In this chapter, I’m going to share a case observe to reveal you what effective affiliate advertising and marketing looks like “on the ground.”
This case look at is based on a product I’ve recommended for a long term that’s additionally emerge as one in all my largest drivers of affiliate profits. From 2015 to 2017, it introduced in a whopping $315,000 in affiliate revenue.
ConvertKit is an example of a product I promote as part of a long-term strategy. It’s a remarkable instance of an associate resource I promote to my target audience that can benefit and serve them over the long time and optimistically I earn a wholesome affiliate earnings at the equal time.
Although I love and use ConvertKit myself (and the founder, Nathan Barry, is a good buddy of mine), the factor of this chapter is not to promote the product. Instead, I’m here to reveal you the way I’ve promoted ConvertKit.
And I’ve done so in a very specific manner: by way of D-O-I-N-G. This approach has helped me be very successful in promoting ConvertKit as an associate. Those letters stand for:
Before we get into the info of the D-O-I-N-G approach, here’s a little historical past on how I were given started promoting ConvertKit as an associate. ConvertKit wasn’t my first email service provider. My first one, back in 2010, changed into AWeber. AWeber changed into high-quality as an entry-level e mail device, and I also promoted it as an associate, making up to $2,000 a month at one factor. And that earnings still comes in each month, because I receives a commission a routine commission for every month someone I refer stays on, even though I’m not actively selling the product anymore.
Eventually, though, I wished an e-mail service that changed into less difficult to use with more advanced features. For a even as, I grew to become to some other device known as InfusionSoft, which became good, but nonetheless now not exactly what I wanted. Shortly after I began the use of InfusionSoft, a pal of mine, Nathan Barry, reached out to me to invite how I was doing with the new device. Nathan had recently started a new email provider company, ConvertKit.
We met for espresso in downtown San Diego a couple weeks later. After catching up approximately private stuff, the communication grew to become to business. Nathan asked me quite a few questions about my needs, experiences, and goals as a blogger, podcaster, and digital marketer. He didn’t attempt too hard to plug his new tool, besides toward the cease of our communique when he said, “Hey, if Infusionsoft doesn’t exercise session for you, permit me know, and we are able to see how you might be capable of use ConvertKit.”
I didn’t assume lots of his provide for a little at the same time as.
But over time, I started out growing increasingly more annoyed with Infusionsoft. So I reached lower back out to Nathan to look how ConvertKit turned into doing. I wasn’t amazed to listen that they have been experiencing constant increase month after month. New features have been being brought on a normal basis, and after a couple of side conversations with other users, I changed into glad to listen extremely positive reviews.
That’s while I asked Nathan to demo the current software for me over Skype—and I become blown away. I cherished the intuitive consumer interface, along side the tool’s segmentation and automation talents.
Seeing what the device could do, it wasn’t long before I determined to exchange from InfusionSoft, and Nathan’s team even helped me migrate my e mail list. I’ve been using ConvertKit very thankfully ever considering.
That tremendous revel in has proven up in phrases of my affiliate sales from ConvertKit too. Although I changed into happy with my AWeber affiliate profits, due to the fact that transferring to ConvertKit, I’ve damaged into a brand new level of associate income and success. Part of that is because ConvertKit is an amazing tool—however quite a few it has to do with how I leveled up my promotional efforts with the D-O-I-N-G approach.
Let’s examine all approximately it now!
Digging Into the D-O-I-N-G Approach to Affiliate Marketing
Let’s start at the start, with the primary part, D, which stands for demo.
D: DEMO THE PRODUCT
Affiliate advertising and marketing is technically smooth to do. All you need to do is get your affiliate hyperlink and begin sharing it along with your target audience. It’s smooth to stop there and think you’ve executed enough.
But if you’ve been with us since the beginning of this series, you understand that a crucial exercise in affiliate advertising and marketing is to take merchandise that are not your personal and deal with them as though they have been your very own. If you were promoting your personal product, you’d display human beings what they were going to get before they got it, proper? But most folks who do affiliate advertising simply proportion a hyperlink and more than one sentences and call it good.
Instead, as we pointed out formerly in Chapter 1, you want to show the product in action. That’s wherein the demo comes in. People are greater probably to shop for while they know what they’re getting and precisely the way it will assist them.
The excellent manner to do this is with a video demo that indicates humans two major things: 1) how they can gain from the tool and 2) how to use it.
