Are you an email marketer or do you plan on taking advantage of the strategy for helping to build your brand and promote a bunch of affiliate products or services to a bigger audience?
If so, then today I would like to highlight 5 mistakes to be avoided if you don’t want to see your email marketing campaigns be utterly destroyed.
It’s no real secret that email marketing has always been and always will be king (alongside blogging and SEO in my opinion) when it comes to connecting with your targeted audience and building a successful digital business.
But like any internet marketing technique, there are DOs and DON’Ts that can make or break your business.
So here are 5 DON’T’s when it comes to email…
Table of Contents
#1: Adding Everyone to Your Email List
So you wanna reach as many people as you possibly can in your niche, huh?
Well, I don’t blame you in the slightest because more people = more affiliate commission checks, right?
But adding every person in your contacts to your email list can potentially have devastating consequences – low click through and open rates, spam complaints, zero commissions, and may also give you a bad reputation.
This old-school strategy is known “implied permission” and it’s highly recommended that you never ever implement it.
The only people who should be on your email list are the ones who specifically said that they wanted to join your list by opting-in to receive your newsletters and promotions.
A rule of thumb to remember when it comes to marketing is that folks will always buy from someone they know, like, and trust.
They will never buy from some random dude or dudette who’s sending them electronic mail without their permission.
#2: Assuming Social Media is The Best Marketing
There’s no doubt that social media is a crucial component of building a successful on the web because you can reach literally millions of potential customers.
But while social media may seem like a super method for “organically” building your list, getting more customers, and making a pretty penny, the majority of social platforms are publicly traded companies.
Which means they are in the game to “make money” and also keep their investors as happy as Larry.
So, unfortunately, organic reach is fairly low because platforms like Facebook especially, need you to invest in advertising.
The paid traffic method may have evolved and may even seem more difficult and competitive today, but boosting posts and placing ads are the most effective techniques for growing your biz.
Yeah, you will still get folks liking, sharing and commenting on your organic posts, but the chances are, it’s not gonna be enough for building a big subscriber list.
Paid marketing is definitely the way forward for promoting your squeeze page, so don’t spend too much time on the organic side of social media (unless you’re awesome at making your stuff go viral, of course).
#3: Not Giving up on Folks Who Aren’t Interested
Gone are the days when cold phone calls, cold emails, and even door-to-door sales visits were at the top of the agenda for a lot of businesses.
Man, I hated those methods, especially the irritating door-knocking sales people with their pitches. UGH!
If a marketer tells you to “just try harder to reach the people on your list who have lost interest in your emails“, don’t trust them as far as you can throw them lol.
The more you try to bombard those individuals with your stuff, the chances are it’s gonna reflect badly on you and make you come across as a “spammer”.
Desperately trying to convert those uninterested people into customers is just gonna be a waste of your time and effort at the end of the day.
The ball’s in their court, so just leave it at that.
Instead, it’s a much wiser idea to simply just focus on the leads who are interested and also getting new subscribers to opt-in to your list.
#4: Using The ‘One Size Fits All’ Method
“Relevance” is always key when it comes to any form of marketing.
So approaching your email marketing campaigns with a “one size fits all” mentality isn’t gonna work today because people’s needs are all different.
Yeah, people opt-in to your newsletter because of their interests in a particular topic, but each person will have a different problem that needs solving.
Let’s say, for example, you only promote “Get Paid To” opportunities to people on your list who are wanting to “make money online” – some may not even be interested in earning a pittance.
Some folks will wanna know about affiliate marketing, MLM, eCommerce, drop shipping, and other ways to earn a full-time income.
Some people on your list will obviously be in different age groups and have various backgrounds, etc.
So your emails need to be “tailor-made” for each individual on your list. This approach is also referred to as “segmentation” and you can make it as easy or as complex as you like.
You can do it manually or even find an autoresponder service that can do it for you if you don’t know how.
If you don’t already have a squeeze page, sales funnel or autoresponder in place for building your biz – ClickFunnels is my #1 recommendation because you get everything you need with its “Actionetics” package (including subscriber segmentation).
#5: Failing to Engage With Your Customers
Setting up your email campaigns can be a very-time consuming process, especially if you have a LOT of emails to compose and test.
But however much of a drag it can sometimes feel, it’s important to keep in regular contact with your subscribers because if you don’t, your list is gonna go “stale” quickly, and they might just become your competitors’ leads instead.
Simply email your readers a few times a week to say “Hi, I’m still here” so they don’t forget who you are.
By engaging with your audience on a regular basis is gonna build that trust that will lead to sales and affiliate commissions.
But also bear in mind that sending too many emails is equally as bad as not sending very many at all. So it’s just a case of finding that perfect balance.
The Bottom Line…
In today’s world of digital marketing, it’s a very competitive landscape, which means you have to be consistently on the ball when it comes to email marketing, especially when it’s one of the most effective biz building methods of all time.
So as you’re building out your subscriber list, please do think about the 5 DON’Ts because they will help to make all the difference when it comes to your campaign efforts.
After all, no affiliate wants a business that doesn’t turn a profit, right?
Just Sayin’ 😛
I wish you every success…
Your Friend, Neil!
(Click here if you wanna see the video version of this article).
Do you have any questions or thoughts that you’d like to share on using email to market your products or services? We’d love to hear your comments below…
