Sunday, April 4, 2010

Email Affiliate Marketing

If you are a new affiliate marketer you have probably already realized that in order to make money you will have to not only drive as much traffic as possible to your website but also to capture your visitors contact information so that you can build a relationship with them. This is where email affiliate marketing comes in.

It might be depressing but it's true, upwards of 98% of the visitors you drive to your website aren't going to buy anything and most likely won't ever come back. That means a lot of extra work for you when it comes to getting traffic. How much better would it be if you could somehow have multiple contacts with these website visitors so that you could build trust with them and they would eventually buy from you?

When you install a simple opt in form on your website you have the ability to encourage your visitors to sign up to receive your email messages. If you use this tool properly you will be able to turn many more of these visitors into customers.

You've probably heard that it can take anywhere from 7 - 10 contacts with someone before they're comfortable enough with you to buy from you. In order to get them to open and read your emails so that you can build a relationship with them you have to always offer them something of value. you cannot just use your emails as a chance to make a sales presentation. If you do, they will opt out of your list and you will have lost them forever.

Make sure that you step outside of yourself and offer your email list something that will truly benefit them, not you. By providing them great and helpful information you are proving to them that you are not only an expert in your field but also that you can be a trusted resource who can provide them with what they need in order to accomplish whatever it is they want to accomplish.

To get them to sign up for your list you can offer them a report or a short mini course. No matter what you offer as an incentive the same rules apply: make it something of real value that will help your subscriber in some way.

There is a lot of free information floating around the internet. It isn't enough anymore to just offer someone something for free. It has got to be something unique that offers a lot of perceived value.

This same principle applies when you are preparing your follow up email messages. Whatever you include make sure it offers your subscribers useful information that isn't readily available elsewhere.

The best way to monetize your email list is to include a post script at the end of each of your messages that includes a link to a product or service that will help them further.

Most of us want to make more money and when it comes to email affiliate marketing the biggest thing you can do to increase your income is to take the time and effort to build a trusting relationship with your email list subscribers. People are always much more likely to buy from a friend that they trust than they will from a stranger.

Newsletter Campaign

Distributing a newsletter can be an integral part of putting together an email marketing campaign. A newsletter is a great way to get a lot done in a single communication. For example, you can keep your prospects up to date on your company; you can introduce a new product, and you can build your prospects' trust. If not done well, however, your newsletter may be doomed to failure.

3 Newsletter Tips for Email Marketing

1. Make Sure It is a Newsletter

When you decide to distribute a newsletter, while it is fine to have an ad or two on its pages, make sure that most of the content is newsworthy. While it can be news about your company or even an employee, make sure that it also contains information that is valuable to your reader.

For example, if you sell shoes, your newsletter can contain articles on jogging, fashion, back pain or even posture, and these are all topics that a reader may find interesting. By covering topics that indirectly or directly pertain to shoes, you are making a connection between your product and the articles. You can include a coupon in your newsletter, or simply insert a modest sized ad within the pages of your newsletter, and your prospects will be clever enough to make the connection between the article topics and you

2. Include Quality Content

By focusing on the content of your newsletter, you will be supplying the prospects with information that they can use. Remember that this is not an overt sales mechanism. A newsletter should contain news, and it is another venue for you to get your brand in front of your customer. So by including information on topics related to your product, you are indirectly marketing your product, and you are providing the subscriber with interesting and relevant content that really interests them. If you always give your subscribers something of value, then they will look forward to receiving your email.

3. Provide Clear Opt Out Instructions

Any email marketing campaign is about building trust with your subscribers, so you always want to give them what they want. If your subscriber wants to opt out of your newsletter, do not make it hard for them to do so. All you will do is alienate them and very likely lose a customer prospect. If you let people opt out easily, then you will build a reputation that is respected in your niche. When people know that they are not trapped into receiving your newsletter, they may also decide to opt back in.

Expect for your newsletter to take a while to build a strong readership. You need to let your readers realize that you are distributing a real newsletter and not just marketing material, and as they come to depend on your newsletter for niche information, your subscriber base will grow.

By following these simple suggestions for your email marketing campaign, you can avoid making classic mistakes that so many new online marketers make.

Small Business Email

If you are online for a while, someone will tell you need to do email marketing. But it helps to know what it is and how you can use it. This type of marketing can add a little bit of work to your business website, but small business email marketing can help your sales. This gives you more opportunity to spend time with your visitors.

What is small business email marketing?

Email marketing means sending email to your subscribers. Subscribers are people who agreed to receive your email. You can send them regular emails, newsletters or specials.

