Would you like a way to add more value to your existing client base and, in the meantime, make more money from them? How about a way to shrink your sales cycle by enticing them to start buying from you in the first place?
Doing so may not be as difficult as it may seem, as there are many ways to do it. However, I’d like to share one of my favorites with you here, and it is “Affiliate Marketing”!
Now for those of you who may be new to this concept, let me briefly explain it. Essentially it is where a third party markets the products and/or services on behalf of a retailer in exchange for a commission on any sales they initiate.
So besides the obvious benefit of earning more money in your business, offering great affiliate products can do several things for you. For example:
- Offering great affiliate products can make you more valuable to your target market by giving you more products and services to offer at various price points. So if you want to convert your prospects to clients, entice them to buy now by offering them some lower-priced entry-level affiliate products. If you want to convert your clients to raving fans, offer them a solid back-end of affiliate products that will enhance their experience with you even further.
- Offering great affiliate products can strengthen your positioning with your target market by becoming “great by association.” In other words, if you represent another company or product that your target market already knows, likes, and/or trusts, then those positive feelings stand a good chance of transferring onto you.
- Offering great affiliate products can help increase your brand awareness with your target market by giving you more tangible reasons to connect and share what you’re about and how you can add value.
And we can go on and on and on here — as the benefits are endless.
The whole idea is to find quality products and services that make sense for you to represent — Try to stick with ones that have something to do with what you offer. For example, if you’re a Business Coach, offering baseball equipment is probably not wise.
However, offering a few books written by others that support your methodologies, thus improving what’s possible for your clients, is a fantastic idea.
One quick and easy way to get started is to become an affiliate of Amazon.com. Register as an Amazon Associate (their affiliate marketing program), drive traffic to their website using specially formatted links, and get paid when the person you refer buys — it’s that simple!
When you’re comfortable working as an affiliate marketer with Amazon, I recommend stepping up your game and registering with a large retailer of digital products such as ClickBank.com. There is something for every affiliate marketer there. Like Amazon.com, most of the tools you will need to market the products effectively are available to you from their website.
As you continue to develop your skills in affiliate marketing, another more advanced approach you may want to consider is to reach out to the companies that have products or services you would like to represent. Ask if they have an affiliate program in place that you can participate in. If they do, get involved. If they don’t, and they’re open to it, try to hammer out a deal to help them set one up in exchange for a more lucrative arrangement.
So in closing, affiliate marketing is a very powerful business builder that can be, and is, leveraged effectively by businesses of all types and sizes. Remember to choose which retailers, products, and services you want to represent very carefully, as they will reflect in so many ways upon you. They can certainly help convert your prospects to clients and your clients to raving fans.
