Muhammad Ali was quite possibly the greatest boxer to ever live, and I think that there are lessons to be learned from ANYONE who does something at a high level, whether it’s in your chosen field or not.
And Ali was special there is no doubt about that.
From winning the Gold Medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Olympics to being the youngest boxer to unseat a reigning heavyweight champion at 22 years old, he captivated the world.
He fought the Fight of the Century against Joe Frazier and he won the Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman.
When all was said and done, Ali was more than a boxer.
He was more of a legend. More iconic.
And nothing is more iconic in the world of online marketing than affiliate marketing.
It is an inexpensive and easy way to start making some money on the internet.
You don’t have to worry about having any experience and you don’t have to worry about customer support.
No fancy funnels to build and no giant time commitment.
It can be learned somewhat easily and can have you earning great money fairly quickly.
This week I want to talk with you about affiliate marketing, and there was one thing that Ali said, that always reminds me of doing affiliate marketing at a high level:
“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
– Muhammad Ali
When Ali said that, what I think what he meant was that the devil is in the details.
It’s the little things.
Nothing could be truer when it comes to affiliate marketing.
If you can get a few little things right, then you can really do well in the world of affiliate marketing.
And I want to talk to you about getting some of those little things right, and becoming a more successful affiliate marketer.
So affiliate marketing is a great way to start making money online, like I said,
However it is a little bit like chess.
Easy to learn but harder to master.
Essentially though if we want to boil it down on how to really be successful with affiliate marketing, we can strip it down to 3 basic things.
ONE) How many people really care what we have to say.
TWO) How many different ways can we position the offer we are trying to sell.
THREE) How good are we at tracking what is happening and adjusting to that.
So, number one…
How many people care about what we have to say?
Your email list is the place where people make the most buying decisions.
I could tell you about YouTube, or Facebook, or Reddit as places to do affiliate marketing, but I would be doing you a disservice.
The fact of the matter is for every 10 sales you might get with a YouTube video, you would probably get 100 sales with an email.
Now, if you accept this to be true, then you now understand why when you are working on YouTube, or Facebook, or Twitter, or any other flavor of the month social media platform…
…the goal should always be to get them on your email list.
This will allow you to build more trust, rapport, and follow up on offers multiple times.
All roads should lead to email.
It is without a doubt the cheapest, most time effective, highest converting form of affiliate marketing you can do.
So when we talk about getting the most people to care about what we have to say…
…whether we are doing paid advertising, or we are putting out free YouTube videos, or running a niche related Facebook group…
…our end goal is the same.
Let’s get them onto our email list, where we can continue to strengthen the relationship and have the ability to follow up multiple times.
The more people who care about what you have to say, the more money you will make. It is truly that simple.
The same skills I taught you in previously about building email lists, and email marketing and impactful content…
…these are the skills you will use to grow that number of people who care about what you have to say.
You can use these tactics wherever people happen to be hanging out at the time.
Tik Tok, Pinterest, Instagram…
…the arenas might change but the way you pull them in will not. And the goal remains the same as well.
Build a following, put them on your list, and offer them things that will help them.
You might think… well I am doing paid advertising, so I am not interested in building a following.
This is a common misconception. The truth is, you should be doing paid advertising to put people on your list…
…and once they are on your list, you will then have to build trust and rapport.
No matter how you get people on your list, you’ll still have to work on getting them to care about what you have to say and you do that with impactful content.
Now onto the second thing…
How many different ways we can position the offer we are trying to sell?
When you are doing affiliate marketing, it is not over after just one message.
You don’t just put out one simple video, or one simple Facebook post, or one simple email… and if they don’t buy…
…aww shucks …oh well …I guess this offer didn’t resonate with them.
That’s not how it works.
The Rule of Seven is an old marketing adage.
It says that a prospect needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action and buy from you.
That’s not literal, but the truth of it is, they need to hear your message more than once.
So you need to follow up that initial message with multiple other messages AND not only that…
…but those other messages need to be different than the first.
If they talk about the same boring features and benefits… if they are essentially the same “go here, by this” message…
…they are going to fall on deaf ears.
People are going to ignore them more and more, because they feel like they already know what that thing is, they have already decided for or against, and your message is not moving the conversation forward at all on that topic.
