Your Guide to Cold Email Affiliate Marketing

Jul 21, 2021

One type of content for affiliate marketing will come out on top – but which one will it be?

You might be wondering what cold marketing means. In short, any leads that you approach are often considered cold leads as they did not leave you their contact information. On the other hand, hot leads are people who have either left their contact information, began, or completed the registration process. They will only become clients once they make their first deposit.

Please note that the term cold leads can also refer to previously interested leads who had enough time to lose said interest. Striking while the iron is hot is not just an old saying when it comes to sales.

In cold email affiliate marketing, the affiliate sends out campaigns to his accumulated database. While email marketing has proved itself as an incredible way to both increase sales and maintain your service provider-client relationship, it can still be a bit of a challenge.

Discover our best tips for building your next best email campaign below!

Making The Right Choices
The Formula for a Successful Campaign
The Fatal Mistakes of Any Email Campaign

Making The Right Choices

Cartoon of a nervous looking guy trying to decide between two buttons.

When creating an affiliate marketing campaign, you will need to choose the correct email type. The two major archetypes of popular emails include but are not limited to:

Content promotion. Digital PR that notifies readers or clients of an article, blog post, webinar, or any other feature that may help them make better use of your service.
Promotion or sales pitch. An email designed to draw attention to your service from new leads or registered clients who have yet to make a deposit.

B2B email affiliate marketing campaigns may also include the following email types in order to help grow your business:

Media pitch. An offer to collaborate with journalists, bloggers, or influencers in your industry.
Brand pitch. An offer to collaborate with advertisers in your industry that your target audience may be interested in.
Link building. A request often made by SEO and outreach professionals for an inbound link.
Networking. An invitation towards another professional in your niche that may lead to a collaboration in the near future.

“Striking while the iron is hot is not just an old saying when it comes to sales.”

The Formula for a Successful Campaign

Formulas written in white on a black background.

Any lucrative cold email affiliate marketing campaign requires a few standards are addressed and maintained from its starting point till the finish line. Even missing or overlooking one of these aspects can be the breaking moment for your creative, no matter how strong your message is or how good the service you offer. Here are the steps you will need to take to ensure your campaign brings in your desired results:

Segment your audience. Make sure your target audience is not too diverse, as one image or text rarely works well for all age groups, ethnic groups, and genders. The better you do your homework, the better are your chances of your email affiliate marketing campaigns getting a response.
Subject line with a hook.If you want to reel those affiliate marketing leads in, you need to write a subject line that is short, to the point, and is interesting enough to catch their eye. Some brands use emojis, whereas others use all caps for parts of their subject line.
Add a personal touch. Personalizing an email by addressing a lead by name or acknowledging a step they have completed makes your audience feel seen as individuals rather than another name on your CRM.
That finishing touch.While it is too easy to use a popular call to action (CTA), we are not here for basic texts. We are here for excellent ad copy that gets your clients through the door. Dare to go big with your texts – just don’t go overboard.

The Fatal Mistakes of Any Email Campaign

There some deadly mistakes you can make when building a cold email marketing campaign.

There are a few surefire ways of killing a cold email affiliate marketing campaign. The first cardinal sin of email campaigns is using templates. There are few things in digital marketing that sound as robotic and detached as these dreaded templates. If you must use them, at the very least, personalize them, so they have a better chance of getting your leads’ attention.

The other all too common deadly sin is not following up on that first email. While the odds may not be in your favor the first time around, leads have been proven to respond if you send them more than one email per subject. If you are offering a fantastic promotion, make sure to send at least 1-2 reminder emails after the first one goes out. Let’s say one each week until the offer runs out of time.