9 Ways You Can Become An Affiliate All-Star

Affiliate marketing has become a trending topic in the digital marketing community, and for good reason! This low-risk, high-reward opportunity is great for those who want to monetize their love of a product.

Despite some claims, affiliate marketing won’t make you an overnight millionaire. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make a serious profit. Successful affiliates are advocates for the products they’re referring – and they’re reaping the rewards!

Keep reading to find out if affiliate marketing is right for you – and tips on how you can become an affiliate all-star.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Think of affiliate marketers as the middlemen between clients and brands. Is there a product or service you don’t hesitate to recommend to family or friends? Partnering with these brands is a great way to get rewarded for your endorsement.

Affiliate marketers earn commission by referring traffic and sales to a retailer’s website through their own promotional efforts. Prospective affiliates can join a program through a merchandiser directly or a network that manages multiple affiliate programs.

What Are The Benefits Of Affiliate Marketing?

• Low-Risk, High Reward: Becoming an affiliate usually doesn’t requires no start-up fees or investment.
• Advanced Tracking Tools: A good affiliate program provides you with the tools to measure your campaign’s effectiveness.
• No “Selling” Experience Required: It’s as simple as creating good content.
• Not Your Average Job: Create a steady flow of income by promoting a company’s products and services.

Choosing A Niche
When choosing an affiliate marketing program, first ask yourself a few questions:

• Are you knowledgeable in the topic?
• Is the content something people are searching for?
• What problem are you trying to solve?
• Is there room for growth? Can you add value to the content

Your answers will help you identify if a niche is right for you.

How Do You Drive Traffic?
When you sign up, you’ll receive a unique affiliate commissions code. This is used to track the visitors and sales that were directed from your efforts. But how do you drive traffic to a merchandiser’s website in the first place?

Some common affiliate promotional strategies include:

• Blogging
• Building up an email list
• Social Media
• Videos + Podcasting
• Writing reviews
• Word-of-mouth
• Paid advertising
• Banners
• Email Marketing
• Social media ads
• Contests

Don’t be afraid to get creative in your approach! Blogs like Affiliate Tip, AM Navigator, ShareASale and ABestWeb are great resources for campaign inspiration.

How Do You Build An Audience?
There are a number of tracking tools that give you the power to track the reach of your campaigns. Some frequently used services include:

• Google Analytics is a free service that lets you measure your advertising ROI, track your social reach and manage your applications. With its suite of features, you can analyze visitor traffic and ensure you’re getting the most out of your marketing efforts.
• Page Insights provides information about user activity on your Facebook page. You can view metrics, identify your most engaging posts and gather information on your audience.
• YouTube Analytics lets you monitor the performance of your channel, with up-to-date metrics and reports.

9 Ways To Be An Awesome Affiliate

What’s Next?
Have a passion for email marketing? Consider using AWeber as your autoresponder to boost your affiliate marketing!.

Source: http://blog.aweber.com/articles-tips/9-ways-you-can-become-an-affiliate-all-star.htm

How to Start an E-mail Marketing Business

Are you interested in starting an email marketing company? Do you need a sample email marketing business plan template? If YES, then I advice you read on.

According to Wikipedia, researchers estimated that about US$1.51 billion was spent on e-mail marketing campaigns by companies in the United States of America in 2011. This amount is also expected to grow to about $2.468 billion by 2016. This shows just how much e-mail marketing is gaining relevance in the business world today.

E-mail marketing involves sending out promotional messages to clients/prospective clients through e-mails. Such messages could be advertisements, updates, brand awareness campaigns or requests.

E-mail marketing seeks to build a relationship between a seller and his clients or to preserve an existing relationship and further build trust and loyalty between a seller and his clients.

What are the types of e-mail marketing services?

• Direct emails

Direct e-mails are sent to promote a particular product or sales offer. Companies who offer e-mail marketing services gather the e-mail addresses of people they wish to send such messages to by buying prospective leads from companies who offer lead generation services. Sometimes, an e-mail marketing company may offer both services.

