In this blog we’ve discussed quite extensively marketing and optimization strategies to help  Rx affiliates increase their conversions and performance. This week the focus is on email marketing, an approach that often doesn’t receive the honor it deserves in the online affiliate industry. This post  is the first of a two-part series devoted to the topic of increasing sales and conversions via email promotions.

Make Each Email Count

This first thing I’d like to dive deep into is the emails themselves. What to write about? How long should the text be? How to make people want to read it? All these questions and others will be addressed. So, what makes a promotional email a knockout? A few things:

1. Intriguing email subject heading – This is an absolute must. Even if the email itself advertises the best promotion anyone could ever hope for, the recipient won’t even get to read it if the email’s subject is unattractive or unappealing. That’s why you should invest some time trying to come up with an original subject heading that would both pass through email providers’ spam filters, and that would persuade the recipient to open it. Ideally, the subject should also reflect the highlight of the email’s content. Some suggestions:

a. Global Shipping is on Us!

b. New Best-Sellers on Sale!

c. 48H Sale Storewide

Tip: Add a limited-time frame to the promotion can really increase your email open rate as well as the likelihood your visitors will make a purchase. Also avoid spam filter trigger words such as free, # of percents off, and don’t use all capital letters.

2. What to write about? – If your customers decide to read your email, it’s because they are expecting to receive something in return, a worthwhile offer in other words. Therefore, you should always pick an interesting and rewarding topic, such as highlight new arrivals, newly reduced prices, or offer a discount coupon. You’d be surprised how customers are thirsty for the right promotion.

3. How often to email? – Perhaps one of the trickiest challenges in email marketing, you will need to find the right balance between bombarding your mailing list with emails and not emailing enough. If you’re new to this, start with one email a week (preferably in the beginning of the week), and see the response rate. With time you’ll be able to know the exact frequency.

4. How long should the text be? – No one wants to read a long email, especially if it’s an invitation to buy something. Keep it short and sweet, and highlight the gist of your promotion; if you’re giving customers a savings coupon code, make it bold so it stands out. Overall, email text should not exceed 200 words.

4. What type of email? – Ask yourself which email would you rather receive; a dull, text-only email or an HTML email that is visually appealing, colorful and inviting? The answer is obvious. Email your list of recipients an aesthetically pleasing promotion using custom made graphics or, if you wish, incorporate one of our Rx program’s banners which are built to attract and convert. Access them via RxProfits’ back-end portal.

How to Nail the Best Mailing Lists for Better Sales

When it comes to obtaining mailing lists of actual customers who are inclined to purchase medications online, there are several approaches, and some are more ethical than others. For the purpose of this post, I will share two main strategies our Rx program affiliates have been working with and appreciate:

Strategy No.1 – List Buying

This strategy involves a considerable investment on your part, and I mean both in time and money. There’s no way around it; good, solid leads cost money, but the ROI makes it all worthwhile. Look for companies selling sales data (see a suggested list of providers below) which offer large lists of detailed customer information. The more detailed the list, the higher the rate per lead. As for costs, that all depends on the detail level of each list entry; if you want a list of potential customers from a certain demographic or location, that would cost more than a generalized list. Also, if you’re seeking ‘virgin’ lists of email addresses -that is, a list that hasn’t been sold yet to other email marketers- that will raise the price as well.

A note on list quality: Since email marketing is a highly competitive market with numerous database providers claiming to have the best and most pristine lists of potential customers, you will have to keep in mind that you may come across poor leads and disappointing quality. To avoid these, I recommend working with the list of resources provided below.

Average costs per lead can be anywhere from ¢3 to ¢25 USD depending on the factors I’ve mentioned above. For email marketing newbies, I recommend starting with small quantities of cheap lists (start with small lists of about 5K addresses) and run some tests to make sure you don’t get many bounced emails or duplicate entries. Most database providers with a good reputation will replace such entries with valid email addresses.

List buying resources: Some of the recommended database providers we’ve worked with include List Guy, Consumer Base, USDATA, KB Synergy, Info USA and Pro Marketing Leads, to name a few. Another type of resource for good quality lists is site owners who are looking to sell their subscribers list. This often happens when the site is about to close down and the owners want to make some profit off of their list of customers.

Strategy No. 2 – Onsite Email Subscription Invite

You can always try to create your own list of customer emails by making an email subscription box available to them at your online venues. The quality of this kind of lists is practically priceless, but you will never reach the same volume as you would via list buying. Therefore, having an email subscription box available is recommended as a parallel strategy to list buying. This way you will be able to make some additional 25% revenue on this traffic.

Using Pro Email Distributors for 1000s of Emails

Email marketing is all about the numbers, and top email marketers email as many as 10 million addresses easily. After you have created a beautiful promotional email it’s time to distribute it to your paid-for list of thousands of potential customers. You would just send these using your Gmail or Yahoo email account, would you? For this purpose we can say thank god for companies like Mad Mimi (our No. 1 choice), MailChimp and iContact. Another perk of using email distributers such as these is that each email sent through these providers comes standard with an opt-out option (appearing as small font disclaimers at the edge of the message of course), so you won’t have to worry about it. Sweet, right?

Well, this about sums up this part 1 post on email marketing. Next post I will go into the technical aspects of opt-in mailing and discuss the concepts of mail servers and mass email software. Stay tuned! Until next time, I invite you to explore our awesome and totally rewarding online pharmacy affiliate program page.