10 Pro Tips for B2B Marketing on Pinterest

We think of Pinterest as a lifestyle social network, chock full of party ideas, crafts, home decor inspiration, recipes, and fitness routines. But Pinterest is so much more than that. It’s become an asset to marketers who want to show off their visual content and drive traffic to their sites.
And here’s a notable benefit of Pinterest marketing. According to this infographic, the half-life of a Pin is a whopping 3.5 months. That’s 1,680 times longer than the half-life of a Facebook post. And don’t even get me started on the 24-minute half-life of a Tweet. Which means that the effort you put into your Pinterest presence will pay dividends for a long time.
And the value of Pinterest marketing isn’t limited to B2C businesses. Pinterest can supply fresh traffic and leads to B2B businesses as well. In this post, I’ll share 10 tips for B2B Marketing on Pinterest.

1. Pin a Variety of Visual Content

Pinterest is for visual content. That’s why so many B2B businesses often think Pinterest isn’t for them. They feel like they don’t have enough—or in fact any—visual content to share.
So, first of all, if you don’t have any visual content, it’s time to get cracking. Content marketing is the future of marketing, and the sexiness of visual content is undeniable.
But don’t wait until you have a fresh bank of visual assets before you dip your feet into the Pinterest pool. Trust me, you have more visual content than you realize. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Product images. Post your product images and link back to your site’s product pages.
• Quotes. Create graphic quotes that would inspire your target audience. Canva makes the job quick and easy.
• Blog posts. Pin your blog posts to drive people back to your site.
• Events. Pin photos of company and industry events.
• Employees. Show off photos of team members. Let your unique company culture shine through pinned photos of your inter-company social events.
• Marketing materials. Pin the covers of your e-books, white papers, and brochures—with links to where the materials can be downloaded.
• Presentations. Put your decks to work for you. Create a board for each presentation and pin key slides to the board.
• Industry-related topics. Share infographics and other pieces that are relevant to your industry.
• Tips and recommendations. Be helpful to your prospects and clients. Curate tips and recommendations to make their lives easier. Create boards on books you recommend, great blogs for them to follow, podcasts, and apps.
• Targeted boards. Create specific boards that cater to the needs and interests of individual industries and your different personas.

2. Balance Quality and Personality

When you create a new board, aim to make it the best board on that topic, and include a wide variety of quality pins. But while you target quality, don’t be afraid to show your personality. Quirkiness and humour can be very effective at making you stand out on Pinterest.

3. Use Pinterest to Find Great Content

Don’t limit your Pinterest presence to your own content. Round out your boards with content that your audience will enjoy, from other sources.
Don’t have time to scour the Web for that content? Follow relevant Pinners to fill your feed with quality Pins that you can conveniently re-Pin to your boards.

4. Use Great Images

Attention-grabbing imagery is key on Pinterest. Make sure you’re using the optimal image size for your Pins, board images, and profile images.
Use stunning photography, beautiful fonts and place subtle branding in the corners of your images. And make it easy for your site visitors to pin your content right from your site. Make sure that all your posts and pages contain at least one Pinnable image.

5. Write Quality Copy

Of course, great imagery that your Pinterest audience wants to click is key. But don’t forget to make your copy work for you too. Think of your descriptions as ad copy. Make them engaging enough to earn a click. And add compelling calls to action to help convert visitors to your site.

6. SEO Your Boards and Pins

Pinterest can be an asset in your SEO efforts. The more people re-pin your site content, the more backlinks your site earns. And social signals can improve your rankings.
To help people find your Pins on both Pinterest and Google, optimize your profile, boards, and pins. Search Engine Watch offers up some great advice here on how to do that.
But how about the Pins that are created directly from your site? You can’t always count on Pinners to enter a keyword-rich description on those pins. Many won’t enter a description at all. Give Pinners a hand by enabling Rich Pins, which automatically pull some of the post content into the description.

7. Get the Data

To help you decide what new content to create and post to Pinterest, you need to understand how your current content is performing. And for that, you’re going to need to get the data. Here are three great sources of analytics data for Pinterest.
To start with, access the analytics data for your Pinterest business page here. You’ll find a variety of engagement insights about your pins.
Next, remember that not everyone pins from Pinterest. Find out what content people are pinning directly from your site by visiting pinterest.com/source/example.com. (Substitute example.com for your domain.)
Finally, use Google Analytics to monitor engagement and conversion metrics for your Pinterest traffic.

8. Research Your Ideal Client

Are you trying to get a better understand of who your ideal client is as a person? Pinterest can provide a wealth of data. Just check out the boards of your clients and people who have repinned your pins. What else are they pinning? What insights can you glean from their boards?

9. Research Content Ideas

If content creation is a priority for you, you’ll hit occasional droughts in content ideas. (It happens to the best of us, believe me.) Pinterest’s guided search is effective for unearthing content ideas and curation opportunities around a topic.

10. Get Inspired by the Greats

Why reinvent the wheel when you can follow the lead of other great brands? Check out these great Pinterest business pages to see how it’s done:

• Hootsuite
• Intel
• General Electric
• IBM
• Fedex
• Marketo
• Hubspot

11. Bonus tip: Collaborate with Clients and Partners

Ok so this isn’t really a marketing, so consider it a bonus. Pinterest is a fantastic tool for collaborating with clients.
I use it whenever I build a visual asset for a new client – whether it’s a video, presentation, infographic or Website. So that I don’t waste time building a piece my client won’t like, I strive to get into my client’s head before I begin. I try to get a sense of the design styles that resonate with them.
Sure, I could have them fill out a client brief. But that exercise feels too esoteric to some of my clients. What’s worked brilliantly for me instead is to create a secret board on Pinterest, and add my client as a contributor. My client then spends time Pinning images, photos, colour palettes, fonts, and websites they love. Before long, I know exactly what they’re after and can deliver on their vision.

