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How to make money from email newsletters. Tips for beginners

How to organize earnings from email newsletters? Is this method of communication useful for business and how effective is it? Let's find out! Many users will subscribe only to receive the promised reward for free, and will immediately unsubscribe from your lucrative offers. Some clients will be dissatisfied with the content or its design and will also say goodbye to you. But does this make email marketing weak and ineffective, or can you still make money from email campaigns? Let's look at this issue in our article!

Email Marketing Basics

When discussing the effectiveness of this type of communication, you need to take into account that the influx of potential customers from social networks is lower. More often than not, the user will simply ignore the promotional message, while the email will be stored in the mailbox, and the user can open it at any time. Email marketing can be your most cost-effective marketing investment. Another question is how to achieve such results. Send dull spam to subscribers and hope for the best? Bad idea. This will only scare away your target audience and waste a lot of effort, money and time. Spam can cause a domain to be blocked. So, how can you make money from mailings? The point is to send lucrative offers to an already established customer base. Simply put, you gather users with similar interests and provide them with interesting and useful content. Weave into the overall outline an excuse to purchase a product that will bring a person income, useful knowledge, positive emotions (underline as necessary), etc. And wait for feedback. There will be enough interested clients. But in order for such email newsletters to generate income, you need to be prepared, and we will help you with this.

What can you sell?

Choosing a topic is the most important step. The most obvious topics will bring you money from email newsletters:

  • parenting and children;
  • care and beauty;
  • monetization of skills and increased income;
  • sex, relationships and love;
  • sport, health and proper nutrition.

With proper organization, you can achieve excellent results and income in any other niche. There is a wide selection of goods and services at your disposal. You can narrow the selected industry to your own product. Try yourself in different areas, you will definitely succeed somewhere. Develop the direction you like best, and it won’t take long to make money from email newsletters.

Possible income

Monetizing your email list subscriber base is the primary goal of email marketing. The more subscribers you have, the higher your income. But you should consider where this audience came from, how it got to you. If these subscribers came to your database from your branded website, then they are already interested in your product. This audience is called a “hot base.” This target audience will be more willing to spend money. If a subscriber has just entered the database with targeted or contextual advertising, then such a database is called “cold”. The client knows “nothing at all” about your brand. You will have to work hard and earn his trust. An equal number of “hot” and “cold” subscribers will generate different amounts of income. And in the first case, the conversion rate will be significantly higher, and such mailing will be more effective in increasing sales. There is the additional factor of an unsuccessful advertising campaign. This is when the “hot” base for some reason stops working and bringing in money. This is because these clients did not receive emails systematically. If you have compiled a database, but decide to postpone the start of the company for six months or a year, then you can be sure that half of the clients will not even remember you. For some subscribers, the newsletter will no longer be relevant, while other clients will solve their problems without your help. There is only one way out of this situation - to allow people to unsubscribe and live in peace. You won’t make money from email newsletters from these subscribers; you’ll just waste your budget and anger the person with unnecessary emails. You can only benefit from YOUR audience. To do this, you should clean your client base from time to time. Feel free to delete subscribers who haven’t opened your emails for more than two months. To maintain hygiene of your subscriber base, use special services and software to check email validity . Another situation is when you have collected a customer base, but have not yet sold anything to them. Such an audience is called “raw”. First, you need to work with such subscribers without paid offers. Create interesting and useful content. And after just a couple of emails, you can offer paid services. The user gets used to you and will be ready to order a product or service. Remember the basic rule - the audience needs to be “warmed up”. And only then offer your services. Let's calculate what theoretical income you can get from sending emails to a “warm base”. How much will you earn from email newsletters?
According to statistics, out of 1000 subscribers, your email will be opened by an average of 250 users. This means that the open rate parameter will be equal to 25%.

Of these 250 users, about 50 people will click on the link.
And only five will perform the target action - order a product or service. The conversion from clicks to orders will be 10%.
As a result, the conversion from the total number of subscribers to buyers (CR) will be equal to 0.5%. For example, if you sell cosmetics for $20 per unit, then after five sales you can earn $100. You can effectively increase your own income by simply adding to your client base. Now we’ll talk about tools for email marketing, increasing repeat sales, collecting contact information and solving other business goals.