In 2015, I created a YouTube demo of ConvertKit. In the video, I talk approximately the benefits and capabilities that made me fall in love with ConvertKit: ease of use and setup, stunning design, powerful statistical analysis, segmentation and tagging, and loads extra. Along the manner, I display screenshots of ConvertKit in action, so visitors can see precisely how to perform unique things the use of the tool.
Interested in ConvertKit? Here's a demo to help you get started and use this powerful email advertising and marketing device.
When you search “ConvertKit demo” or “ConvertKit tutorial” on Youtube or Google, my demo is usually one of the top consequences. It’s been viewed almost 30,000 instances as of July 2018, and it’s driven a ton of traffic both back to my internet site and through the affiliate hyperlink mentioned in the video description.
Convertkit affiliate hyperlink you tube
When you’re considering growing your very own demos, you need to show no longer simply the capabilities and advantages of the tool, but also make it a laugh and show your personality. In the ConvertKit demo video, despite the fact that you don’t get to see a whole lot of me (it’s just my voice with a Screenflow video), I’m simply being myself. I could have made a stiff, mechanical demo that turned into all about just conveying the applicable information—and it would have been shorter too—however who wants to sit via that? Instead, I’m comfortable and sharing my honest opinions, the use of words like “cool” and “effective” (and yes, “nice”!) to bring my excitement about ConvertKit’s competencies, within the hopes that excitement might be shared by my target market too.
You need to create a thoughtful demo that suggests you care about creating informative content whilst also maintaining your target audience engaged and excited to attempt the device. And of route, ensure you encompass calls to action (CTAs) to go through your associate link, in addition to disclosing your associate relationship with the corporation.
You don’t need to bombard your target audience with these CTAs, although, and in case you’ve provided enough valuable, attractive content inside the demo, you shouldn’t should include multiple or two CTAs. In my ConvertKit demo video, I simplest point out my associate link and status two times very briefly, on the very cease:
“Go in advance and test it out: smartpassiveincome.Com/convertkit. And I sit up for seeing the way you are capable of use it. Like I said, ConvertKit’s coming out with a variety of different stuff inside the destiny too, to make our lives even less complicated. Hopefully this is beneficial. Cheers. I appreciate you. That affiliate link one greater time, which I do get a commission from in case you do undergo that hyperlink, is smartpassiveincome.Com/convertkit. Thank you so a good deal, and I’ll see you within the subsequent video.” [Full Disclosure: I’m a compensated advisor and affiliate for ConvertKit.]
In other varieties of content material, such as blog posts, I would possibly share my affiliate link a little greater regularly, as an instance at the beginning, middle, and give up of a post. But in both instance—whether or not a video demo or a weblog post—the content itself does the “heavy lifting” of sparking someone’s hobby in attempting out the product, so I don’t must hit my target audience over the pinnacle with my affiliate hyperlink.
O: OFFER ANSWERS
The next step is to offer answers to people’s questions. This is large, due to the fact if someone asks you a question about a product, they’re likely already interested in it. They may additionally just be on the fence, and if you may be the one to answer their questions, that could supply them the final piece of the puzzle to move ahead and make a buy, knowing there’s someone there to offer product guide in the event that they want it.
That’s why I constantly offer guide for ConvertKit and the alternative associate products I promote. When questions come in, I’m brief to reply them because I need to make humans experience comfortable with the concept of spending cash on this aspect I’m promoting.
The combination of the demo and providing answers is effective. If you prepare an intensive and beneficial demo, you’ll in all likelihood solution plenty of people’s questions inside the demo itself. But even in case your demo covers all the bases you could suppose of, you should nevertheless offer to answer humans’s questions. Why? Even if they don’t have any, simply the truth which you’re providing this assistance will make human beings experience greater snug and inclined to buy the product via your hyperlink. Remember, you want people to believe you and sense steady of their investment.
Want an instance of how you may provide guide on this manner? Here’s what I say closer to the end of the ConvertKit demo video I noted in the previous section:
“I’m here to answer your questions too. If you’re looking this on YouTube, ask your query below; I’ll do my first-class to reply it. If you’re looking this on the SPI weblog, pass ahead and leave your question within the comments section. Or, in case you want to ship me an email, that’s totally best too. Happy to assist, because I certainly believe on this product.”