Over To You

Have you been using Pinterest in your B2B marketing? If not, why? If so, have I missed any key points? I’d love to hear from you. Please share in the comments.



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5 Easy Tricks to Help You Write Catchy Headlines

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar. 
—David Ogilvy

In a world full of noise, how do you get people to actually read what you write? It takes more than good content or great design. The most important part of writing an article is the headline.

The same principle applies to blog posts, book chapters, and so on: The title is where your focus should be. You should begin and end every article with the question: “Would this make me want to read on?”
If not, don’t publish until you’ve got a catchy headline. Concentrate on this, and you’ll get more readers, more buzz, and more love.

How to write catchy headlines

Too often the headline is the most neglected part of writing an article. People just gloss over it without taking much time to consider it. In their minds, it’s the cherry on top. No, friends; it’s not. The headline is the sundae.
I sometimes deliberate over titles for 30–60 minutes before settling on one that works. And I often go back and change them. This is what it takes to write a good headline.
If you need some help concocting catchier headlines, here are a few simple tricks (you can also watch me walk you through this in the free video and checklist.that accompanies this post).

Use numbers

There’s a reason why so many copywriters use numbers in their headlines. It works.
Do an experiment: Go to the grocery store, and scan the magazines in the checkout lane. Look at the front-page article headlines. It doesn’t matter if it’s a fitness magazine or a tabloid; many of them will be using numerals to start off the headline.
There aren’t really any rules (as far as I know) regarding what numbers work best, but people typically only remember three to five points. That said, sometimes a really obscure number like 19 or 37 can catch people’s attention.

Use interesting adjectives

Here are some examples:

• Effortless
• Painstaking
• Fun
• Free
• Incredible
• Essential
• Absolute
• Strange

Use unique rationale

If you’re going to do a list post, be original. For example consider the following:

• Reasons
• Principles
• Facts
• Lessons
• Ideas
• Ways
• Secrets
• Tricks

If possible, never use things. Please, for the love of Pete, don’t use things. You can do better than that.

Use what, why, how, or when

These are trigger words. I typically use “why” and “how” the most, because I’m often trying to persuade or enable someone. Typically, you’ll use either a trigger word or a number. Rarely does it sound good to do both.

Make an audacious promise

Promise your reader something valuable. Will you teach her how to learn a new skill? Will you persuade her to do something she’s never done before? Will you unlock an ancient mystery?
What you want to do is dare your reader to read the article. Without over-promising, be bold. Be seductive (in the most innocuous way possible, of course). Be dangerous. And then deliver what you promised.

Try this formula

Here’s a simple headline-writing formula:
Number or Trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise
Example: Take the subject “bathing elephants.” You could write an article entitled, “How to Bath an Elephant” or “Why I Love Bathing Elephants.”
Or you could apply this formula and make it: “18 Unbelievable Ways You Can Bathe an Elephant Indoors”
Another (more serious) example: Take a bold promise like “selling your house in a day.”
Apply the formula and you get: “How You Can Effortlessly Sell Your Home in Less than 24 Hours”
People don’t want to be tricked into reading something boring; they want to be drawn into something exciting. Make it worth their while.
Take extra long time to consider what headline will grab people’s attention the most, and make sure that it describes your content in an honest, but attractive, way. They won’t regret it, and neither will you.
You can go grab the downloadable checklist that accompanies this blog post right here.

What tricks for writing catchy headlines do you use? Share in the comments.



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Using Facebook for Business the SMART way: 3 Ways to Monetize Boosted Posts

 Have you ever thought to yourself... "Why bother with social media, really? I mean, it's so hard to measure the worth of social campaigns directly. So much of it is just general exposure, and how vague is that? Especially when it comes to paying for this exposure with boosted posts on Facebook."

Many people think along these lines, and fair enough too, considering that a business must always consider the return on investment for any venture.

The unfortunate part comes when some marketers make the mistake of trying to monetize their efforts on Facebook right there and then, to make it "worth it" sooner rather than later. 

Their instinct is to rush into posting "Come and buy this thing we've got!" or "We've got a sale! Quick, go now!" They want to make money to justify their time and effort, and they want to make it now. My response to that is this:

Don't panic that your social media efforts don't directly lead to sales, as trying to push things in that direction too quickly can actually damage your brand image. It might seem like an excitingly low-cost option for plastering hard-promotions in people's faces, but nobody wants that all up in their face. 

It's like walking up to a group of friends while they're happily discussing Sue's new baby and interrupting them only to say, "Hey! Want to buy some stuff?" You'd either get ignored outright or an array of disapproving looks and then ignored.

Facebook itself has come to the party on this front to speak on behalf of its peeps:

You must use Facebook as a social entity, even for business. If you succeed, people will go willingly to your website, and then you'll have your chance to monetize in the much more appropriate on-site location. This slightly slower lead-based method is much more powerful. And the way things are going, you'll have to adapt just to stay in the social feeds...

Why You Should Take Monetization OFF Facebook, and ONTO Your Website

Let's start with why you shouldn't try to sell straight from Facebook, then I'll hit home why you should sell via your website...

Reason 1: You'll Put People off Your Brand

People go to social media to relax. It's a social space. People hate being pitched to in their social space. They'll hate you like a man who's just sat down in front of his favorite channel with a beer at the end of the day hates door-to-door salesmen.

You want people to love your brand! You want people to look forward to your posts! You want them to listen to you and go through to your website because they like and respect you.

This reason alone should be enough to convince you not to post hard promotions on Facebook, but if you're still not convinced...

Reason 2: Soon These Promotion-Heavy Posts Won't Even be Been. Facebook is Making Sure of It!

