Mailchimp is awesome for email marketing, right? You can send beautiful newsletters to your subscribers, track your results, and grow your business. But did you know that you can also use Mailchimp for affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is when you earn money by promoting other people’s stuff. You just put a special link, called an affiliate link, in your emails that lead to the product or service you are recommending. When someone clicks on your link and buys something, you get a cut of the sale.
Sounds easy, right? Well, not so fast. Mailchimp has some rules and restrictions about affiliate marketing that you need to follow. Otherwise, you might get in trouble with them and lose your account.
In this article, we will explain what Mailchimp’s rules on affiliate marketing are, how they are different from affiliate links, and how you can use Mailchimp for affiliate marketing without getting banned.
What Mailchimp Allows
Mailchimp does not have an active public affiliate marketing program that pays cash, but they have a referral program that allows you to earn credits. The Mailchimp referral program works like an affiliate program, but it is not a direct affiliate scheme in the classic sense.
Mailchimp launched an affiliate program in 2022 on CJ Affiliate, but it is not as high-paying as other providers that pay recurring commissions for active customers¹.
The Mailchimp referral program gives you a MonkeyRewards badge that is unique to you, which you can use in campaigns or across your website, signup forms, and email campaigns. When someone signs up for a paid Mailchimp account using your badge, you and your referral will each get $30 in MonkeyRewards.
You can use your MonkeyRewards to pay for your Mailchimp subscription or buy add-ons and extras. You can also donate your credits to charity if you prefer.
Mailchimp also allows you to use affiliate links in your email campaigns, as long as they are not the main focus of your message and they are relevant to your audience. Affiliate links are links that direct to a third-party website, but do not market on behalf of that third party. For example, if you are a blogger and you link to a product that you recommend or review on your website, that is an affiliate link.
Mailchimp does not prohibit affiliate links in general, as they are commonly used in marketing of all kinds. However, they have to be careful not to allow denied listed URLs of any kind, as they can damage their reputation with internet service providers and negatively impact their service reliability.
What Mailchimp Doesn’t Allow
Mailchimp prohibits affiliate marketing as an industry under their terms of use. This means that you cannot use Mailchimp to send emails that are solely or primarily focused on promoting third-party products or services for a commission.
Mailchimp defines affiliate marketing as “a business model in which marketers are typically paid commission to generate leads or sales for a third party”. This is different from using affiliate links in your campaigns, which are allowed as long as they are not the main message and are relevant to your contacts.
Mailchimp also does not allow you to use deny-listed URLs in your campaigns. These are URLs that are known to be associated with spam, malware, phishing, or other malicious activities. Mailchimp’s system automatically scans campaign content for denied listed URLs and will stop the campaign and suspend the account if any issues are detected.
Some examples of denied listed URLs are
- Shortened URLs that hide the destination
- URLs that redirect to another URL
- URLs that contain adult, gambling, or illegal content
- URLs that belong to low-quality or scammy products or services
You can check the reputation of a domain before you link to it in your campaign using online tools such as Google Safe Browsing or VirusTotal.
How to Use Mailchimp for Affiliate Marketing Without Getting Banned?
If you want to use Mailchimp for affiliate marketing without violating their terms of use, here are some tips and best practices:
- Use your own voice and branding. Your emails should reflect your personality and style, not the third party’s. You should also use your own domain name and email address, not a generic one.
- Provide value and relevance. Your emails should offer useful information, tips, advice, or insights to your audience, not just sales pitches. You should also ensure that the products or services you promote are relevant to your niche and audience.
- Be transparent and honest. You should disclose that you are using affiliate links and that you may earn a commission if your contacts buy something through your link. You can use a disclaimer or a disclosure statement to inform your readers that you are using affiliate links and that you may earn a commission if they make a purchase.
- Test and optimize your campaigns. You should always track and measure the performance of your affiliate campaigns and see what works and what doesn’t. You can use tools like Google Analytics or Mailchimp’s reports to monitor your click-through rates, conversions, revenue, and other metrics. You can also use A/B testing to experiment with different headlines, images, copy, and offers to see what resonates with your audience.
- Build trust and credibility. Your audience is more likely to buy something through your affiliate link if they trust you and your recommendations. You can build trust and credibility by providing honest and unbiased reviews, sharing your personal experience with the product or service, showing proof of results, and addressing any questions or concerns your readers may have.
- Provide value-added bonuses. One way to stand out from other affiliates and increase your conversions is to offer value-added bonuses to your contacts who buy through your link. These can be anything that complements the main product or service, such as an ebook, a video tutorial, a checklist, a cheat sheet, a webinar, or a consultation. Make sure to highlight the benefits of your bonus and how it can help your contacts achieve their goals faster or easier.
Mailchimp Affiliate Marketing: Conclusion
Mailchimp is a powerful email marketing platform to help you grow your online business. However, if you want to use Mailchimp for affiliate marketing, you must be aware of its rules and limitations and follow its terms of use.
Mailchimp does not allow affiliate marketing as an industry, but it does allow affiliate links in your campaigns as long as they are not the main message and are relevant to your audience. Mailchimp also has a referral program that lets you earn credits for referring new customers to their platform.
To succeed in affiliate marketing with Mailchimp, you must provide value and relevance to your contacts, be transparent and honest about your affiliate links, test and optimize your campaigns, build trust and credibility, and offer value-added bonuses.
Affiliate marketing can be a lucrative way to monetize your web traffic and earn additional income. With Mailchimp, you can leverage their email marketing features and tools to create engaging and effective affiliate campaigns that generate sales and commissions.
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