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Affiliate marketing is a booming industry. 

In 2022, affiliate marketing spending in the United States reached $8.2 billion, and the industry is projected to grow exponentially. Influencer Marketing Hub shares that the industry will reach approximately $14.3 billion in 2023 and hit $15.7 billion by 2024.

One of the most effective ways to sell your affiliate products and grow your audience is through email marketing. Barilliance shows that email marketing has an average return on investment (ROI) of 3,800%, making it one of the best channels for affiliate marketers to invest in.

With that in mind, we’ll cover everything you need to know about affiliate email marketing to help you maximize your ROI.

What is Affiliate Email Marketing?

Affiliate email marketing is a type of digital marketing where you promote products and services of other businesses using well-crafted and highly targeted emails.

As a result, you earn a commission when someone clicks on the affiliate link and purchases something or takes a desired action (such as signing up for a webinar).

Here’s an example of an affiliate email from AppSumo:

AppSumo, a digital marketplace that offers lifetime SaaS deals, has an effective affiliate email.

The email uses language that resonates with its audience and subtly promotes third-party software from partners without sounding too promotional. As a result, AppSumo will earn commissions once subscribers purchase the software programs using the attached links.

Benefits of Affiliate Email Marketing

Affiliate email marketing campaigns have a lot of benefits since email is one of the most effective marketing channels. In fact, email marketing is one of the top three most effective channels for 79% of marketers.

On top of that, once you build an email list as an affiliate marketer, you’ll have an asset. And since you own the email list, you can communicate with subscribers regardless of the email marketing platform. 

With social media, you don’t own the content you post  — the platform does. If something happened to the platform, you’d lose all your content and followers. That’s why developing a solid email marketing strategy will help boost your affiliate marketing efforts.

Here are three more benefits of using email marketing to promote your affiliate products:

• You can craft personalized and highly-targeted affiliate emails. By segmenting your subscribers, you can send the right emails and affiliate promotions to the right customers at the right time.

• You can easily track your performance. With the right email marketing tool, you can track leads and measure your affiliate email performance effectively.

• Increase leads. You can boost your click-through and conversion rates by using inbound email marketing strategies, where you create and distribute content that draws users to your website.  

How to Launch an Affiliate Email Marketing Campaign

Let’s look at how you can launch a successful affiliate email marketing campaign:

1. Select the Right Affiliate Email Marketing Solution

The right email provider will help you build trust, provide value, and offer the best experience for your subscribers.

Here are some features to look out for:

• Marketing automation. You should be able to write emails once and then automate them to send as scheduled.
• Reporting and analytics. You should be able to track your email deliverability, open, and click-through rates. That way, you can know if your marketing efforts resonate with your recipients.
• Email templates and design builder. Using prebuilt email templates and customizing them with a drag-and-drop design builder will help you save time.
• Segmentation. This will help you send the right affiliate links and email campaigns to the right audience at the right time.

Some of the best email marketing services with the features above include Sender, GetResponse, Smartlead, and Sendinblue. Once you choose the email service provider that suits your needs and budget, start building your email list.

You can leverage marketing automation tools to automate email scheduling. It streamlines your communication efforts, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business while ensuring timely and efficient delivery of your messages.

2. Choose Your Niche and Join the Right Affiliate Program

Choose your niche and the products or services you wish to promote, then join the right affiliate program. 

Some affiliate programs include:

• Email marketing affiliate programs. Here, you promote the services of email marketing companies such as Sender, GetResponse, and AWeber.

• Review sites. Review websites work with affiliate partners or individual brands to review services or products in exchange for an affiliate link.

• Influencer programs. If you’re a social media influencer or blogger, you can partner with a business whose products appeal to you. You can then highlight their products in your emails and content to receive a commission.

3. Promote the Right Affiliate Links

Before joining an affiliate program, ensure the links you want to promote have the following attributes:

• Relevance. The affiliate links should be related to your niche. Promoting irrelevant products and services may cause readers to unsubscribe from your email list.

• Evergreen. Choose evergreen products that can give you an excellent passive income since they won’t change over time. For example, affiliate email marketing programs are ideal since the email marketing tool remains the same, with only some updates to the software. As a result, you don’t have to update or change your content constantly.

• Profitable. The products or services you promote should have a strong commission rate and ROI to account for the time you invest in promoting the products.

4. Offer Valuable Content in Your Emails

Although affiliate email marketing aims to profit from your email list, prioritize offering value to your audience first.

You shouldn’t dedicate your entire email campaigns to promoting affiliate links. Readers will likely become irritated when you constantly share third-party products. Also, your email marketing service provider may close your account if your affiliate links result in low deliverability rates.

So, share valuable content with different media types, such as images, videos, and audio, to nurture your leads and build trust. That way, promoting your affiliate links will become easy.

5. Monitor Your Affiliate Email Marketing Campaigns

Once you get your affiliate marketing campaign rolling, track your email performance and adjust when necessary. Some metrics to monitor include open, clickthrough, and unsubscribe rates.

You can also leverage affiliate marketing tracking software with a dedicated affiliate tracking dashboard. The dashboard will allow you to track and optimize your affiliate marketing efforts in real time, helping you operate a successful campaign.

Key Takeaways

Using email campaigns to promote your affiliate products or services can be an excellent way to make money online. However, you require the right strategy and approach to be successful. 

Here are some key takeaways:

• Choose the right affiliate email marketing solution that suits your needs and budget;
• Select a niche and join the appropriate affiliate program that aligns with your audience’s interests;
• Promote relevant affiliate links in your emails;
• Offer valuable and engaging content;
• Monitor and optimize your affiliate email marketing campaigns to improve their effectiveness and ROI.

By following and implementing these tips, you can succeed in affiliate email marketing and generate a steady stream of passive income.