• Transactional e-mails

Transactional e-mails are sent to complete or confirm a transaction initiated by a client with the sending company. For instance, if a prospective client visits your sales website and fills a registration form asking for further details about a particular product, transactional e-mails would then be sent to such a client to further engage the customer and trigger his interest in the products.

E-mail marketing service companies have become relevant over the years as many companies have discovered their effectiveness and how they can help to increase sales compared to other methods of advertisement.

Most companies would rather outsource their e-mail marketing services to professionals who possess the necessary skills and expertise to achieve an effective e-mail marketing campaign. It would also allow the company focus on other aspects of the business.

You can begin a career in e-mail marketing by starting your own e-mail marketing company. Below is a guide to help you get started.

Starting an Email Marketing Company – Sample Business Plan Template

• Write your business plan

The first step in setting your own e-mail marketing company is to draft your business plan. In your business plan, you should be able to identify your target customers and how you will reach them. You should also identify all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the business.

• Decide on the services you want to offer

You should also decide on the category of e-mail marketing services you would be offering. E-mail marketing involves several aspects. There are those who specialize in developing good e-mail marketing content that would help to sell products, there are also others who specialize in building e-mail lists and lead generation for their clients.

Therefore, you have to decide on the services that you are willing and able to provide to your clients.

• Observe your competitors

Going into a business like this requires that you carry out a thorough research on the business and those who have been in the business before you.

This would help you understand the opportunities and challenges that exist in the e-mail marketing business. You would also be able to devise means of overcoming those challenges when you start your own business.

• Purchase E-mail Marketing Software

To effectively run your e-mail marketing business, you would need to invest in a very good e-mail marketing software.

E-mail marketing software are used to send bulk e-mails, build e-mail lists for your various clients, develop e-mail marketing content and to track the e-mails sent to see how many were opened and how many were converted to actual sales. E-mail marketing software makes the work faster and easier.

• 5. Determine your prices

The next thing to do is to figure out how much you should charge for your services. You have to take into consideration your business expenses as well as the time and efforts you will invest in your business before coming up with a competitive price that would justify your efforts and expenses.

• Devise a sales and marketing strategy

This is a kind of business that needs effective and strategic marketing. You would need to carefully decide on how you want to promote your services and build a customer base.

• Create a business website

As an e-mail marketer, you can hardly do much without a professionally designed business website. Your website would serve as your landing page where your own clients can check you out. You would also need a good internet service provider and host server that would be able to handle a large volume of data that you would most likely be dealing with.

In conclusion, I want you to know that E-mail marketing is a smart business idea especially now that it is increasingly becoming popular among many companies.

Over the next few years, the usage of e-mail marketing as a means of advertising is expected to rise and you can position your own company to take a large share of the market by starting your own e-mail marketing business now and offering your clients first class services with proven results that would keep them coming back and referring others.


Source: http://www.mytopbusinessideas.com/starting-email-marketing-service/

Common Email Marketing Mistakes: Why Your Emails Aren’t Getting Results

Picture this: You’ve just hit the send button on a new email campaign for your business. You’ve got killer content, a great call to action and an attention-grabbing subject line… or so you think. As you watch your analytics, it becomes clear that your email isn’t getting the results you want.

What went wrong?

Whether your open rates are suffering or you’re not getting enough click-throughs, there are lots of common email marketing mistakes that even experienced marketers make. The good news is that they can be easily fixed to increase engagement.

The mistake: Your content is too self-promotional.

If you send an email announcing your new software update, who cares? But if you send an email announcing that it’s possible to cut video upload time in half because of your software update, people will pay attention. It’s all about showing the value of your services while promoting your business.

So, how can you do both?

The solution: First, identify your audience’s biggest problems. Let’s say you work with a recruiting agency. Your subscribers need resume help, so why not give them a checklist to help them fix common resume faux pas? Brainstorm content ideas based on real problems your customers are having, then show how your services can fix them. From there, you can create an editorial calendar for your email campaign that will help create focused, useful emails.