I additionally provide to answer people’s questions about my affiliate merchandise thru other channels, inclusive of e-mail and social media. People frequently reach out to me on Twitter, because Twitter makes it easy for me to reply quickly. It helps that there’s a person limit, too, as it forces both parties to get to the factor.
Offering to reply questions additionally makes human beings experience stable about the fact that in the event that they have been to have questions later on, once they’re up and jogging with the product, you’ll be capable of solution them. This is especially essential if the product you’re promoting is of a incredibly technical nature.
So, provide guide and those could be greater at ease approximately buying through your affiliate hyperlink.
I: INTERVIEW
When you’re selling an affiliate product, having different people talk approximately the product, and the story behind it, may be a effective way to get human beings enthusiastic about it.
A first rate way to do this is to interview the founder of the product in your podcast. ConvertKit founder Nathan Barry joined me on episode 244 of the Smart Passive Income podcast, titled “Bootstrapping a Business.” But here’s the component. We didn’t virtually speak about the product itself a whole lot at all! We talked about his story, and the way he bootstrapped the corporation and grew it successfully. We mentioned how I met him and built a relationship with him and his business enterprise, in the end turning into an guide to ConvertKit.
Because the product itself—in addition to my affiliate dating with ConvertKit—turned into not the focal point of the interview, listeners had been capable of recognition on how lots care and fine Nathan put into growing the product and cultivating the company’s culture. As a result, in a way, they were able to start constructing a courting with him too.
I only cited my associate hyperlink on the very lead to a casual way, as nearly a natural conclusion to the episode.
The ability to enhance your associate advertising efforts through interviewing the founding father of a product you’re selling is a incredible reason—amongst many—to have a podcast. Even even though Nathan and I recorded the episode in 2016, people are nonetheless downloading and taking note of it today. I also reference the episode plenty while I point out ConvertKit, which helps make it an active aid in promoting my associate dating.
So, if you’re planning to promote a brand new associate product, see if you can get the founder of that product to your podcast. If you may’t get get admission to to the founder for a podcast interview, do not forget an electronic mail interview or perhaps a video interview over Skype or Zoom. And if you can’t get the founder, attempt for any person who represents that agency at a high level. If that’s not feasible both, intention for someone who’s used the product and knows it well, with a bit of luck someone your audience is already aware about and respects.
We talked in Chapter 2 about the significance of promoting a product yourself, showing how a whole lot you realize and like it and the remarkable consequences you’ve gotten from the use of it—i.E., displaying proof. When you’re the only one doing the showing, there’s constantly the risk, but small, that your efforts may additionally come off as too promotional. On the opposite hand, because the Nathan Barry podcast episode showed, interviews are effective due to the fact maximum of the promoting that’s achieved is indirect—and frequently, you won’t have to talk approximately the product a great deal at all.
N: NEVER RECOMMEND MORE THAN ONE OF THE SAME KIND OF PRODUCT
Next up, you ought to in no way endorse a couple of solution for a specific type of problem. This is a genuinely critical rule, and one which generates quite a few debate. And there are exceptions, which we’ll speak about in a second.
But first, what exactly do I imply by means of never recommending more than one of the identical form of product?
Well, if I have been to propose ConvertKit, but additionally endorse other electronic mail solutions like AWeber or MailChimp, it might dilute the power of my primary recommendation. You want to pick one, because in any other case humans are going to be confused. I went the path of recommending a couple of similar products as soon as, and it didn’t cross well. People said, “Wait, I notion you have been recommending this one. But now you’re talking approximately this one? What’s the difference? How is it better?”
You don’t want people asking themselves even extra questions on which product makes sense for them. That’s why they came to you in the first place! So, yes, I’ve made my decision, and the simplest electronic mail provider issuer I propose to people is ConvertKit.
SPI-assets web page convert package screenshot
ConvertKit is the most effective email carrier issuer I endorse.
Are you recommending multiple product right now that’s essentially the equal form of solution? If so, you’re diluting your affiliate marketing efforts and reducing the amount of earnings you could make. Yes, once in a while it’s awesome to provide human beings alternatives, however it may also work towards you.
Now, if a person have been to say, “Hey, Pat. I realize you propose ConvertKit, but what different solutions are out there?” then of course I’m going to be honest with them and tell them what different alternatives they have. I’m now not going to say, “Sorry, Dave. There are not any other super options out there.” That would be lying. There are other outstanding e-mail service vendors out there. But the one I use, recommend, and accept as true with can be there to assist my target market is ConvertKit.
