Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn money online, it allows you to promote products you love and earn an online income doing it.
There is an art to selling products you are promoting without "selling" them and this is called PRE-SELLING or PRESELLING. If you can grasp this concept and execute it in your business, you'll be light years ahead of most affiliates.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is an opportunity created by vendors and merchants for everyday people who want to promote their products and share them with others in exchange for earning a commission on the sales.
In today's age customers rely on the Internet and reviews before they purchase their products. These reviews are created by regular people like you and I, good or bad they're there and that is how vendors and merchants earn more money. When they do, they give a portion to the Affiliates as a thank you for helping them "sell", ehem... promote their products.
The reason vendors created this opportunity is because they realize customers talk and referral business is the best way to sell anything. Best of all the vendors don't have to pay affiliates anything unless they close the sale.
What is the Job of an Affiliate?
Your job as an affiliate marketer is to provide useful, relevant content that relates to the products you are promoting, yet leaves the reader wanting to know more.
Affiliate marketing requires a solid understanding of your vendors and merchant's products. Affiliates quickly become authorities on the products they are promoting and usually pick a niche; preferrably something they already enjoy buying. The job of an affiliate is to sell without "selling".
The easiest way to explain this concept is...
Imagine you just received a free Rolex watch as a gift, you're going to flaunt it everywhere you go and show it off to everyone. You will be the unofficial brand ambassador of Rolex because you love the product and want to share your experience with your peers. You may let your friends put on the watch, feel it's quality, admire it's beauty up close, tell them how it helped you elevate your business, etc. What you'll be doing is reviewing and promoting the watch without knowing you're doing it and leaving others to want that same product.
Now, if you can evoke those types of feelings online through words, images or a video review then you've accomplished the art of Pre-selling and soon you'll quit your day job.
Effective PREselling is all about attracting your target group, delivering valuable, relevant content, and gently leading visitors to your link after they have come to respect and like you.
Think about how you are going to reach, talk to, and refer visitors with your affiliate link. In other words, how you are going to convert a visitor into a customer?
What you need is a Great Website!
When you build a Web site about a topic you enjoy (i.e., gardening, fashion electronics, golf, etc.) and casually mention a product or service related to your niche that you use, that’s PREselling. Look after your visitors by providing relevant and truthful content and they'll look after you.
Two ways to PREsell is by writing impartial product reviews and recording unboxing videos. Write a genuine article about what you liked and disliked in the product and how you think it could be improved. Compare your product to another and double up on the affiliate commission!. When you do unboxing videos, you will also qualify for earning Youtube Income like I do, but that's for another time.
Bottom line? Don’t sell.
The merchant’s pages do that for you. Instead, PREsell so your customer arrives at that page receptive and ready to buy. Let the landing page work for you and get the sale.
Remember, you need to know the product that you are recommending in order to deliver the right editorial content, not a hollow sales pitch. You can then present the benefits to the customer in the form of an honest endorsement.
Knowing the products you’re promoting is a key component of the PREselling process. If you don’t understand what each product delivers, you won’t be able to…
- Transmit the benefits clearly
- Find new target groups who would love the product.
It’s no fluke that top-performing affiliates either own or conduct due-diligence on the products and services they promote.
Taking the time to understand the importance of PREselling and how to effectively warm up your visitors will increase your Conversion Rate and your overall sales.