Straight from the horse's (or rather, Facebook's) mouth: "Now we’re bringing new volume and content controls for promotional posts, so people see more of what they want from Pages."

It's becoming "not worth it" in the most literal sense. Here are their outlines, so you know what to avoid in your future posts:

So keep Facebook content-based. Link to articles and blog posts rather than promotions. Make your status's informative or interesting.

Reason 3: Your Website is a Much Stronger Platform for Promotion Anyway

There's not much you can do to convince someone in one Facebook post, but there's a lot you can do to convince someone with a whole webpage. You're better off being the cool guy to hang out with, the one who leaves promotions at home. It's not as direct, but it's worth it.

In saying that, monetization is important, and it has to happen sometime, so I'm going to show you the 3 best strategies for monetizing this social traffic once you've gotten it to your site. First though, you need to get the traffic there, so I'll cover that quickly.

How to Direct Traffic to Your Website with Boosted Posts

You need to think carefully about which page on your website you'll be promoting. It has to have something that is enticing in itself, like an interesting and informative article, or an e-book that they can grab for free that they might like. You'll decide the specifics of what this will be depending on which of the 3 monetization strategies you choose.

You need to link to that page on your website along with the best reason why they should go there, and then Boost that post. Be creative! Get people excited about your website and, in particular, this post. That tagline and the image with the post can make or break the success of your boost, so choose wisely. All the information you could need to know on boosting Facebook posts can be found in last week's blog entry here. 

So! You're getting them there, they're excited, now what do you do?

Monetization Strategy 1: Promote Affiliate Products in Your Content

Give them an article to remember. I'm talking like woop woop-worthy content. I know, easier said than done, but if you're struggling for ideas, try this guide here. Think about what they'll actually want to read, and deliver it straight to them.

Then, subtly, link to a relevant affiliate product that you promote. Make sure to work this into the content in a seamless way.

I particularly like how Dating Metrics does this. It doesn't even link directly to the sales page from the posts (which are informative and entertaining with infographics and humor and everything!). It links to the site's review of the product. It's a bit more drawn out, but it gives the site more of a chance to convince visitors about a product before they leave the comfort of its pages.

Monetization Strategy 2: Ask Visitors to "Like" Your Page

Boomerang that traffic from Facebook right back at social media with on-page social buttons; it'll create a form of lead for you. 

This strategy once again relies on you having quality content on your website. Content is a marketing priority for so many reasons, and inspiring people to commit to following your brand via social media is just one of those reasons.

If the article you send people to is compelling, and they choose to follow you, then you can continue to send them posts — some of which will have affiliate promotions included. This saves you money, as you're securing continued exposure that won't cost you like boosted posts do. 

You'll also be increasing your brand reach organically when others share your posts on their own feed. The more your audience grows, the more likely it is to snowball organically.

Monetization Strategy 3: Offer a Free Gift to Encourage Opt-Ins

This is much like the previous strategy but with a mailing list rather than a following on social media. You want people to sign up to your mailing list so you can then go on to promote affiliate offers to them in a newsletter series.

You can encourage them with a free gift (such as an e-book or audio clip with helpful information for them) that they can get via email; all they have to do is sign up with their name and email. You can then email them regularly with helpful newsletters, and strategically placed affiliate promotions.

Email marketing has proven itself to be incredibly lucrative time and time again, so using boosted posts to build your mailing list is a fantastic idea. There are two main ways to do this:

1. You could boost a post sending them to an article or blog post on your site, and feature the gift and signup in the side-bar of that page, or at the bottom of that post.
2. You could boost a post sending them to a squeeze page: a page that has the sole purpose of encouraging someone to sign up. It will have the name and benefits of the free gift, as well as the signup form, but nothing else to distract from this focus. 

So if you're feeling game, try boosting strategic posts, and see if you can't monetize them with one of these methods. It's going to require a little trial and error, as there are so many variables that could give or take from your success, but rest assured that there is definitely some great potential with Facebook's boosted posts.

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Why It’s Time To Say Goodbye To “The Fold” In Email Marketing

Before the rise of the Internet and everything mobile (now up to 56% of opens in September), the news used to take time. We’d have our coffee and read the paper page by page. And we knew exactly what to focus on: what was above the fold. That’s where the biggest stories broke each day. If you weren’t sure you wanted to buy the paper, what was above the fold would also serve to entice you to buy, since most newsstands displayed them like so:

Source: New York Times

Now, the news is instant and 24/7, sometimes in as few as 140 characters. Even though the sight of an actual newspaper may be foreign to many cellphone-happy millennials, the term “the fold” has stuck around. For email and web design alike, “above the fold,” is still used to indicate relative importance—and also acknowledges the shrinking attention spans of readers today.

For email marketers, the fold has been a longstanding concern, whether that’s trying to optimize emails to render correctly in Outlook’s preview pane or for newer preview functionality like that in Inbox by Gmail. Marketers know they only have a short amount of time to grab the reader, which made “the fold” a clear demarcating line.

Because of widespread belief that attention spans have shortened and that people don’t read, marketers became obsessed with cramming their important information and CTA above the fold. But scrolling is actually easier than clicking, and subscribers come to expect it. While you can still lead with your most important content, you no longer have to. We’re here to debunk once and for all the idea of “the fold” in email.

SAY GOODBYE TO THE FOLD, HELLO TO “THE SCROLL”

According to Alex Williams, VP & Creative Director at Trendline (and a speaker at Litmus Live in 2016), mobile also has a fold: it’s called the “scroll.”

What does this mean?

Above the scroll means that you have to entice your reader to scroll down—show them why they should read your email in its entirety—by providing compelling and memorable content up top. The goal is to set expectations that your content will be relevant and interesting all the way down the email, and to be memorable right away, thus initiating the scroll.

