The Guide How To Sell More Affiliate Products
17 Tips, Hacks, and Ideas for How To Sell More Affiliate Products
Just tossing your affiliate link out into the wind isn’t going to rack up a whole lot of sales for you. Instead, it would be best if you created a content strategy that works to presell the offers you’re promoting. Below you’ll find 17 tips, tricks, and ideas for boosting your affiliate sales using presell content and other methods. Let’s take a look…
1. Create a Product Review
The key to an effective product review (or comparison) is total honesty. If you write a glowing review that mentions not a single flaw in the product, your prospects are going to know you’re lying. And they’re not going to trust you from here on out.
No product is perfect, and indeed, no product is ideal for everyone. If you’re honest with your audience about the good, the bad, and the ugly of every product you promote, you’ll develop a trusting relationship with them. In turn, these folks who trust you will buy from you, so your honesty will pay off big in the long term.
2. Share a Case Study
Even though your audience wants to believe the vendor’s claims (and yours), they’re still a little skeptical that the product works as advertised. You can help overcome this skepticism by offering proof in the form of a case study. Depending on the niche and the product, you can do the case study on yourself or recruit a prospect and conduct the case study on them instead.
For example, if you’re promoting an offer that promises people will have better-looking skin in 30 days, then you can do a case study on yourself if your skin could use improvement. Be sure to document your skin daily with photos or videos to prove that the product works as advertised.
3. Tell an Inspirational Story
Elsewhere in these guides, I mentioned that you need to stir some positive emotion if you want people to take action. That’s one reason why an inspirational story works so well to not only engage people but move them towards an order button.
To that end, a story is usually inspiring if the person is 1) a lot like the reader, or at least very relatable, and 2) the person overcomes a challenge to achieve their goal.
For example, suppose you’re selling information about training for marathons, and you tell a story about how a veteran overcame a double amputation and PTSD to run her first marathon. In that case, that’s going to inspire plenty of people.
4. Do a Video Demo
Another great way to presell an affiliate offer is by doing a video demonstration. This is where you demonstrate a strategy from an info product or demonstrate the product itself if you’re selling software or physical products.
For example, if you’re selling a dog-training book, then you can do a demo showing how you taught your dog something outlined in the book. This is a great way to prove the information works.
Another example: if you’re selling software, like a membership site script, you can take people on a virtual tour of the features and the user interface. This lets people imagine what it would be like for them to own and use the product.
5. Craft a Series
Whether you’re writing a blog post or sending emails to presell a product, you’ll have better conversions if you craft a series. Not everyone sees every email, so multiple emails increase the number of people who visit at least one email. In addition, those who get repeat exposure to the offer (i.e., the ones who are opening and reading most of the emails) tend to be more open to the request, and ultimately they’re more likely to buy it.
One standard series is a three-part sequence called the Fear-Logic-Gain series. This includes:
Email 1: Gain, which is where you share the benefits of the offer.
Email 2: Logic, which you appeal to reason, such as showing a case study as proof that an offer works.
Email 3: Fear, which is usually a fear of missing out, such as when you send out a “last chance” email about a promotional offer.
Next…
6. Add Value to the Offer
When you’ve got a whole load of affiliates who are selling exactly what you’re selling, you need a way to stand out. And one good way to do this is by adding value to the offer, such as giving a free bonus to anyone who buys through your affiliate link.
For example, if you’re selling a do-it-yourself home remodeling and repair guide, you might offer a free video on how to regrout bathroom tile.
7. Distribute a Coupon
Sometimes beginner affiliates don’t want to use coupons because it lowers the product's price, which falls the affiliate’s commission. In other words, an affiliate makes less money per sale if they’re sharing coupons.
But that’s the wrong attitude to have.
Instead, you want to offer coupons to your prospects every chance you get. That’s because coupons boost conversions and even build loyalty to your options. As such, check with vendors regularly to see when they’re going to offer coupons so that you can make a plan to promote during those periods.
Now let’s switch gears…
8. Share “Useful Yet Incomplete” Content
One effective way to presell an affiliate offer is to distribute applicable yet incomplete content. The content is helpful in the sense that it solves part of your prospect’s problem, yet it’s incomplete because it doesn’t solve the entire situation. This “incompleteness” is what opens the door for you to promote an offer that does indeed solve the whole problem.