How do I get subscribers?

If visitors fill out a form at your business you can add them to your subscriber list. A great an advantage of a website, is that your visitors can fill out a form there. This will add them directly to your autoresponder.

Why will subscribers join my list?

Offer a discount in exchange for joining your newsletter. You can also offer a free report that the autoresponder will send automatically. Another suggestion is telling potential subscribers that you will send a newsletter with special coupons every month. You can then send your subscribers regular emails. If your service is something like roofing, you can offer a free report about best types of roofing materials. Then tell your subscribers when a type of material is discounted or discontinuing.

Do I need an autoresponder?

An autoresponder is a service or program that allows you to email all your subscribers easily. Services, while typically charging a monthly fee are more dependable than an autoresponder program. The autoresponder services allow you to send offers as a broadcast to all your subscribers.

How does this help my sales?

The more often you and your business are seen by your potential customers and clients the more likely they are to buy from you. Restaurants tell their subscribers about special offers, and give coupons, which brings in visitors. Someone interested in a report about roofing material will probably be buying, but they may not be interested right away. If your company sends an off season discount you might get buyers. You might be surprised that the discontinued orange shingles might sell with an online discount.

Is it hard to get started?

Most autoresponder services require that you copy a bit of code and paste it on your website. The code will insert a form for your visitors to fill out. Then the autoresponder will automatically send them a confirmation, followed by their first email. The autoresponder is what make it easy to be in front of potential consumers, which means more sales.

Email Marketing?

Well... just about everything. Love your product. Love your subscribers. Love what you can offer them, and what they can offer you in return. Here are the things I love best about email marketing:

1. You can serve. This is an area where everyone lives. With mobile access, your subscribers can get your emails wherever they're at, and can stay up to date with the latest, coolest, most exciting stuff you've just discovered.

2. You can create. Just thinking about all the neat stuff you have to share should get your juices flowing. Then, picking font type and size, choosing the colors, just the right graphics and photos, and making videos, and designing the layout... OK, yes, I could go on and on. Creating is so totally fun.

3. You can persuade. There's nothing quite like the feeling of getting someone else as excited as you are about something. You can use your energy, and words that have meaning for your subscribers. Words that articulate exactly what they're feeling...saying it even better than they can say it. Words that make them jump into action.

4. You can empathize. Everyone likes to know they're not alone...especially when they're in a tight spot. When they're hurting, have a specific problem they don't know how to solve, or their budget is shot, it's good to know there's someone there with them. When you've been there, you truly can feel their pain, and you know the words that tell someone you're sharing their feelings. And...maybe...just maybe...you have a solution they could consider.

5. You can be a rescuer. Now how awesome is that? To know that you might have exactly what your subscriber needs to pull them out of whatever tight corner they're in. "Super Value Provider"...your new title...ta..da..ta..daaaa.

6. You can be rescued. There's nothing like a little love in return. When your email subscribers take action, help you out with a purchase, or share your information, you know your email efforts are worth all the time, energy, and love you're putting into them.

7. You can choose. So can your subscribers. You can...and should...choose your niche with care. Do something you truly want to do. Do it with mindfulness, awareness, and love. Inspiration is catching...your subscribers can catch it. And, they can share...pass that love around.

Love is about seeing the world from the other person's perspective. So is email marketing. Creating for someone else, finding what pleases them, helps them, and gives them something they can't get anywhere else...that's email marketing...with love. So..."what's love got to do with it...do with it..." Oh, there I go again. Just can't get that tune out of my head.

Your Emails Opened

Email Marketing requires two main elements.

1 A technical system to send out your emails; and
2. Sound strategies to ensure you engage the intended recipient.

In this article I am going to focus on providing you with 3 fundamental tips to ensure your emails are opened.

Firstly, you need to ensure your 'From' tag is a name people recognise and respect. This is very important in email marketing. Do not use pseudonyms which will not garnish respect. A point to remember here is in sales - "people buy from friends", therefore it is necessary that your 'From' address in your email is from a trusted and reliable source. For instance if you receive an email from me, it will read - "From Kurt Johansen". Why? Because that is my name. People know me. I do not use my company name. Why? People do not buy from companies they buy from the people inside the company (if they like them.)

I could use "Email Marketing Guru" or any other flash terminology etc. but these titles will not resonate with my recipients as coming from a friend. When they see Kurt Johansen in their inbox, they immediately know who it is from and what generally to expect.

