As I type this, I am in the middle of running another massive launch, this time for Michael Hyatt. The upside to these launches is that they are fun, they have massive impact, and well…we make a lot of money. The downside is that it’s really hard to stand out. Today, I’ll share 10 ways you can go the extra mile and really stand out, serve your audience better, and sell a lot more!
If you want to break out of the clutter of large affiliate promotions, you have to go the extra mile.
That requires 4 things:
- Creative thinking
- More effort
- A willingness to try new things
- A willingness to fail
Those last two go hand-and-hand don’t they?
As I wrote in my last post on closing affiliate sales, the people who do best as affiliates are the ones who have that “X-Factor.” It’s an immeasurable intangible quality made up of creativity and personalization.
Today, I’ll share 10 specific ways you can go the extra mile in your affiliate promotions and really WOW your tribe.
1. Call Them
Yes. Call them.
Alex Mandossian did this during Josh Turner’s launch in the spring of 2016. It worked amazingly well.
Literally, one of the living legends of online marketing was picking up the phone and calling prospects to sell them on Josh’s course. That is truly legendary.
Why does this work?
In a two words…WOW FACTOR!
If you follow someone online and they suddenly call you, you are WOW’d! You are highly likely to buy anything they suggest.
So, who you gonna call?
Ghostbusters, of course! OK, not really. You call the most engaged prospects.
Let’s say you are promoting a course and you have 1,000 people optin to the Pre-Launch Content (for example).
If you email those 1,000 people between cart open day and close cart day, let’s say they break down like this:
- 500 never click to the sales page
- 50 click and buy
- 350 click once but don’t buy
- 100 click multiple times but don’t buy <== Ding, ding, ding…there’s your call list.
If someone clicks multiple times to the sales page but does not buy, they are highly interested but reluctant.
What I’ve found about these people is that it usually comes down to ONE question that holds them back. ONE hangup. ONE doubt. ONE weird situation specific to them.
When you call them and address that, the sale is easy.
2. Live Chat
Live chat is the next best thing to a phone call.
Like a phone call, live chat offers the ability to engage with people in a way that you simply can’t in email. It’s real-time and usually with the right prospects.
I wrote an entire post about affiliates using live chat here. This is becoming more and more of a MUST for affiliates, so go read it here.
I highly recommend Live Chat, Inc. You can get a free trial here and see for yourself just how powerful it is.
3. Get VERY Personal
If you have used the product you are selling, share your story. What was your transformation? What was your life before? What is it like now?
What did you like about the product? What did you NOT like? (Yes, please share that, too!)
I recorded a video for Michael Hyatt’s launch recently where I shared a cool tactic to drive optins to his LifeScore Assessment. It’s all about sharing personal experience in a very specific (and highly effective) way. Watch here:
By the way, go get the book The Small Big. As I mention in the video, it will ROCK your marketing world!
Be willing to get vulnerable when you share your story. If you used to be 100 pounds overweight, that means sharing the embarrassing photo. If you used to suck as a spouse, you’re going to have to fess up to some things you might not want to admit.
If you think you are getting personal in your emails, I want you to take up a notch or three.
Lastly, you can’t be personal if you are copying and pasting the swipe copy and using it word for word. Please, for the love of all that is holy, DON’T DO THAT!
RELATED POST: How to Use Swipe Copy as an Affiliate <== If you want to know the RIGHT way to use swipe copy, read that.
4. Do Your Own Pre-Launch Content
When someone launches with great pre-launch content (PLC) it makes all the difference.
I know I’ve seen some stuff that I just can’t promote. It’s that bad. I’ve also seen remarkable stuff that made me proud to promote…and it converted like crazy.
But what about making your own pre-launch content?
That’s just what John Meese did for Ray Edwards’ launch earlier this year. He created his own video series to lead people into Ray’s sales funnel. And it worked incredibly well. (You can read the full results here)
It doesn’t have to be super intensive or complicated. At the very least, you could create content in advance of the launch to whet your audience’s appetite and warm them up.
Your audience knows, likes, and trusts YOU. Why not take advantage of that? This is all about going the extra mile, so here are some ideas you can use:
- Create a checklist to compliment the launch PLC.
- Create a PDF or infographic of your key takeaways from the launch PLC.
- Write a series of blog posts, record podcasts, shoot videos or send emails to lead into the launch PLC.
- Offer a bonus training if they optin for the launch PLC.
- Interact with the PLC and put it to use. Share your story. This is common with courses and products, but not with the free training.
Do more than just send your audience to someone else. Go the extra mile before the sales even start.
RELATED POST: How to Warm Up Your Audience for an Affiliate Promotion
5. Host Your Own AMA
Ask Me Anythings (AMAs) are a great way to close sales. More and more product creators are doing them in the last 48 hours of a launch.
They answer questions, build rapport, crush objections…and can be very profitable.
And I highly recommend that affiliates promote a launch’s AMA.
But what about hosting your own?
Here’s how it would work:
On the last day of an affiliate campaign, jump on live for two hours and answer questions. Invite your entire list to come because the questions don’t have to be specifically about the product you are promoting.
Let’s say you are promoting Michael Hyatt’s 5 Days to Your Best Year Ever, for example. The course is all about goal-setting.
What if you sent the following email to your list:
SUBJ: Questions about goal-setting?
