If you are a working professional, your day begins with checking your phones and messages and eventually opening your laptop to check your emails. Emails today are the backbone of written communication. It is where all forms of communication, whether official or personal, take place.
If you buy something online, you expect an invoice by email. You talk to a new client about a business deal; you expect a written confirmation by email for reassurance. You book tickets online; you get tickets sent to your email. Email is everywhere in the digital world, so much so that emails have become an indispensable part of our lives.
Building an Email List
There are about 248.7 million email users in the U.S. alone. Little wonder then that email marketing is said to be the most effective out of all digital marketing channels and said to generate the most ROI.
But,
The big question is can you make money out of your email list? Well….Of course, you can.
But how?
That’s the subject of this blog.
First things first…..
The fact that you can monetize your email list does not mean that once you have a big list in place, you can start making money out of it.
It is not enough to have a big list.
You need people on the list who would click your links and will likely buy the product/service you are offering.
What we mean here is that you need to have a list of targeted people interested in your product/services. You then need to send them customized e-mailers/newsletters with links to a product page where they can complete the purchase.
The idea is that the content of the e-mailer /newsletter should be so attractive and interesting that readers would want to click on the link and go further. Therefore, the more updated and accurate the list is, the greater your chances of maximizing conversions will be.
Mind you, this won’t happen overnight. You cannot just blast them an email once and expect your sales to happen. It takes time. It would be best to build rapport and trust by offering them value through regular emails.
I know what you’re thinking…
How do you build such a targeted list of interested people?
Well… it’s simple! Through valuable content.
Start writing informational blogs, videos, social media posts, and podcasts related to your product or service. Include a well-defined ‘Call To Action’ (CTA) within the content that takes them to the opt-in form, where they must fill in the details.
Content is of paramount importance here. Offer information as an expert in your domain. Make use of social media too to promote your content. Slowly people will begin to read your content and recognize your brand/business as a thought leader. They will want to know more and more from you and won’t mind subscribing to your email list because they trust you and what you offer. Thus you will have a list of people considering buying your product at some point!
Now that we know what effective email list building means and how to build one, we have now come to the next part: how you can make money from your email list.
Selling Products on the ‘Thank You page.
The ‘Thank You’ page is the first place to monetize your email list. It is the page the user lands on once he fills up his details on the opt-in form. It is a simple page with a simple message thanking people for filling in the form. But you can utilize the page to say more than just a thank you. For example, you can include product snippets with links to the product or shop now pages. You can also include some ongoing offers/discounts with customer reviews which will only serve to sweeten the deal.
Repeat promotions
For instance, you did a special campaign that did well on Women’s Day last year. You could replay the same campaign this year again for International Women’s Day. People love offers and discounts and perk up instantly. Leverage that and make money on these special occasions.
Segment Your List
Based on data from previous email campaigns, you can segment your list. Segmenting means dividing the list into demographics, interest, open rates, action is taken, etc. Segmentation helps you customize content to suit their interests better. Segmenting results in better deliverability and thereby increased click-through rates and conversion.
Upselling and Cross-selling
You’ve got a long list of people who have purchased a specific product from you recently. So what do you do with that list? Discard them because they’ve already converted, and there’s nothing more you can do. Not!
You can up-sell and cross-sell products. You can either offer them an upgraded version of the product at a nominal extra charge (mostly true for software etc.) or offer them complementary/add-on products, also called cross-selling.
For instance, somebody who recently bought a pen drive can be offered a hard disc with additional storage capacity. This is called up-selling. Similarly, somebody who has recently purchased an airline ticket to a destination can be offered hotel deals for that destination.
Similarly, cross-selling means selling I-phone covers to someone who has recently bought an iPhone!
Shopping Cart Abandoners
This refers to all those users who were on the verge of completing the purchase but did not for some reason. You can re-target all those visitors with a customized email convincing them to complete the purchase by re-sending the payment link (for those stuck with the payment process) or offering them last-minute discounts and deals. This does work wonders!
Host Webinars
Webinars are online events attended by an online audience. Webinars are time-sensitive and therefore are best promoted by email. People may not always check out your website or social media page, but they check their email all day. Therefore, email your registration page for the webinar to the contacts for sign-ups. This way, you will get sign-ups for your webinar, where you can then sell your product/service.
Affiliate Marketing
Many big brands are happy to pay you a commission for whatever sales you generate for them through your referral link. This is called affiliate marketing, wherein you promote other brands to your contacts/audience and earn a commission. Generating revenue from your contacts through affiliate marketing is simple. First, you choose brands in your niche that your audience will be interested in and sign up for their affiliate program. Different affiliate networks to choose brands from include Rakuten, eBay, Amazon association, Click Bank, etc. Then, get your referral code or link and send it to all your contacts in your email list, offering them all the benefits of the products.
Conclusion
Of course, you will not start making money right away. It takes time. You have to continuously work on building your list through legitimate means and keep them engaged by sending them regular content; you can make a decent amount of money utilizing the ways discussed above.
Making money from your email list is possible, but you have to have an updated email list in the first place.
You can use various methods to build your email list, like publishing valuable content on the website in the form of blogs, product information, social media, guest blogging, offline events, lead generation campaigns, etc. Once you have many contacts in your email list, you can think of monetizing them.
About The Author:
Anupam Rajey – Anupam Rajey is a seasoned marketer and sales expert. He is the CEO of Acelerar Tech, a leading KPO that offers virtual assistant services for social media, Internet research, email & chat support, and more.