How to Choose a Service Provider for Email Marketing

It is worth understanding why such services are needed at all. You can send all the emails from your own email, but will your efforts pay off in this case? When sending emails from a personal mailbox, it is worth remembering the chain of pitfalls hidden behind independence:

With a high probability, your newsletter will end up in spam, or the subscriber will not receive the message at all.
Statistics on open rates, click-through rates, and complaints about emails will not be available.

You will not know who unsubscribed from further messages, which will cause an additional wave of ending up in the Spam folder.
If you are not a graphic designer, then a beautiful and elegant email template will also pose some challenges.

Therefore, the optimal solution for owners of large client bases will be a special service. Now we will figure out how to choose it correctly for the needs of a particular business, be it expanding the customer base, increasing repeat sales, etc. First you need to understand what you want from the service, what functions and features you will need. You shouldn't rely solely on price. You must clearly understand which tools and functions you will need and which will be superfluous. Organizing an email newsletter is a rather labor-intensive process, but the effort is worth the result. When choosing a service, ask yourself the following questions:

Is the interface convenient and clear enough? If you can easily guess which button does what, then you have a high-quality program. You won't meet the needs of your marketing campaign if you don't know how to use a mailing tool.

Is there training? Nobody likes to feel helpless. And this is exactly the feeling that will arise if you do not understand what to do with the opportunities provided. Therefore, when they sell you a “fishing rod”, make sure you understand how to attach a hook to it and attach the bait.

Is there a trial version? How can you tell if this product is suitable for making money from mailing lists if you can’t even visually “touch” it? Find out about the possibility of a trial period for the service, so you don’t regret spending the money later.

Ability to expand your own contact base. Some services allow you to send emails only to addresses from which consent to receive emails has been obtained. If the database you collected was not received through an online subscription form, then not every program will allow you to integrate such a contact list.
Visual HTML editor, ability to embed your own code. It’s unpleasant when you purchase a program in the hope of quickly earning money from mailing lists, but in the end you also have to pay extra to the layout designer separately. The ability to visually edit will make your life easier. All you need to do is upload beautiful photos, compose attractive text, add links and send it to potential clients.

Segmentation of lists. Check the ability to group contacts based on various criteria. Including city, age, gender, etc. A marketing company without targeting a specific target audience will have a greater chance of failure. If you send information to people from one city, and the database also contains contacts of people from another place of residence, then you will not make money on mailings, but will spend extra money.

Sending an email based on a schedule or trigger. One of the most pleasant features of the assistant is the ability to configure the sending of emails in advance. When you have a huge list of contacts, but you also want to send a congratulatory email in honor of your birthday with a personal discount, then such functionality will become a real “lifesaver”.

Spam check. The sender's main enemy is spam filters. Determining whether content is spammy helps avoid IP blocking and increases email deliverability.

Options for earning money using email

Converting your own client base into income is not only possible, but necessary. Unfortunately, not all senders do this honestly and legally. The level of earnings also depends on the method of obtaining the list of contacts. Customer databases can be divided into two types depending on the method by which this information was collected:

Clean base. These are contacts of people who have subscribed to the newsletter, agreeing to receive a certain type of content. This list is constantly cleared of outdated email addresses and contacts of those users who unsubscribed themselves.

Dirty base. Senders sometimes ignore the ethical rules of marketers and purchase ready-made databases. Such lists contain data from people who did not agree to the mailing list and are not waiting for your emails.

The ways to make money from email newsletters are identical for these two cases. But in the first case, with an equal number of subscribers, the level of income will be significantly higher. Like address databases, earning methods can be divided into white (legal) and black (illegal).

White ways to make money

Each business can combine different ways to monetize its contact list, but the main focus should still be on legality. Let's look at legal ways to make money from email campaigns.

Partnership programs

In your newsletter, you can promote links to a business partner’s corporate website or to your own project, where there are already links to your partner’s products or tools. For example, you are an organizer of ski tours. Manufacturers of ski equipment and related products can earn good money from your advertising mailings. You just need to select several suppliers and offer them your services. If you want to interact with large companies, then keep in mind that they are willing to pay for cooperation if your subscriber base has at least 10,000 users and the click-through rate is more than 20%.

