9 Best Practices for Promoting Affiliate Links in Your Email Marketing

Best Practices for Promoting Affiliate Links in Your Email Marketing

9 Best Practices for Promoting Affiliate Links in Your Email Marketing

To help you effectively promote affiliate links in your email marketing campaigns, we’ve gathered insights from ten marketing professionals, including founders, CEOs, and marketing managers. From adding authenticity and humor to offering exclusive bonuses, these experts share their top nine best practices for promoting affiliate links in your email marketing campaigns.

  • Add Authenticity and Humor
  • Be Transparent
  • Share Personal Product Experiences
  • Leverage the Post-Script Section
  • Build Trust by Providing Value
  • Ensure Contextual Relevance 
  • Utilize Trigger-Based Campaigns
  • Integrate Affiliate Links Naturally
  • Offer Exclusive Bonuses

Add Authenticity and Humor 

Here’s a tongue-in-cheek best practice for promoting affiliate links in email marketing campaigns: Be as authentic as a unicorn riding a unicycle. Blend your affiliate links seamlessly into your content, making readers think, “Wait, did they just slide in an affiliate link? Sneaky, yet impressive!” 

Share your personal experience with products, dropping the bombshell that you might receive a small commission. Offer exclusive bonuses or discounts to make subscribers feel like they’ve found a secret treasure chest. Segment your email list, serving relevant offers based on readers’ interests. 

Analyze and optimize click-through and conversion rates, experimenting with humorous subject lines, irresistible CTAs, and captivating email formats. Embrace your inner humor and watch those affiliate links soar, while your emails entertain and conversions flourish.

Ntinyari Kimathi, Founder, XLURU.com

Be Transparent

If there’s one thing I would underscore, it would be this: transparency is key. Make sure to always disclose your affiliate relationships to maintain trust with your subscribers. Weave your affiliate links organically into useful content—don’t just drop a link without context. Keep emails interesting, engaging, and above all, valuable. 

That way, your subscribers will be excited to open your emails, increasing the chances they’ll click on your affiliate links. And remember, the most successful affiliate marketers are the ones who add value first, sell second.

Melanie Balke, CEO and Founder, The Email Marketers

Share Personal Product Experiences

In affiliate email marketing, being real and trustworthy is key. You are not just selling stuff, you are sharing valuable content to help your subscribers solve a problem. Make it really useful, insightful, and relatable. Don’t just say “This product is great”—explain why.

When you talk about affiliate products, get personal. Tell your readers how you used it and how you personally benefited from it. This real-life experience makes the product more genuine and sparks enough curiosity to encourage your readers to click that link.

Juliet Dreamhunter, Founder, Juliety

Leverage the Post-Script Section

One best practice for promoting affiliate links in your email marketing campaigns is leveraging the power of the post-script section, the “P.S.”

Why the P.S., you may ask? Often, when people skim through emails, the P.S. catches their attention. It’s like a bonus after the main content and arouses curiosity. You can take advantage of this to give one last persuasive nudge about your affiliate product or service.

When using the P.S. section, keep it concise and compelling. Use it to reiterate the benefits of the affiliate product, share a powerful testimonial, or highlight a limited-time offer. Link the product or service directly in the P.S. to make it as easy as possible for readers to access it.

Remember, even while using this strategy, transparency is key. Always disclose that it’s an affiliate link to maintain trust with your subscribers. An honest, strategically placed P.S. can boost your click-through rates and foster a loyal and engaged audience.

Will Gill, Event Entertainer, DJ Will Gill

Build Trust by Providing Value

Building a loyal audience comes before you can make your audience buy from your affiliate links. And when it comes to email marketing campaigns, you need to go the extra mile and focus only on giving value before you even talk about your products. 

Putting value on the top will help you win the trust of your audience. The audience will automatically connect with your business and brand if you can solve their problem. So, provide value and build a following of loyal audience. Once you do that, whether you are starting an email marketing campaign or not, your audience will buy from your affiliate links.

Ilan Nass, Chief Revenue Officer, Taktical

Ensure Contextual Relevance

One best practice stands out above the rest: contextual relevance. Ensuring that the affiliate links you include are contextually aligned with your content and offer products or services you genuinely support is paramount.

