tips to see if it really works.
Their advice is always struck me as odd when it comes to email marketing.
That’s exactly what we need……more practical advice for affiliate marketers who market to real people and businesses. It’s a different kind of marketing and it requires different thinking. I’ll keep watch for more articles. 🙂
I know, right? We have to be careful when we’re learning from the masters. They may be masters of their niche but more as it applies to themselves.
I agree with you. I think blasting out emails to your list more than 2x/week is wayy too much for them to keep up with. Marketers don’t like that because it means more time needs to pass before they make money from their lists, but that patience is what will pay dividends.
I also suggest that marketers remember that people, smart people, are reading their emails…so you gotta keep it real and engage with them. If you don’t, you won’t have to worry about unsubs…you’ll have to worry about 3% open rates and 0% CTRs. lol
our inboxes are becoming guarded real estate. many are careful who they allow access. genuine info we seek can get lost in the barrage of junk we all now seem to receive. spam is not in decline.