Day 2 Introduction To Affiliate Business Basic - Part II
Let's continue to learn how to be a successful affiliate to achieve financial freedom...
1.2. PREsell To Convert
Your strategies and actions as an affiliate directly affect your Conversion Rate ("CR"). Today, we will deal with how to PREsell effectively. (Later in the course, we will cover traffic-building in more detail.)
Let’s look at examples of how “low-CR affiliates” create negative mindsets by making HOW-YOU-REACH, WHAT-YOU-SAY, or HOW-YOU-REFER booboos.
We’ll begin at the top…
1) How to Reach Your Visitor...
Free-For-All Sites (FFAs) are a great example of how not to reach people. For the most part, FFAs have become so seamy and useless that no matter what you say, you’re doomed from the start.
Compare this with how smart and open-minded your visitor feels when she
finds you via a Search Engine!
2) What to Say to Your Visitor...
Don’t write a site purely devoted to “hard-selling” your merchants’ products.
Imagine a visitor who hits your site and reads an immediate sales pitch. That
person will resist because she does not know you. Then, if she clicks to your
merchant, she gets another sales pitch ==> Negative x 2!
Never devote your site to one company’s product line. No matter what you
do, no matter how sincere you are, this kind of approach always ends up
“smelling” like a sales pitch. It simply makes no difference that you honestly love the products -- your visitor will mistake your devotion for selling.
Remember, he or she doesn’t know you!
It’s far better to develop a concept that relates to that company’s products and to other products from other companies that are complementary. Develop related content that PREsells. Then “get the click” through “in-context” text links.
3) How to Refer Your Visitor to Your Merchant...
Banners, as we discussed earlier, are the best example of how not to refer your visitors to your merchant. In plain and simple language, people feel "pitched" then they click on a banner. And people who feel “pitched” are difficult to convert into a sale.
Now for a critical ACTION STEP...
Review your site or whatever other means you are using to REACH, TALK TO,
and REFER visitors to your merchants. Put yourself in your customer’s brain.
What will she think, how will she feel, at each of the 3 major steps from above?
If you’re doing everything perfectly, congratulations! You must have a high CR.
If you don’t have a high CR, or if you see some big mindset mistakes.
Consider how much higher your CR would be if a visitor found you in a bona fide manner (e.g. as a result of doing a search on a Search Engine), then became “your friend” (or your “trusting admirer” if you do a truly awesome job!) because you provided excellent content, and finally was led to a context-appropriate recommendation. (There will be more on recommendation vs. sales pitch shortly.)
Key learning point?
Always consider how these actions affect your visitor’s mindset...
1) HOW YOU REACH your visitor, and…
2) WHAT YOU SAY to her, and…
3) HOW YOU REFER her to your merchant.
Get inside your visitor’s head. Realize how she will feel each step of the way. Whatever you do, consider the impact on your visitor -- if it does not make her more “open to buy,” don’t do it.
PREselling is really all about selling yourself (i.e., your credibility) to your
customer, every step of the way. You reach your targeted traffic in a proper
fashion, you deliver valuable, appropriate, editorial content, and you recommend merchants to your visitor after she has come to respect and like you.
Your CR will soar.
~~~~~~~~
Why does PREselling work so well?
A sale via any Affiliate Program is really a two-step process. It requires the
delivery of two “Most Wanted Responses,” yours and your merchant’s. As an affiliate, what is your Most Wanted Response ("MWR")? No, it’s not to get the sale. That’s the second step and it's also your merchant’s MWR. Your MWR is to “get the open-to-buy click” (i.e., your visitor clicks through to your merchant with an open-to-buy mindset).
Let your merchant’s site do its job and get the sale. I remember when I used to tell my star baseball pitcher, Joel Leonoff...
“Joel... you don't have to strike 'em all out. You’ve got a great team behind you. Let them do their job.”
The same goes for your merchants. Let them do their job.
Just like the “Top 100” 5 Pillar Affiliates of Site-Build-It provide useful content. They PREsell. Then they let the rest of their team (Ken and Site-Build-It) get the sale.
It’s a two-step process that builds to the sale...
STEP 1 You PREsell to get an open-to-buy click-through to your merchant.
STEP 2 Your merchant gets the sale.
So, whatever you do, however you do it, it should always pull your visitor one
step closer to delivering your MWR...
Get an open-to-buy click through to your income-generating source!
Whoops! I was just about to move on to the next point. Good thing I heard you asking...
“If I leave it up to the merchant's site to get the sale, I still don’t see how I have any influence on the Conversion Rate. I'd much rather sell the visitor on my own site.”
First, let’s make sure we have our terms straight by examining a real case study.
Elad Shippony, from Israel, is an excellent example of an infopreneur. He is
creating fun and entertaining content to drive traffic from the Search Engines,
and then monetizing that traffic, without selling a product or service.
http://www.sitesell.com/case-studies/infopreneur-elad.html
PREsell effectively, and your CR will zoom. But if it reads like a “hard-sell sales pitch,” you’ll quickly lose credibility with your audience.
On the other hand, let’s say that you do not have a mega-content, ultra-high
traffic site. You really love Site-Build-It products and that's why you’re so proud to represent them. After all, you’d never want to just “push stuff” on people, products that you do not believe represent true value-for-dollar.
You create a Web site that really raves about Site-Build-It! (SBI!) and other
SiteSell products. You mean every word of it, of course. And you are really
proud of your site. And you know that you are doing visitors a favor by telling
them about the SiteSell products.
Whoa! Let’s shift the focus from YOU for a second. Let’s focus on your visitor’s mindset.
