Email List for Affiliate Marketing [Complete Actionable Guide]

List building is one of the scariest things in any business…

But it’s an absolute requirement for affiliate marketing. In fact, your email list is your ONLY asset in affiliate marketing and should be treated as the foundation of your business.

But when you try to learn how to build a list all you find are the same useless tips over and over again:

• “Put an opt-in form on your website”;
• “Optimize your website for opt-ins”;
• Etc…

This post will guide you through all the steps of building an email list specifically for affiliate marketing. You’ll find examples to give you a better understanding and templates you can download and use for yourself.

Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means that if you click on the link and buy something, I will receive an affiliate commission. This has no cost to you and I only recommend tools that I use or have used myself and that are within the most useful, to the best of my knowledge.

Here’s the plan:

(Quick Overview)

• Step 1 – Create Content
  • 1.1. Choose a niche
  • 1.2. Choose an affiliate program or product(s)
  • 1.3. Refine your audience
  • 1.4. Choose a channel
  • 1.5. Create very specific content
• Step 2 – Create an irresistible offer
  • 2.1. Find a very specific action within your niche that will help your audience get started
  • 2.2. Choose a format that best fits your audience and the offer
  • 2.3. Build a landing page to present the offer to your audience
• Step 3 – Bring visitors to your content
  • 3.1. Choose 1 source of traffic
    • Social
    • Search
    • Free (Organic)
    • Paid
• Step 4 – Follow-up with your new subs
  • 4.1. Set up an automated email sequence
  • 4.2. Segment according to interests and actions
  • 4.3. Broadcast new offers and content

But first…

Why you MUST have an Email List for Affiliate Marketing

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The Old Affiliate Marketing is Dead

In the past, you could just find a good affiliate product (with good commissions), buy some Ads and drive traffic to it.

Most of the times, people made a lot of money with this simple model.

I mean, that’s all affiliate marketing is, right? 

Drive traffic to an offer…

Wrong!

It used to work when the competition was low, but even then, you’d depend on the price of the Ads and how much each buyer cost vs your affiliate commission.

Let’s say you paid $1 per click on Facebook Ads and 1 out of 100 (1%) visitors to your page would buy the product ($10 per buyer). 

If the product costs $30 and pays 40% commission ($12), you’re profiting $2 ($12 commission – $10 to get a buyer).

I understand how attractive this might look… but it’s also extremely dangerous and unstable.

You’d be tempted to think that with a higher ticket product you’d profit more, but it would also cost you more to get someone to buy!

The New and Improved Affiliate Marketing (Leveraging Your Asset)

But what if instead of paying for traffic directly to an offer, you’d place an opt-in form in front of them in exchange for some kind of bonus?

If done right, you can get from 20 to 50% of visitors you paid for to opt-in to your email list and the same 1% (or even more after your bonus) to buy the product.

You’ll then go on to market to them through email…

Even if these numbers change (Ad price increases or buyer rate decreases) and you stop being profitable, you’ve now acquired a prospect, a possible client onto your email list. 

Your asset!

A list of people who have some kind of interest in what you have to say or offer.

And even if this prospect doesn’t take your first offer, they might take another one later on that is more appropriate and timely to them.

Or after they’ve received more value from you and started trusting you more.

If you’re interested in affiliate marketing but don’t know where to start, here’s an easy guide, to save you time and money: “How to Start Affiliate Marketing and go Full-Time in 100 Days”

Let’s get into the action steps of building your email list for affiliate marketing.

Step 1 – Create Content

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Earlier, I explained the numbers with paid traffic, but instead of spending money on traffic, you can also create content that will help a specific audience.

This will help you create organic traffic (visitors) and warm up the audience before they even subscribe to your list.

By consuming your content, they’re already somewhat thankful and familiar with you. 

You’ve now earned some trust.

Even if you choose to go solely with paid traffic, you can apply the next steps.

If you’re looking for all the ways to build a list without a website, take a look at this: “Top 10 Email List Building Strategies [No-Website Complete Guide]”

1.1 – Choose a Niche

You need to choose a niche (market sector) in which you want to work.

There are 3 main market categories: 

• Health
• Wealth 
• Relationships 

For each, there are countless submarkets…

It helps to enter a niche you already have some knowledge or at least some interest in.

For the purpose of this guide, I’ll use Marketing and Business Startup – this is a submarket of the main market Wealth.

This is the niche I love and wake up every day inspired to work on.

It motivates me the most to help others build their own businesses and achieve success!

