How affiliate Marketing Works?

Have you ever struggled with maintaining your presence to a broader market portion? Ever wondered to attain a deep connection with the majority of the audience? Well, email marketing is just the right tool for this job. With minimum effort, you can share your message or sales pitch with as many potential customers as you can get the email addresses. Let’s learn how email marketing works.

You don’t need to do any manual hard labor for this. Just have an online presence and support it with a rigorous email marketing campaign, and it can do wonders for your business. Not just companies, even Not-for-Profit NGOs can use this tool to benefit from more charities and donations.

For instance, consider using email marketing for the first time and send your monthly catalog or offer letter to a list of potential customers. Just sleep on it and have sweet dreams of fortune. You will most definitely notice a spike in your regular customer base, and the majority of these new customers would show up only due to your personalized email strategy.

Minimalistic effort and higher returns!

That’s the power of email marketing for you.

The marketing connection

Email marketing can be seen as quite familiar to affiliate marketing when getting maximum input without your full-time active presence at the spot. You can learn about affiliate marketing by visiting our relevant course here. For getting an expert opinion on affiliate marketing, please visit cj.com.

We have written this article series for our readers to understand every aspect of email marketing thoroughly. This article will discuss the mechanism of email marketing and some statistical analysis of its success rate. We are committed to providing you with every detail on this subject using a step-by-step approach that will make it easy for you to grasp this knowledge and apply it.

So, let’s start exploring how email marketing works.

Is email marketing still relevant?

You may ask this question, and it’s better to understand the current world scenario to answer this. It may look like the era of social media instead of email, but it’s not that easy to segregate email into an obsolete technological tool.

• Being almost 50 years old, email marketing is still going strong and competing with other marketing tactics.
• Research shows the number of email users who check their email once a day to be more than 90 %.
• Experts calculate the ROI of email marketing to be $ 40 on every $1 spent. Such an impressive ROI should be a single-handed reason for investing your time in email marketing.
• The survey shows that email influences the purchaser’s decision more than 59 %.
• Email marketing has a conversion rate of 2.3%, compared to 1% for social media.
• Being highly flexible, you can diversify your content ranging from event emails, lead nurturing, monthly catalogs & newsletters, and automated email campaigns. These can continue to operate 24/7 throughout the year, even when you are taking your time off.

And

It is a fact when it comes to B2B marketing that email has beaten all the other tools with no competitor even to try. Ideally, email and social media marketing can go hand in hand for obtaining much higher returns through eCommerce.

It’s like getting the best of both worlds.

For more on online web development and eCommerce, you can have a quick go at Siteground and Expandcart.

How does email marketing work?

Email marketing consists of several moving pieces that should be linked together at the right time, as explained below. So, let’s start with how email marketing works.

Let us look at the ladder first to know how email marketing works-

1. Choose the best Email Service, Provider
2. Make a List
3. Set up an autoresponder
4. Generate the list
5. Send Broadcasting Emails

Now let us descriptively look at the ladder-

1. Choose the Email Service Provider

When we look at Email marketing, various platforms provide a personalized way of sending emails to potential customers or subscribers.

Some of the best email service providers are-

• Sendgrid
• Active Campaign
• Mailchimp
• Aweber
• Mailerlite
• Getresponse

and many more.

Many platforms provide custom email services or solutions for the business to find potential customers.

2. Make a List

Once the account is ready with your email service provider, you need to make a list immediately.

*Where is the mess?

People generally get confused about whether to segment the list or make a different one, which is the point of mistake.

So,

First, you need to make the main list and then segment the list as per your customer’s behavior.

To avoid confusion, you can name the list as per your preference, so it becomes easier for you to recognize the mail for a particular recipient.

For ex-, If you are sending an email to a blogger, it is better to mention your blog name or your name. This will help your subscribers to recognize your email and reduce the unsubscription rate.

Email segmentation:

Similar to market segmentation, email segmentation refers to breaking your email contact list into smaller segments. You can create your specific criteria for this segmentation. The idea behind this segmentation is to enable the sender to assemble personalized messages and emails concerning different groups of recipients.

Why is email segmentation necessary?

For an effective email marketing strategy, the right person must receive the right message rather than a blast of emails for the entire list. Segmentation lets you decide which recipients may be more interested in your particular offer or promotional activity. This results in a higher rate of successful client conversion.

Once you have tagged your email lists into different categories, you are ready to send a series of autoresponders based on the responses of those particular segments. These responses can be used in the practical nurturing of your leads, resulting in higher sales.

Segments will also help you decide which subject lines and personalized messages will entice that group of potential customers.

Ways of segmentation:

You can slice and dice your email list on some basis, some of which are described below to get you started:

Unique customers: You can offer a special cut-down rate to your everyday loyal, repeatedly visiting, and engaged customers. Make them feel special for their trust in your brand.

Preferences: Those who subscribe to your newsletters only want to receive sale notifications or are interested in blogs/articles.

Newly joined: This list can be specific to those potential customers who have recently shown interest in your offers or activity through subscribing and making an account on your webpage. You may send them greeting messages to welcome them on board.

Interest wise: List can be segmented keeping in view what different people are more fascinated by. For instance, some people are more interested in pop music as compared to classical one.

Location: List segmentation can be done concerning the site of the customer as well. This will help you send customized emails that are assessable to that recipient. It’s an essential aspect of how email marketing works.

Lead magnet: This segmentation can help in sending targeted emails on subjects that customers opted for.

Inactivity: for sending reminders to subscribers who aren’t showing any activity in a specific period. You can focus on sending those offers that entice them to engage more.

