Affiliate Marketing
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You may have seen Jeff’s name in the top 10 JV Partners on many launches. Jeff Dedrick is an internet marketer with several of his own digital products and membership sites. Jeff is also a pioneer when it comes to “incentivizing” an affiliate marketing campaign. Jeff was among the first marketers to start offering incentives & bonuses to his list subscribers for purchasing a product through his affiliate link. Jeff has had tremendous success using this simple strategy and offers advice on how you can the same.
List Offers
List? What list? Well, first of all, I hope you have more than one. When I talk about lists, I mean all the email contact lists you have of:
Prospects
Customers
Affiliates
This means that you should have at least two lists for each product or service you are promoting (although these lists can often overlap and you can have more if you like). You can market to these lists based on what you know about your subscribers and this gives you the opportunity to increase your income substantially.
Where do you find the contacts for these lists? I am going to work backward here and talk about the customer list first. The customer list is the list you build when a customer purchases one of your products. This is a very important list.
Every time you have a customer who makes a purchase, you will collect that person’s contact information. At the very least, you will have their first name and email address. However, depending on the type of purchase, you might end up with more.
The people on your customer list “know” you already. They have already purchased at least one product from you and they know they can trust you. You have established a relationship with these people and when you offer them another product or service, you will find they are more receptive to it than someone who has not experienced your products or services before.
When sending a promo out to your list or pasting an affiliate link on your website/forum/blog/emails NEVER directly post an affiliate link. Most visitors & readers can spot an affiliate link a mile away and will be discouraged if they suspect your recommendation is going to benefit you in some way.
Although I do only recommend promoting offers you believe in, many of your followers will not take your recommendation as seriously if they know you’re going to land a commission. Try to cloak your affiliate links, use redirects, or at the very least use a tool like the one we had whipped up just for this exact case:
http://www.profromgo.com/pfgurl.php
When a customer makes a purchase, you will be able to contact them and follow through, offering them great customer service. You can check in with them within a couple of days after the sale and find out if they have any questions and how it is going. This situation can be a chance to make them an offer.
Now I will cover the prospect list. These are the people who have opted-in to your email contact list by signing up for:
** A free newsletter
** A free report
** A free offer of any kind!
** After viewing your sales page
Essentially, these people have agreed to give you their name and email address with the knowledge that, in addition to the freebie they have signed up for, they will receive additional messages in the future.
Generally, once they sign up, they will receive an email (preferably immediately) that will allow them to confirm their opt-in. This way, no one can sign another person up in error and also you will have the piece of mind knowing that every single one of your subscribers joined under their own wishes.
Now, these email lists will be crucial to your business and your bottom line. This is FREE advertising at work for you. These people have either signed up for your list voluntarily or have made a purchase already.
What types of offers do you send out? You can let them know anytime you have:
** A new product of your own or a new affiliate or JV product
** A special offer on an existing product
** A bonus such as a free short course on a particular topic, a report, or a white paper
** New information related to your product that has been released and that might be of interest to your contacts
** Private label rights to an existing product
I want to elaborate on this last point. This is a really great way to get your product out there. If you have written an eBook or developed some excellent software, one way to get it out there is to sell the “rights” to your customers.
When you capture their interest and they move in for the purchase, you can offer the private label rights as a another means to monetize the backend of your site. Your price will be higher, but the customer will then be able to move ahead and market the product themselves, making a nice profit. This will more than offset the cost of buying the rights and you definitely want to explain this to them in the offer.
When a customer purchases the private label rights, that person can then put his or her name on the product and sell it immediately. You might think this is a bad thing, but it is not. If you have strategically placed links to your other products or services within the product, then you will automatically have those links out there to be viewed by others. This will result in:
** Increased traffic to your website (depending on the type of rights you sell)
** More sales
When you are sending your emails, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Be concise: Keep it short, simple, and to the point. You do not want to bore your recipients and you most certainly do not want to take up much of their time. Remember, they are at least as busy as you are (and I know how busy you are). You can also try using long copy in your emails but just be sure you’re writing compelling sales copy in your promo emails or you could be waisting your own time developing long copy and not to mention your subscriber’s time as well.
Target: Make sure you are sending targeted emails based on what your subscribers have indicated an interest in. This is the most effective use of your marketing energy, time, and skills.
Accuracy: This should go without saying, but make sure everything you say in your communication is accurate. Do not assume and do not embellish or blow out of proportion. Hype sells when used in moderation. If every promo you send out to your lists is over-hyped people will abandon ship by unsubscribing.
Connection: You must be sure to respond to each and every person who replies to your email. You want to be sure to establish communication with them ASAP.
Rapport: Build rapport with your customers and send them emails now and then that aren’t selling ANYTHING. Use personalization techniques such as addressing subscribers by name, or including a brief message explaining when and where they joined your list. (This can easily be done using a few of aweber’s features).
If you don’t feel confident writing your email correspondence you can always hire a professional writer to do it for you but most of your subscribers are going to be interested in Y-O-U.
Your email list will be one of the most important assets in your online business. The definition of an asset is anything that will put money in your pocket and an email list will do just that. In fact, it will put lots of money in your pocket if you use it effectively.