Plus, as with everything, there are exceptions to the rule. In this case, most effective having one advice doesn’t make experience for some varieties of sites. For instance, if you run a vacuum overview site, you may’t break out with selling simply one product, as that could pass in opposition to the entire goal of the site. You can truely spotlight featured products and hints in one of a kind categories. But whilst humans are trying to find beneficial comparisons of similar merchandise, the N rule possibly won’t apply.
Here’s every other example from one in every of my personal associate promotional materials that you might remember from Chapter 1. In one in all my YouTube videos, I overview 3 one-of-a-kind podcasting microphones.
Here’s the key: Even although every of these products could be very similar (they’re all microphones), I use the evaluate as an possibility to distinguish them consistent with their first-class uses, then make specific tips approximately which microphone must be used for different scenarios. For instance, inside the video, I grow to be recommending that you no longer use one of the microphones for podcasting at all—instead, I suggest another use case that makes extra experience for this precise microphone. I’m comfortable such as my affiliate hyperlink to each of the microphones due to the fact I’ve made the attempt of differentiating them for my target audience.
Mic YouTubevideo affiliate hyperlinks
As you could see in the video description, I consist of affiliate links to purchase each of the microphones I assessment.
G: GET THE PRODUCT IN FRONT OF YOUR PEOPLE
This final one is a big one, and it represents a mindset shift I’ve undergone during the last few years. Often, humans emerge as timid while it comes time to position products in the front of their audience. If that describes you, whether it’s your own product or an associate product, then I need you to shift your mindset—to certainly one of excitement about sharing something you realize will assist your target market. In fact, it’s your duty and your role to do that, and you ought to embrace it. Because if you don’t, you’re now not serving your audience in the great way possible.
It’s now not about being pushy or aggressive; it’s about being encouraged to get the product in the front of people. You’ve done the research, you’ve used the product, you’re providing solutions, you’ve created the video demo, you’ve recorded the interviews. You realize the product can help your target audience, so get it in the front of them! Talk about it in your podcast, and on different human beings’s podcasts. Share it in weblog posts. Create greater movies about the advantages and abilties of the product.
That’s exactly what I’ve executed and continue to do with ConvertKit. I consider inside the product, and the company, so it’s my obligation to get it in front of my target audience so they can gain from it like I actually have.
I’ve used lots of methods and channels to get ConvertKit in the front of my target market, which includes:
Blog posts
Videos (just like the product demo)
Social media messages
My Resources page
Podcast episodes (like the interview with Nathan Barry)
When it involves getting the product in the front of your target market, it pays to be creative! On that note, I desired to proportion one greater pretty novel manner I’ve gotten ConvertKit in the front of my target audience. In a March 2018 video, I congratulated ConvertKit for a big milestone—hitting $1 million in monthly recurring sales (MRR). In the video, I additionally shared 8 critical lessons for people trying to start and develop a enterprise, ones that got here at once from ConvertKit’s instance in turning into a $1 million MRR business.
The video turned into a response to a unmarried tweet by way of ConvertKit’s founder, Nathan Barry, about the business enterprise’s $1 million milestone. But I built on that tweet to tell a far richer story approximately the organization and the way they had been able to accomplish some thing so remarkable. You can see everything below.
The key in this video is that I didn’t cognizance that a good deal on the product itself—and especially now not on my affiliate relationship with them—however on ConvertKit the organization, and the way they used 8 effective and ethically minded principles to develop their business rapidly. These are principles all of us who’s looking to develop their own business the proper way can analyze from and implement.
And you may do the equal issue I did with this video. Ask yourself, what can I examine from the achievement of a enterprise I have an affiliate relationship with? How can I use that organisation’s example, and the concepts in the back of its fulfillment, to help my audience and deliver them value?
When you do that, you’re getting the product in front of people—but you’re also giving them so much extra.
Time to Get D-O-I-N-G!
Well, that’s the D-O-I-N-G components! I hope you find it as beneficial as I have in promoting your associate merchandise. As a reminder, here’s the method again:
Demo the product
Offer answers to your target market about the product
Interview the founding father of the product
Never suggest greater than one of the identical kind of product
Get the product in the front of your human beings
Once you begin D-O-I-N-G, you’ll begin succeeding along with your affiliate marketing. Here’s to your fulfillment!