Let me give you a few examples of applicable yet incomplete preselling content:
Provide an overview. Here you give people an overview of the steps they need to take, but you don’t provide in-depth details of each step. Readers who want in-depth info will buy the product. E.G., you give an overview of writing a sales letter and then promoting a copywriting guide.
Offer tips. For example, you offer a set of 10 helpful weight-loss tips and then promote a weight-loss membership site to help prospects achieve their fat-loss goals.
Share in-depth info on ONE step. You then promote a product that provides in-depth information on the rest of the steps. For example, you teach people how to stage a home, and then you sell a home-selling guide that teaches everything else.
Share in-depth info on an entire process. This works well when you’re selling templates, tools, or physical products. For example, you provide in-depth instructions on setting up a mailing list, and then you promote your favorite autoresponder platform.
Next…
9. Plant a Seed in a Lead Magnet
Your lead magnet is designed to get people to join your mailing list, but it should also work to presell an affiliate offer. You can do this by creating a lead magnet that’s useful yet incomplete (see above). To make it more effective, plant a seed early on in the lead magnet and then “harvest” it at the end of the content with a link and call to action.
Let’s suppose you’re promoting a weight loss membership site, and your lead magnet is a report full of weight-loss tips. In the middle of the information, you may say something like this, “In just a little bit, you’ll discover my go-to resource whenever I need a boost of motivation or a great recipe…”
That last line plants a seed and starts building anticipation for your eventual link and call to action.
Next…
10. Follow Up Via Email
Very few people order a product the first time they hear about it. This is especially true if they’re not familiar with the vendor or the affiliate who’s telling them about it. That’s why you need to follow up via email multiple times to familiarize the prospect with the product, build their desire for the offer, and handle any objections.
How many emails should you send to promote an offer? Generally speaking, each sequence should be about three to seven emails. You can use shorter lines for inexpensive products and established requests coming from well-known vendors. Use longer sequences when promoting brand-new offers or offers coming from lesser-known vendors.
TIP: You can also segment your list according to how long people have been a subscriber. Your long-time subscribers can get your standard promotional sequence, while you may add an email or two for subscribers who are relatively new to your list (e.g., three months or less).
Next…
11. Craft Unique Preselling Content
Most good vendors provide all the content you need to presell an offer. While you can use these prewritten materials as a foundation, you should tweak them to create something unique. This sets your ads apart from other affiliate ads, and it also creates consistency by having all your content in your writing voice.
12. Turn Liabilities into Assets
If a product has a perceived flaw that’s not a dealbreaker, you can boost conversions by turning this perceived liability into an asset.
For example, let’s suppose a diet guide doesn’t include enough recipes. You can turn this flaw into an asset by talking about how the guide doesn’t limit you to a specific recipe set. Instead, it teaches you how to eat and then gives you free rein to create your healthy recipes based on the foods you’re already eating.
Alternatively, you can handle it using the following method…
13. Overcome Objections
Your preselling content should handle common objections. For example, you can take “it won’t work” by sharing a case study.
If the product has a flaw, then another way to handle the objection is to create a bonus that takes care of it.
For example, if a flaw of a copywriting course is that it doesn’t have enough samples, you can create a bonus full of examples, swipes, and templates.
14. Distribute a FAQ
Another good way to presell an offer is by distributing a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list. This list may include questions such as, “Why is ABC Product better than XYZ?” and “How do I know it works?”
Next…
15. Justify the Price
Whether the price is low or high, you need to justify it for the prospect.
For example, “If you outsourced all this content, it would cost you $1500. Which makes this PLR offer a great deal at just $97…”
16. Give People a Reason to Act Now
Whenever possible, urge people to act now – because if they don’t, they’re likely to forget about it. And that means you’ll lose the sale.
If there is a built-in sense of urgency, such as a time-limited offer, then make use of that fact. E.G., “You’ll kick yourself if you miss out on this low price, so click here to get started now…”
17. Be Transparent
When you’re preselling offers, be transparent and honest. Let users know that you get a commission if they buy (in some jurisdictions, this is required). If you’re upfront and honest about every aspect, people will trust you more… and in turn, that leads to more sales.
Conclusion
You just discovered how to sell more affiliate products, 17 preselling methods, and tips to boost your affiliate sales. If your business is already up and running, then be sure to put this good information to work ASAP, in the very next blog post, email, social media blurb, or other content you distribute to your prospects!
Be sure also to read our article: Increasing Affiliate Income
If you want to learn how to market at a professional level, check out a great FREE affiliate marketing course.
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