Email affiliate marketing mistakes happen when your strategies fall into the marketing error loophole. Affiliates use wrong strategies, lack knowledge about affiliate products, or have no specific area of audience targeting where forming affiliates brings positive results. These are some of the reasons that turn back the affiliate marketing success.
Moreover, affiliate marketers report that affiliate marketing helps open up access to innovative partners for their business. So, you have a chance to publicize your business here.
On the other side, you might want to earn thousands, but you are still a penniless affiliate marketer for months! Here, you need strong guidance to nurture your affiliate marketing strategy into a successful one.
Get a grip on the affiliate mistakes up next.
table of contents
- Overview of common affiliate marketing mistakes
- Email affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid
- FAQs
- Conclusion
Overview of common affiliate marketing mistakes
| Event | Mistake | Solution | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-affiliate marketing | Using free websites for marketing | Register a professional website with a domain, hosting | Purchase domain hosting to introduce a professional look |
| Pre-affiliate marketing | Lack of product testing | Test the product and provide a solution accordingly | Read reviews from sources like Reddit or G2 |
| Pre-affiliate marketing | Irrelevant product to your niche | Affiliate relevant products matching your niche | Send relevant product recommendations through the affiliate link |
| During affiliate marketing | Poor list segmentation | Segment list based on users visiting & their most preference | Create a temporary poll at first to see what users prefer most |
| During affiliate marketing | Growing no email list | Use Inline or pop-up forms on the website to grow the email list | Email list growing enhances productivity |
| During affiliate marketing | No SEO strategies | Implement effective SEO strategies to find more users | Without SEO, your product goes unnoticed |
| Post affiliate marketing | Failing to identify location-based users | Use IP track to find the user’s location | Location-based targeting is a useful tactic to reach expected users |
| Post affiliate marketing | Slow customer support | Prompt support increases customer queries and conversion | Use prompt support or lose users |
Email affiliate marketing mistakes to avoid
In the world of affiliate marketing, your email list is your most valuable asset—but only if managed correctly. There are affiliates that treat email just as a ‘’send and forget’’ tool, which ultimately leads to low conversions and high unsubscribe rates.
Here is a breakdown of the seven biggest mistakes in affiliate marketing for email and solutions to fix the affiliate marketing mistakes in no time.
1Using Free Websites for Marketing
Another common affiliate marketing mistake is using free domains, such as WordPress or Blogspot, to host your landing pages or content. Visitors prefer a professional look and leave a positive impression of your business.
Example
Promoting an impressive $1,000 course on a site that looks like a 90’s vibe with Powered by at the footer that defines your website.
Solution
Set up a custom domain (.com) and professional hosting. It costs less than $15/month but enhances your overall values and views among visitors.
Pro Tip
A custom domain also allows you to have a branded email address. Emails from a Gmail or Yahoo address are 5x more likely to be flagged as spam by ISPs (Internet service providers).
2Lack of Product Testing
Got new promotion material, but didn’t test the product? It’s another mistake you’re committing! Promoting products you have never tested or researched deeply is a huge mistake affiliate marketers make. Despite testing, your authority can be undermined if the product proves low quality.
Example
You can recommend a software tool for its “easy UI” based on a sales page, but later subscribers find it hard to navigate and impossible to even operate.
Solution
Request a review copy or trial from the affiliate manager. If you can’t get it, spend hours reading real user reviews on Reddit, Trustpilot, or G2.
Pro Tip
Record the Review Process. Be practical and show video or screenshots to your audience that you’re using the tool, also be open about the flaws to grow more trust.
3Irrelevant Product to Your Niche
Another common mistake that affiliate marketers make is chasing high commissions on products that don’t align with why people followed you in the first place.
Example
A fitness blogger suddenly promotes a cryptocurrency trading bot because it pays a $200 commission. This is quite unusual, isn’t it? A fitness blogger may promote fitness-related products, and people will usually subscribe. The cryptocurrency promotion won’t work here due to the irrelevant niche.