This case look at is based on a product I’ve recommended for a long term that’s additionally emerge as one in all my largest drivers of affiliate profits. From 2015 to 2017, it introduced in a whopping $315,000 in affiliate revenue.
ConvertKit is an example of a product I promote as part of a long-term strategy. It’s a remarkable instance of an associate resource I promote to my target audience that can benefit and serve them over the long time and optimistically I earn a wholesome affiliate earnings at the equal time.
Although I love and use ConvertKit myself (and the founder, Nathan Barry, is a good buddy of mine), the factor of this chapter is not to promote the product. Instead, I’m here to reveal you the way I’ve promoted ConvertKit.
And I’ve done so in a very specific manner: by way of D-O-I-N-G. This approach has helped me be very successful in promoting ConvertKit as an associate. Those letters stand for:
- Demo the product
- Offer solutions to your target audience about the product
- Interview the founding father of the product
- Never advise greater than one of the same sort of product
- Get the product in the front of your people
Before we get into the info of the D-O-I-N-G approach, here’s a little historical past on how I were given started promoting ConvertKit as an associate. ConvertKit wasn’t my first email service provider. My first one, back in 2010, changed into AWeber. AWeber changed into high-quality as an entry-level e mail device, and I also promoted it as an associate, making up to $2,000 a month at one factor. And that earnings still comes in each month, because I receives a commission a routine commission for every month someone I refer stays on, even though I’m not actively selling the product anymore.
Eventually, though, I wished an e-mail service that changed into less difficult to use with more advanced features. For a even as, I grew to become to some other device known as InfusionSoft, which became good, but nonetheless now not exactly what I wanted. Shortly after I began the use of InfusionSoft, a pal of mine, Nathan Barry, reached out to me to invite how I was doing with the new device. Nathan had recently started a new email provider company, ConvertKit.
We met for espresso in downtown San Diego a couple weeks later. After catching up approximately private stuff, the communication grew to become to business. Nathan asked me quite a few questions about my needs, experiences, and goals as a blogger, podcaster, and digital marketer. He didn’t attempt too hard to plug his new tool, besides toward the cease of our communique when he said, “Hey, if Infusionsoft doesn’t exercise session for you, permit me know, and we are able to see how you might be capable of use ConvertKit.”
I didn’t assume lots of his provide for a little at the same time as.
But over time, I started out growing increasingly more annoyed with Infusionsoft. So I reached lower back out to Nathan to look how ConvertKit turned into doing. I wasn’t amazed to listen that they have been experiencing constant increase month after month. New features have been being brought on a normal basis, and after a couple of side conversations with other users, I changed into glad to listen extremely positive reviews.
That’s while I asked Nathan to demo the current software for me over Skype—and I become blown away. I cherished the intuitive consumer interface, along side the tool’s segmentation and automation talents.
Seeing what the device could do, it wasn’t long before I determined to exchange from InfusionSoft, and Nathan’s team even helped me migrate my e mail list. I’ve been using ConvertKit very thankfully ever considering.
That tremendous revel in has proven up in phrases of my affiliate sales from ConvertKit too. Although I changed into happy with my AWeber affiliate profits, due to the fact that transferring to ConvertKit, I’ve damaged into a brand new level of associate income and success. Part of that is because ConvertKit is an amazing tool—however quite a few it has to do with how I leveled up my promotional efforts with the D-O-I-N-G approach.
Let’s examine all approximately it now!
Digging Into the D-O-I-N-G Approach to Affiliate Marketing
Let’s start at the start, with the primary part, D, which stands for demo.
D: DEMO THE PRODUCT
Affiliate advertising and marketing is technically smooth to do. All you need to do is get your affiliate hyperlink and begin sharing it along with your target audience. It’s smooth to stop there and think you’ve executed enough.
But if you’ve been with us since the beginning of this series, you understand that a crucial exercise in affiliate advertising and marketing is to take merchandise that are not your personal and deal with them as though they have been your very own. If you were promoting your personal product, you’d display human beings what they were going to get before they got it, proper? But most folks who do affiliate advertising simply proportion a hyperlink and more than one sentences and call it good.
Instead, as we pointed out formerly in Chapter 1, you want to show the product in action. That’s wherein the demo comes in. People are greater probably to shop for while they know what they’re getting and precisely the way it will assist them.
The excellent manner to do this is with a video demo that indicates humans two major things: 1) how they can gain from the tool and 2) how to use it.