Up above, I said...
"Get inside your visitor's head -- realize how she will feel each step of the way. Whatever you do, consider the impact on your visitor -- if it does not make her “open to buy,” don't do it."
So maybe you see an honest site that tries to share the benefits of SBI! with
your visitor. But your visitor does not know you or your motivations. And most
importantly, she is not reading the relevant information that she was searching for. (The fundamental reality of the Net is information, information,
information).
Your visitor sees a straight sales effort. With no other true content, it would be hard for “an outsider” to see it any other way.
It does not matter what you see. If your visitors basically perceive a straight sales effort for your merchants, you’re selling, not PREselling. That means that the two-step process is now SELL-SELL...
Redundancy = Turned OFF customer = LOW CR.
But if you develop great content, it will lead to the click. You become a friend making a recommendation rather than a stranger making a sales pitch. And if you create a truly great site, you’ll actually become a trusted expert making an endorsement.
Recommendation = Turned ON customer = HIGH CR.
In other words, don’t push your visitor to the click, make her want to click. It
makes all the difference if your visitor feels that it’s her idea to deliver your MWR (the open-to-buy click).
Another question? Geez, I was about to grab a coffee. Fire away!
“Can you give me another example of using content to PREsell?"
Sure. Let’s say that you love Make Your Words Sell! (MYWS!), the perfect
bookend to Make Your Content PREsell!. Your plan is to create a Net
marketing site.
Whoa! My first recommendation...
Do not create another Web marketing site. There are zillions of them.
However, if you can develop a unique twist in the way you present high-value
Web marketing information and build at least 30 quality content pages about this subject, then go for it. But don’t limit your monetization efforts to PREselling SiteSell products exclusively. Instead, diversify.
For example, let’s say you create a content page about “how to write persuasive sales copy on the Net.” Within that page, include in-context text links to your Top 3 books about copywriting.
According to customer feedback, Make Your Words Sell! is far ahead in the #1 position…
myws.sitesell.com
… but it’s also a good idea to still include a #2 and a #3 recommendation.
Why?
First, this approach gives your page extra content value -- it shows visitors that you have their best interests at heart. Second, it adds extra credibility to the #1 choice (ahem!). And third, it gives you three possible links for your visitor to click upon.
Include your favorite book about writing “offline” copy, too. Naturally, it’s an affiliate link to one of the online bookstores!
It’s a WIN-WIN-WIN situation for you, your visitors, and your merchants.
Now, please think about the following for a moment...
Why would I, a merchant, recommend that you not create “yet another Web
marketing site,” and especially not one that is dedicated to selling the SiteSell products?
It’s because I know you’ll waste your time. The two-step SELL-SELL does not work. Period. Sure, you’ll get a few sales. But you won’t make enough money to stay motivated to build your business. I’d rather give you a far more powerful, successful approach…
http://affiliatemarketing.sitesell.com/resources2success.html
…and have a smaller piece of your larger and more successful attention!
Bottom line?...
If you want to create and build a site that is related to Net marketing, take your time and do your homework. Find a new concept, or a unique twist, or a trend that you think will become important, and be the first one to do it. Do not be a “me too.”
Better yet, find your own unique concept.
And where do you find a great concept for your site? Inside you!
You do know stuff other people don’t... things people would pay to know. You might have learned it “on the job” or through your hobby. There’s a good chance that you don’t even realize what you know. It’s often right under your nose. But, as you’ll see in the following days course, everyone is an expert about something.
In the meantime, check out how these small business owners have created their own unique site concepts based on what they know and love. Find out how they discovered SBI!’s most valuable benefit of all…
http://specialprize.sitesell.com/resources2success.html
OK, we can summarize this section into a key take-home lesson. I am giving it this title...
“The Road to Becoming a Master Affiliate”
The more I researched successful 5 Pillar Affiliates, the more PREselling techniques I found. But, no matter how they do it, they all accomplish the same thing in the end...
“They refer people to their merchants in an ‘OPEN-TO-BUY’ frame of mind.”
What's the key?
PREselling. Not selling.
You must, must, must know how to PREsell!
Basically, The Affiliate Masters Course delivers the single most productive approach to affiliate income. It will show you how to PREsell your way to a CR of 5-10% and at the same time, maximize targeted traffic to your site and your merchants’ sites (and your other monetization options, if applicable).
This brings us to the bottom line of Day 1 and 2...
If you’re drawing targeted traffic to your site... and if your site is getting a great Click-Through Rate ("CTR") to the merchants that you represent (and your other monetization sources)... and if you are converting a high percentage of them into sales...
You are following the roadmap to becoming a high-earning affiliate champion!
Let’s summarize the whole point of PREselling with this question...
Which would you respond to?...
A stranger with a sales pitch?
Or…
A knowledgeable friend making a recommendation?
Before proceeding to DAY 3, please take note of your Ongoing Goal...
Your Ongoing Goal: Deepen and focus your understanding of the Day 1 and 2 material. Re-read it once per week for the next eight weeks, monthly after that. As you progress through the course, it’s going to be easy to lose sight of the “big picture” presented in Day 1 and 2. And there’s another reason to re-read regularly.
It will mean more and more to you as you go through the course and gain each DAY’s new perspective.
Relevant Posts:
Financial Freedom?! All In Our Minds!: Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course
Financial Freedom?! All In Our Minds!: Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 1
Financial Freedom?! All In Our Minds!: Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course - Day 2
Financial Freedom?! All In Our Minds!: Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 3
Financial Freedom?! All In Our Minds!: Achieve Financial Freedom Thru Affiliate Masters Course – Day 4
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