If you are just starting out in affiliate marketing, you might have noticed that it is a big world out there. It can be scary at times, and success is not guaranteed. In fact, the majority of people will never make a full time income through promoting other people’s products, as they don’t plan long term. You will have to focus on your own personal brand and build your credibility and reputation before your readers will be comfortable to buy from you. Still, you will also need a plan and obtain some important skills. Read our affiliate marketing tips below.
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Have a Plan
To avoid jumping from one industry to another or one product to the next, it is important that you have a plan. You have to know where your potential customers are, what they are interested in, and how you will convince them to land on your site. Without a plan, no business can succeed, therefore, you will have to sit down and think long and hard about what your initial conversion rates will be, how much you will invest in marketing, web design, and traffic generation, and how you will differentiate yourself on the competitive marketplace.
Create a Sales Funnel
The best way of planning your business model is creating a sales funnel and brainstorming various ideas, so you can create a plan how to turn traffic into sales. You are not likely to sell people who are visiting your site or social media page the first time, so you have to give them a good enough reason to return. Providing value first and selling or recommending products later is a great affiliate marketing approach that can help you build a fan base and a subscriber list.
Research Your Market
While you are not the product creator, and the vendors have already researched the market (if you are lucky), you will also have to do your own searches. Find out more about the competitors of the product or service you are promoting, and find a way to differentiate your offer. Add an extra product, a free guide, or simply create better relationships with your website visitors than other affiliates. Knowing your market and the trends will be a great advantage throughout your affiliate marketing career.
Learn How to Write a Sales Copy
While most vendors will provide you with all the tools and graphics you need to sell their products, you might want to develop your own sales copy as well. If you learn how to write a website, a promotional email, or a blog post, you will be able to determine whether or not the landing page will convert, or you have to introduce the offer in a unique way. In case you are focusing on product launches on ClickBank, you will have to compete with thousands of established marketers, and they will have the advantage of being a trusted source of information and recommendation.
Utilize Social Media
Even if you are not selling your own products, you will have to implement social media in your affiliate marketing strategy. Be sure to create a Facebook page and join various related forums, blogs, and online communities, so you can keep an eye on the market, as well as the competition. Once you have established yourself as an expert on the market, you will be trusted and your recommendations will be welcome.
Invest in Automation
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You don’t have to do it all alone. Using WordPress has several advantages for affiliate marketers. You can get plugins that will automatically insert your links into the content you publish, you only have to give them the related keywords. You can track cookies and conversions, find out where your visitors are coming from, or simply schedule your blog posts, your social media updates, and your campaigns. Get an autoresponder that works with your social media accounts, your blog, and your squeeze pages, and write your informative and promotional emails to be sent out regularly, so you don’t have to keep everyone in the loop manually.
Measure and Tweak Until You Crack the Code of Affiliate Marketing
Chances are that you will not make much money on your first campaign. No matter how hard you try, there will be loads of experienced affiliates who will take the sales. Don’t let this discourage you, though. Make sure that you measure everything and change things around. AB testing can tell you which headline or blog title gets the most visitors and click throughs.
Starting up affiliate marketing is a challenge. You will face a huge competition of other products and affiliates, and need to learn during the process. Track everything you do, come up with a plan, design your sales funnel, but be prepared to change things until they work as they are supposed to.