Article marketing and e-mail campaigns are similar in the sense that both allow you to perform targeted marketing to specific niche markets. With article marketing, you write specific content for a specialty market. You get a specialty publisher for that market to publish your content. Your articles reach the exact audience you intended. If you write an article about great payroll software for small companies, a good article distribution service gets that article into the hands of a small business online magazine.

Do the same with e-mail campaigns. Write e-mail content to send to niche markets. These opt-in customers chose newsletters because they are interested in the subject matter. Send specific content through e-mail campaigns. This content may discuss topics related to affiliate products. It gives readers new information and helps them make informed buying decisions. Provide useful information to establish your authority as an expert in the area. They are more likely to buy from someone they trust.

E-mail campaigns tend to be more attractive than article marketing campaigns. There are two reasons for this:

* Article marketing content is more or less generic. You can't engage in blatant sales talk related to products. Articles provide objective information and are not infomercials for a product per se.

* E-mail campaigns, however, may address specific products and be promoted directly. Avoid sounding like an old-time snake oil salesman. Promote your products in a favorable way.

E-mail campaigns may use photos, graphics, charts and the like to make a point. Article marketing only allows plain text to make points. You may be visually creative with e-mail content as opposed to article content. Words alone must inspire people to action when article marketing is used.

With an e-mail campaign, you are knocking on someone's door in hopes that they respond. With article marketing, readers knock on your door and choose to read it. That's a big difference. You have to work harder to get people to read content you send than articles they actively searched for on the web.

Combine article marketing and e-mail campaigns. Provide links to your article content on third-party websites, your website or your blog. Build traffic to affiliate sites through effective e-mail campaigns. Use more direct sales language with e-mail campaigns to promote your affiliate product and provide field expertise with article marketing.

Article marketing drives targeted traffic to your websites where you have an opt-in newsletter. Build subscriber lists for future e-mail campaigns through this opt-in opportunity. Offer a quality newsletter on topics related to your affiliate products to get subscribers interested in your niche market. Use this subscriber list to mount e-mail campaigns that speaks directly to this niche. Effective e-mail campaigns increase conversion rates with a specific niche who wants the information you send them. Just make sure your e-mail campaign is respectable and dignified.

Article marketing and e-mail campaigns each have their own strengths. Used separately they accomplish their own pre-defined goals. Used together they feed off one another to drive increased traffic to your affiliate site where you close the sales.