A lot of Internet marketing start-ups find selling
affiliate products a surprisingly difficult task. At the
outset many suppose that all they have to do is to place
their affiliate links on their websites and sit back and
wait for the sales to come rolling in.
While some people with high ranking websites will certainly
be making sales directly off their pages, that is not
really the best way to go about selling affiliate products
or programmes, especially if the links are not supported by
useful, relevant, well written and original product
information.
The main aim of the front page should be to get visitors to
sign up to your newsletter via your opt-in form. That will
put you in a position to FOLLOW UP on visitors to your
website - remember, most sales are made in the follow up.
If you have been struggling to master the net and make a
profit on your online business, here is a three-pronged
marketing strategy to help increase your sales.
First Prong: Know Your Product
Choose a product that matches your niche, offers a good
commission and is also well written and presented. Yes,
that means you will have to BUY it yourself!
Thoroughly familiarize yourself with the product to the
point where you feel able to write a thorough, honest and
convincing review of it.
Second Prong: Write A Product Review In Three Parts
This is important. Don't just write a single review, post
it and forget it. Write your review in THREE parts and send
each part as a separate message to your list over the
course of 6-9 days.
The aim of the headline of the first message is to create
maximum curiosity to encourage a high opening rate. The
main copy should create rapport with the customer, induce a
sense of familiarity, emphasize the BIG BENEFIT and
neutralize scepticism.
Of course, your link through to the product site should be
included, but since most of the sales come in the FOLLOW
UP you will need to prepare your second and third reviews,
each in a different style.
The second message should be in the form of questions and
answers about the product, further neutralizing lingering
scepticism and encouraging purchase via the link you supply
in the body of the letter.
The third message should make use of bullet points to
emphasize the benefits to the reader of purchasing and
again provide a link for immediately doing so.
Third Prong: Whack Your List With A Too-Good-To-Turn-Down
Offer
As well as the MAJOR BENEFIT of the product itself, make
your readers a BIG OFFER and add a TIME LIMIT to give it an
edge of urgency...
Here's what you do. In each of your letters you emphasize
how good the product is and how much you want your readers
to benefit from it. So much so that you are going to make
them a generous offer.
Offer them either a rebate on the retail price. Make it
between 75%-100% of your commission. For example, if the
product costs $50 and you earn a 50% commission, or $25 per
purchase, offer to give them a rebate of between $15 and
$25!
What? Am I crazy?
Well, maybe. But notice, I did not say offer your list an
instant discount (for which, you'd probably need to use
Paypal). I said "offer them a rebate."
...What's the difference?
Well, a discount is given up front. A rebate is awarded
post purchase.
What you do is provide your purchasers with a link to a
rebate form that they print out and post to you with their
name, address and the product they purchased and the
purchasing code. Explain to your customers that it takes X
number of days to process payments. Ask them to send the
form to you X number of days after they purchased the
product to claim their rebate. You undertake to send them
their rebate as soon as you receive your commission cheque.
Simple!
Several things accrue from this.
Firstly, it is unlikely that every customer will follow up
on the rebate, so you won't lose all your profit, even if
you offered to rebate 100% of your commission.
Secondly, you have converted a number of people on your
list into customers. Once people have had a good experience
of purchasing through you they will be less resistant to
doing so again. You can now sell to them again and again.
Thirdly, when you send them their cheque, you can include
some direct mail materials. Of course they will open the
letter from you since they know there is a cheque inside,
and so they will be much more likely and well disposed to
read your printed sales material.
So make them a nice follow-up offer and you stand to recoup
your profit all over again!!
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David Hurley is a regular contributer of articles on
Internet marketing success techniques. You are invited to
subscribe to his popular newsletter which is packed with
useful tips and advice on how to set up and succeed online.
The newsletter comes with a courtesy package of powerful
ebooks and marketing tools and is available on his website
at http://grasp-the-nettle.com .
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