The mistake: Your readers think you’re a robot.

What does your From address say? Is it from your own name, your business’s name, or something else? If your open rates are suffering, it could be because your emails lack a personal touch. Your email’s content plays a key role here too. Are you speaking directly to your target audience, or are you using jargony, impersonal industry terms?

The solution: One easy way to make your brand more human is to personalize your From address – no one wants to talk to donotreply@email.com. To sound less robotic and more human, write in plain terms. For example, you wouldn’t described someone as economically marginalized, you would say they’re unemployed. Uncomplicated, easy-to-understand language wins over pretentious buzzwords any day.

The mistake: Your call to action isn’t very… actionable.

Take a look at this email from Studio Fitness.

There is no link to the nutritionist or personal trainer they introduce us to, and while they encourage us to sign up for a plan, there is no link to help us do that either. Oh, and we can’t access the Studio Fitness website from this email. Since there could be any number of gyms named Studio Fitness, leaving subscribers to find their website on their own is probably not a great idea.

The solution: What do you want people to do when they read your email? Should they visit your website, sign up for a trial, take a survey? Your call to action needs to be strong and authoritative – people need to be told what to do! Make your call to action loud and clear.

The mistake: You’re inconsistent.

How would you feel if you received a weekly newsletter and then, without warning, weekly emails turned into 10 emails a day? You wouldn’t be very happy, would you? It sounds a little ridiculous, but it happens more often than you think. Readers tune out and unsubscribe when they don’t receive what they signed up for.

The solution: Deliver the emails you promised in your sign up form and stick to an editorial calendar if possible.

The mistake: Your follow up series is nonexistent.

Let’s say you have a customer who starts a free trial of your software service, but they never follow through and make a purchase. Sad story, right? It certainly will be if you don’t have a triggered-based follow up series in place.

The solution: While you can’t control a customer’s behavior, you can control how you react to it. If you set up a follow up email that will automatically send to that customer at the end of their free trial, you have a better shot at keeping them engaged. If they had a question about your service, the email could prompt them to contact you, giving you another opportunity to make the sale.

The mistake: Your subject lines are boring.

Look at the subject line below. What does it tell us about what lies within the email?

Absolutely nothing. It’s not creative or relevant to the content inside, so there’s nothing about it that would make someone feel compelled to open it. And see that preview text after the subject line? (“If you’re having trouble…”) That space could’ve been used to tease the email too.

The solution: You have about 35 characters to work with in your subject line, so make them count! Your subject line needs to grab attention and tell the reader something about the email itself, because that what will sell them on opening your email.

The mistake: You’re not using personalization.

What’s the best way to get someone’s attention? You address them by their name! It works the same way with email. If you’re not using personalization on your most important messages, you’re missing a real opportunity.

The solution: Just like adjusting your From address to your real name, using personalization in your emails is another way to make your business more human. Notice how the email below uses personalization and takes advantage of preview text.



The mistake: You’re sending to the wrong people.

If you own a burger joint in Philadelphia, you wouldn’t send newsletters to vegetarians in San Francisco, right? This is why segmenting and list management is key, especially for those with growing email lists.

The solution: Tell people exactly what they’re signing up for on your sign up form and stick to it. You can also use your form to segment people based on location, interests, or any other preference. If you only want to send emails to those who opened a particular message, you can segment based on open rates too. Once you’ve hit your sweet spot of segmentation, ask your readers for feedback so you can continue sending them content they want.

Chances are, you’re guilty of at least one of these mistakes. But don’t sweat it! You can put solutions to work by using an autoresponder like Aweber and readjust what you send to your readers. 

What tips do you have for driving engagement in your emails? Share them in the comments section!


Source: http://blog.aweber.com/articles-tips/common-email-marketing-mistakes-why-your-emails-arent-getting-results.htm

Email is not dead. But email IS changing.