Hey ,
I’m going live in a few hours (3pm ET to be exact) to answer your questions about goal-setting.
Goal setting has been such a HUGE part of my success over the past few years, I want to share as much as I can with you.
Four years ago, the whole process was a mystery, but today, I’m a goal-setting…and goal-reaching BEAST!
Come join me today at 3pm ET here:
I’ll be live for at least two hours answering any questions you have about goal-setting, goal-reaching, and my favorite course on the subject, Michael Hyatt’s 5 Days to Your Best Year Ever.
See you here:
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That is a 100% value add to your audience. And even if they never buy a thing from you, they will LOVE YOU for it.
I call that a WIN-WIN!
(Just make sure you put a giant button under the video or put the URL on screen (or both) where they can buy)
6. Thank Them For Opting In
Let’s say you can’t do your own PLC. That’s cool. I’ve personally never done it myself.
But what about thanking the people that optin and encouraging them?
Here’s how an affiliate sequence normally works:
Affiliate emails list ==> Person opts in to the campaign ==> Affiliate does nothing until it’s time to sell
^^ #Lame
What if we modified that just a little? A simple change is all you need to have a lasting impact. (Isn’t that true for just about everything?)
Affiliate emails list ==> Person opts in to the campaign ==> Affiliate sends an email to the person thanking them and encouraging them.
^^ #Awesome #ExtraMile #MoreSales
BOOM! Instant likeability and instant impact.
Here’s what that email might look like:
Hey ,
I’m glad you decided to get Ziglar Family’s ebook.
You are going to LOVE it. And if you apply the principles in it, your family will never be the same.
Stay tuned for some deeper training coming up soon. Mark has a video series that will rock your world (in a good way).
I’d love to hear how this helps your family.
Just hit reply and let me know.
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You do that one thing there and I promise you’ll be one of the top converters in every launch you promote.
7. Create a Community
One of the best ways to promote a product is to create a community around it.
That’s exactly what Stu McLaren did recently in his promo for Michael Hyatt. Look at this email…BRILLIANT!
Now imagine being a part of that community. Inevitably people will start buying. And when some people start buying, others will follow suit. It’s Psychology 101. And it’s a powerful force.
Not only do you serve your audience in a creative way…you also make more commissions.
Another WIN-WIN!
8. Give Back Your Commissions to the Buyers
I know what you are thinking: “OK, this is getting out of hand now, Matt.” But, this is all about going the extra mile, standing out, and doing the unexpected.
And giving your commissions back to your buyers is one heck of a way to do it.
Now, let’s look at this from a numbers standpoint so we can get that out of the way.
Let’s say that you do this and make 20 sales on a $500 commission. That’s $10,000 assuming no returns.
Let’s also say that doing so is responsible for half your sales. In reality, you are only giving up $5,000.
And…let’s say that doing this gets you an extra $2,500 in prizes. Well, you get to keep that, so now you are only giving up $2,500.
The point of that little exercise was to point out that the numbers aren’t all that bad.
And people will be talking about it, that’s for sure.
9. Join Them on the Journey
If I could pick a favorite from this list, it would be this one.
We know for certain that one of the best ways to increase affiliate sales is to offer your audience an exclusive bonus.
RELATED POST: Why Affiliate Bonuses Work and How to Create Great Ones
Admittedly, though, putting them together can be a challenge sometimes. Often, the work that goes into them discourages people from using them at all.
But what if you could offer an amazing bonus without any upfront work?
Well, you CAN!
Just offer to join them on the journey. In other words, taking them course with them.
Here are three ways to make this work effectively:
- Share your biggest takeaways from each module/week/lesson. Let’s say it’s a 6-week course, for example. Each week, share your biggest takeaways and how you are applying them via email or video.
- Offer to coach them through the course. This is simply offering a series of calls or webinars to your buyers. Do 3-6 calls during which you share your takeaways or rehash the lesson. Then do Q&A.
- Supplement the material. If you have an audience that is more niche than the course, offer to supplement the course for them. For example, let’s say you train attorneys and you are promoting a course on LinkedIn. Go through the course and each week share a lesson or do a call making it specific for attorneys.
The great thing about this is there is no front-end work.
Plus, your audience will LOVE it because they love YOU! This is an awesome way for them to get access to you and the value of a bonus like this could easily stretch to $1000+.
10. Remember to “Do for One”
Here’s the problem with going the extra mile and standing out…it’s sometimes not scalable.
You can’t offer everyone personal access to you. You can’t personally write long emails to everyone. You can’t do live chat with everyone who lands on your page.
But, you can do for one what you wish you could do for all.
That’s a principle I picked up years ago from Andy Stanley and it has served me well. I want to help everyone, but that is unrealistic. But I can help one person. And then another. And then another.
Remember that going the extra mile doesn’t need to be scalable. Serving your audience doesn’t always mean serving the masses. Blowing one person away doesn’t mean you must do it for everyone else.
Going the extra mile doesn’t need to be scalable. Do for one what you wish you could do for all.
Sometimes, you do for one person what you would do for everyone if there were a million of you. But there is only one of you, so focus on that one person.
When you go the extra mile and serve your audience during affiliate promotions, trust me, they will remember it. They will talk about it. And they will buy more of what you are selling.
That sure sounds like a WIN-WIN to me.
How have you gone the extra mile during your affiliate promotions?