Selling advertising

There are two options for making money from email newsletters:

  • selling space in emails;
  • selling the ability to send emails on your behalf.

If you authorize a third party to send messages on your behalf, be sure that they will not send spam or prohibited content. Not only is your money at stake here, but also your company's reputation. Just a few emails can destroy what has been built for months and years. “Tip: So that a potential advertiser can learn about you, talk about your product as much and often as possible. Place information about cooperation on your company website in a separate block. You can also use exchanges to post information for potential partners.”

Advertising of information products

Information is perhaps the most traded commodity in the world. Everyone wants to acquire useful knowledge, skills and something inaccessible to other minds. For example, if you have a series of educational content for different niches, you can make money by sending mailings advertising this content. Another great example of a newsletter is situational information products. For example, the pandemic has brought changes to the life of every person. Sending instructions with a clear step-by-step action plan in this case would be a good move. If you sell tours to various countries, it is a good idea to let potential travelers know in which countries and regions they can spend a weekend in without a vaccination certificate. It is not necessary to create your own information products, you can place a third-party source in the mailing list, the main thing is to charge a fee for this and agree with the source about such placement. Now let's talk about how to make money on mailings that don't quite fit into what's allowed.
Black methods of making money from email campaigns

The methods of “white selling” are quite suitable for “black selling”. The only difference is that such mailing is carried out to a merged client base. The income from such emails will be much lower, but it also has its place. This kind of mailing is a story about sending spam. If the contact database has been purchased and potential recipients have not given their consent to receive emails, you can still try your luck. Trading in client databases will also be an unfair way to make money. But the revenue from such activities will be significant. Often mobile operators sell their contact lists to different businesses. The database is huge, segmented by city, username, age and gender. The cost of such a database can vary from 0.1-1.5 USD per subscriber. It all depends on the “freshness” of the database (how long ago the contacts were collected) and its niche. The commerce sector is valued much higher than the entertainment services sector. But remember that this method is unethical and illegal. You sell people's personal data without their consent. An additional unpleasant factor will be the fact that by making money from mailings, you doom your subscriber to receive various spam.

Types of mailings

You can send different types of messages to one list of clients. Your arsenal includes congratulatory emails, discounts and promotions, individual emails and advertising of new products. Let's look at the main types of emails and how you can make money from such mailings:

Sales newsletter

The goal of such an email is to generate income. Emails that indirectly or explicitly sell something are called sales emails. This could be notifications about discounts and promotions, coupons for additional products, etc. Sales email example

Individual and informational mailings

The purpose of these emails is to provide the user with timely and relevant content. In such emails you can send articles from your own blog, training videos and other useful information. Such emails do not sell anything, they only provide knowledge. Example of a email with a blog excerptA personalized newsletter is a bit like a newsletter, but may include offers of promotions and discounts. For example, a coupon for a second free item on a customer's birthday or subscription anniversary. This is also a great way to make money from email newsletters. Example of individual mailing

Trigger mailings

These are emails containing an interaction anchor. In order for a user to receive such an email, some certain conditions must be met. For example, a client independently submitted a request for a consultation on the company’s website. In this case, you can set up automatic sending of an email, in which you briefly introduce the user to the situation. A trigger can be any user action: from subscribing to a site to a situation where the user added products to the site’s cart but did not make a purchase.

How to organize an email newsletter

To conduct a marketing campaign, you must go through certain preparatory stages. Start by collecting your customer base. Next, select a mailing topic and make a plan for sending emails.
Types of client bases and how to gain a subscriber base
There are two types of databases:

  • 1. Cold.
  • 2. Hot.