Cart abandonment: You can personalize a segment with only those subscribers who have shown interest by putting items in their cart, and no further activity is observed from them. Reminders may be sent for them to finalize the deal.

The segmentation types above are not all, and more segments can be created based on your clientage. For more information or hiring services of a professional for email marketing jobs, you can visit Fiver.

Set up Auto-Responder

After the list segmentation is completed, the next step is to set up an autoresponder. Auto-Responder is the email that goes out immediately once a subscriber subscribes to your email.

For ex-, If you sign-up for a podcast, the immediate email that you receive next is the autoresponder email that includes some attachments.

Can we set it differently?

Indeed, you can set up autoresponders in your way. You can set the time interval at every two weeks with a different message in it.

Autoresponders are a great medium to stay connected to your subscribers, and it works efficiently with less work.

Generating the list

Now, you are ready with your list and free coupons, offers, or gifts- So Now? Let’s advertise.

Go to the list in your email marketing platform and create a sign-up form specifically for the list.

Two ways you can opt for the sign-up form-

• Sidebar, through which every page will be visible
• An entire landing page for the opt-in form

Creating an opt-in form in the About us section is also significant as many people are keen to know about you from the about us section. And if they like it, they can directly sign-up from the about section through the form.

Send the Broadcasting Emails

This is the final step- Broadcasting your emails. You cannot just rely on autoresponders, and broadcasting your emails should be a must-be thing.

You should be very clear with the Opt-in form and newsletter and should be clear about how regularly you are planning to communicate with your users.

Communicating with your users keeps them away from unsubscribing and going offside.

Never forget to keep the unsubscribe button at the bottom or side of your email so that users can unsubscribe the moment they want and protects you from getting into the spam list.

Maintain consistency and keep your communication transparent to keep happy emailers in your list.

Happy customers would trust and be loyal to you, and BOOM, they are the reason for your uplifting business.

Growth in email list

After maintaining an initial list and segmentation, you have to update the list at regular intervals. A healthy growing email contact list is a must to do if you want to enjoy the perks of a perfectly effective email marketing campaign.

Usually, an opt-in form and lead magnets are used for growing email lists, but the latter method is proven to be more result-oriented.

Lead Magnet:

Investopedia.com defined it as:

“A lead magnet is a marketing term for a free item or service that is given away to gather contact details; for example, lead magnets can be trial subscriptions, samples, white papers, e-newsletters, and free consultations.”

So basically, it is a bride to give away to a potential customer and in exchange, what you get is their email address. What you offer should be valuable to customers; otherwise, this tactic will fail.

With minimal or no cost, you can create that something in digital material such as eBooks, free samples, tips, learning material, webinars, etc.

You can add as many more options as you want but remember to keep it valuable for the potential customer.

Criteria for a good lead magnet:

You should develop your lead magnets keeping in view the following criteria.

Actionable: You should question whether a particular lead magnet is actionable or not. It should be a sort of information that the potential customer can apply, therefore a practical one.

Consumption: Lead magnets should be pretty ingenious in size, which will make them easily consumable.

Value: Your lead magnets must be as valuable as your product; otherwise, they will go unnoticeable.

Relevance and availability: You should do your homework in analyzing what a potential customer needs. Your lead magnet should be need-based and instantly available for use.

Challenges in sending bulk email and how to overcome

Knowing only how email marketing works is not enough. You need to know about the challenges that one can face-

1. Email Bounce Rate

One of the critical challenges one faces is email delivery, which you might be aware of.

This refers to the bounce rate of the emails. The percentage of emails delivered as compared to the sent emails is delivered.

The Bounce is of two types-

1. Soft Bounce- This is temporary and usually happens when the recipient’s inbox is full.

2. Hard Bounce- These bounces are permanent. This happens when the recipient’s address is typed wrong.

2. Working on the open ratio

It can happen that users will not open your email if they are not sure about the sender.

So, it is better to send an email with a good sender line, informative content, or from the company, avoid spam filters, and many more.

3. Greater Unsubscribe Rate

One of the most significant threats that email marketers face is the high unsubscribe rate. This generally happens for user disagreement or disinterest.

This can also happen because the content might be unappealing, or users become offended by the endless emails.

So, it is crucial to overcome the issue and reduce unsubscribe rate.

Most importantly, review the content of the email to avoid becoming spammy or inappropriate to the target audience.

FAQs

1. What are the best way to increase opt-in?

One can try for Offline-

• Google Adwords
• Facebook Ads
• Permission offer

One can try for Online-

• Direct Mail
• Product Registration

2. Best frequency to send emails?

It depends on the users, but it is recommended to send emails weekly. Different types of emails are for additional subscribers, and so the mail pattern should be accordingly.

3. Should I use pop-ups to increase my subscribers?

Using pop-ups to increase subscribers is a Big NO. You can get a rise in your subscriber’s number, but surely there will be a downgrade in the quality of your subscribers.

4. What is the ROI for email marketing?

Email marketing is known to be one of the most profitable and marketing channels. On average, the ROI calculated for every $1 spent is approx $42.

Final thoughts this is chapt have tried to cover how email marketing can work for you in sufficient detail. We hope that this information will help you in setting your startup campaign.

Conclusion

Email marketing is a crucial factor, and it is an important marketing channel for large enterprises or small startups.

Understanding how email marketing works is an essential factor in generating leads and convert them into potential customers.

In the coming chapters, we will learn about email marketing from a strategic perspective. One that will surely help you in setting the right direction for your business activity.

If you want to boost your skills, you can visit Fiver, a perfect place for learning.

Until next time!