One of the most under used techniques employed by affiliates is email marketing. I will tell you now that email marketing, or as commonly called list building, if done in the correct manner will make you a small fortune. If you think about it, then you should realise that simply gaining sign ups from an affiliate link or banner is a waste. Most of your sign ups will perhaps sign up to one of your offers and perhaps never visit your site again. With list building it is a completely different story. Once someone has subscribed to your list then you can target them with offers over and over again. Better still, if you use Aweber then you will have additional information about the subscriber so that you can send them personalised targeted offers.
Getting email marketing right is not as easy as you may at first thought. Firstly you need a “hook” to entice visitors to subscribe. Once they have subscribed you then need further “hooks” to keep them opening your emails. Open rates will fall in time, that is a fact (see the table below) so you must ensure that the very first email you send your subscriber gives full details of your main offers.
Many different factors will affect your open rates so here are 3 basic tips to keep your subscribers opening your broadcasts.
Email Subject Titles
Great thought should be given to the title of your email. Most emails are marked as junk with the user failing to open them. Think about it. How many emails a day do you send to your junk folder? Also many users now use filters to send email directly to their junk folders so some words should not be included in the subject titles of emails.
For instance let’s say we want to send our list a new poker bonus offer. Which subject title below do you think would generate the highest open rate?
Poker Stars Bonus Offer
New Bonus Offer at Poker Stars
Steve, Exclusive Poker Bonus – Claim $500 Free Today!
Well there is no doubt that personalising email subject titles does increase open rates. Aweber makes it very simple to personalise emails. Also, you have to be creative with your subject titles as you need to entice the user to open your email. We are just brushing the surface here as there is a fine art to creating email subject titles.
Email Sent Time
This is another area most affiliate give little thought. You really want your email to be sitting at the top of the subscriber’s inbox when they check their email. There is no doubt that the time you choose to send your email will vastly affect your open rates.
I have found that sending emails between 6.30pm and 7.00pm produces by far the best open rates. This is of course the time when most have returned from work, had dinner and perhaps sat down to check their inbox. Yes this is common sense, but you would be amazed how many affiliates send emails at crazy times such as midnight, so that the email is perhaps 18 hours old and sitting at the bottom of the user’s inbox when the subscriber checks their email.
GEO Targeting Content
Aweber give details of the location of each subscriber and this data should be used for maximum effect. If your list contains a 50/50 split between US and European subscribers then it will be an utter waste simply sending US Sports tips or offers as 50% of your list will not be interested. For Example if you are sending US Football offers you could, with a creative subject title, target both US and European football. Your email content could contain 2 offers or tips. One for US subscribers, and of course another for European subscribers.
The above are just 3 basic tips but if employed in the right manner will improve open rates and of course new RMPs.
