You have a venue known as the Internet. Within this venue reside a large amount of websites, some of which belong to an affiliate network. Thereafter, you have websites which were created by affiliates in order to direct traffic to the websites of advertisers whose affiliate programs they belong to. That is affiliate marketing in a nutshell. Both affiliate and advertiser join an affiliate network. Then the affiliate finds advertiser offers to promote, and earns a commission upon each conversion. Unfortunately, many affiliates do not go about achieving conversions in the most efficient manner. This is why the article which you are about to read is going to tell you how to pre-sell your customers.
What I want you to understand and take with you first and foremost, is that it is not the job of the affiliate to try and directly convert a sale with the content of their website. In fact, I strongly advise against doing so. The reason being that consumers are astute. As such, they can recognize a sales pitch a mile away. As soon as they hear a sales pitch coming their way, they keep reminding themselves not to be taken in by all of the bells and whistles. In other words, they become defensive. Thus, any affiliate who makes sales the primary focus of their website will have difficulties getting their visitors to click through to the advertiser\’s website.
Therefore, you need to ask yourself what a visitor is most likely looking for when they arrive at your website. You can determine the answer by looking at the nature of the Internet. The Internet is essentially a massive, living encyclopedia. Thus, when someone goes onto the Internet, they are most likely looking for information which will aid them with a want or need.
People do not go online to be confronted by a sales pitch. This is why to be successful, your affiliate site must create a sense of credibility by offering a myriad of interesting and informative content filled items such as articles, headlines, news, blogs, forums, free newsletters and email courses, and links to more content that might be of interest. These things will keep your visitors interested and they will then click through with pleasure to the advertiser\’s website in a mood ready-to-buy.
This is the beauty of the pre-sell. It is this pre-selling which puts your visitor in a positive frame of mind, leading to a sale. If you turn your visitor off in the beginning with an obvious sales pitch, it is almost impossible to overcome that, and you have lost a potential customer.
In order to pre-sell your visitors adequately, you must keep two things in mind:
1. Your website must cover the subject matter of the advertiser products or services which you promote.
If you are an active affiliate with a multitude of health product advertisers, then your website needs to be focused on health and fitness, proper diet, exercise, healthy habits, and anything associated with cardiovascular, body mass index, weight training, marathons, etc. Really, you have free reign. Just make sure that your website is interesting to your niche.
2. Objectively play the role of the visitor.
This is not the easiest thing in the world to do. People put a lot of work into their websites, and have an emotional attachment. As such, it is often difficult to be critical and see things as visitors may see them. If possible, now is a good time to get a fresh set of eyes to look at your website. If at all possible, so not let the individual know that this is your site so that they will not be partial. You have to know whether the navigation is easy to follow. You also must determine if the website adequately conveys to proper theme, and if it gives the visitor the information that they have been seeking. If you can truly say to yourself that the website accomplishes its intended purpose, then it is a pre-seller. Note that you will have gained your visitor\’s trust by becoming a valuable source of information, and they are likely to take you up on your product or service recommendation.
If you are having difficulty grasping why pre-selling works so well, realize that the magic is in the two step process. First, you give the visitor the information that they have been looking for. Receiving this information from you will make the user comfortable with you. Now that you are a trusted resource, they will move to step two by visiting the advertiser\’s website. At this point they have the information that they need to make a decision to purchase, thus they are not put off by the advertiser\’s sales pitch.
Let the advertiser\’s website do the selling. That is their role in the affiliate network. Your role is to educate and help your visitors by providing answers to their questions or solutions for their problems through quality content.
Joining an Affiliate Network is a great start. However, you must pre-sell your Affiliate Programs to generate interest from buyers. Stop by and see us at SOSComplete.com.
