How To Make Money with Email Marketing

There are approximately 4.4 billion email users worldwide. With this massive potential audience, it’s no wonder that email marketing is one of the best ways to start making money online. Whether you’re an individual or a business, email marketing can prove to be a profitable channel. There are different ways in which you can use email marketing to monetize your email list and generate revenue.

In this blog, we’ll discover 5 ways to make money with email marketing and also discuss how you can start from scratch.

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a marketing channel that uses emails to inform customers about your products, services, and offers. It helps capture your audience's attention, drive engagement, and increase sales.

What do you need from email marketing?

If you're searching for ways to make money with email marketing, you're likely one of the two- an individual or a business.

If you're an individual, you might be looking for new ways to earn money through email marketing. On the other hand, if you're a business or an affiliate marketer, you're probably looking for strategies to use email marketing as a channel to increase your sales, drive engagement, and build brand awareness—all of which directly impact your revenue.

Whether you're aiming to make money as an individual or drive business growth, we've covered different strategies that will cater to your needs.

5 ways to make money from email marketing

Here are 5 ways that you can use to monetize your email marketing efforts.

1. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing refers to selling other people’s products and services in exchange for a commission. All you need to do is refer products or services to your audience using an affiliate link and earn a commission for each purchase made through your referral link. If you are a fitness coach with a huge social media following and a good email list, you can promote nutritional supplements to your audience by sharing affiliate links in your emails.

Here’s an email from App Sumo where they promoted Oviond, a marketing data platform.

2. Sell your own products and services

If you’re a brand or business, you can use email marketing as a direct promotion channel to sell your own products and services. To do this, start with creating promotional email campaigns offering discounts, announcing product launches, and sharing special deals with your subscribers. Here are some other ways in which you can use email marketing to increase your sales.

Cross-selling: Cross-selling is when you recommend related or complementary products to customers based on what they’ve already purchased. For instance, if your customers have bought a mobile, you can suggest a phone case or headphones that go with it.

For example, the below email from Crate and Barrel offers relevant product recommendations depending on purchase history of the buyer.

Upselling: Upselling is when you encourage customers to buy a premium version of a product or service they’ve purchased. For example, if a customer has purchased a standard lipstick, you might suggest a luxury or long-lasting version.

The below email from PostPace is a perfect example of upselling.

Abandoned cart recovery: You can also send cart abandonment emails to potential customers who didn’t complete their purchase. Include personalized messaging and incentives to remind them of their pending purchase and encourage them to return and complete the purchase.

This email from Better Brand is a perfect example of an abandoned cart email with clever copy and aesthetic use of images and brand colors.

Product recommendations: Product recommendation emails are personalized emails that recommend related products to customers based on their previous purchases, browsing history, or preferences. These emails include phrases such as "You might also like," "Customers who bought this also bought," or "Recommended for you."

This email showcases items that align with the customer's interests or previous purchases.

3. Start a paid newsletter

If you are a thought leader, coach, or motivational speaker and have built a solid email list, you’re already ahead of the curve. You can now convert your loyal audience into paying subscribers. Here’s how:

• Convert your email series into a paid newsletter.

• Create a premium version of your regular newsletter with exclusive resources and insights.

Before you start, gather feedback from your existing email subscribers. Ask them if they’re willing to pay for a premium newsletter. What kind of content would they be interested in? What price do they find affordable?

While brands focus on free email newsletters to engage their audience, paid newsletters are better for people sharing unique expertise.

Take Stratechery Plus by Ben Thompson as an example. It is a premium newsletter that offers valuable information about technology and its societal impact. The subscription costs $15/month and offers access to exclusive daily updates, additional articles, and podcast content that isn't available in the free version.

4. Create and share resources

Creating and sharing resources is a great way to grow your email list and monetize it. The best way is to offer free digital products such as checklists, templates, or guides to attract subscribers. This helps you showcase your expertise and offer immediate value, encouraging people to sign up for your email list.

Once you have set a strong relationship with your audience through free content, you can start premium offerings such as online courses, live webinars (sell recordings), and digital downloads (eBooks).

The email from Jessie Van Brugel convinces subscribers to download the case study guide and highlights different ways he can help people grow on LinkedIn. The email is a perfect example as it combines informative content with CTAs, making it a tool for lead generation and prompting people to take the next step.

5. Sponsored content

Including sponsored content in your emails is an effective way to make money from email marketing. However, this method works only for those who have been around for some time and have a strong, engaged email list. Advertisers are more likely to partner with you if they know their content will reach a larger audience for more exposure.

Its similar to influencer marketing but through email. Just as brands collaborate with influencers to promote their products, they also partner with individuals who have a strong email following or solid email list. They pay you to promote their offerings within your content. You can showcase these promotions in newsletters and emails.

Here’s how you can do it:

• Place classified ads throughout your newsletter, giving visibility to your sponsors.

• Create dedicated emails for a brand, its products, and services, allowing advertisers to target your audience.

This email from The Marketing Advantage newsletter is an example of sponsored email where it promotes HubSpot’s guide that covers how AI can enhance your productivity and creativity.

How to start with email marketing

Making money with email marketing involves strategic planning and execution. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started:

1. Define your goals: Decide what you want to achieve from your email marketing efforts. Answering these questions will help you set your main marketing goals and objectives. You can then create your email marketing strategy according to your specific goals.

2. Build an email list: An email list includes the email addresses of people who are interested in your brand or engage with your content. Here’s how you can build an email list:

• Offer lead magnets, such as free guides, discounts, or exclusive content to encourage sign-ups.

• Implement sign-up forms on your website and landing pages.

• Collect email addresses during online webinars or in-person event registration.

3. Choose an email marketing platform: Choose an email marketing platform that suits your needs and offers features that you may need at a reasonable cost. Here are some of the features you might need:

• Pre-built email templates

• Analytics and reporting

• Segmentation

• Drag-and-drop email builder

• Integration capabilities

• List management

If you’re new and don’t know a good email marketing platform, you can try Mailmodo. It is an all-in-one email service provider that helps you create AMP-powered interactive emails. Its intuitive platform allows you to send automated emails, set up trigger campaigns and customer journeys, and track the performance of your email marketing campaigns.

4. Create your emails: Create high-quality content that provides value to your subscribers. This could include informative guides/articles, offers, product updates, newsletters, and personalized recommendations. If you're looking for design ideas for your email, check out Mailmodo's template library.

5. Set up automation: After creating your email campaign, set up email automation to send your emails based on triggers, user behavior, or specific time intervals. This allows your messages to reach your audience when they're most likely to engage, without the need for manual intervention.

6. Test and optimize your campaigns: Conduct A/B tests on different email elements such as subject lines, designs, and CTAs. This helps you to determine what resonates best with your audience. You must also test your emails for any design or formatting issues before you send them to your recipients.

7. Monitor metrics: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates. Review your campaigns to assess their performance. If these metrics aren’t good, you must reconsider and improve your strategy.

Conclusion

Email marketing is a great tool to make money and you shouldn’t refrain from making complete use of it. By following the various strategies outlined above in the guide, you can begin your email marketing journey today and start making money. Plan and execute carefully by following the steps we’ve outlined in the article to drive conversions, growth, and profits.