Advertising via a newsletter is a great way of reaching new audiences. It performs especially well if the email database matches the offer you promote. As an affiliate marketer, it is a good practice to collect your own email database with a themed markup to use in the future. These are of much higher quality than what you can find for sale on the Internet, because you know your audience and can assess their reaction to your advertising.
But what if you don’t want to get into the depth of email marketing yourself? What parameters should be taken into account to make the ad work and how to find a suitable newsletter you can rely on? Bear with us to find the answers!
The audience
This may seem too obvious, but this point is of tantamount importance to choose the correct newsletter for your campaigns. For instance, it will be unfitting if not outright silly to promote a luxury car in a newsletter dedicated to knitting and DIY. Make sure that your ad fits the angle and the context of the letters to get the maximum attention from the readers.
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Being open about audience compatibility is in the owner’s best interest as well. If their readers see more and more unrelated ads in the letters, unsubscriptions will follow. If the owner doesn’t want to share this rather basic information, better choose someone else to cooperate with.
Open rate statistics
Open rate (OR) is an indicator that shows the percentage of readers who open the emails they receive. The higher the rate — the more attractive the newsletter. To give you more background: an average successful OR is about 21.33% regardless of the industry.
Usually newsletter owners advertise higher open rates as their advantage, but it is important to remember, that there is a total open rate and a unique open rate. Total OR counts all the repeated opens of the email as well, so it is not a very reliable indicator.
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Always ask the newsletter owner for the unique open rate.
Prices
If you are willing to place your ads in a third-party newsletter, you already know that it’s time to add a new line in the expenses report. But how much is enough? What if the owner is asking for an unreasonable sum, promising you a miraculously high return on investment?
The answer is — hold your ground and be skeptical. Of course, the work put into assembling a performing newsletter and into collecting a good subscriber database deserve to be paid for. But you should know the market average and settle on the price you are ready to pay.
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Ask the owner about the average number of clicks per sponsored placement. Calculate the CPC by dividing the price tag by this number and see if the number is adequate. For most verticals, a fair newsletter CPC does not exceed $5.
General attitude
If you don’t get enough information about the newsletter KPIs and see that the owner is not willing to reveal the numbers, it is a reason to consider other options. Successful newsletter owners understand the importance of the statistics and see the reasons for your inquires.
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Be careful if you can’t get enough information about the newsletter from the owner.
Blend in
Once you have decided on the newsletter, make sure that your approach is consistent with the content of the messages. Match the voice, style, and color palette. Nothing can be more distracting than a bright patch on a black car, right? Do your best to be native.
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Check the guides on the best approaches to creatives, consult the industry forums and chats if you are in doubt.
Collaborating with newsletter owners is a great option for promoting your ads if you don’t want to spend your time and effort on building and perfecting a mail-out. The negative stories we see online painting this channel black derive mostly from the lack of checks and information. Yes, the global web is full of dangers, but now you are a tad better prepared for the battle.
If you want to reach new GEOs and audiences, maybe it is all waiting for you on Telegram? We’ve prepared some material about Telegram audiences. What are the messenger’s users like this year? How old they are, what they do, and what they are interested in!