Secondly, you should add a salutation and personalise all your "Subject" lines. By this I mean saying something like, "Hi Bob......." It's very important to understand the psychology here. When a person meets a friend in the street they immediately say words like, 'Hello', 'Hi' etc. When a person receives an email it is also a nice thing to say. Don't underestimate the power of the salutation. By using it you can increase your open percentage rates by more than 600%.

Thirdly, and probably the most important aspect of getting your emails opened is the subject line. If you have been fortunate enough to get people to accept who you are and they read the salutation the next move for them will be to read the Subject of the email.

Do not use trick or misleading subject lines. The subject line should be a tease of what the reader should expect inside the email content. Many email marketing people get the subject line wrong. It should enlist curiosity, it should sparkle anticipation inside the reader and it should create a sense of urgency. The subject line should only contain 5-7 words and should not be any longer than 50 characters in length. I also like to add "..." quotation marks around the subject line and start each word with a capital letter. i.e. "7 Foods Your Kids Should Not Eat"

Ok, let's put all three of these together:
From Kurt Johansen Hi Bob "7 Foods Your Kids Should Not Eat"

How about:
From Kurt Johansen Hi Bob "Don't Feed Your Kids These Foods."

When sending out your email marketing messages spend a lot of time on the subject lines and make sure you are:

  • sending from a respected 'From';
  • using a personal greeting; and
  • arousing their interest with a great subject line.

By doing just these three things you will find you will increase your email marketing open rates.

High Quality Content

If you are among smart affiliates, you certainly put much effort into writing high quality content. You write a helpful and most profitable blog post in your blog. It is timeless but that it appears in a short time at your homepage because when you write a new post it will disappear and your next prospects or readers will not see it. Readers dislike reading old post although that post benefit most to them. They also don't like to dig to find the old post.

This is frustrating but fortunately we can figure something else to republish it in different way.

Turn your blog best content into an automated email newsletter.

Make the old content out and fresh again. If subscriber haven't seen an old post, it is new to them. You can create an autoresponder campaign for your blog in 3 easy steps.

1. Identify your best content

Go through your blog post, decide and select which is the true high quality post and subscribers want to see it.

2. Turn each post or group post into an email

The fastest and easiest way is to copy and paste the full content of your post into and email without making any modification. No introduction, no conclusion, just the post as a standalone email.

You also can paste a compelling excerpt from your article and link to the full post and add an introduction and conclusion to the email. This method encourages click-through but you may find including the full post is better.

If you have to or more good post on a topic, you may write an email that combines the ideas in those posts and links to them in context (you might be doing this with blog post already). Or you can just write a simple introduction and then provide a list of links to your posts on that topic.

3. Put your emails in an autoresponder series

Once you have your emails together, put them into autoresponder. You have to think how much time you want to pass between those messages and schedule it accordingly. Remember, new subscribers will also be getting your new posts, so don't space the emails too close together.

Marketing the Right Way

E-Mail marketing can bring you a great fortune and help you establish your business if you do it right way. These days most internet marketers use email marketing just to convert website visitors into prospects or subscribers. This is one of the best strategy to market yourself, your product or website but, email marketing can be done in many different ways that help you build relationship with your customers. I will talk about some of the effective methods that you can put into practice to learn and apply email marketing the right way.

Since we talk about email marketing the right way, you must keep in mind that spamming is strictly not a thing you are looking for. To avoid spam, you must choose an email marketing program that specifically asks for a subscriber's permission to send out emails. That ensures that readers are interested in receiving emails from you or your company. This also benefits you in one way that you are delivering your important information to legitimate subscribers.

Lets now talk about the ways you can use your email program. Some of the popular ways to capture your website visitors email address are to giveaway some free gift in exchange of their name and email address, some companies ask to fill up a survey, some ask to register for free to become a lifetime member, you can also provide a 10 day training to capture their email address. What I always do is give them my ebook completely free that has already bring me enough money. So in exchange of free valuable information most visitors do not mind to become my subscribers. This is usually referred to as Reciprocity. You give out some valuable information for free and gain their personal details such as email address.

Now comes the delicious part of email marketing. Once you learn how to capture and develop a huge list, you must now learn to deliver emails to them in professional manner. Most of the email marketing program providers these days render a facility called "Follow Up Messages". You can create a set of emails that automatically sent out at a regular interval. You can set this interval of your own choice. Lets say you can send out a set of email everyday, single email per day. My first set of follow up messages was a 10 day free course on internet marketing. I only had to set it up once. Then whoever subscribes at any point of time, all 10 emails used to get delivered each day to a particular subscriber. Another important feature is Broadcasting. Suppose you have a recent information that you have to send out immediately to your subscribers, you can use broadcast to deliver your message to all of your subscribers.