Contextual relevance not only increases the chances of capturing your audience’s interest but also enhances their trust in your recommendations. By featuring products or services that you would personally subscribe to, you convey authenticity and credibility.

Additionally, it is worth considering the power of offers. Affiliate programs that provide a “no-brainer” offer, such as a free item or a substantial discount code, can further entice your audience.

Finally, transparent labeling of affiliate links is a personal preference I appreciate. While not explicitly required, being honest and upfront about affiliate links fosters trust.

Rafael Sarim Özdemir, Founder and CEO, Zendog Labs

Utilize Trigger-Based Campaigns

The core concept of trigger-based email marketing campaigns is to send emails automatically based on particular client activities called triggers. Trigger emails are sent to the audience based on their behavior. 

The majority of trigger emails fall into two categories: segment-based and event-based. When your subscribers satisfy certain parameters, segment-based trigger emails are sent, whereas event-based trigger emails are sent when they opt-in or make a purchase. 

Trigger emails are used to provide consumers with assistance and nurturing so that they can reap the maximum benefits of a product or service. They are also used to deliver vital updates and to inspire positive behaviors. 

Triggers are extremely efficient for marketing affiliate links since they track the behavior of clients and send customized triggers to them, causing them to perform the desired action like clicking on the links and making a purchase.

Marco Andolfatto, Chief Underwriting Officer, Apollo Cover

Integrate Affiliate Links Naturally

Natural integration of affiliate links in your email marketing campaigns is vital for maintaining a positive user experience and establishing credibility. By seamlessly incorporating relevant recommendations within valuable content, you can enhance engagement and increase the likelihood of conversions. 

Techniques such as contextual storytelling, value-driven recommendations, and personal endorsements contribute to a more authentic and trustworthy approach. Natural integration benefits both you and your subscribers by providing valuable information while also presenting affiliate products as genuine solutions.

Natural integration benefits both you and your subscribers. It enhances the user experience by providing valuable content beyond promotional messages. Your subscribers will appreciate the informative and engaging emails, resulting in higher engagement rates and reduced chances of them unsubscribing.

Sreejith Sreekumar, Email Marketer, Changing Tree

Offer Exclusive Bonuses

When you’re promoting affiliate links to your email list, you can add even more value to your subscribers by offering an exclusive bonus for purchasing through your affiliate link. 

For example, you can offer one of your related products as a bonus, an hour of your time for some personalized strategies, or even store credit they can use in the future. 

Offering a bonus for using your affiliate link shows your subscribers that you stand behind the product that you are promoting, and that even though you’re promoting someone else’s resource, you are still invested in helping them make the most of it.

Anna Crosby, Owner, Geni Collective

The Easiest Side Hustle

Emily here! I love email marketing, we know this. But sometimes, it’s fun to work on other projects. So this is about the easiest side hustle that anyone can do.

My sister and I recently discovered on TikTok an easy sticker business side hustle and decided to give it a try.

I instantly thought of using StickerMule because not only do they have affordable and high-quality stickers and labels, but I love the brand.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Create some super simple sticker designs in Canva. Like crazy simple. We created one that just says “WFHM” – took 2 mins to make.
  2. Next, we created a free StickerMule account, headed to create our custom labels and uploaded our design. Easy peasy.
  3. Purchased 50 labels.
  4. Next week create an Etsy account and made a new listing for WFH Mom Stickers for your laptop/water bottles.

And boom! New business!

WFH Mom sticker Stickermule

StickerMule makes it so darn easy. They also have the BEST plain-text emails of any brand on the interwebs. Literally my favorite.

We’ll see how the side hustle pans out on Etsy. I promise to report back soon!

12 Ways You Can Use AI in Email Marketing

Ways You Can Use AI in Email Marketing

12 Ways You Can Use AI in Email Marketing

Discover how AI can revolutionize your email marketing strategy with insights from 12 industry experts, including CEOs, Vice Presidents, and Marketing Managers. From streamlining copywriting to maximizing efficiency with email tools, these professionals share their tried-and-true methods for enhancing email campaigns with artificial intelligence.

