The highest conversion rates of any marketing medium are found in email marketing. Email is 40 times more effective than Facebook or Twitter in acquiring new clients. Email transactions are also three times more profitable than those done on social media, according to McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consulting organization.
How to monetize email marketing
1. Sell a product or service
Do you already have a product or service that you want to sell? Awesome! This section can be skipped.
If you haven’t already done so, this is the first step. Find a product or service to sell, whether it’s tangible or digital. It will be incredibly difficult (dare I say impossible) to make money with email marketing if you don’t have a product to offer.
Are you stumped as to what to promote to your target market? To get you started, consider the following suggestions:
- eBooks
- Training guides
- Online courses
- Private virtual coaching sessions
- Classes or workshops
- Memberships
2. Sell other people’s products
To make money with email marketing, you don’t always have to sell your products or services. Instead, you might work as an affiliate for the products or services of other companies. As an affiliate, you earn commissions on sales you bring in for the company.
Here’s an example of a successful affiliate relationship: Clients can get planning guidance from an online business coach. She recommends affiliate products for her clients’ marketing and sales needs, like website builders and email marketing providers, to assist them to convert her advice into reality.
Make sure you have a good relationship with your subscribers and only offer products and services that make sense for them before you start affiliate marketing. If they don’t like it, they can unsubscribe.
3. Upsell premium or exclusive products
Upselling — or offering more items or services at the point of purchase — is one of the most profitable ways to make money with email marketing.
Assume you’re a life coach with an online monthly subscription that includes access to a user community, webinars, and a resource library.
You might then give them special one-on-one coaching sessions when they acquire your subscription. A participant can select the topic they want them to focus on and ask questions that they might not feel comfortable asking in a live webinar in a virtual room with other participants. Many consumers are willing to pay top bucks for this kind of personalized service.
It might also be a lot less complicated. If you’re an online personal trainer, you may provide a free upper-body workout that anyone can download. When someone wants it, they will receive an automated email with a link to download it, as well as an upsell to a 12-week program that assures them results.
4. Cross-sell related products
Every purchase a customer makes provides you with information about their preferences and interests. You can utilize this information to tempt them with additional things they would like.
You’re probably getting an email right now that says, “Because you bought this, you might be interested in this.” This is because online buyers who receive individualized, targeted communications are more inclined to return to your store.
5. Get repeat purchases
You may have a product or service that requires repeat purchases, similar to cross-selling. A polite reminder email might be an efficient method to keep a continuous stream of revenue coming in.
For businesses that rely on recurrent, seasonal, or perishable commodities, this approach of making money with email marketing works exceptionally well. A window cleaning service, for example, might send a client an email at the end of each season to remind them to plan their next appointment.
6. Have a cart abandonment plan
We’re all a little forgetful, so it’s no wonder that consumers are frequently sidetracked or abandon purchases because they aren’t ready to buy at that time. However, if you use an e-commerce platform like WooCommerce, you’re already aware of what they’ve left behind.
Send them highly relevant emails that encourage them to purchase the product or service they’re considering. According to Experian, customers who receive many abandoned shopping cart emails are 2.4 times more likely to complete the purchase than those who receive only one.
7. Ask people to spread the word
According to a Nielsen report, 84 percent of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about goods and services. That makes personal recommendations the highest ranked source for trustworthiness when it comes to making a purchase.
So if you have an engaged, loyal customer base, send emails encouraging them to recommend your products and services to their friends and acquaintances. You can also go a bit further by asking them to give you positive online reviews and to “like” and share your social feeds.
Think about implementing referral links to incentivize your subscribers to spread awareness about your brand, too. Referral links allow your current customers to promote trackable links for your business. In exchange for sending new paying customers your way, you can give them incentives like discounts, coupons, vouchers, cash, prizes or redeemable points.