Email facts

Last Updated: December 2014

• There are over 4.1 billion email accounts. This figure is predicted to reach 5.2 billion by 2018 which is a growth of more than 26% - Radicati Group (2013)

• There are 2.5 billion email users worldwide, including both business and consumer users. - Radicatti Group (2013)

• 72% of US online adults send or receive personal emails via smartphone at least weekly - Forrester (2014)

• 122,500,453,020 emails are sent every hour. - MarketingProfs (2014)

People prefer email for commercial communications

• 81% of US online shoppers are more likely to make additional purchases, either online or in a store, as a result of emails based on previous shopping behaviors and preferences. - Harris Interactive

• 68% of consumers find email to be their #1 preferred channel for recieving commercial messages - CG Selections "Nationaal Email Onderzoek" (2013)

• 66% of consumers have made a purchase online as a direct result of an email marketing message - Direct Marketing Association (2013)

• One in five (19%) of consumers said they read every email newsletter they receive just to see if something’s on offer. - Forrester Research "North american technographics survey" (2014)

• In 2014 consumers delete less promo emails without looking, down 25,4% relative to 2010. - Forrester Research "North american technographics survey" (2014)

Email is going mobile

• By the year 2017 1.779 Million people will access email via their mobile device. - The Radicati Group "Email Statistics Report 2013-2017"

• Mobile email will account for 15 to 70% of email opens, depending on your target audience, product and email type. - eMailmonday “the Ultimate mobile email stats” (2014)

• 30% of consumers now read their email exclusively on mobile devices – Yesmail “Email Compass: The Mobile Effect” (2013)

And email marketing?

• 80% of content marketers use email marketing - CMI "B2B Content Marketing Research" (2014)

• 55% of companies generate more than 10 percent of sales from email - Econsultancy "Emailmarketing census"(2014)

• marketers consistently ranked email as the single-most-effective tactic for awareness, acquisition, conversion, and retention. - Gigaom Research "Workhorses and dark horses: digital tactics for customer acquisition" (2014)
• Email is almost 40x better at acquiring new customers than Facebook and Twitter - McKinsey & Company (2014)

• 42% of businesses say email is one of their most effective lead generation channels. And for B2B marketers, 88% say email is the most effective lead generation tactic – Circle Research (2012)

• DMA research puts the ROI of email marketing in 2014 at US$24,93, almost double that of search advertising and better than any other direct marketing channel - DMA UK "National client email survey 2014".

• 88% of marketeers say emailmarketing is bringing them a positive ROI. – ExactTarget “2014 State of Marketing”

Source: http://www.emailisnotdead.com/

What is an Autoresponder and Why Do I Need It?

You've heard it time and time again, "The money is in the list!" This is, after all, the Golden Rule of online marketing. But, where's the list? How do you get a list? What do you do once you have the list? These questions can all be answered with one word: Autoresponder!

Simply put, an autoresponder is an automated follow-up tool, which you set-up to check back with your prospects through email messages you create and schedule. There are various autoresponder services out there, but the most popular once, by far, are AWeber and Get Response. The reason these two services are at the top of the popularity ratings is that they are simple to use, offer several features like form-creation and broadcasting capabilities, and they have great deliverability ratios (all that means is that it is very unlikely for your messages be sent to your prospects' SPAM folders).

Now, the way an autoresponder works is by storing your prospect's information from your opt-in box and getting them on queue to receive your pre-set messages. So, if you have a website (blogs and Facebook business pages can also have opt-in boxes added to them) with an opt-in box which asks prospects to type in their name and email, once someone provides that information, the autoresponder takes care of the rest. Depending on the settings you have established, the new lead (what a prospect becomes after filling-in the opt-in box) will start to receive your messages according to the schedule you have set up.

Why do you need an autoresponder? 
Well, the most obvious reason is that you need a way to build that infamous list! It is absolutely no use to you to have an offer people can only see once, especially if they make a purchase that first time. Also, autoresponders put your marketing and follow-up on autopilot. Think about it, you can set up your list so that people receive emails from you on a set interval for as long as you wish them to. And, the beauty of it is that after the initial set-up, you don't have to do anything else. Another beautiful aspect of having an autoresponder is that it allows you to "broadcast" or send one-time offers to your list with ease. This is another way of capitalizing on your list.