See the full email on Litmus Scope.

In the above example from one of my favorite daily newsletters, theSkimm, you can see they don’t lead with the most important piece of information (well, #Hiddleswift was kind of a big deal). Instead, they break each section of the email into sections, just like a newspaper.

SUBSCRIBERS THAT DIDN’T CLICK ON YOUR HERO IMAGE, BUT ARE STILL SCROLLING, ARE BIG OPPORTUNITIES. —ALEX WILLIAMS

Because the information is relevant and easy to understand, they’re counting on subscribers scrolling all the way to the bottom, rather than clicking on the first piece of content without reading anything else.

USE THE ENVELOPE TO TEASE YOUR CONTENT

Back in the days of print marketing, the envelope was key to that first step in subscriber engagement: the open. Known as the Johnson Box, this gave mail recipients a window into your mail offer. Designed to draw the reader’s attention to the key message, it also served as a way to entice readers to open the letter—just like the subject line and preheader text in email today.

Regardless of the type of email you’re sending, initiating a scroll starts as early as the envelope in your email’s subject line and preheader text. Experiment with teasing an article in your subject line or preheader text that isn’t found until lower in the email. This can build up anticipation to get to the reason the subscriber opened the email in the first place.

See the full email on Litmus Scope.

In this example from TrackMaven’s newsletter, the content from the subject line (“35 Top Twitter Chats,”) isn’t shown until below the fold. Instead, they lead with top news stories from the past week. The top content is still relevant (and since they include it in every newsletter, expected), but to get to the content teased in the subject line, you need to scroll.

DIFFERENT EMAILS, DIFFERENT GOALS

However, this doesn’t mean “the fold” is completely useless. As with most things in email, the answer is: “it depends.”

When it comes to promotional email, marketers tend to send out three different categories, which relates to the three main areas of the marketing funnel:

• Awareness emails can take a variety of forms, but in general, they introduce the subscriber to something new, such as a blog post or infographic. The goal of these emails isn’t necessarily to sign up or buy your product but to increase familiarity and encourage people to visit your website. They may already be aware of your company (after all, they did give you an email address), but not everything about what you do or what you stand for. Awareness emails are about content consumption, which is a one-way interaction.
• Engagement emails build that 1:1 relationship with the subscriber, sometimes with personalization, recommendations, or an ask for feedback. This could take the form of a welcome email, survey request, sales outreach, gated ebook, or an email like our TEDC ‘16 tickets on sale email that encouraged folks to interact with with the email more deeply. Engagement emails ask for more than reading a piece of content. They’re about building a relationship, which requires two-way interaction.
• Conversion emails focus on completing a sale or purchase. This may be advertising a promotion, re-engaging the list, or asking for signups for a webinar. The ask and goal of the email is clear.

(Want to brush up on your definition of conversion? This article talks through exactly what it means.)

Each type of email requires a different mindset because you’re asking for a different level of commitment on the part of the subscriber. When you set your goals for your campaigns, enticing the scroll makes sense for some categories but not for others.

AWARENESS EMAILS

Awareness emails buy time, rather than buy clicks. How can you get your subscriber to keep reading for two more seconds, and then two more after that? The more they read or see, the higher the chance there is of something happening. Make your awareness emails creative, interesting, and above all, incomplete.

That doesn’t mean leaving the subscriber completely hanging or not finishing a sentence. It means keeping the curiosity gap high at all points in an email, so that they’re constantly wondering, “What’s next?” and satisfying them at each scroll.

See the full email on Litmus Scope.

The copy at the top of the email makes it super clear that the subscriber needs to scroll to see more winter coat options. Boom. Curiosity gap.

See the full email on Litmus Scope.

This product update from Trello doesn’t shy away from showing multiple pieces of news or completely different calls-to-action. The idea is to make people aware of new features, not sell them (though some of those features might require a plan upgrade).

See the full email on Litmus Scope.

This email doesn’t have a sale or promotion until the very bottom. Instead, the focus is on re-engagement and awareness—hey, here’s what you might be missing!

ENGAGEMENT EMAILS

Engagement emails start the conversation with your subscribers in a deeper way than awareness or conversion. They’re to be used sparingly, as they can be incredibly powerful.

To promote Litmus Live 2016, we decided to gamify our email to build excitement, increase engagement, and have a little fun. To reveal our third city, users sent in guesses via Twitter, which then populated a dynamic Twitter “collage” at the bottom of the email itself. We expected it to take 3-4 hours to get 500 shares using the hashtag #TEDC16. (Read why our new hashtag is #LitmusLive here, short version: politics.)

We were blown away 90 minutes later when we hit the mark! Our audience relished the opportunity to engage with us. The entire email worked together to reveal the city and encouraged subscribers to open the email again and again for updates. This completely flips the idea of a “fold” on its head, since our subscribers checked the email continuously to see new Twitter feed updates.

CONVERSION EMAILS

Conversion emails are usually short and to the point, with one ask, so it’s completely clear to the subscriber what action you want them to take. It might be a sales promotion, but it might not. Whether you’re focusing on buying a product or encouraging them to read an article, conversion emails focus on getting the click.

Because of their direct nature, conversion emails often benefit from having the CTA above the scroll to close the deal. It’s fine to include more options after the “scroll,” but those should be more opportunities for them to learn about that same one objective.

See the full email on Litmus Scope

In this example, General Assembly is clear about what action the reader should take: request a syllabus to learn more about their digital marketing class. The objective is clear, to the point, and there’s no need to scroll—you can’t miss that big red button.

See the full email on Litmus Scope.

This email is a great example of how to focus on exactly what you want your subscriber to do in the top section of your email, but still, include information below for those who do want to scroll. It’s clear what action they want you to take.

