Putting email at the heart of your marketing strategy promises big returns, says Ryan Hamada.
Email is still the king of online marketing. The Direct Marketing Association and Demand Metric found that email has a median ROI of 122% – more than four times higher than the other marketing formats examined, including social media, direct mail and paid search. As an affiliate, you can leverage email to boost your revenue – but only if you avoid some common mistakes. Here are the 10 most important things for your email marketing campaign:
1. Prioritise email Email marketing should be the core weapon of your marketing arsenal. Make a commitment to master this tool and become a skillful email marketer.2. Capture email details on your affiliate blog or website An email list of highly targeted subscribers is your number one marketing asset. Start capturing email addresses using an opt-in form and pop-up.3. Test different freebies for an email opt-in formOffering a gaming bonus is great but try different approaches, such as offering a video or a special report that gamers might find interesting or timely.4. Craft great welcome emails Your newcomers expect to hear from you within two minutes of signing up. InboxArmy found that welcome emails have, on average, four times the open rate and five times the click-through of a standard emailmarketing campaign. Leverage this to send welcome emails that bond your subscribers to your brand and compel them to open and read your emails.5. Set expectations about frequency Tell your subscribers how often they can expect to receive emails from you. Set subscriber expectations from the start.6. Tell your subscribers why you do what you do In his Ted Talk “Start With Why”, Simon Sinek said that what people are buying is why you do something. Explain why you are in business and what drives you. This can be in the welcome email or a second, automated email sent the next day. It could be as simple as sharing your core values in a sentence or two.7. Get the frequency right You need to email at least once a week or subscribers will forget you. You can email daily if your content is interesting, entertaining and relevant. Putting email at the heart of your marketing strategy promises big returns, says Ryan Hamada8. Don’t care too much about Unsubscribes The number of Unsubscribes is a metric to pay attention to but this one figure shouldn’t drive all your decisions. People opt in and opt out from email lists all the time. Focus on building your list regularly, sending interesting emails and generating revenue.9. Vary the offers you promote Subscribers are like window shoppers. They constantly want to see something new and interesting. Don’t bore them by promoting the same offers. Showing different incentives will make them want to open your email more often.10. Split-test subject linesI’m often asked what subject lines work best. There are no real secrets here; only testing will tell you. You can test things such as the length of your subject lines or the use of emojis, for example. Never assume. Always test