In 2015, I created a YouTube demo of ConvertKit. In the video, I talk approximately the benefits and capabilities that made me fall in love with ConvertKit: ease of use and setup, stunning design, powerful statistical analysis, segmentation and tagging, and loads extra. Along the manner, I display screenshots of ConvertKit in action, so visitors can see precisely how to perform unique things the use of the tool.
Interested in ConvertKit? Here's a demo to help you get started and use this powerful email advertising and marketing device.
When you search “ConvertKit demo” or “ConvertKit tutorial” on Youtube or Google, my demo is usually one of the top consequences. It’s been viewed almost 30,000 instances as of July 2018, and it’s driven a ton of traffic both back to my internet site and through the affiliate hyperlink mentioned in the video description.
Convertkit affiliate hyperlink you tube
When you’re considering growing your very own demos, you need to show no longer simply the capabilities and advantages of the tool, but also make it a laugh and show your personality. In the ConvertKit demo video, despite the fact that you don’t get to see a whole lot of me (it’s just my voice with a Screenflow video), I’m simply being myself. I could have made a stiff, mechanical demo that turned into all about just conveying the applicable information—and it would have been shorter too—however who wants to sit via that? Instead, I’m comfortable and sharing my honest opinions, the use of words like “cool” and “effective” (and yes, “nice”!) to bring my excitement about ConvertKit’s competencies, within the hopes that excitement might be shared by my target market too.
You need to create a thoughtful demo that suggests you care about creating informative content whilst also maintaining your target audience engaged and excited to attempt the device. And of route, ensure you encompass calls to action (CTAs) to go through your associate link, in addition to disclosing your associate relationship with the corporation.
You don’t need to bombard your target audience with these CTAs, although, and in case you’ve provided enough valuable, attractive content inside the demo, you shouldn’t should include multiple or two CTAs. In my ConvertKit demo video, I simplest point out my associate link and status two times very briefly, on the very cease:
“Go in advance and test it out: smartpassiveincome.Com/convertkit. And I sit up for seeing the way you are capable of use it. Like I said, ConvertKit’s coming out with a variety of different stuff inside the destiny too, to make our lives even less complicated. Hopefully this is beneficial. Cheers. I appreciate you. That affiliate link one greater time, which I do get a commission from in case you do undergo that hyperlink, is smartpassiveincome.Com/convertkit. Thank you so a good deal, and I’ll see you within the subsequent video.” [Full Disclosure: I’m a compensated advisor and affiliate for ConvertKit.]
In other varieties of content material, such as blog posts, I would possibly share my affiliate link a little greater regularly, as an instance at the beginning, middle, and give up of a post. But in both instance—whether or not a video demo or a weblog post—the content itself does the “heavy lifting” of sparking someone’s hobby in attempting out the product, so I don’t must hit my target audience over the pinnacle with my affiliate hyperlink.
O: OFFER ANSWERS
The next step is to offer answers to people’s questions. This is large, due to the fact if someone asks you a question about a product, they’re likely already interested in it. They may additionally just be on the fence, and if you may be the one to answer their questions, that could supply them the final piece of the puzzle to move ahead and make a buy, knowing there’s someone there to offer product guide in the event that they want it.
That’s why I constantly offer guide for ConvertKit and the alternative associate products I promote. When questions come in, I’m brief to reply them because I need to make humans experience comfortable with the concept of spending cash on this aspect I’m promoting.
The combination of the demo and providing answers is effective. If you prepare an intensive and beneficial demo, you’ll in all likelihood solution plenty of people’s questions inside the demo itself. But even in case your demo covers all the bases you could suppose of, you should nevertheless offer to answer humans’s questions. Why? Even if they don’t have any, simply the truth which you’re providing this assistance will make human beings experience greater snug and inclined to buy the product via your hyperlink. Remember, you want people to believe you and sense steady of their investment.
Want an instance of how you may provide guide on this manner? Here’s what I say closer to the end of the ConvertKit demo video I noted in the previous section:
“I’m here to answer your questions too. If you’re looking this on YouTube, ask your query below; I’ll do my first-class to reply it. If you’re looking this on the SPI weblog, pass ahead and leave your question within the comments section. Or, in case you want to ship me an email, that’s totally best too. Happy to assist, because I certainly believe on this product.”
