6 Ways to Monetize Your Email List
The topic of mailing monetization is always relevant. Sooner or later, every owner of an address base asks the question of how to make money on subscribers without scaring them away? Your email lists are like gold mines. Someone manages to wash up a large amount of golden sand on their site and get rich. The other does almost the same thing as the first, but gets much less gold.The article presents the principles of mailing monetization, which have been tested on the personal experience of successful gold miners.
Training
Before you start bombarding your subscribers with sales emails, do some quality prep. And plan how you will receive income.
Take into consideration following tipsand start monetizing your email list:
1. There is a big difference between audience size and strength. Make sure your address base brings together subscribers with specific interests or needs. The goal is to collect target audiences who are interested in or useful to what you are doing. And that trusts you.
2. People buy for one reason only - to solve a problem. You need to understand the needs of your subscribers and know how to meet them. Base size matters, but solving audience problems is much more important. If you don’t offer products or services that help customers deal with difficulties, your activity will become a continuous struggle to convert subscribers to buyers.
3. Newsletters play an equally important role in both audience growth and sales. Therefore, do not delay with commercial offers. If you wait a long time, there is a risk that you will create an audience that is not going to buy. But you shouldn't rush with sales letters either. Find the right time when it’s appropriate to start selling.
4. What kind of conversion do you expect? Products in the low or high price range have different conversion rates. If you plan to 1%, then you need to have 100 subscribers to make 1 sale. Accordingly, 100 sales will require 10,000 subscribers.
5. Why you shouldn't send the same letters throughout the database? Because people are only interested in those things that are personally relevant to them. Start segmenting customers from the moment they appear in the database. By spending time on detailed segmentation, you will be sending out more relevant content and suggestions to your subscribers. As a result, the conversion rate and earnings will increase.
6. Automate the process. Sending emails manually doesn't pay off. Nobody wants to spend a lot of time on every newsletter. Mailing services greatly facilitate all processes. From creating and segmenting the base, to sending letters to each subscriber at a convenient time for him and the subject chosen by him. It is not realistic to do this manually. And the detailed statistics provided by the services will help you correct marketing campaigns in time.
There is a risk that with small first sales and you will lose motivation. But if you constantly postpone the start of sales, you can burn out without even creating a product. Don't be afraid to act and see your first launch as a learning experience. Form a small sentence, but do it quickly. And send out the newsletter to get a feel for the audience. Then take advantage of this experience and launch the next marketing campaign, correcting the mistakes made at the start.
Having dealt with all fears and doubts, we proceed to the implementation of projects.
Embodiment
First and foremost, develop your own strategy to help engage your customers. Create a sales funnel and think through every step. It will help you attract and develop the needs of your subscribers until they are ready to purchase a product or service. A standard sales funnel consists of 4 stages: acquaintance, interest, desire, action.
After a person subscribes to your mailings, he is already at the stage of interest. But before asking to buy something, make sure consumers are already familiar with the product or service on offer. Don't send generic letters. And send emails to customers based on their preferences.
How do you know what customers are interested in? There are many ways to do this. Perhaps they attended a webinar on a specific topic, followed one of the links in the letter, went to the corresponding pages of the site, completed a survey, etc.
The hardest part is getting the person to make their first purchase. It is much easier to sell a second or third time.
If there are not many purchases after the first commercial mailing, this should not stop you. Think over another strategy - for those who have not bought anything and work with them. Collect more data about these subscribers and try to understand their needs and concerns.
Also pay attention to the category that did not open the letters. You have 2-3 months to get them interested. Experiment with email subject lines to get them reading your newsletters. Perhaps the first time they didn't even notice the letter. Therefore, be sure to send follow-up emails to those who did not open.
Anyway, keep working with clients after analyzing the results of the email campaign. Make more targeted suggestions. Those who did not buy anything after receiving the first letter can do so after the second or third mailing. Think about what might interest them. Pick up a different product, provide an extra discount, or offer free shipping. Perhaps they simply did not have the money at first, but now they are ready to buy.
Don't give up on subscribers who didn't buy anything right away. Give them a chance to purchase your items another time.
Mailing list monetization methods
Your product. Everything is traditional here. If you are trading a product online or offline, there should be a list of customers who receive your advertising or newsletters. If for some reason you didn't do this, start right now. You can always find a reason for this. If the process of communication with subscribers is already established, it's time to analyze the success of your marketing campaigns. Think about how to make them more interesting for customers and profitable for you. Spring is the right season to update your email strategy.
Sale of other people's goods. You can sell anything. Great opportunities are now open for this. Choose products that will also be interesting to your target audience and inform your subscribers. Expanding the assortment is a good reason to send a letter to customers. This is especially true if you are selling seasonal items. Consider how to expand your range at a time when your beach skis or sun loungers are not in demand.
Partnership programs. Offer your followers products from other companies and earn a commission if customers purchase from your link. There are many affiliate programs. Choose the ones that are relevant to your target audience. And start earning extra income!
Your information products. Create your online course or write an ebook. If you have no idea what course you can take, start with your hobbies. Or check the market for what competitors are selling. A large number of other courses or books on the same topic shouldn't stop you. This confirms that such topics are in demand.
Sell ad space in your newsletters. If you have a high-quality customer base, invite other companies to place banner ads in your mailings. But don't overuse it. Think carefully about what kind of ad would be appropriate so as not to lose the trust of your subscribers. How to determine the price? First, research the pricing in your niche. Then think about how to charge. There are two options - for the number of subscribers or for the fact of following the link.
Techniques that will lead to success
Sending sales emails isn't enough to monetize your customer base. If you subscribe to mailing lists, you know how annoying faceless attitude is. When letters are sent with the sole purpose of getting more money from you. Include a human attitude towards your customers and they will pay back abundantly.
Treat every customer like a VIP. Think of your followers as your close social circle. Not everyone subscribes to your mailing lists. Those who did this and opened access to their mailbox already deserve special attention. Make it clear that they are not a faceless mass to you. Give a sense of self-importance. This will help with affiliate programs, subscriber-only offers or the start of sales of a new product for customers a day or two earlier than for everyone on the site, etc.
Size doesn't matter. If you do not know how to communicate with 200 subscribers, you cannot cope with a base of 20,000. Regardless of the size of the list of email addresses, get involved immediately in working with clients. Don't wait until you get the amount you want. If you can reach a small list, it will be easier for you to attract a large number of subscribers.
Create a mailing calendar. Get in the habit of regularly interacting with your followers. This will not cause any difficulties if you automate the process using a newsletter service. Creating a newsletter calendar is one of the easiest ways to stay organized and always in the spotlight of your customers.
Repost your mailings on social media. Posting links to social networks in letters has long been an axiom. This enables those who read your messages to subscribe on social networks. A repost of mailings in social networks will allow the subscriber to keep abreast of events, even if he misses one of your letters.
The subject line matters. How to write a good topic? Often it depends only on her whether the letter is read or not. You don't need to reinvent another wheel to do this. It is enough to analyze your mailbox. Select all the subject lines you have opened in the last month. Try to understand why you paid attention to these emails and how their subject lines differ from those that you ignored.
Email is full of opportunities to monetize your target audience. Especially if the collection of primary data about the audience is established. Put in some effort and imagination to become a reliable partner for your followers. And you will see that your email list is capable of generating good income for you on a regular basis.