DON’T DESIGN EMAILS IN A VACUUM

REMEMBER, YOUR MOST IMPORTANT JOB AS AN EMAIL DESIGNER IS TO GET THEM TO OPEN THE NEXT ONE. —ALEX WILLIAMS

When you design emails, you have to think about the overall subscriber journey. Each email isn’t independent—every awareness email you send can ultimately contribute to that purchase when a subscriber does receive a conversion email.

The most important thing to remember about the scroll? Set up expectations as a brand that provides compelling enough content that subscribers will want to scroll—and keep scrolling.

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What will email marketing look like in five years? #emailin5years

Every December I type up a blog post near the end of the year called `future of e-mail marketing`. Some thinking about what is going to happen keeps you sharp.

A conversation broke out on twitter with the hashtag #emailin5years where several email experts gave their ideas about email, email marketing and where it will be in five years from now.

Here are some of the top picks, although each tweet would almost justify a whole blog post on its’ own.

What are your ideas about email in 5 years?
Leave your comments below or connect on twitter @jvanrijn / #emailin5years.

Will email shift to a more mobile experience?

There will be a new mobile-only email player with >100 million users (Joshua Baer @joshuabaer)
In 5 years, your email client will be linked tightly to your Google/Windows wallet or Apple Passbook (George Bilbrey @gbilbrey)

In 5 years people will be asking, “Why would anyone want to check email on a computer?” Not everyone, but 100’s of millions. (Joshua Baer @joshuabaer)

Email is going more and more mobile, just take a look at these mobile email marketing statistics.

How about deliverability and spam?

There will be no more Spam folder (or it will be hidden away) (Joshua Baer @joshuabaer)
Smarter delivery: no more bounces, emails will find their way to the right destination. Guaranteed delivery. (Josh Kerr @joshkerr)

#EmailIn5Years will have more affirmative opt-in regulatory requirements. Also more reliant on domain reputation with IPv6 coming. (@ddayman)

How will this inbox look like and act like?

How close you’re connected to people will influence the inbox view. No longer a simple “newest on top” list. (Bruno Morency @brunomorency)

Business apps will show you, categorize, and act upon relevant emails for the process they manage. (Context.IO @ContextIO #EmailIn5Years)

Restaurant receipts will be tucked away and services will display your health and spending habits #EmailIn5Years (Yaniv Tal @yanivtalmusic)

Mail will be much more dynamic, less accumulation of expired offers, more fluid experience #emailin5years (Christine M Borgia @ChristineBorgia)

There will be multiple Inboxes – people, notifications, groups, receipts, travel, etc. (Joshua Baer @joshuabaer #EmailIn5Years)

Emails will be more structured, inbox will be treated as a core data source for companies; UI will be unrecognizable to today (Zvi Band @skeevis #EmailIn5Years)

#EmailIn5Years 4D thats all i’m saying (Adrian Gray @ady_gray)

How will email usage evolve?

Lines between different mediums will blur & conversations will flow freely (ToutApp @toutapp #EmailIn5Years)

#EmailIn5Years will know if you’ve already received /dealt with the message in another channel and mark itself read (Michael McCubbing @M_McCubbing )

#emailin5years will be spoken not written. @domain will be gone. Attachments will point to the cloud, not actual be sent via. (Josh Kerr @joshkerr )

Better html5 support and more paperless shopping – your bills will go to inbox like in Apple Stores (Becs Rivett @becksr)

Email will be more regulated, more important, more comprehensive, more linked & more alive #EmailIn5Years (Marc BErgers @marc_bergers)

Denton Hill Digital goeg even a bit further: Better CSS/Html5 support, standardised code base… Secure Java code and video feeds from trusted senders (@dhdigitalchat)

And of course, when Joshua Baer tweeted “Facebook will be the largest email provider, with a full-featured mail client”, no better excuse to make fun of “Facebook messages” that was announced to be The email killer, but to date has not gained any traction at all.

Some of the comments:

@HCB_Joe < nice prognostication!

Brandon Hudgeons @bhudgeons If Josh says …

Emailblog @Emailblog Why? FB email not used now.
SnoopDobb @snoopdobb #Frightening

What are your ideas about email in 5 years?

Leave your comments below or connect on twitter @jvanrijn / #emailin5years.


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Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: How to Make Your First Affiliate Marketing Sale in 7 Steps

 The lure of affiliate marketing is undeniable; who can resist passive income?

But to make that passive income happen, you have got to put in some work first. 

To succeed in affiliate marketing, there are a number of crucial steps you must take before you earn that first affiliate profits. And these steps are, well … not passive.

The good news is that if you’re determined to make this work and are willing to put in the time and effort, you’re already well on your way to affiliate marketing success.

All the work you put in is to help you make your first affiliate marketing sale. There is nothing like a first sale to motivate you and make you keep at it. 

So, what do you need to do to get started?

7 Steps to Earning Your First Affiliate Commission

We've broken down the process into seven steps for affiliate marketing beginners. Following this guide will set you on the right course and have you earning your first commission in no time.

1. Choose a Niche

Before you even begin building your first site, you’ll need to decide which niche you’re going to target.

Obviously, if you don't know what your site is about or who you're going to target with it, you can't really build a site around it...can you? 

If you’ve already figured this one out, way to go! This is undoubtedly one of the most difficult and overwhelming steps.

If you don't quite know what your niche is yet, here's some advice that you might find useful. 

Some key questions to ask yourself when determining your niche are:

• What topics am I already passionate about?

It's much easier to work on something if you're passionate about it. Plus, when you have a passion, you're usually quite knowledgeable about it too, so that definitely helps. For example if you have a passion about about makeup, your niche of choice might be makeup related, too. 