  • Streamline Copywriting
  • Boost Engagement With AI-Based Videos
  • Brainstorm Content With Assistance
  • Gain Powerful Product Recommendations
  • Amplify Relevance via Combined Tactics
  • Improve Retargeting 
  • Optimize A/B Testing 
  • Discover In-Depth Email Analytics
  • Automate Behavior-Triggered Campaigns
  • Boost Open Rates with Improved Subject Lines
  • Enhance Engagement with Personalization
  • Maximize Efficiency with Email Tools

Streamline Copywriting 

While I’ve found so many ways in which AI can be used in email marketing, there’s one that I completely love and have incorporated in my email marketing campaigns: copywriting.

I love the idea of just entering a bunch of keywords into ChatGPT or Jasper, for instance, and having my email copy ready to be sent. What makes it even more fun is that you can try different input ideas to make the output better. Like you can let the tool know who you’re writing it for, what’s the purpose of the mail, what’s supposed to be the tone of the mail, and so on and so forth.

It’s a genuine recommendation from me to use these tools; leverage the power of AI into your email marketing campaigns because if you’re not doing so, you’re falling behind. We all know it’s very important to stay ahead when you’re in marketing. Plus, it makes your work so much simpler and gets it done so much quicker.

Aquibur Rahman, CEO, Mailmodo

Boost Engagement With AI-Based Videos

Not every email you send out can be action- or product-based — some are purely informative. For emails that fit the latter description, and despite evolving debate, I believe that including videos makes them more engaging. AI-based videos have been a pleasant surprise and add to the experience of opening emails.

As the cost of AI-based video production is lower, creating them is more profitable compared to hiring a professional video team. And your emails’ open rates will show a positive impact.

Matthew Ramirez, CEO, Paraphrasing Tool

Brainstorm Content With Assistance

As an email marketer, coming up with creative content consistently can get tedious. I’ve used AI to assist me with brainstorming ideas for content or copy. 

For example, I’ve asked AI to come up with detailed descriptions for particular customer segmentations in order to know how to talk to or market to a specific group of customers. After I get the description back from AI, I’m able to see how I can modify my marketing language to appeal to each customer segment. 

Whenever I use AI for email marketing, I’ve never used what AI puts out verbatim; I always tweak it to align with the brand voice or expound. Using AI to trigger various brainstorming processes has helped me tremendously by saving time for me and my clients.

Amanda Luke, Owner, Email and Mobile Marketing Freelancer and Consultant, ACL Digital Marketing

Gain Powerful Product Recommendations

I have incorporated AI into my email marketing by using product recommendations powered by machine learning. This allows me to provide recipients with tailored product offers based on their previous purchases or preferences. 

I recommend that other email marketers try this as it can increase relevance and engagement, leading to higher click-through rates and conversions. The AI-powered algorithm can quickly and accurately identify the products that are most likely to interest each individual recipient, so it can save a lot of time compared to manually curating product recommendations for every email.

Ryan Hetrick, CEO, Epiphany Wellness

Amplify Relevance via Combined Tactics

We use AI in our email marketing with AI-powered tools to help us create more personalized and relevant emails. I recommend that all email marketers try to incorporate AI into their email marketing campaigns, to create more personalized and relevant emails, which can lead to improved results.

Here are some specific examples of how AI can be used in email marketing:

  • Segment your email list based on user behavior, interests, and demographics. 
  • Personalize email subject lines, content, and calls to action. 
  • Determine the best time to send emails. 
  • Retarget people who have already visited your website or opened your emails.

Brenton Thomas, CEO, Twibi

Improve Retargeting 

One innovative method we’ve employed in our email marketing strategy is AI-based email retargeting. If a potential customer opens an email but doesn’t take the desired action, our AI system cues us in. We then send a carefully personalized follow-up email, to re-engage their interest. 

For instance, we once had a client who showed interest in our premium packages but didn’t complete the purchase. Our AI system flagged this, allowing us to send a targeted email, offering a limited-time discount. This method ultimately converted the lead. 

So, for my fellow email marketers, I highly recommend incorporating AI into your strategies. It can significantly improve engagement and conversion rates, making your campaigns more effective and profitable.

Alexandru Contes, Co-founder, ReviewGrower

Optimize A/B Testing

If you’re into email marketing, you’ve probably heard of A/B testing. I believe AI can improve this process by automating and improving the testing and optimization workflow, which is a widespread practice. 

