subject: Five Effective Copywriting Tactics For Affiliate Marketing [print this page] Theres a well-known guru of marketing (ie, wants to take your money and give you BS) out there who gives a course costing over $5,000. In that course he has expert copywriters come and speak about copywriting. One person shared with me their notes and it was identical to this article by one of the most famous copywriters out there. Save yourself $5,000 and read this great article.
Whats the secret to effective affiliate marketing? It all boils down to engagement.
If you have a page with an affiliate offer that ranks well for searchers in buying mode, thats pretty high engagement. You need a trusted, authoritative site to pull that off, which means strong content and plenty of links.
But dont forget that the very same content creates engagement with regular readers first. If youre building authority sites that attract subscribers, you get more than one shot at affiliate revenue. You profit first with your direct readers who trust you, and then continue to generate revenue over time thanks to strategically-placed cross-links and search traffic.
The lowest form of affiliate marketing engagement comes from simply sticking affiliate banner ads on your site. Im not saying you wont make any money from those ads, but its certainly not the most effective way to capitalize on the relationship with your audience. And banner ads dont rank in search engines, right?
So lets take a look a five copy tactics that can bring you immediate and long-term revenue from affiliate programs:
1. Endorsements
A personal endorsement is the strongest way to pre-sell an affiliate offer, assuming your audience values your opinion. Effective endorsements are sincere and enthusiastic based on real experience with the product or service. Thats not to say that people dont pitch things just for the money, but that can be a dangerous game that erodes your trust and authority if the product or service is poor.
As with any effective copy, endorsements focus on benefits more than features. You might find that picking out the most compelling benefits is easier in a personal endorsement, because youve experienced those benefits first hand. Share how a recommended product or service has changed your life for the better, and youre naturally talking benefits.
2. Reviews
A review differs from an endorsement in tone and structure, but by the end of the piece, you end up with an endorsement nonetheless. Lets face it writing up a negative review might be a great way to vent, but its not the smartest revenue strategy when it comes to affiliate marketing.
So, as with endorsements, its smart to review products and services you actually use and benefit from. From a copy perspective, you add credibility by pointing out how the product or service isnt perfect (lets face it, there are very few perfect offerings), and then go on to explain why the imperfection doesnt negatively impact your perception and enjoyment of the product or service.
3. Tutorials
Years ago, the easiest way to do really well with content-based affiliate marketing was to release a free ebook loaded up with affiliate links and watch it go viral. That strategy can still work, but generally the content must be much stronger, and the affiliate pitches more subtle. Another long-time strategy is the email mini-course, in which you deliver tutorial-style content by autoresponder that ultimately promotes one or more relevant offers.
These days, producing video tutorials that show how to use a product or service are extremely effective at pre-selling affiliate offers. Remember, teaching and selling are closely related, so how to content that naturally gets a prospect more comfortable with a purchase is smart. Plus, you can use broader tutorial content as an ethical bribe to get people to subscribe to your blog or a targeted sub-list, which allows for multiple relevant offers to be made over time.
4. Bonuses
Using a bonus or special deal approach is a great way to uniquely sweeten an affiliate offer. You essentially promise to add in an additional item if people buy through your link, or you work out a promotional deal with the merchant that only you can deliver. You then work the extra value into your endorsement, review, or announcement with a great headline and benefit-oriented copy.
Youll see this strategy used quite a bit in competitive pay-per-click situations, and also during big product launches where lots of people are promoting at once. But its a really strong strategy anytime, because it demonstrates that youre focusing on adding value and delivering great deals to your audience.
5. Articles
Can you promote affiliate offers with your regular content? In other words, can you create content that has independent value and also makes you money, no matter where its syndicated or scraped?
You can, but its tricky. Let me give you an example with an article I wrote last year called How to Create Ebooks That Sell.
In this article I managed to:
* Create a compelling keyword-rich title
* Deliver independent value
* Attract links
* Generate positive comments
* Endorse a product while disclosing the affiliate link
* Make a healthy 4-figure profit immediately
* Rank for my targeted keyword phrases
* Collect continued monthly commissions
* Receive reader emails thanking me for the recommendation
When I spoke at PubCon late last year, I dissected this post and explained everything I did and why. But I think if you simply take a look at it in light of what were exploring in this series, youll figure it out.
What about Disclosure?
Disclosure of affiliate links has been a hot topic lately. From a pragmatic standpoint, being transparent with your audience can solidify your relationship with them, and thats really what this is all about. But there are also ethical and legal issues to consider, none of which are cut and dry.
