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The
Direct And Indirect
Approach To
Affiliate Program Marketing
Copyright
©
by John
Baril
As
an affiliate program marketing person seeking to drive traffic to your
sales page, you are faced with a choice. You can either go for the
direct approach or the indirect approach.
DIRECT APPROACH
With the direct approach, visitors are moved directly to your affiliate
sales page from the point of initial contact such as a classified ad or
traffic exchange ad.
This is a popular method because it has the merits of being quick and
easy. Then, provided that you can drive enough targeted traffic to your
affiliate page,
you will probably generate some sales. Unfortunately, however, the
direct approach is incredibly inefficient because conversion rates for
first time visitors to an affiliate page are actually quite low. Most
of the traffic that you worked so hard to drive to your site will
simply drive away again without even stopping to buy a drink!
THE INDIRECT
APPROACH
With the indirect approach to affiliate program marketing, you direct
your traffic to a product review page on your website. The aim of the
product review is not so much to "sell" the product as to "pre-sell"
it. Give an honest review of the merits of the product and what it can
do to solve a particular problem or set of problems. Discuss the ways
in which using it has improved your life and so on. Do not go over the
top in your praise though, because that will sound inauthentic.
Dedicate one page of your website solely to the product review so that
your visitors can concentrate on a single item while you to discuss the
pros and cons of the product and establish a personal rapport with your
readers. You can do that by writing the review as if you were chatting
to a friend over coffee. Keep the style polite, friendly and informal.
Plan your product review like an article with an introduction, four or
five paragraphs about the product, and a conclusion, with a link to the
product sales page. Your aim is to get your reader to click on the
affiliate link.
Your visitors will appreciate an honest opinion from someone who has
actually used the product and they will be more likely to trust you as
a seller. The more they trust you the more likely they are to purchase
from you and become regular customers. For this reason, creating a
review page for your affiliate product and directing traffic to the
review page as a first step is a much better marketing strategy than
sending traffic directly to your affiliate sales page.
SQUEEZE PAGE
STRATEGY
The indirect strategy to affiliate program marketing can be further
improved by adding an auto-responder to the equation.
An auto-responder is an online mailing service that enables you to
invite your visitors to give you their email addresses so that you can
keep them informed and updated about your products. Once prospects have
been added to your mailing list, your autoresponder will automatically
send them a series of messages that you have preloaded into the system.
Once
your autoresponder is set up with your messages, the best way to build
your list is to create a "squeeze page" with a sign-up form embedded in
it. A squeeze page is a very simple, fast downloading page which has
just one aim - to get your visitors to give you their names and email
addresses.
You can do this by offering some information - such as an e-book or
video - free of charge. Make sure the product offers some information
or advice related to the affiliate product you are trying to sell.
Once you have captured your visitor's email address you can redirect
the visitor to your product review page. But you can also mail a series
of friendly and informative letters that review the product and go into
detail about how useful it is. Each letter can be quite short. Just
100-200 words will be enough. Each time, add a soft selling link to the
product. If you have targeted your market with enough accuracy you
should get a much higher conversion rate with this method. Also, you
will be able to brand yourself as an expert in the field and quite
possibly turn a one-time visitor into a long-term customer.
The squeeze page strategy is much more effective as a sales-generator
than the direct approach of sending visitors directly from your ad to
your affiliate sales page. It is a proven and effective affiliate
marketing technique that gives you a much greater chance of making
money with affiliate program marketing.
I
wish you the best of success,
John Baril
Copyright © John Baril
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