Should you get an autoresponder? 
If you are serious about building an online business, then the answer is YES, ABSOLUTELY, WHAT ON EARTH AREYOU WAITING FOR! Remember, that the money is in the list. You cannot make a living on the internet if you have to go back every day and start from scratch! Imagine how long it would take you to do all the follow-up by phone or writing emails one at a time. AWeber and Get Response are also a great value for their cost. Both go for about $20/month. AWeber will give you the first month for $1. Get Response also has a free version, which can be a good way to test it, if you're still a bit skeptical, but it limits considerably number of leads you can store and broadcast. Also, if you are an affiliate to several opportunities or businesses, then you can broadcast your list with new offers. This means you no longer have to start a business venture from scratch!

Autoresponder: by far the BEST tool a network marketer could invest in. Not only is it essential for list-building, but it will truly put your lead management on autopilot. Get your account today!


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4625214

Why You Must Not Miss List Building

There must be some reasons some internet marketer can earn millions of dollars while others make zero cents. On the other words, if two equally experienced internet marketers are asked to start their business again but one of them cannot build a list. I am sure that one will quit within one month. This is because he lacks of the most powerful tool to make real money, which is "list building."

What is a list building? 
List building is a powerful and evergreen internet marketing strategy that allows you to contact your website visitors. When visitors browse through your website, they find the information on the website is useful to them then they agree to give their contact (mostly email) to you. They would like to know what else you can offer them. With the list, now you can generate income without driving new traffic every day.

Why list building is important? 
First, it is the main source of income in internet marketing. This is because the majority of the new traffic that you bring in to your website does not buy. They most probably look around and then leave your website. The reason behind it is they are thinking somewhere must have a better offer. Despite the "better offer" does not exist, and they love the information you have provided, they are most likely to forget it and never come back unless they bookmark your site. So you must capture their contact before they click away from your site.

As mentioned earlier, people do not buy at the first time you offer them. The research showed that many buyers will only purchase after being offered six to seven times. The fact surprise you, doesn't it? However, do you think the same visitors will come back to your website and be offered for six to seven times? Therefore, holding the subscriber contact information can eventually help you archiving your financial goal.

In addition, people refuse to pay their money to you is simply because they do not know who you really are. People prefer to buy with someone they know instead of a stranger. However, they will not offer you a chance to build a relationship with them. You need to grab the opportunity by yourself. Therefore, every new contact you get will be your future friends. Build a good relationship with them, so they are comfortable to buy any services or products from you.

If you can build a quality list of 100,000 contacts with an auto responder you now can work less and start making passive income. You will be liberated from the financial trap, work lesser but earn more money. An auto responder such as Aweber.com allows you to follow up your subscribers automatically. This is the why you choose internet marketing, isn't it?

Conclusion 
You have no reasons to say NO to this internet marketing strategy. If your traffic does not convert to sales, you must lack of a quality list in your business. Build a list now to take a large leap for your business growth.


Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6735773

5 holiday email marketing tips to kickstart your Christmas campaign right now

The holidays are no longer a two-month affair. In 2013, shoppers took to the stores with gift lists in hand starting in early September, according to Time, and retailers were working their audiences with promotions before summer’s end. By the end of December, consumers spent some $46.5 billion during the season—up 10% from 2012. And so, getting your share of those holiday shopping budgets means planning earlier than ever.

Let’s look at how you can plan a mobile strategy that brings an increasingly advanced holiday crowd to your business this fall. Mid-summer is the time to begin planning your marketing strategy, one that will reach customers right as thoughts of Labor Day drift toward the start of school.

The Holiday Stakes: E-mail Marketing and the Mobile Consumer

One key approach to the early holiday shopper is to find them where they live—and where they spend their money—and that’s increasingly online. And it’s increasingly online via mobile devices.