• Is there money in this niche?

While following your passion is definitely the recommended option, sometimes the possibility of making money in a profitable niche trumps passion. So, you might not necessarily know much about your niche, but if it's likely to make you money, you can always learn more about it, right? 

For example, KitchenFaucetDivas is clearly a site that was built for profit, not passion. Unless of course there is someone out there with a serious passion for kitchen faucets! ;-) 

• What topic could I see myself easily writing 25, 50, or 100 blog posts about?

The topic you choose must have enough depth that you can create a lot of content for it. This is important for building an authoritative site, for search engine optimization, and most importantly, for the end user. If you don't have enough content about a topic, you're not going to be taken very seriously as an authority on the topic and it's unlikely you can convince someone to make a purchase from you. 

MoneySavingExpert is a great example of a site with a topic for which you would have a never ending supply of content ideas. 

• Is there room in this niche for another affiliate marketer?

There are several profitable niches that are also very popular among affiliate markets (e.g., weight loss). Before jumping on board with a hugely popular niche, make sure there's enough room for you. That is — will you be able to make money and compete with already established marketers? If not, keep looking. 

• Is there enough interest in/demand for products in this niche?

The niche you choose might draw enough interest from your audience when it comes to reading and acquiring knowledge, but are they willing to buy relevant products too? Without consumer interest in products, your niche isn't going to make you much money. 

• Are there affiliate programs available in this niche?

This is obviously a crucial factor to consider. You might come up with an idea for a niche you know a lot about, but are there affiliate programs for the niche? No affiliate program = no sales. Time to look for a different niche. 

Additional Resources for Choosing a Niche

Want to learn more about choosing a profitable niche? Here are some excellent resources we recommend for further reading:

• Free Lesson: 7 Steps to Finding Profitable Affiliate Niches
• Expert Interview: Matt Carter: How to Find a Profitable Niche
• From Chris Ducker: 4 Proven Steps to Finding a Profitable Niche
• From the Affilorama Community:
  • Do I Look for a Niche With Easy Keywords?
  • How to Look for Other Products in a Niche?

2. Research Affiliate Programs

Once you've decided on a niche, it’s time to find out what’s out there in terms of programs and products to promote. You've probably already done a bit of research for this while researching your niche — now you need to dig deeper. 

Choosing an affiliate program will take some work, but don’t be afraid to invest a significant amount of time into it because this is, of course, where your income will come from. Choosing the right program will make it well worth your while!

When choosing an affiliate program, keep these key points in mind:

• What type of merchants use the program/ affiliate network? 

You want to make sure other similar sellers are also using the network, as this can help you gauge your likelihood of success with the particular program.

• How much commission are you likely to make from the products?

Make sure you sign up for programs that are profitable and generate a sufficient return in on investment. Some tips:

• If using ClickBank, products should have over a 50% commission (preferably 60%), and have a high gravity rating (meaning they’re in demand).
• For CPA (cost-per-action) programs, commissions should be over $1, and products shouldn't be overly restrictive in how you can promote them.
• For physical products, look for commissions over $40.
   
• Do you want to be associated with the products and services?

The products and services you will be promoting to your audience must be relevant and good quality. Make sure you believe in them and know everything about them, because this will be crucial to you delivering the sales pitch to your audience. You need to build trust with your audience so make sure the products and services you choose to promote are trustworthy enough. 

Ads like the one below often lead to sketchy products — do you want to be associated with a product that promises results that may or may not be true?

• What kind of support does the program provide?

Be sure to check what kind of customer support you can expect from your affiliate program once you have signed up. Do your research online and if possible, speak to other sellers using the program to get their thoughts. Can you speak to someone via phone or Skype or do you have to wait 72 hours for email responses? Be clear on this because trust me, you will need support at one point or another. 

Additional Resources to Find the Right Affiliate Program

We've given you a few quick tips to help you choose an affiliate program that is right for you. For more information, be sure to check out the following: 

• Free Lesson: How to Find Affiliate Programs
• Free Lesson: How to Choose an Affiliate Program
• Free Lesson: 10 Alternatives to ClickBank
• From Marketing Land: Choosing an Affiliate Network for Your Business

3. Build a Site

Steps 1 and 2 are all about research  and figuring out what's possible and profitable. Now, it's time to start putting your research into action. 

Assuming you don’t already have a website built, this will be the next step. Fortunately, building a site isn’t as complicated or labor-intensive as it was in the past.

If you're a newbie to building sites, the easiest way to set up a site is by using WordPress. The WordPress CMS is very easy to use and while coding skills can come in handy, for the most part you will not require any tech knowledge to set up your site. 

You need to follow a few steps to have your site up and running:

• Buy a domain.

Your domain is the address for your website (e.g., www.affilorama.com) so this is the first thing you will need to do when setting up your site. Considering there are millions of websites on the internet, it's possible that the domain name you want may already be taken by someone else. So make sure you have several options in mind. Be sure to read our advice on how to choose a good domain name. 

There are several places you can buy a domain, including our very own Affilorama Domain service. Other well known options are: GoDaddy and NameCheap. 

• Purchase and set up hosting. 

If your domain is your address, hosting is like the actual house within which your site will live. It's your own little slice of the internet — the place where all your website files live. Hosting is very affordable these days, so don't unnecessarily scrimp on costs. Go with a reputable, reliable provider because your affiliate marketing business depends on it. 

For more details on how to choose a reliable host, make sure to read our free lesson on What to Look for in a Hosting Provider. Some affordable and reliable hosting providers we recommend are GoDaddy, HostGator and BlueHost. 

If you purchase your domain and hosting from different companies, you will need to link the two together. Don't panic, it's a simple process. Check out our lesson: Linking your Domain with Your Hosting.