I additionally provide to answer people’s questions about my affiliate merchandise thru other channels, inclusive of e-mail and social media. People frequently reach out to me on Twitter, because Twitter makes it easy for me to reply quickly. It helps that there’s a person limit, too, as it forces both parties to get to the factor.
Offering to reply questions additionally makes human beings experience stable about the fact that in the event that they have been to have questions later on, once they’re up and jogging with the product, you’ll be capable of solution them. This is especially essential if the product you’re promoting is of a incredibly technical nature.
So, provide guide and those could be greater at ease approximately buying through your affiliate hyperlink.
I: INTERVIEW
When you’re selling an affiliate product, having different people talk approximately the product, and the story behind it, may be a effective way to get human beings enthusiastic about it.
A first rate way to do this is to interview the founder of the product in your podcast. ConvertKit founder Nathan Barry joined me on episode 244 of the Smart Passive Income podcast, titled “Bootstrapping a Business.” But here’s the component. We didn’t virtually speak about the product itself a whole lot at all! We talked about his story, and the way he bootstrapped the corporation and grew it successfully. We mentioned how I met him and built a relationship with him and his business enterprise, in the end turning into an guide to ConvertKit.
Because the product itself—in addition to my affiliate dating with ConvertKit—turned into not the focal point of the interview, listeners had been capable of recognition on how lots care and fine Nathan put into growing the product and cultivating the company’s culture. As a result, in a way, they were able to start constructing a courting with him too.
I only cited my associate hyperlink on the very lead to a casual way, as nearly a natural conclusion to the episode.
The ability to enhance your associate advertising efforts through interviewing the founding father of a product you’re selling is a incredible reason—amongst many—to have a podcast. Even even though Nathan and I recorded the episode in 2016, people are nonetheless downloading and taking note of it today. I also reference the episode plenty while I point out ConvertKit, which helps make it an active aid in promoting my associate dating.
So, if you’re planning to promote a brand new associate product, see if you can get the founder of that product to your podcast. If you may’t get get admission to to the founder for a podcast interview, do not forget an electronic mail interview or perhaps a video interview over Skype or Zoom. And if you can’t get the founder, attempt for any person who represents that agency at a high level. If that’s not feasible both, intention for someone who’s used the product and knows it well, with a bit of luck someone your audience is already aware about and respects.
We talked in Chapter 2 about the significance of promoting a product yourself, showing how a whole lot you realize and like it and the remarkable consequences you’ve gotten from the use of it—i.E., displaying proof. When you’re the only one doing the showing, there’s constantly the risk, but small, that your efforts may additionally come off as too promotional. On the opposite hand, because the Nathan Barry podcast episode showed, interviews are effective due to the fact maximum of the promoting that’s achieved is indirect—and frequently, you won’t have to talk approximately the product a great deal at all.
N: NEVER RECOMMEND MORE THAN ONE OF THE SAME KIND OF PRODUCT
Next up, you ought to in no way endorse a couple of solution for a specific type of problem. This is a genuinely critical rule, and one which generates quite a few debate. And there are exceptions, which we’ll speak about in a second.
But first, what exactly do I imply by means of never recommending more than one of the identical form of product?
Well, if I have been to propose ConvertKit, but additionally endorse other electronic mail solutions like AWeber or MailChimp, it might dilute the power of my primary recommendation. You want to pick one, because in any other case humans are going to be confused. I went the path of recommending a couple of similar products as soon as, and it didn’t cross well. People said, “Wait, I notion you have been recommending this one. But now you’re talking approximately this one? What’s the difference? How is it better?”
You don’t want people asking themselves even extra questions on which product makes sense for them. That’s why they came to you in the first place! So, yes, I’ve made my decision, and the simplest electronic mail provider issuer I propose to people is ConvertKit.
SPI-assets web page convert package screenshot
ConvertKit is the most effective email carrier issuer I endorse.
Are you recommending multiple product right now that’s essentially the equal form of solution? If so, you’re diluting your affiliate marketing efforts and reducing the amount of earnings you could make. Yes, once in a while it’s awesome to provide human beings alternatives, however it may also work towards you.
Now, if a person have been to say, “Hey, Pat. I realize you propose ConvertKit, but what different solutions are out there?” then of course I’m going to be honest with them and tell them what different alternatives they have. I’m now not going to say, “Sorry, Dave. There are not any other super options out there.” That would be lying. There are other outstanding e-mail service vendors out there. But the one I use, recommend, and accept as true with can be there to assist my target market is ConvertKit.