1.2 – Choose an Affiliate Program or Product(s)

You can now choose a product (or more), or an affiliate program to promote to your audience.

After choosing a good affiliate program, it will be much easier to refine your target audience.

Here, I’ll use my favorite software and affiliate program: Clickfunnels.

Clickfunnels is my absolute favorite for this business because you can build your whole affiliate business with it and on it. 

It serves you as a tool and has several products to promote.

To find out why Clickfunnels’ Affiliate Program is superior to most read my post: “Definitive Guide to Clickfunnels Affiliate Program”

If you’re in the Wealth sector, you can also promote Clickfunnels, regardless of the submarket you’ve chosen.

If you’re going with one of the other two, have a look at Clickbank to find products you might be interested in promoting.

Three other networks you can go with are ShareASale, Awin and CJ Affiliate (aka Commission Junction).

Access the Affiliate Program Search here!

A good rule of thumb for success with an affiliate product is to promote only something you’d recommend to your best friend.

1.3 – Refine your Target Audience

Now that you know exactly what your market is and the product(s) you want to promote, you need to dig deeper into your target audience and find a sub-niche where you can thrive.

Most people fail with affiliate marketing because they try to either invent a new market or dive into an overcrowded one.

The best way to get started is to enter an existing market and create a very specific section where you can become an expert.

Imagine you love books and used to work in the publishing sector. You can choose to teach people how to launch and promote their books with Clickfunnels.

A good and refined audience for you could be kindle publishers who need leverage to boost their business.

Find out exactly how to refine your audience in this post: “Ideal Client Profile to Start a Business [A Beginner Friendly Tutorial]”.

1.4 – Choose your Channel

Here, you’ll choose what type of content you’d like to create and also the channel you’ll be using to create it.

The types of content you can create are:

• Text
• Image
• Video
• Audio

Once you’ve chosen which type of content suits you and your audience better, it’s time to choose the channel.

Text

Most of the times in the form of blogging. 

• Pros are: always existing demand and you owning the platform (website).
• Cons are: being extremely competitive and technical (to get traffic).

Image

You can use Instagram or Pinterest.

• Pros are: you’re probably already using them and they’re easier to get traffic from.
• Cons are: you don’t own the platform and are subject to their changes.

Video

Most commonly Youtube.

• Pros are: the biggest potential for fast growth and an excellent traffic source.
• Cons are: you don’t own the platform and it’s extremely competitive.

Audio

Podcasting (different platforms).

• Pros are: you can leverage many platforms (iTunes, Google podcasts, etc) and the need for audio content keeps increasing.
• Cons are: you don’t own the platforms and setting up a podcast can be a bit technical.

1.5 – Create Very Specific Content

There are many ways to promote your content, but with all of these channels, you can leverage their existing audience by being very specific and becoming an authority.

Take this website, for example. 

I’ve made the mistake of writing about everything in my niche…

Will Google give me the attention I need to get traffic?

Yes. But it will take a while… (years)

How can you speed up this process?

By being very specific!

Because I am a Certified Email Marketing Specialist, I have now decided to create as much content as I can around Email Marketing.

Even more specifically, Email Marketing for Affiliate Marketing.

The same applies to Youtube or any of the other channels.

Step 2 – Create an Irresistible Offer (aka Lead Magnet)

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Now that you know who you want to help, you’ve decided which content you want to create and where to publish it, you need to give your audience a reason to subscribe to your email list.

This is your first actual transaction.

Don’t take it lightly. 

You’ll be offering something of high value to someone in exchange for their time and contact information.

2.1 – Help them Take the First Step

The best way to get your audience to become email subscribers for your affiliate marketing business is to offer them something that will make it easier to achieve their goals, even before they buy the product you’re promoting.

Preferably, this will move them closer to the product.

In the example we’ve been using, in order to become a successful Clickfunnels Affiliate, the ideal first step is to go through the “Affiliate Bootcamp”.

This is a 4-day program where you can access presentations of current Super Affiliates giving you the exact formulas they used to go full-time in only 100 days!

You can Access the Bootcamp here for FREE!

You’ll also get access to a complete training that will make you a Clickfunnels expert in no time, and a copy of my high-converting landing page design to use it for yourself!

2.2 – Choose a Format for your Offer

You’ll need to choose a format to present your valuable content that best fits the offer and your audience.