• Install WordPress.

Once your hosting is set up, you need to install a content management system (CMS) for your site. We recommend WordPress because it is easy to use and a beginner (like you!) can quite quickly figure out how it works. Most good hosting providers will have a one-click install option for WordPress, which means it will only take you a couple of minutes and you will have WordPress installed on your site. 

• Install your theme.

A WordPress theme provides all the styling of a site that you (and your audience) see on the front end. There are thousands of themes available, so choosing one might seem daunting at start. Our advice: go with something simple and easy to customize. You can always change it later. 

The AffiloTheme is a great option. Completely customizable, and built specifically for affiliate marketers, you can use this WordPress theme to bypass much of the initial learning curve other affiliate marketers will experience. You can also search for themes on a site like Theme Forest. 

• Create content.

Finally, once your site is ready, it's time to create content for it. The content you create must be relevant to your niche but also interesting and engaging enough to keep your audience coming back. You should also ensure the site content is search engine-friendly. More details about content creation in Step 4. 

Additional Resources for Building Your Site

For more information on building your first affiliate marketing website, we recommend the following resources:

• Free Lesson: Affiliate Website Building
• Free Lesson: 7 Crucial Site Building Mistakes You Need to Fix
• From the Affilorama Blog: How to Build an Affiliate Website using WordPress
• From the Affilorama Community:
  • What is the best website builder for SEO 
  • What is the Best WordPress Theme for Affiliate Sites?
  • How to Structure Micro Niche Websites?

4. Produce Excellent Content

Now that your site is set up and you’ve joined an affiliate program, you’re ready to begin perhaps the most time-consuming (but potentially rewarding) part of the affiliate business: Producing content.

This is where the overused but truer-than-ever phrase “content is king” comes into play.

Your goal for your site will be to establish it as an authority site in your niche, and the main way to do this is to consistently produce unique, high-quality content.

This could consist of:

• Product reviews.

Your affiliate site model could be based off writing reviews about different products or services. This is a common model and if done well, can prove very useful in generating affiliate income.

For example, The Wire Cutter is focused on writing reviews of several different kinds of products and helping their readers make the best decision about the product they want to buy. After reading a review on their site, if the user clicks through to the product/service using the affiliate link, The Wire Cutter will earn a commission from. 

• Blog posts that address common problems, questions or issues relevant to your target market.

Creating blog content is a very useful and effective way of consistently building content on a site. When creating blog posts, it's a good idea to do some keyword research to figure out what it is that your audience is interested in and searching for online. Also, be sure to research competitors, forums and social media to narrow down on topics for your blog. 

For example, Security Guard Training HQ has a very extensive blog on a variety of topics relevant for anyone interested in security guard training, jobs and more. 

• Evergreen content.

If you are building a site that has the potential for information that will never age and remain useful for your audience, you have the opportunity to create what is known as evergreen content. It's important to carry out extensive keyword research before planning any evergreen content for a site like this, as your site could hugely benefit from the proper usage of keywords within such content. 

For example, the content on Super Weddings is useful whether you're organizing a wedding today or next year. All the content on the site is created accordingly. To make things easier for the audience, it is separated into categories to make it very convenient for the reader to find what they're looking for. This, of course, is also very good for SEO. 

• Informational products.

Giving away a free informational product such as an e-book, an email series or a mini course is a popular tactic many affiliate marketers use. Usually, your readers will have to provide their email addresses to receive the product from you. You can then use this to sell to them via email marketing. Additionally, an informational product can generate interest in the actual product you're trying to sell. If your product is popular enough and brings enough traffic to your site, you could also monetize the traffic in other ways, such as AdSense.

A good example is DatingMetrics, where you're tempted with a Free Texting Crash Course in exchange for your email. The real marketing will begin once the user has downloaded this course. 

The type of content you create for your website will largely depend on your niche, as certain types of content perform better in some niches than others.

Remember: Purchasing generic content is NOT an effective method to build your site. While it may be tempting to populate your site this way, in the long run it won’t help you to position yourself as an expert in your niche (and ultimately means less traffic and fewer sales).

Additional Resources for Creating Your Content

• Free Lesson: Content Creation
• From the Affilorama Blog: 3 Content Marketing Tips for the Busy Affiliate
• From CopyBlogger: Three Killer Content Strategies for Building Affiliate Marketing Assets
• From the Affilorama Community: 
  • Where Can I Learn How to Create Great Web Content?
  • Do I Post Articles in One Go or One at a Time?
  • What is the Current Google-Friendly Article Blueprint?

5. Build an Audience

Building an audience for your site will, in some ways, follow naturally once you start producing excellent content. An interested audience will not only bring you consistent traffic but also result in consistent sales for you. 

So how do you start building an audience for a completely new site? Here are some ideas: 

• Promote your content via social media.

The easiest and most common way to start building an audience for a website is via social media. Depending on your niche and industry, you can choose from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and several other niche and location-specific networks. Building up an engaged and interested following on social media is a great opportunity to build relationships and once you have their trust, promote your products and services to them. 

I'll use MoneySavingExpert.com as an example again. The site has over 66,000 likes on its Facebook page and it connects with the audience by sharing links to content but also asking money-saving/budgeting related questions. The highly engaged readers then visit the website, where they read content and no doubt make purchases.

• Guest post on high-traffic blogs.

While your site is still new, it's a good idea to start capitalizing on someone else's audience. Continue focusing on building your own content, but also considering writing content for a few big, high-traffic blogs that are relevant for your niche. By writing content for a bigger site, you are able to get in front of another audience and showcase your expertise on a particular topic. This will eventually lead to more traffic to your site, as well. 

• Build an email list.

