Here's another in my series of quick guides on affiliate marketing. This time I'll have a look at one particular strategy: Email
marketing.Almost every week someone makes the claim that email marketing is dead. It never will be in my opinion but like everything else it will change and evolve.I've been using Email marketing successfully for years. I used it when I was still working offline in a business development job. I like writing and I love the idea of being able to write to and keep in touch with hundreds or even thousands of people with a single click of the send button.Yes there is
a lot of spam, yes a lot of email is deleted or never opened. Compared to phoning or snail mail though, it's the best way of covering a lot of ground - in reaching a lot of people.If you can learn how to write good subject lines and good content and send it to people who are interested email marketing rocks!What do you need?First off you need a list. You can buy lists, build your own or send email to other peoples lists (solo ads)A word of warning though: it's worth doing a lot of research to make sure you have the right audience for whatever you are promoting. If you sell Rolls Royces there's no point in emailing people who just like cars in general.You need an email account that will allow you to send emails in volume. Gmail will let you send
500 per day but bear in mind, no one likes spam. Most free email services like gmail, yahoo etc will soon clamp down on you if they decide (right or wrong) that you are spamming.Professionals use an email service based on a hosted website and dedicated email service like Sendblaster. You get more functionality, your mails look better and get
rejected far less.
Just Google Email services and you'll find plenty of them. You can also buy an email account from most domain and hosting companies like Go Daddy.
Its a much better option than using the free services.
Whatever you use you must give recipients a way to unsubscribe. They may have signed up to a list broker to receive information about products like yours but they don't know you. Yet. It's a rule of thumb that people need to see something 7 times before they take action so
you don't want to turn them off with a spammy first impression.
Skills needed.
Copywriting is the main skill you need. It's a learning curve and it's well worth
learning.
As always members of SFM are provided with in depth training on email marketing, loads of resources on list buying, solo ads and tutorial on writing good copy. Within the community you can also join groups dedicated to this strategy and exchange ideas, content and tips.
I hope you found this useful and I look forward to bringing you more "rough guides" in future.
Bests
Dave
