Affiliate Marketing By Email

Learn everything you need to know about affiliate marketing by email and what makes a successful campaign. 

Before we dive into what an affiliate marketing email campaign looks like, we need to go over a couple of things first. 

Many people want to add their affiliates to their email list because they want to earn more revenue, obviously. Some farfetched affiliate programs are easy to get into, while with others you must meet specific requirements such as page views per month, social media following, etc. 

What Does Affiliate Marketing Mean? 

Affiliate marketing means that somehow you are compensated by a company to promote their products. Different companies compensate in a variety of ways. For instance, if you are a part of the Amazon Associates Program, when you add a product to your blog or website you would use a unique link. 

When someone clicks on that link, no matter what they purchase, you will receive a commission if a product is purchased in the next 24 hours. 

Every affiliate program has different terms, conditions, and rules. 

Since we are talking about marketing to your audience through affiliate links, it is worth noting that Amazon does not allow this. You cannot use an affiliate link in your email, however, you could write an affiliate blog and direct your traffic that way. 

Rules for Affiliate Marketing 

The rules really vary across the board. Some email service providers have their own terms for affiliate marketing, while other programs that you partner with have a whole other set of rules. 

It’s very important that you spend some time learning what the affiliate protocols are because once they are violated you could be banished from the program.

You can also check out the FTC, as they are the governing agency when it comes to marketing online using affiliate partnerships. 

Affiliate Marketing By Email 

If you are planning on launching an affiliate-specific campaign, you need to nurture yoru audience first. While your email list is considered your loyal customers and “your people” if you aren’t consistent, then the affiliate approach will be a total flop. 

Most affiliate campaign launches are because a certain service, course, product, etc. will only be available for a certain amount of time. 

You want to start about 6 weeks before that launch actually occurs. 

Make sure you are A/B testing your email subject lines to get the best open rate and see what day your audience is most likely to open their emails. 

To add more value and so they will be more likely to purchase, throw in a couple of bonuses of your own. Depending on what industry you are in and what services you offer, this could be discounts or coupons, a course of your own, templates, audits, etc. 

Start addressing pain points early on, so by the time the launch occurs your audience wants and needs whatever affiliate product you are leading them to. 

Tips for Successful Affiliate Email Marketing

  • Do not promote products that you are not familiar with. Your audience is looking at you to validate their purchases. Just because you could make some money, don’t throw away your authority. 
  • Create additional helpful content around the same topics that you are partnering with. 
  • Attract the right audience. You don’t want to promote on social media and your website if the product or service isn’t relevant to your users. 
  • Always disclose that you will make a commission from purchases. This is actually a rule from the FTC. 
  • Remember your email list doesn’t want to be pitched to constantly. If all of the emails you ever send out are selling something, you will find that your unsubscribe rate is going to be higher. Remember why they joined your list to start with. 
  • Segment your lists. On a normal basis if you create content that only resonates with part of your audience, that list needs to be segmented. Only email them if it is relevant. Most email service providers have this option no matter what plan you choose to go with. 

Learn more about how to market affiliate links and the best practices.