6 Types of Lead Magnets to Build an Email List for Affiliate Marketing:

• A Cheat Sheet
• A Blueprint or a Map
• A Template
• A Swipe File
• Video Training
• Exclusive Interviews

Because of the competitive nature of affiliate marketing, the best way to promote something like Clickfunnels is to bundle various offers.

Notice that I didn’t just offer to send you to the Affiliate Bootcamp. Any Clickfunnels affiliate can do that…

I’m offering you a Free Clickfunnels training and a copy of my landing page. 

(And I’m still working on more offers. The first to get them will be my email subscribers).

Why do I give so much away for free?

Because the most important thing for me is to build my email list, and the content that I create is all aimed at helping you succeed with affiliate marketing.

When you succeed, I succeed. That’s the beauty of affiliate marketing (done right)!

2.3 – Build a Landing Page (Present your Offer to your Audience)

Like I mentioned before, you can just copy my landing page when you subscribe to my list through the Affiliate Bootcamp, but you need to understand how to build a high-converting landing page.

This is the page that turns visitors into subscribers – the most important action for an affiliate marketer. 

Either you choose to pay for traffic or get it organically (pay with your time), you want the most amount of visitors to this page to get into your email list.

A well-optimized landing page for the same offer can up the conversion from 20% to 50%!

Teaching everything about landing pages would be a full guide in on itself (or a book), and I haven’t written that one yet.

But an easier way to learn for yourself how to design the highest converting landing pages is to study the best ones that already exist.

Once you have a Clickfunnels account, for which you can get a 14-Day Free Trial here, you’ll have access to dozens of their best landing pages in the form of templates and you can build yours from there.

Step 3 – Bring Visitors to Your Content (or Landing Page)

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If you’re not creating content, you’ll need to buy traffic to visit your landing page.

But If you are creating content, you still need to get some eyeballs on it and make it good enough for them to visit your landing page.

You can also complement your organic traffic with paid traffic, even if you have your own content.

3.1 – Types of Traffic

There are three types of traffic you can leverage:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – organic traffic.
• Social Media Channels – organic traffic.
• Digital Advertising – paid traffic.

Organic traffic, either through search or social channels, require a big time commitment and a lot of content creation, and it’s hard to predict WHEN you’ll get results. But when the visitors start coming, they rarely stop!

If you create very specific content consistently (like I mentioned previously), you’ll start getting some of that organic juice.

It’s hard to tell when, but if you don’t give up, they’ll come!

Digital advertising is immediate traffic on demand. You create a campaign, and the more money you put into it, the more traffic you’ll get.

Like I explained before, if you have a well-optimized landing page, a good offer and are targeting the right audience, you’ll be able to acquire subscribers at a profit or breaking even.

There is a little hack you can use to quickly get your first subscribers if you’re just starting out…

1. Grab a copy of my landing page here! 
2. Create your Email Follow-up (last step of this guide).
3. Buy traffic through Solo Ads.

What Are Solo Ads?

Someone with an already existing email list sends an email to their list promoting your offer, their subscribers will see your landing page and become your subscribers.

Easy, right?

But what are the cons?

There are two disadvantages to using Solo Ads:

1. The audience is NOT very targeted and only works for the Wealth market.
2. People on these email lists receive way too many emails and you must stand out to them.

But there are advantages…

1. They are extremely fast, easy and cheap.
2. You don’t need content outside of your emails.

Step 4 – Follow-up through Email

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You now have people subscribing to your email list on autopilot, and with some practice, you’re acquiring these leads for free or even at a profit.

This is not easy and not always achievable, so don’t get discouraged.

But even if you’re losing money to get those subscribers, don’t sweat it!

Your email list is your asset, remember?

You’ll now set up automated sequences which will continue to add value to your subscribers and offer different products that will help them achieve their goals and dreams.

These offers along with others you’ll be making to them along the way will not only pay for the growth of your list, but they will create exponential profits.

From the moment someone subscribes to your list you will not spend any more money on them, but they will eventually (sooner or later) pay you commissions.

To store your email subscribers, send them mass emails and set up email automations, you need an email marketing software. 

I use and recommend GetResponse. 

To see if it’s right for you, read my review here: “#1 Small Business Email Marketing Software – A GetResponse Review”

4.1 – Set up Automated Email Sequences

These emails will go out automatically to everyone who subscribes. You only have to set them up once.

