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To get affiliates, you'll need to convince them that you and your product are worth promoting. You'll need to build trust. And you'll need patience as well. Potential affiliates often won't say yes the first time you ask, or they'll say yes but then they'll get distracted and they'll go promote something else unless you follow up.
The challenges of recruiting affiliates:
Again, there is no army of affiliates waiting to promote your product. Whenever I hear that phrase, “army of affiliates,” I picture a zombie army standing just outside my door, waiting for their marching orders. I have yet to open my door and find that army...
Announcing is not enough.
Simply announcing that you offer an affiliate program is not enough. A common myth among new marketers, no doubt propagated by seasoned marketers – is that all you need to do is create a product and announce your affiliate program and the affiliates will come. Not true.
You've got to grab attention.
When you want people to sell things for you, you've got to get their attention. Remember, affiliates have lives, too. They're busy with their day to day stuff as well as running their own businesses, and you're trying to add more work to their already busy day. You'll need to grab their attention and get them to realize that promoting your product is well worth their time. And there are things you can do to make it easier for them, as well.
You've got to educate your potential affiliates.
Affiliates may not know anything about your product or how your program is relevant to their audience. Your product may be different from anything they're currently promoting, and you'll need to educate them on how your product is a great fit for them. Affiliates have a thousand and one choices.
Daily.
Good affiliates get approached all the time. How do you stand apart from the crowd? You've got to make your program seem so much better/juicer/more valuable/more suitable than any other.
You might want to be choosy.
When an affiliate promotes your products, they represent you. But what if they're not the sort of person you want your name and your products to be associated with? Or what if their style is completely different from yours? For example, if they're super hypey and your not, you might not want them to promote for you. Look for those affiliates who are the cream of the crop. Think of them as your sales force – you wouldn't hire just anyone to sell your product. The best affiliates are the hardest to win over.
Realize that the best affiliates are approached nonstop night and day. Imagine if everyone was trying to get a piece of you – what would you do? You'd be cautious, and you'd filter all of these offers in some way so that you wouldn't have to deal with them all. Be prepared to work to get to these affiliates.
More is not necessarily better.
Only a handful of your affiliates will make the vast majority of your sales. That's why you'll want to 6 spend your time recruiting a few good affiliates who sell like crazy, rather than trying to recruit massive numbers of affiliates who do nothing.
Now that you know some of the myths and challenges to recruiting and using affiliates, let's move on to where you will actually find your future affiliates, and how to approach them.
Finding Your Future Affiliates
I have found there are 3 basic types of potential affiliates. And some people may disagree with this – some marketers believe the only good affiliates are the first type I will mention. But what they are forgetting is that every affiliate had to begin somewhere, with some product. Why shouldn't it be yours?
1. The First Affiliate Type is People Who Are Already Proven Affiliates
No doubt this is the easiest source of affiliates in that they're already sold on the concept of affiliate marketing. In addition, they have EXPERIENCE at affiliate marketing – always a good thing. You don't have to sell them on affiliate marketing. You only need to sell them on YOUR program.
You'll need to prove yourself – prove your product does what it says, that your sales letter converts, that you are already getting sales. Your number one selling point to an experienced, potential affiliate is your CONVERSION rate and price point. The higher the conversions, especially in conjunction with a high price point/payout, the more likely you are to capture their attention.
Remember to warm these people up. You want to make friends before you need them to promote your product. Dropping out of the blue as a total stranger and asking them to promote is far less effective than getting to know them first and THEN asking them to promote. Common sense, but I know a lot of marketers totally skip this step and go straight to asking for the promotion. That's like trying to go all the way with a girl without so much as a first date or first kiss. It seldom works.
The easiest place to find experienced affiliates? Find the affiliates who are promoting your competitor's products because those affiliates are your best bet. You can simply Google your competitor's name and see who's promoting those products. Easy, right? And that is a million dollar tip right there, in case you missed it. 8 So you've decided you want seasoned affiliates, and you know how to find them – but what do you do next to actually recruit them?
Here are the steps I take -
First, I consider how my product is a good fit for their audience. For example, I go to their website if they have one, I look at their content, and I see how my product fits with their content, their niche, their target market – and I make some notes.
Second, while I'm on their website I look for specific places where promoting my product would be a natural fit. For example, if my product is a hair tonic and they have an article on hair care, it's a perfect fit. If my product is a course on how to do social media marketing and they have a blog post on social media marketing, it's a great fit. I write these places down because I'm going to be sending this information to them. I'm trying to make everything just as super easy as possible for my future affiliates.
The third thing to look at is how is your product better than what they are already promoting? Does it pay the affiliate a higher commission? Does it convert better? Is it a better product for their customers?
And then fourth - how do I warm this affiliate up to me? I don't want to just jump in cold turkey and say, “Hey, I'm A.B., promote my product!” Instead, I like to approach them through social media, personal email, etc. without mention of promoting anything.
You could ask to interview them on a specific topic - that's a great way to warm people up.
You could also offer to write guest articles for their website or posts for their blog. Be sure to add comments to their blog – I guarantee they read those, and when they keep seeing your name, they're going to remember you when you contact them.
And the rest is up to you. There is no one way that works every time. Your product is unique, you're unique, your potential affiliate is unique – and so you've got to use your people skills and your good common sense. Two things I might mention - do sell yourself and your product, and do keep track of your conversations with each potential affiliate.
What I mean is, do tell how well your product converts, how low the refund rate is, if you pay instant commissions, if people are raving about your product, and so forth.