Subject lines, images, CTA buttons, and email layouts are just some aspects that may be examined by AI algorithms to identify which works best in an email marketing campaign. Artificial intelligence systems can rapidly determine the optimal permutations of these aspects that yield the highest engagement and conversion rates by automatically producing and testing numerous variants of each. 

By automating A/B testing, email marketers can save time and effort while continuously improving the effectiveness of their efforts. Marketers may learn about client preferences and adjust email campaigns accordingly with the help of AI algorithms that reveal why certain variants performed better than others.

Timothy Allen, Sr. Corporate Investigator, Corporate Investigation Consulting

Discover In-Depth Email Analytics

I can say from personal experience that using AI-driven email performance analytics provides marketers with a wealth of data to examine the success of their email campaigns. While measures like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates are helpful, the patterns and levels of interaction with a brand’s content that can be gleaned through AI algorithms are much more so. 

Email data such as time spent reading, scroll depth, email forwarding, and social media sharing can be analyzed by AI systems. Having access to these supplementary analytics allows for a deeper dive into consumer interaction and the identification of weak spots in email layout, content placement, and overall campaign strategy. 

Email marketers can improve campaign performance, boost engagement, and get more results by evaluating detailed email data and acting on the insights they reveal.

Tiffany Hafler, Marketing Manager, FORTIS Medical Billing 

Automate Behavior-Triggered Campaigns 

In my opinion, the development of behavior-triggered email campaigns is made possible by AI-driven predictive email segmentation. AI systems can discover specific triggers, such as abandoned carts, website surfing patterns, or email interactions, by studying client behaviors in real-time. 

Email marketers can automate the sending of tailored emails to the appropriate customer subset based on the occurrence of certain triggers. When a customer abandons their cart, for instance, an email system driven by AI can immediately send a reminder of the items and an incentive to complete the purchase. 

Predictive segmentation-based behavior trigger emails have been shown to increase consumer engagement and purchases. They take advantage of AI algorithms’ capacity to spot opportune moments for communication, which boosts open, click-through, and conversion rates.

Cindi Keller, Communications Coordinator, The Criminal Defense Firm

Boost Open Rates with Improved Subject Lines

We’ve leveraged AI to enhance our email marketing strategy, particularly by creating more compelling subject lines. Recently, we were struggling to craft a catchy subject line for a promotional email. We fed the AI some basic information about our offer. It spit out a subject line that was intriguing yet informative. 

To our surprise, that email had the highest open rate we’d ever achieved. The reason why I recommend this to other email marketers is that AI can help you come up with fresh, unique subject lines that hook your audience. It’s like having a creative powerhouse at your fingertips, saving you time while optimizing your results.

Thomas Giarraputo, Vice President, Executive Cleaning Services

Enhance Engagement with Personalization

I’ve incorporated AI into my email marketing by leveraging personalized subject lines and content. By using AI to personalize emails, we can improve open rates significantly. Additionally, personalization enables us to tailor the experience for each subscriber based on their preferences and interests, which increases engagement and conversions.

I recommend other email marketers try this because personalization can help them create a unique experience for their subscribers, build stronger relationships, and increase conversions. Additionally, it allows email marketers to quickly collect data and insights which can be used to optimize future campaigns.

Darryl Stevens, CEO, Digitech Web Design

Maximize Efficiency with Email Tools

Incorporating AI into email marketing has been a game-changer for maximizing efficiency and personalization. I have adopted AI-powered algorithms to analyze user behavior and preferences, allowing for dynamic content customization.

I recommend other email marketers implement automated email segmentation and personalization based on user interactions, interests, and demographics.

By utilizing AI-driven tools, marketers can automate creating targeted email campaigns, improving open, click-through, and conversion rates. AI can analyze vast data and generate actionable insights to optimize email content, subject lines, and send times for different audience segments.

This level of personalization enhances the user experience and increases the likelihood of driving meaningful engagement and conversions.

AI-powered email marketing tools can also provide real-time analytics and performance metrics, enabling marketers to make data-driven decisions and optimize their email campaigns.

Shane McEvoy, MD, Flycast Media