You should set up different campaigns:

Welcome Sequence (Your First Dates)

This is a 3-day email sequence that will be:

1. Sent Immediately – welcome your subscribers and tell them you’ll share some valuable content on the next email.
2. Sent on Day 2 – share the content you promised and tell them more’s coming on the next email.
3. Sent on Day 3 – remind your subscribers that you’ll continue to share valuable content with them and highlight how opening your emails is worth it.

The purpose of these emails is for your subscribers to get to know you better, what you’re about and how they will benefit from being subscribed to your list.

It’s also important to set expectations of how often you’ll email and share some valuable content with them (other people content if you still don’t have yours).

You should NOT promote any products with these emails.

Engagement Sequence (Value First)

This campaign will be providing more value to your subscribers, but this time you’ll move them to the product in a logical manner.

Using the example of the “Affiliate Bootcamp” as a Lead Magnet, it’s very likely that many people haven’t gone through the interviews…

Either because they didn’t have time, life got in the way, or they just lost them (they can only access them for 24h)…

You can email them a compact version of some of your favorite.

This will work for both, those who didn’t watch them and those who did as they can use it as a reminder for the plan they want to follow.

The next product in line is the “One Funnel Away Challenge”, which is the best training possible to learn how to build a profitable sales funnel.

This is a 30-day training with some of the top Clickfunnels’ own experts which includes live sessions and accountability.

This training will help your subscribers achieve that full-time income faster and with less struggle.

This is why you present it to them!

Go with a 5 to 7-day campaign with the following format:

1. Value
2. Value
3. No-Email-Day or more Value
4. Proof
5. Proof (+ urgency)

Other Sequences

For every product from your initial line of products, you should create a similar campaign.

In the case of Clickfunnels, there are a lot of products that can help you succeed in affiliate marketing.

Don’t try to sell people on a product! Recommend only what you believe that can help them get to where they want to be.

If you’re serious about succeeding in affiliate marketing and building a profitable email list, I invite you to subscribe to my list through the Affiliate Bootcamp and read my emails carefully.

Model them for yourself. It’s the best and easiest way to start!

4.3 – Segment According to Interests and Actions

At first, your list won’t need much segmentation, especially if you’re only using one lead magnet and one sequence of products, but you should still filter out those who are not engaging with your emails.

Set up tags for those who open your emails or click on the links.

You can later offer the next logical product in the line.

Once you start using more lead magnets, you should also start segmenting according to interests, so you only email relevant offers to those interested in the subject.

4.3 – Broadcast New Offers and Promotions

This is where the automation stops, but also where you can make the biggest income from your list.

When there’s a new promotion with the products you offer or even a new product that you think will help your subscribers, send out a broadcast to your list.

Not just one email, follow a similar format to the engagement campaign.

Send out a sequence of 5 to 7 emails (more expensive products need longer campaigns), and always provide value first i.e. inform how the product will solve a problem their having.

Would you like to make sure you get the most amount of open rates from your email campaigns?

Read this post: “10 (Almost Unknown) Tips to Triple Your Email Open Rates”

Summing up your Email List Guide for Affiliate Marketing 

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In affiliate marketing, your email list is your only asset!

To build an email list for your affiliate marketing business you need:

1. An audience
2. An irresistible offer for your audience – you can either create yours or use an existing one (in some cases)
3. A landing page to present the offer to your audience

As important as building a list – and where most people fail – is to follow-up with your subscribers. This is where you gain their trust and create a relationship.

Don’t try to sell to your audience. Provide valuable information (content) and offer products that can improve their lives, they’ll buy them and love you for that.

What’s Next?

Start testing!

Do you create content? 

Place relevant offers in your content.

Copy my landing page or choose from one of the Clickfunnels’ templates. Then start tweaking for your audience.

Don’t have content? 

Start testing nevertheless!

You can test with the exact same offer I have here and solo Ads and see how it works for you.

The best way to start is to copy what’s working.

1. Access my Affiliate Bootcamp offer here!
2. Find my email linking to the download page and download your copy of the offer pages.
3. Create a welcome sequence and follow-up sequences in your email software – model the emails you receive from me to start but make sure to sound like yourself. (Don’t have an email platform? Consider getting a 30-day Free trial of GetResponse.)
4. Buy Solo Ads and see how they convert. (Start with only 100 clicks to test the traffic)
5. Measure your email campaign results. (Expect to get over 20% open rates on your welcome sequence and 10 to 20% on the others)
6. Start creating content!

Have you started your list already? How many subscribers do you have? How engaged are they? Leave a comment below and let me know.

Also, feel free to ask any questions you might have… I’ll answer!