That’s where marketing angles come into play.
The first message you send people about product A, might just talk about the product and give features and benefits.
It might tell them why they should buy the product and what it can do for them.
That’s a standard “go here, buy this” marketing angle. It’s effective, but you can’t send it multiple times because it becomes way less effective.
What if you sent that style on the first message but when you sent the second email, you talked about the product vendor’s origin story?
How the vendor got into the niche and how he came to the idea to put out this product.
That kind of message builds legend around the product. It makes it more than just a simple product that you are promoting. Now it’s more personal.
Then what if on the next message you talked about a special bonus that you are offering when they pick up the product through you.
You really don’t talk much about the product at all in that message, but primarily focus on your bonus and what it is going to do for people. This kind of message will stack value.
Then let’s say you send a 4th message about this product, and in this message you are going to connect the dots for them. You are going to give them 3 different ways in which they can use this product to achieve some benefits.
An example of this would be if you were promoting a certain bicycle, you could tell them 3 different ways that people have used bicycles to achieve unique health benefits.
Maybe a brief story about a guy who healed his chronic knee pain with regular bike rides, another quick one about a lady who lost over 100 pounds just committing to 15 minute bike rides a day…
…and maybe a third about a guy who cured his diabetes and got back into shape by riding his bike to work every day of the summer.
Now of course you wouldn’t make those stories up. You go and find them.
But the point here is that 3 people achieved 3 different benefits using a product that you are promoting.
These kinds of messages help people see the product in a new way.
They are marketing angles and if you want to be good at affiliate marketing…
…you want to collect marketing angles like baseball cards.
The good news is, they are everywhere.
If you are aware that the marketing angles are used everywhere then you can start to think about how you might adapt them for whatever you are promoting.
When was the last time you saw a Nike commercial and it was actually about sneakers?
More often than not it’s about a famous athlete or about an idea of taking action and being your best.
“Just do it” – What does that have to do with shoes? Not much.
But Nike used those angles and that slogan to put an idea in the minds of their prospects. Something that they represented or stood for.
It had very little to do with shoes, but it made their company MORE than a shoe company.
Marketing angles can do the same thing for your affiliate campaigns.
Every message you send out – start by hitting on a different angle for maximum effect.
It should give your prospects a different look at the product. Help them see it in a new way.
Tracking and Adjusting
The third big thing is very important but it’s one that most people miss.
Also, I cannot lie, it takes a little practice.
It has two parts to it, but they are not separate. They work together very closely.
The first part is…
Tracking
When you are doing affiliate marketing it is important to know exactly which links are being clicked on.
For example let’s say you sent out 8 emails promoting something, a YouTube video, and 2 Facebook posts. Let’s say each email had 2 links.
Now you want to know which of those messages is getting the most traction.
Why? Because of the second part.
Adjusting
You are going to double down your future efforts in the direction that is working most for that offer.
Did the YouTube video get several sales? What angle did you use?
Great let’s do another video and hit a different angle but in the same grain.
That is using your energy and time, efficiently.
And you are making those decisions about which way to proceed and how, based on your tracking data.
There are lots of ways to track your affiliate links.
Most affiliate platforms have internal tracking that allows you to track individual links, and there are also many third party solutions.
No matter how you do it though…
you MUST start tracking your links.
It’s the only way to know WHAT is working and what is not working. It’s how you are going to get better at what you do.
It’s a simple lesson you know.
Track your links and adjust your campaigns based on what is working.
Simple yet highly effective. Especially when you consider what works for you in one campaign…
…can be applied to the next campaign and will many times work there as well.
Learn how to track your links, and work on adjusting your campaigns based on what is working and what is not.
We only have so much energy and so much time. They are finite and are without a doubt…
…our greatest resources. So we have to be efficient with them.
So today we’ve been talking a about affiliate marketing.
It really is a great way to start making money online. Cheap, easy to do, and minimal time commitment.
Now before I forget, I want to tell you an invaluable resource that will really help you in your affiliate marketing efforts… it’s called Promote With Angles. And it gives you the Top 13 marketing angles successful affiliate marketers use in their campaigns to generate more sales and to increase their commissions.
