Stand Out From the Crowd
I am constantly amazed by the barrage of advertisements from
affiliate marketers utilizing standard affiliate pages to pitch
their wares. The concept of joining a "hot" affiliate program
for an even "hotter" selling product appears to make sense
because marketers have an opportunity to get on a fast moving
train.
"Look, everyone is selling so and so's new Product X so they
must be raking it in". Seems reasonable, right? No.
Unfortunately for most, even the best selling programs will
create little, if any at all, new business or revenue for them.
While the reasons for this are numerous, the most important
aspect of this inability to market hot products relates to the
crowd. "The crowd" you say, John?
Yes, the crowd. Unless you differentiate in some way shape or
form you are simply another in a long line of folks with the
exact same site, pitching the exact same deal to as many people
as you can. And those folks will see that same site time and
time again, thus becoming immune to it.
So...what do you do? How do you differentiate? How do you stand
out from the crowd and sell that product? There are many
different ways you can accomplish this; and the good news is
that by differentiating yourself you will improve your whole
online business, not just sales of one particular product.
A few ideas for differentiation include (in no specific order)-
* Develop a persona (i.e.: Affiliate Review Guy, Captain
Affiliate, you get the gist) and build a recommendation site
around that persona. If you offer quality recommendations and
get a solid reputation you can direct people to your offers from
that site.
* Utilize a squeeze page and offer a bonus or a newsletter in
return for opt-in information. Once you have that information
you are in a position to communicate with that individual
regarding products you promote. Just be certain you are offering
value too and you're not just blasting ads every three seconds,
or your opt-in will opt right back out.
* Contact the owner of the program and see if you can work out
a special deal for your subscribers. The people that own the
programs are regular people just like you and me and you'd be
surprised at how easy it really is to communicate with them. Of
course you'll want to make sure there is benefit for the owner
but if it's a win-win you may find yourself being able to edge
out your competition.
* Utilize a cross section of all of these strategies and you
will really notice a difference in click thru's and sales. By
having your own site and gathering subscribers via opt-in you
will be able to build a steady affiliate business and not for
just one program, either, but for several.
The point of all of this is to get creative, stand out, build
relationships with your customers, and leverage those
relationships to market your affiliate programs. Be sure that
your creativity doesn't step outside the bounds of your
affiliate program TOS but by taking extra steps to provide value
to your customer and by separating yourself from all the other
folks out there you will see your conversion rates change
dramatically and you will develop a solid business foundation.