Let no one tell you that email marketing is dead. An email list is crucial for every affiliate marketer. You can start building up your email list with a lead magnet (like the information products mentioned previously) or even just by encouraging your audience to sign up for your updates. You can then push your content to this audience via email and also direct them to your affiliate offers. Don't be sleazy about the sales, but if you build up enough trust with your email audience; when the time comes, they will not mind purchasing a product from you. 

• Use basic SEO techniques to increase search engine traffic to your site.

Organic search remains an important source of traffic for any website, so it's important that you optimize your website for search engines as well. When creating your content, you must always do so keeping the reader in mind first, but don't forget to follow a few basic SEO principles as well.

Learn SEO yourself or hire a good SEO marketer to help you maximize on-page and off-page SEO opportunities for your site. If your site starts to appear in search results for terms relevant to your niche, it will be a huge boost towards building your audience (and your sales)!

• Invest in paid advertising.

Many affiliate marketers use paid advertising to generate additional traffic to their site and drive more sales. Paid advertising on social media is often a good place to start, as these networks tend to be more affordable.You may also want to consider taking out inexpensive banner ads on small niche sites. Depending on your niche, Google AdWords could also be a good option to drive some paid traffic to your site.

Additional Resources for Building Your Audience

If you're interested in learning more about how to build an audience and start generating traffic for your site, check out the following resources:

• Free Lessons:
  • Marketing Ideas
  • Search Engine Optimization 
  • Pay Per Click
• From the Affilorama blog: How to Drive Organic Search Traffic to an Affiliate Site in No Time [Case Study]
• From Blogging Tips: 30 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website
• From the Affilorama Community:
  • How to Increase Traffic

6. Promote Affiliate Offers

Finally, the part we’ve all been waiting for!

This, my friends, is where things really kick into high gear. Many fly-by-night affiliates will jump right to this step and bypass steps 1–5 completely. And this is what will set you apart.

Once you’ve shown that you can offer something of value in your niche, it’s time to continue adding value by promoting products that will be useful and helpful for your audience.

You can promote your offers in a number of ways. It will depend on the type of site you've built and also what you're selling. Some ideas include:

• Product reviews.

Write honest, real reviews about products. Build up trust with your audience, and remember that they rely on your opinion. Don't just point out all the positives of a product and gloss over the negatives. An honest opinion will be valued. Add compelling images and make mention of useful features, specifications and other details. 

Your product review can then link to the page (with your affiliate ID attached), where your audience can make a purchase if they're interested. If do, hooray! You've made your first sale. 

• Banner ads.

You can put up banners on your site, to promote your affiliate offers. Most affiliate programs will usually provide their own creatives when you sign up for their offers. All you have to do is insert the banner on a highly trafficked page (your affiliate tracking is usually embedded within the code). Banner ads in the right locations can do a great job of driving sales.  

Below are some examples of banners that Templatic provides to its affiliates. 

• In-text content links.

This is a very common way to promote offers. For example, you will often see a blog post with links to certain products or services. If the reader clicks through and makes a purchase, the blog owner will make a commission. These in-text links blend in with other content on your site and are a great way of promoting an offer within your content, without being over-the-top salesy with banners. 

• Email promotions.

If you have built up an email list, you could also promote your affiliate offers via email promotions. Just make sure you build up a relationship with your audience first instead of going for the hard sell straightaway. The emails you send out must contain your affiliate links to products so when your audience click through. the sale is attributed to you. 

• Discounts and giveaways. 

Many affiliate programs will often run promotions with good discounts or giveaways that might be attractive to your audience. For example, if you're an Amazon Associate and the site have a big Holiday Sale, it would be the perfect opportunity for you to promote discounts to your website visitors. This is a great way to promote your offers while also providing good value to your audience. 

When promoting affiliate offers, just make sure you are fully aware of all the terms and conditions attached to your affiliate program. Some programs can be strict about how they allow you to promote their products. For example, some may limit you to banner ads and links only, while others will allow you to use paid advertising, but won't allow email marketing. 

Also, make sure you have a disclaimer on your website that advises your audience that you may have links that promote affiliate offers. This is necessary for several affiliate programs and also a basic courtesy to your website visitors. In the U.S., the FTC mandates disclosure for affiliate marketers (and anyone issuing endorsements), as well.   

Additional Resources for Promoting Your Offers

• Free Lesson: Writing Product Reviews
• From Shout Me Loud: How to Promote Affiliate Products on Your Blog
• From the Affilorama Community: 
  • How Many Products to Promote in Each Website?
• The FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking

7. Rinse, Lather, and Repeat

Now that you're done with Steps 1 - 6, Step 7 is simply to keep doing what you're doing. Yes, seriously!

Your ongoing work as an affiliate marketer will be to repeat steps 4 - 6 on a continual basis. Building a site up to a point where it can make you consistent income takes a bit of work and you must be willing to constantly create, promote, market, innovate and of course, sell. 

Review of Key Points

It can feel overwhelming to do all the necessary work involved in setting up your site and building your reputation. But trust me, once you’ve made that first sale, all the hard work will be worth it!

To sum it all up, making your first affiliate commission requires a bit of work but if you break it all down and follow it step by step, it won't seem so overwhelming at all. Here's a quick recap of what you need to do:

1. Choose your niche.
2. Research different affiliate programs and products.
3. Build a site.
4. Produce excellent content.
5. Build an audience.
6. Promote your affiliate product(s).
7. Repeat steps #4–7 on a continual basis!

As you can see, there is a tried-and-true strategy when it comes to affiliate marketing for beginners. Put in the work, and you’ll soon be reaping the rewards of your first sale. 

Do you feel overwhelmed about making that first affiliate sale? What’s holding you back from getting started? Let us know in the comments below and we'll be happy to help. 

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