If you are a person who wants to create and market your own products and services, one of the marketing methods that works well is to create an affiliate program. Today, it’s easy to create an affiliate program with services such as ClickBank and E-junkie. However, just uploading your products and moving on is not enough to create a winning affiliate marketing program. You need more than a product.
Choose a Relatable Niche
The first step in creating a winning affiliate marketing program is to choose a niche to which you can relate, or in which you’re willing to do the research required to truly know the audience and what products or services they need. You can’t sell everything to everyone and be a successful affiliate marketer. Pick a niche and stick to it.
Offer Great Products
When creating products, always under promise and over deliver. Your marketing copy should talk up your products and services but once the end user gets it they should feel as if they are getting so much more than they thought they would get. The way to do that is to actually create great products that you’re super proud to represent.
Connect with Movers and Shakers
Search for blogs and websites within your niche that have good traffic numbers and good rankings, and connect with them. Offer them free copies of your products and/or a sample of your services. Once they accept, invite them to become affiliates of your products. If they love your product and/or service, as well as your program, they’ll be very likely to promote it.
Create Winning Customer Service
Your customer service should be top notch. At first you can likely handle this yourself, but as your business grows you may need to consider outsourcing your customer service so that you can continue to offer great customer service. Using an online ticketing system, along with live chat operators and a FAQ, will go a long way to helping you provide winning customer service to buyers and affiliates.
Offer a Multitude of Marketing Materials
Don’t just throw out your product without also providing a multitude of marketing materials such as editable articles and blog posts, as well as a large number of different size and colored graphics that your affiliates can make blend into their own online real estate. Don’t tie your affiliates’ hands by creating too many impediments to success. If they can simply grab the code and toss it into their website for a creative graphical advertisement, then all the better.
Develop Fun Promotions
Affiliates love contents and will work harder when you give added bonuses for higher sales volume. Having an affiliate contest where the top seller gets something special such as a tablet or iPad will go far in encouraging your affiliates to work even harder. Even unannounced bonuses that you shout from the rooftops after the fact will encourage your affiliates to work harder and harder for you over time.
Finally, it’s imperative that you keep communication going for your affiliates. Create a special Facebook group for them that is private for your affiliates to talk about and suggest new ways to market your products. Your affiliates will also likely be a very great source for new product innovation, so keeping the lines of communication open will go far in helping you create a winning affiliate program.