Solution
Promote your niche, not a high-commissioned unrelated product. Only promote products that are a logical next step for your audience. If you teach gardening, promote seeds, tools, or sun hats.
Pro Tip
For every promotional email, send four related emails that encourage leads to engage and deliver value. This keeps your audience receptive to your occasional communication.
4Poor List Segmentation
The first one leads to poor list segmentation, where the affiliate marketer treats the entire email list as a single group. Affiliate marketers completely ignore the fact that many subscribers have different interests, buying stages, or pain points.
Example
Sending a Best High-End DSLR Cameras promotion to a beginner who just signed up for Photography 101 tips. Here, the marketer sends the advanced promotion material to a novice user who just signed up for the basic photography.
Solution
You need to send the perfect email that matches the purpose and aligns with the users’ preferences. Use tags and segments in your Email Service Provider (ESP). Make a category of users based on their sign-up source, link clicks, or purchase history.
Pro Tip
Create a Preference Center link in your footer. Let subscribers choose exactly which topics they want to hear about, such as weekly promotions or special-occasion deals. See an example of the Preference Center in email below.
5Growing No Email List
You tried every possible way to get visitors, but did you try growing an email list? Relying solely on social media or a blog without capturing visitor data is not advisable and sustainable. If the platform changes its algorithm, your business goes down.
Example
Having a Facebook page with 100k followers but 0 email subscribers. If your account is banned, your revenue stops there immediately.
Solution
Implement lead magnets. Offer a free PDF, checklist, or mini-course in exchange for an email address. This is a viable practice to grow your email list.
Pro Tip
Use Pop-ups that convert on your website. Capture users when they are about to leave or scrolling with a "Wait! Before you go..." offer.
6No SEO Strategies
Not applying SEO strategies means you are 10x further behind on traffic. Relying solely on social media or paid ads takes time to generate meaningful traffic, whereas SEO can drive results rapidly! Without SEO, you have to hunt down every single visitor.
Example
Content that can bring users, but no SEO may leave the piece alone. Writing a good product review that is unreachable to users because it isn’t optimized for the keywords people actually type into Google.
Solution
Conduct Keyword Research before writing content. Use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs (or free options like Google Keyword Planner) to identify low-difficulty terms with high buying intent.
Pro Tip
Users want product recommendations and to buy the product. So, use the keywords like Product A vs Product B or Product A Review. These users are ready to purchase and will seek a final recommendation.
7Failing to Identify Location-Based Users
This common mistake could happen due to a lack of knowledge, or marketers don’t query much about identifying location-based users. Sending offers that are physically or legally unavailable to certain subscribers.
Example
Promoting an “Amazon US Only” deal to your subscribers in the UK or Australia, leading to “Item Unavailable” errors and frustration.
Solution
Use Geo-targeting features within your ESP or use Smart Links (like GeniusLink) that automatically redirect users to the correct storefront based on their IP address.
Pro Tip
Mention the location in the subject line if it's restrictive [US ONLY] 50% Off Flash Sale. This saves your international audience from clicking and feeling excluded.
FAQs
Low quality and irrelevant products, promotion where affiliates expect high commissions.
The failure rate of affiliate marketing mainly among newcomers in this sector, and it is defined as 90% to 95%
It may take 2 to 3 years or more to reach $5,000, or even 6 to 18 months for beginners.
There are several, but inconsistent earnings, taking a long time to produce content, fraud, or spam potential, and algorithm changes on search engines are the notable ones.
Perfect niche selecting is the primary choice, providing insightful content, building an active email list, and getting high commission products that will also take years of consistent work.
Conclusion
These are the most common affiliate marketing mistakes for email marketers; there are more notable affiliate marketing mistakes, such as using illegal affiliate marketing products, no social media activity, and, all in all, no implementation of working strategies.
Affiliate marketing is a growing promotional strategy that provides a useful way to drive revenue for affiliates. Additionally, some affiliate networks perpetrate illegal activities. You need a trusted email affiliate marketing tool that aligns with your preferences.
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