While some believe email marketing is an outdated form of business, others take advantage of it, as email is an infinite source of business operations. Thus, you can turn it into a revenue stream with the right strategy and customer list by blending new forms of marketing with the well-known techniques of attracting leads.
However, reaching success with email means not repeating common mistakes, such as sending long emails, using the inappropriate brand tone, or even using AI too much. The secret code to creating a balanced strategy is to use creativity in a smart way and leverage automation just enough to speed things up. So, let’s see some ingenious ways to make money through email.
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Develop a newsletter
Everyone is having a newsletter these days, but this is far from being a negative aspect, because we need to improve our media literacy by reading texts that break down what is happening around us instead of doomscrolling on social media. So, if you think your insights are valuable and can organize information attractively, create a newsletter that you share weekly or monthly with your customer list.
Starting is easy, as you only need to choose a reliable mail provider that provides high levels of encryption for safety reasons, allows no ads on the platform, and is open source. The most intensive task is to actually develop the content and establish the brand voice you’re going to use for the long term. It is important that you offer valuable information without forcing people to click on links or buy your products, while continuously optimizing the content with high-quality pictures and the right formatting.
Experiment with being an email chat agent
Although customer support is now heavily expanding towards AI chatbots, human support is still needed to discern the particularities of a case and make a better decision. Customers might become frustrated at how AI handles responses and be prone to generalization according to the information it has been fed, and here is where human intelligence is needed.
Being an email chat agent is quite straightforward since you communicate with customers only via email to be able to process documents, send longer emails, and guide people towards solving their issues. If you are a master of managing multiple inquiries at the same time, this is the kind of side hustle for you. However, you may need to specialize in the industry you’re working in to be able to offer better responses to broader issues.
Consider email copywriting
Email copywriting isn’t that different from regular copywriting, but the distinct feature lies in the channel or platform you’re using to create and send the texts. Email copywriting is suitable, for example, for email marketing campaigns where you need to write an engaging text and choose a convincing CTA (call to action), and send the content to all the people in your list. Luckily, in this case, you can and should use automation to personalize emails for everyone in your target audience.
As an email copywriter, you may do different things besides creating a newsletter for a company, such as promotional emails or email campaigns that each serve a different outcome and require distinct strategies. You will still need to track metrics like the open rate and the bounce rate to ensure your writing gets through to people, but overall, writing engaging and valuable texts will be your main focus.
Try affiliate email marketing
Affiliate email marketing is great if you already have a newsletter going on, but you can also do it behind a company, as many rely on this strategy for benefits like cost-effectiveness, measurable results, and direct connection to customers. For affiliate marketing, you will need to master skills from the previous side hustles, such as creating a marketing campaign or writing texts to insert your client’s products or services organically in the content, and establish a flowy email.
There are many tools for affiliate email marketing that will offer tools like the option to do automated emails, offer templates for landing pages, or even help you host webinars effortlessly. However, since you will have to master the art of placing the affiliate link effectively, you will have to follow a few principles, such as wrapping the link into a context rather than making it the entire point of the email, so it will be less promotional overall. At the same time, you will need to manage the CTAs to be both clear and effective.
Contribute to email autoresponder templates
Autoresponder emails are necessary to engage with customers following their interest in your brand or a purchase, but most tend to sound rather robotic, especially with the use of AI. However, when you craft them with the purpose of having an individual impact, chances are emails will reach the right audience and reach their purpose.
You can use a template to work on, but personalize each for the occasion. In the email, you will need to outline the most important information while providing the reader with a good reason to read it, while eliminating any filler words. This seems challenging, right? But it is the necessary strategy to be listened to.
The subject line is considerably important, along with the open section where you explain to the customer your approach to the problem. The body should contain the rest of the information, while your signature can make the difference between a successful and a failed email, so maybe you should consider the smart and funny way Gen Z signs their emails (”May the force be with you” might do wonders).
Final considerations
Email is still one of the most efficient ways through which marketers reach customers, but you can take advantage of it as a side hustle as well. You can become an email agent, be an email copywriter, or even create your own newsletter and expand your knowledge into the world. Being an affiliate email marketer is also efficient if you know how to create the right content, but being a writer of email autoresponder templates might also do the trick.
