How to Create an Affiliate Newsletter
An affiliate newsletter provides important communication between you and your team. It can reflect your ideas, product overviews and upcoming events. It is an effective way to recognize the accomplishments of your affiliate partners. Develop a plan to write and automate the distribution of your newsletter to save time and build your team.
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Instructions
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Planning Your Newsletter
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Determine the purpose and type of information to include in the newsletter. Things to consider are: will anyone else contribute to the contents, will you promote contests, introduce new product offerings, announce meetings and conferences, address affiliate partner questions or ask for feedback. If the affiliate program is part of a larger corporation, review any news releases and current topics from their website to update your team.
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Decide how often you will distribute the newsletter. Once you determine if the updates need to be released on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis, you can schedule the writing tasks accordingly.
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Review your contact list and make sure you have the correct email addresses of your affiliate partners. Send out a test email and ask for a response for verification. If an email bounces back because of a bad address, contact the person by telephone or other means to update their information. Build the distribution list or group by copying or moving each contact into the folder, depending upon your email service.
Automation and Distribution
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Sign up for an email marketing service (also called an auto-responder) available online, such as Constant Contact, Aweber and Infusionsoft. These services allow you to upload your newsletters and schedule distribution dates in advance. They offer an easy way for readers to subscribe or unsubscribe at anytime. You can track the open and click through rates to help you understand what topics interest your readers and which ones do not.
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Write the newsletter content in your word-processing software, such as Microsoft Word or Open Office. This will allow you to use Spell Checker and formatting tools. Test each website or product link that you include in the newsletter to make sure the page or download is available.
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Copy and paste each newsletter into the broadcast or message section of the auto-responder. Set the distribution dates and tracking features, as necessary.
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Create an "opt-in" page in the auto-responder that your affiliates will review and agree to receive your newsletter. An "opt-in" feature reduces the possibility of your newsletter being marked as Spam because the reader has voluntarily chosen to receive messages from you.
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Write a short email message announcing your newsletter and send it to your affiliates. Give them a preview of the newsletter topics, indicate how often they will receive it and include the link to your auto-responder opt-in page.
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Tips & Warnings
Include links to your website, social media networks and contact information in each newsletter.
Important: Avoid uploading email distribution lists into your auto-responder without prior permission from the recipients. This practice could result in a large number of people unsubscribing and your account flagged as Spam.
References
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