The Sequence of Success in Affiliate Promotions [UPDATED]

by Matt McWilliams | May 10, 2016 | Affiliate Marketing, Mindset

You might think there is some sort of a success secret to promoting affiliate offers, but there isn’t. There’s no formula. No sauce. But there is a proven sequence that works every time. If you follow this sequence, you will be successful in your promotions.

This post was originally published in May 2016, it has been updated with new (and awesome) content.

The thing about this “Sequence of Success” is that it applies to anything in life. Once you learn it, you’ll see how it’s true everywhere.

The sequence has five phases and each one must come after the previous phase (it is sequential after all). If you try to skip to phase five first, you will fail. Even skipping to phases two through four are recipes for disaster.

I’ll walk you through each of the five phases below.

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The 5 Phases of Success in Affiliate Promotions

1. Belief

I mentioned earlier that this sequence of success is true for any area of your life, not just affiliate promotions. And everything in life begins with belief.

The default for far too many people today when they purchase something or try a product out is that it won’t work for them. They literally press the buy button and say to themselves, “This won’t work for me.”

It sounds crazy but we’ve all done it. We assume that it might work for some other special person or that the seller is hyping up his claims. We spend money but we’ve set ourselves up for failure.

The key with anything you are promoting is to believe that it will work. Believe that your audience (and even you) will benefit from using the product.

One of the biggest reasons people suck at selling is because they don’t believe in what they are promoting.

You have to understand that promoting an affiliate offer is actually SERVING your audience.

Only promote things that you have a good feeling about. Promote things that are proven to work for others. In other words, don’t promote crap and you’ll be good here.

One final note on belief, you can believe that something will work and that your audience will benefit from a product or service even if you haven’t used it yourself.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you can only promote products that you have used personally.

2. Proof

If you go into a promotion with the right attitude, it’s not time to prove that something works.

Proof often says “It worked for me and it can work for you.” But if a product is not right for you, but is right for your audience, it might mean talking to a customer or two about their experience (“It worked for Joe, it can work for you”).

Success stories are powerful, and that power comes whether it is YOUR story or the story of someone else that you share with your audience.

Whether the product creator gives them to you or you find them on your own, getting 3rd party proof that a product works will make a big difference.

The great thing about proof and belief is that they feed each other. When you have belief, you look for reasons why something will work, not why they won’t. You look for proof.

And when you get proof, it reinforces and increases your belief. It’s a beautiful cycle.

3. Creativity

Now that you are armed with belief and proof working in tandem, the ideas for promoting something flow.

You suddenly have storylines and marketing copy galore. All of a sudden you’re not just copy and pasting swipe copy, you’re adapting and adjusting it. Adding stories and examples and making it your own.

You can see your promotional plan is mapped out.

You write with ease and you are constantly thinking of new, creative ways to encourage your audience to purchase a product.

Your creativity is boundless, so much so that your ideas overflow to the point that you don’t know which ones will work best.

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Which leads to Phase Four…

4. Testing

Now it’s time to find out what works.

What should you test?

In a word…everything.

Much of my success in affiliate marketing, business and life has come because I try things and am willing to be wrong most of the time.

Don’t be scared to test and try things.

Try one thing, see if it works, then try something else.

Here’s a short list of things to test:

Message tone (gushing review, skeptic turned raving fan, guide showing the way)
Mediums (video, ebooks, webinars)
What moves people (case studies, bonuses, exclusivity)

Some audiences respond better to webinars than ebooks, while others love case studies and don’t care about bonuses.

You’ll never know what works for sure until you test.

5. Systems

Once you learn what works, it’s time to create systems to make future promotions rinse and repeat.

One of my main goals is to give you the tools, resources, and strategies to create systems that will help you succeed with affiliate marketing.

The first time you go through these phases, it might seem like a labor-intensive process. But over time, you get better and it gets easier…especially if you read my blog, watch my videos and listen to the podcast.

Creating systems allows you to identify that works best for your audience. You’ll know exactly what products to promote, what promotional methods to use, how to communicate with your audience, and how to close the sale.