Email marketing is commonly utilized as a communication tool between businesses and their customers, allowing companies to let their clients know the latest news about their company. But it has another usage most companies overlook: email marketing can be a great money-maker! Indeed, email  can enable companies to develop relationships with interested subscribers who can be potential clients.

The key to email marketing success is the opt-in email list. This is a list of subscribers who have provided their name and email address to receive more information about your products, services, or brand. Having a responsive email list is, without a doubt, the key to establishing customer trust. Small businesses, medium-scale enterprises, and large organizations can all benefit greatly from email marketing. There are also ways to generate money from direct email marketing. Among these are:

• Selling Advertising – when subscribers share their contact details with you, they do so in the expectations that you won’t share or sell their personal data to anyone else. Never abuse this trust. But you can still make money out of it by selling advertising space in your newsletters. The subscribers might even appreciate this if the ad is relevant to their interest.
• Sell Your Own Products – promote “exclusive discounts” through email marketing. This will let subscribers feel special. Also, if they are already interested in what you have to offer, a slight push like discounting is enough to make a sale.
• Sell Affiliate Products – offer affiliate products that complement your own. The strategy usually results to additional sales. There are certain affiliate offers that will let you earn recurring income for every click generation. Recurring income can also be expected if you promote membership sites.

As you can see, email marketing can be the solution both for short-term profits and long-term business. The strategies above are just some of the ingenious ways you can make money from having an opt-in mailing list. Other suggestions include asking for donations to keep your site going and promoting an upgrade (if the subscriber is using a free version of your software, etc). Depending on your particular business, there may be industry-specific promotions you can take advantage of.

In summary, there are myriad ways to use email marketing as a tool of generating income. Keep in mind that similar to any other endeavor, the success of this strategy lies in proper planning. The potential for your company to do great things with email marketing is significant: make sure to use it wisely.

Author Byline:

Phillip Shorts heads the internet marketing division for Premiere Tree Services of Greensboro.