In the first case, you should introduce yourself to the readers, since these are new, just collected contacts. The second case is already family clients. They no longer need to talk about the company, its products and benefits. It is easiest to work with such an audience; it is enough to send offers with seasonal discounts and promotions, holiday greetings and individual offers. This audience is already yours, do not forget to maintain contact with it and then you will definitely be able to make money on your mailings. But what if there is no base at all? How to get clients if you are just starting your business? Now we will analyze everything in detail. If you don’t have a client base at all, then you can make a landing page and collect contact information with its help. Set up targeted advertising, clients will leave information themselves, and all you have to do is send them your own advantageous offer. Another option is to purchase a contact database from a similar business. Please note that this audience did not give its consent to receive your messages. You may experience emails being classified as spam and your email domain being blocked. The method is not the best, but effective. Just remember to check such a database for the validity of addresses and the presence of spam traps. Also, to quickly start earning money from mailings, you can use specialized services and software. The solution to this situation would be a program for collecting a database of email addresses . In a few clicks it will help you find the target audience for your chosen niche. All that remains to be done is to introduce new customers to your brand. If you already have a list of clients, then move on to the next step (setting up automatic emails).

Automatic and individual mailing

Set up automatic sending of individual and trigger mailings to your clients.
Welcome-email. After subscribing to the site, the user receives a welcome email containing a short excursion.

Example of a Welcome email from the Career Rocket project
Communication support. After placing an order, you can send the user information about the status of the purchase (shipment tracking track, receiving department, arrival date, course start time, etc.)

Example with parcel delivery tracking

Happy holidays. Including individual celebrations and regular holidays such as Valentine's Day. In the first case, you can set up sending messages with congratulations on your birthday or wedding day (if such information is available). In the second case, you need to segment the database by age, gender and preferences, and send relevant offers for each individual group on a suitable holiday.

Example with birthday greetings

Happy anniversary. Celebrate a milestone anniversary with your client. For example, the anniversary of subscribing to the company’s website. Offer free shipping or a discount. The client will receive a unique offer, and you will be a good reason to remind them of yourself and the opportunity to increase repeat sales.

Example with congratulations on the anniversary of subscription. Now let's take another step towards our audience. Let's consider what and how you can send to subscribers.

How to create content for your newsletter

Collecting contact information is not the most difficult task in email marketing. It is much more difficult to retain a client. To do this, you will have to work hard and constantly create suitable content. Choose a strategy for preparing suitable content:

  • Unique content.
  • Messages based on data from the site.
  • Generated content.

In the case of unique content, you create the information field yourself. This type of mailing is good because the recipient will be most interested in it, because this data is contained exclusively in your email. The main disadvantage is that it is a labor-intensive and complex process. Starting from choosing an interesting topic to spending time. It is easier to send a newsletter based on the information located on your website. For example, if you have your own blog, you can select key points from the article and present them to the subscriber in the form of a kind of checklist. The generated content usually includes data from third-party resources. For example, financial intermediaries such as Forex collect index value data from various websites, and the user receives structured and easy-to-understand information about the derivatives and securities markets. The user himself could have found this data on the Internet, but the sender took care of the convenience of subscribers so that they could absorb the key points and trade effectively on exchanges.

How, when and how many emails to send

Maintaining constant communication with your subscribers is quite important. But you shouldn’t overdo it with your presence in the user’s life. In order to make money from the newsletter and not cause negative emotions in the subscriber, such a newsletter must include useful and interesting information. It is considered normal to receive no more than 2-3 emails per week. Send holiday greetings, advantageous seasonal offers and personal discounts (for birthdays). Excessive importunity is not appropriate.

How to interact with your target audience

You should be guided by the principle “an old friend is better than two new ones.” Retaining subscribers is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. To ensure that the client stays with you, follow the practice-tested rules:

Monitor user unsubscribes. Maintain customer base hygiene; if a user does not want to receive your emails, then it is better not to retain him.

Regularity of mailing. Send messages at regular intervals. Once a month is not enough.

Mention the following interesting letter. Let the client feel interested in your messages. Mention that the new email will contain even more useful and interesting information.

Feedback. Ask the person to share their impressions. You can give some interesting task to involve the user.

Relevant information. Provide useful information that is easy to put into practice.

Don't get carried away with the advertising component.

Conclusion

You can make money from almost any mailing list. Approach this task comprehensively, determine the subject of the newsletter, partner conditions, select an effective service for online marketing and go for it! And the friendly LetsExtract support team will be happy to help you with this.

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