Recent reports tell us that there’s a $294 billion world, out there, when it comes to ecommerce, and 29.5% of that happens on smartphones and tablets. Furthermore, purchases via mobile devices jumped 22%, in 2013, according to a new report from Campaigner.

But that doesn’t mean that every enterprise simply gets to press “send”. Reaching the online and mobile shopper takes having the right message in the first place—and then getting it out in a way that prompts consumers to click-through and buy, or show up in person for your excellent offer.

E-mail marketing is one way to go about that — 64% of decision-making mobile consumers read their e-mail on a mobile device — so your campaign could reach them in just the right spot. But with that idea come some relevant cautions. To understand what those are, we turn to stats from the Campaigner study, showing what consumers said they want from brands that come to them with offers via their inbox.

• 45% of respondents said they open mobile marketing e-mails that feature both compelling text and graphics.
• Only 2% said they are motivated by graphics alone.
• 42% stick to what they know, reading promotional e-mails on their mobile devices primarily based on the familiarity of the sender’s name.
• 21% indicated that an awareness of an ongoing deal or price promotion is a primary driver to read promotional e-mails on their mobile device.
• 20% cited the e-mail subject line as the main reason they decide to read marketing e-mails on their mobile device.

This paints a picture of the mobile consumer, ones who are receptive to marketing e-mails, as being a fairly sophisticated — and particular — audience. In these cases, enterprise leaders looking to effectively reach customers have to become marketers of the same kind — savvy enough to build an e-mail campaign that hits the visual and storytelling marks, and also able to leverage the right audience in the right way to bring in conversions around their holiday push.

Getting Past ‘Open': How Enterprise Can Build a Better E-mail Campaign

“Retailers have a significant opportunity to embrace the growing market for mobile shoppers this holiday season,” said EJ McGowan, general manager at Campaigner. But it’s an opportunity that comes with a catch.

“While consumers are more interactive with mobile content and purchasing, [some] marketers are still providing a lackluster mobile experience,” McGowan said. “Some consumers feel content is not personalized, underscoring the importance of relevant content to increase sales and effectively engage with consumers.”

To get you thinking about the relevant and personalized touches that customers desire, check out the following key ideas for crafting outreach:

5 summertime tips for building a better e-mail campaign, this season and all year round:

1. Build a campaign around environments. The 2014 survey found that 56% of participants read promotional e-mails while relaxing or watching TV, and 28% do so at work. The summer months are the perfect time to create and test various messages, subject lines, and mobile designs. Prepare to cultivate multiple environments and so increase your chances of reaching your customers in the perfect way, at the perfect moment.
2. Implement responsive design. Marketers should take the summer to review their responsive-design strategy. Spend time with the analytics surrounding your previous mobile e-mail campaigns. Where you see flagging open rates, freshly encourage mobile interaction by emphasizing those measurably important subject lines. Lean into the image-text combination that mobile customers say they prefer.
3. Streamline content. Nearly 22% of survey respondents said that too much text, or hard-to-read text, irritates them most about reading marketing e-mails on mobile devices. Shorten and simplify your message.
4. Conduct A/B split testing. Once you’ve crafted compelling subject lines and responsive, streamlined content, test these elements of your campaign. Create an A/B split-test on multiple subject lines and then watch in real time as variations go head-to-head.
5. Focus on established and key customers. Keep a version of the 80/20 rule in mind. That is, don’t waste your time on — and/or alienate — the 80% of consumers who won’t drive revenue for your enterprise. Focus instead on the 20% of consumers who do spend time and money with your brand. And then , encourage a continued relationship with that segment by providing rewards, loyalty programs, and great deals for the holidays.

Creating a mobile e-mail approach in the run-up to the holidays doesn’t have to include elements of the impersonal and bland. It doesn’t have to be ineffective because of common and easy-to-avoid mistakes. By working with the above five ideas in your planning, this summer, you’ll hit the digital ground running with an effective e-mail marketing campaign.


And your holiday sales success story? It just might start this month.


Source: http://blog.bigcommerce.com/holiday-email-marketing-tips-kickstart-christmas-campaign-now/