Plus, as with everything, there are exceptions to the rule. In this case, most effective having one advice doesn’t make experience for some varieties of sites. For instance, if you run a vacuum overview site, you may’t break out with selling simply one product, as that could pass in opposition to the entire goal of the site. You can truely spotlight featured products and hints in one of a kind categories. But whilst humans are trying to find beneficial comparisons of similar merchandise, the N rule possibly won’t apply.
Here’s every other example from one in every of my personal associate promotional materials that you might remember from Chapter 1. In one in all my YouTube videos, I overview 3 one-of-a-kind podcasting microphones.
Here’s the key: Even although every of these products could be very similar (they’re all microphones), I use the evaluate as an possibility to distinguish them consistent with their first-class uses, then make specific tips approximately which microphone must be used for different scenarios. For instance, inside the video, I grow to be recommending that you no longer use one of the microphones for podcasting at all—instead, I suggest another use case that makes extra experience for this precise microphone. I’m comfortable such as my affiliate hyperlink to each of the microphones due to the fact I’ve made the attempt of differentiating them for my target audience.
Mic YouTubevideo affiliate hyperlinks
As you could see in the video description, I consist of affiliate links to purchase each of the microphones I assessment.
G: GET THE PRODUCT IN FRONT OF YOUR PEOPLE
This final one is a big one, and it represents a mindset shift I’ve undergone during the last few years. Often, humans emerge as timid while it comes time to position products in the front of their audience. If that describes you, whether it’s your own product or an associate product, then I need you to shift your mindset—to certainly one of excitement about sharing something you realize will assist your target market. In fact, it’s your duty and your role to do that, and you ought to embrace it. Because if you don’t, you’re now not serving your audience in the great way possible.
It’s now not about being pushy or aggressive; it’s about being encouraged to get the product in the front of people. You’ve done the research, you’ve used the product, you’re providing solutions, you’ve created the video demo, you’ve recorded the interviews. You realize the product can help your target audience, so get it in the front of them! Talk about it in your podcast, and on different human beings’s podcasts. Share it in weblog posts. Create greater movies about the advantages and abilties of the product.
That’s exactly what I’ve executed and continue to do with ConvertKit. I consider inside the product, and the company, so it’s my obligation to get it in front of my target audience so they can gain from it like I actually have.
I’ve used lots of methods and channels to get ConvertKit in the front of my target market, which includes:
Blog posts
Videos (just like the product demo)
Social media messages
My Resources page
Podcast episodes (like the interview with Nathan Barry)
When it involves getting the product in the front of your target market, it pays to be creative! On that note, I desired to proportion one greater pretty novel manner I’ve gotten ConvertKit in the front of my target audience. In a March 2018 video, I congratulated ConvertKit for a big milestone—hitting $1 million in monthly recurring sales (MRR). In the video, I additionally shared 8 critical lessons for people trying to start and develop a enterprise, ones that got here at once from ConvertKit’s instance in turning into a $1 million MRR business.
The video turned into a response to a unmarried tweet by way of ConvertKit’s founder, Nathan Barry, about the business enterprise’s $1 million milestone. But I built on that tweet to tell a far richer story approximately the organization and the way they had been able to accomplish some thing so remarkable. You can see everything below.
The key in this video is that I didn’t cognizance that a good deal on the product itself—and especially now not on my affiliate relationship with them—however on ConvertKit the organization, and the way they used 8 effective and ethically minded principles to develop their business rapidly. These are principles all of us who’s looking to develop their own business the proper way can analyze from and implement.
And you may do the equal issue I did with this video. Ask yourself, what can I examine from the achievement of a enterprise I have an affiliate relationship with? How can I use that organisation’s example, and the concepts in the back of its fulfillment, to help my audience and deliver them value?
When you do that, you’re getting the product in front of people—but you’re also giving them so much extra.
Time to Get D-O-I-N-G!
Well, that’s the D-O-I-N-G components! I hope you find it as beneficial as I have in promoting your associate merchandise. As a reminder, here’s the method again:
Demo the product
Offer answers to your target market about the product
Interview the founding father of the product
Never suggest greater than one of the identical kind of product
Get the product in the front of your human beings
Once you begin D-O-I-N-G, you’ll begin succeeding along with your affiliate marketing. Here’s to your fulfillment!
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