Email Marketing

 

Email Marketing

Email marketing for businesses isn’t a new concept. In fact, compared to other digital marketing channels like social media, mobile device applications, and even search engines, email marketing might seem a bit outdated. 

A lot has been happening over the past few years with email marketing, and the discipline is still always in motion. Altered behaviors and expectations by consumers call for new email marketing methods. Approaches like personalization and segmentation are transforming company newsletters from anonymous bulk emails into customized emails. 

Email marketing is a kind of Internet marketing that allows the user to send customized messages in the form of an email to their readers to inform, advertising, or to solicit certain actions from their readers.

What Is Email Marketing?

Whenever a company/organization sends out an email, aside from order confirmations and direct responses to customer/client questions, it is seen as a form of email marketing. Email marketing is one segment of internet marketing or digital marketing, which encompasses online marketing via websites, social media, blogs, and more.

Email marketing can include newsletters with updates on the company, or promotions of sales and exclusive deals for subscribers/customers sometimes it includes an update about the company's contracts with their customer or any changes that occur within the company regulations

At its best, email marketing allows businesses to keep their customers informed and push their marketing messages to their audience.

 At its worst, this kind of marketing can drive customers away with persistently annoying spam emails, which means concurrent emails that are being sent by the companies can annoy the customers when it is too much.

How Email Marketing Works

When it comes to setting up and tracking email marketing campaigns it is the easiest to do in the digital marketing world which makes it very accessible for individuals with small businesses and even larger organizations. 

A company can add up a newsletter sign-up/opt-in choice or option to their website. For example, when people visit a company's website and then sign-up or opt-in to the company's newsletter as people sign up, they become the company's audience and they expand their audience in such a way. Even if as an individual setting up a business. you can add a newsletter sign-up option to your website, for instance. As people sign up, you can send newsletters to a growing audience. You can also direct customers to the newsletter from your social media profiles.

Email marketing allows you to target particular groups of customers or even specific individuals. Offering individual customers special birthday deals on merchandise or services is one way to do this.

The Relevance of Email Marketing

In this social media age, it is a temptation to write off email. However, there is statistical evidence that shows that email marketing remains an important aspect of marketing efforts. For instance:

• Experts with the Dropshipping company Oberlo estimate that email marketing returns an average of $42 for every $1 spent. Know more
  
• One survey found shows that 59% of respondents were influenced by email when it came to purchasing decisions. Read more
• A study of more than 1 billion shopping sessions in 2019 found that email marketing has a conversion rate of 2.3%, compared to 1% for social media. Continue

Email Marketing has many advantages over social media, one huge advantage is that customers are more likely to see an email than social media and even want to read more because it is what they are interested in knowing. Just posting something on social media doesn't mean that everyone who wants to see your message will see it. However, social media have many people with different interests, it would be very hard for people who have an interest in the kind of product or services you are promoting to see it unless you target them using the advertisement channel of that social media.

Ideally, email marketing should go hand in hand with social media. Adding social media "Like" or "Share" buttons to your marketing emails gives an additional way for customers to connect with your brand and even interact with you. Snippets of positive reviews from social media fans can be included in emails, and social media posts can drive customers to your email newsletters.

Email Marketing Strategies

Effective email marketing takes effort. Here are a few strategies for making the most of your email marketing campaigns.

• Build Your Own List

All you're going to do by sending an unsolicited email is to turn off most of the people you were hoping to turn into customers. Whether through your website, in your store, or at an event, make it clear when customers are opting into receiving your emails. And make sure you are not sending emails that could get your customers angry, stay in-line with your goal and always give them values in your email.

• Follow the Law

Email marketers must adhere to the rules of the CAN-SPAM Act. These rules include having a non-deceptive subject line, providing a clear way to unsubscribe, and including your name and address at the end of the emails.  In other, for customers to make their choices if they are willing to unsubscribe

• Mix Up Your Messages

Don't just send out ads to buy all the time. Use your emails to build rapport with customers by sharing your expertise or that of others, giving them tips and insights they can value. Share information that lets them know more about you and your company. And if possible you can give out freebies to them once in a while to show some and gratitude and also sent surveys to know about them or ask them how they feel about your product or service.

• Respect Your Subscribers

Treat your list well. Remember that the people you're communicating with have trusted you with their information; they deserve your respect. If you want a chance to convert them from customers to fans and even preachers for your brand, then make them feel special. Special in such a way that in your surveys try to reach ask for their birthday send them E-gift cards on their birthdays as long as they are still your subscribers. It means a lot.

• Follow a Schedule

Stick to a schedule if you're doing a newsletter. Sending out an email on the same day (or days) every week will help your subscribers know what to expect from you and when.

• Optimize for Mobile

Studies by marketing analysts with the Oberlo Drop shipping service have consistently found that just under half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. That means, if your email doesn't display correctly on mobile platforms, half of your audience is going to think you don't know how to properly craft an email.

key tips;

• Email marketing is one of the online marketing strategies that involve the use of email to promote a company's products and services or to connect with the customers.
• When it's done well, email marketing is an effective sales driver and also a customer review optimizer.
• When it's done wrong, email marketing can come across as spam that annoys customers so learn it well.
• The best marketing emails are optimized for mobile devices, respect the customers, and follow a regular schedule while mixing up the messaging.

Hope you find this helpful.

You may be willing to know how to build your list or you need a walkthrough eBook Just Check this out 

Affiliate Marketing

 

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is an online sales strategy that allows a product/service owner to increase sales by allowing others targeting the same audience—“affiliates”—to earn a commission by recommending the product/services to others in which at the end could become End Users (Consumers). 

At the same time, it makes it possible for affiliates (Promoters or Publishers) to earn money on product sales without creating products of their own.

Simply, affiliate marketing involves referring a product or service by sharing it on a blog, social media platforms, or website which allows promoters or publishers to earn money whenever an end-user clicks the link depending on the time of products.

 The affiliate earns a commission each time someone makes a purchase through the unique link associated with their recommendation. Done well, this performance-based opportunity can become an important part of your business by netting you a healthy income.

How does affiliate marketing work?

To participate in an affiliate marketing program, you’ll need to take these five simple steps:

1. Find and join a trusted affiliate program 
2. Choose which offers to promote in your niche
3. Obtain a unique affiliate link for each offer
4. Share those links on your blog, social media platforms, or website
5. Earn commission anytime someone uses your links to make a purchase

Commission rates vary dramatically, depending on the company and the offer. On the low end, you’ll earn about 5% of the sale but, with some arrangements, you can earn as much as 50%, usually when promoting a class or event. There are also affiliate marketing programs that provide a flat rate per sale instead of a percentage.

Choosing your first affiliate program

As you trying to find products to promote or browse through affiliate platforms, the most important thing you should keep in mind is that the product should be in line with your audience's interest, or the audience you hope to build. Ask yourself, What you are trying to promote would it solve your target audience problem and they would find valuable? Does it fit with your area of expertise?

For Instance; Surely A food blogger probably wouldn’t promote any beauty products, for example. A wide range of other products would make more sense, such as cookware, meal kits, gourmet ingredients, or even aprons.

That is the logic to create a blog or website around your expertise that would actually answer your audience's curiosity and solve any problem. When I mean solve the problem, am talking about Products or service that would answer or quench your audience thirst in search of solutions.

Also, make sure the product or service you’re promoting is a fit for the platform you’re promoting it on. For example, home décor and clothing are well suited to image-heavy platforms like Instagram. However, if you’re promoting more in-depth purchases, like software, your review may convert better on longer-form platforms, like a blog or YouTube.

Creating a plan to promote your affiliate offer

As being discussed, revenue in affiliate marketing could eventually result to a form of passive income, but you still have to do some hard and smart work. The success of your program will depend on the quality of your review, of how well you speak about a product.

How to have a good review

1. To have a good review, it’s more effective when it is personal. 

2. Share your personal experience about the product in your blog, social media post, or video. 

3. When writing a personal review about a product, give the most candid opinion and feeling based on your experience about the product and the best knowledge of the product. 

4. The more open you are, the more authentic you will be. People will be more comfortable following your advice if they feel they can trust you.

5. Trust is the major key factor in your affiliate marketing efforts when posting your reviews because people need to trust you enough to act on your recommendations. The level of trust you’ll need to make affiliate sales depends on your industry and the products you’re recommending—for example, it takes more trust to be an effective affiliate for a $1,000 course than it does for a $20 t-shirt.

Interview with the product expert

Another option in which you can get your audience trust is by interviewing others who use the product or service or even interviewing the person who makes or sells it. This can give your review more depth, creating a narrative for the reader.

Creating a tutorial content ( Video)

Meanwhile, the success of affiliate marketing can depend on the overall size of your followers or audience, a very huge way to drive higher-converting traffic is by providing a tutorial on the offer i.e. like creating a video on how to use the product or how the service is of benefit. 

Most people that search the internet search on “how to” searches on Google, such as “how to save money for college” or “how to decorate a laundry room.” 

If you can offer a tutorial that solves a searcher’s problem and clearly showcases the value of the product, your referrals will make more sense in context and you’ll provide the customer with a stronger incentive to purchase the product you’re recommending.

Use relevant Search Keywords

if you are going to use a blog post to promote any offer, research which keywords someone might use in a search engine to find an answer to a related problem. Google Ads Keyword Planner is a good tool that can help. (It’s free to use, but you’ll need to create an account.)

Consider your angle

Depending on the offer you are promoting, try to find out how much energy you should be investing in instructional or tutorial content, which is often a natural lead-in to someone trying a product for themselves. For example, you could record a video of yourself using and getting the most out of a physical product, or showing off the benefits of a digital product, like software. Unboxing posts are popular, so if you receive the product in the mail, document your experience opening it up.

Where to share your link

After compiling your promotional content, share it on your website or social media platforms. If you have an email list, you can create an email marketing campaign using this Software called GetResponse. And be sure to have an affiliate marketing hub on your website with a Resources page where you share a quick list of all of the tools you use and love.

You want to know more about GetResponse Click HERE

Give out Bonuses 

Most marketers promote their affiliate programs or links by offering bonuses to anyone who purchases the offer or who makes attempt to choose their product. 

For example, GetResponse allows its users to use their software free for 30days. Risk-Free. No Credit Card details. This Kind of bonus would allow the users to have experience or learn more about the product even before purchasing. furthermore, it would prompt the user to continue using the product.

Keep things legal and above board

Never forget to disclose to followers or audience that your post contains affiliate links. For one thing, it’s required by the FTC. But explaining the reason for your affiliation also can help you connect with your audience. For example, the SmartEarners blog offers this disclosure: “SmartEarners sometimes publish affiliate endorsements and advertisements, which means that if you click on a link and buy something, SmartEarners might receive a percentage of the sale, at no extra cost to you. We only write about, and promote, products that we believe in. We promise not to tell you about stuff that's dumb.”

Additional Knowledge

In the internet marketing world, we learn every day about the latest software, what is working out, and others.

you can also go further by learning courses either free or paid course

NB: free courses appear mostly to be PDF you would just download it and read all through but the paid courses have more advantages than that of the free course because you would be gaining support, mentorship from the owners of the courses. I recommend getting a free course.

If you are willing to get free courses on affiliate marketing you could check this  Free Affiliate Marketing Course from eMarketing Institute