How do I get affiliates to promote my product and why do the same few vendors always get everyone clamoring to promote their launches?
Those are the million dollar questions almost all product creators end up asking… sooner rather than later.
Unfortunately there is no easy solution where you can press a button to instantly recruit an army of super affiliates. You need to apply some elbow grease and be consistent with your efforts.
However, the steps you need to take are thankfully pretty straight forward.
Don’t Be That Person!
You probably have a few on your Messenger already… the people who send you a “hi!” a few times a year, but only when they have a launch coming they want you to promote. The rest of the year you don’t hear a peep from them.
If you do this the only thing you’ll accomplish is to annoy people and build yourself a bad reputation in the industry.
Of course it’s perfectly fine to message people, asking them to promote your product launch, there are just steps you need to take first in order to make it effective (and not spammy).
First of all you need to remember that…
This Is A People-Business
As Jeffrey Gitomer once said: “people buy from people they know, like, and trust.”
The same is true when it comes to promoting other people’s products. You need to get to know people and earn their respect before you can ask them to promote.
The absolute best thing you can do is to start attending live industry conferences. Of course you can learn a lot at these events but the real power in these are the relationships they can foster. Nothing beats the power of a handshake or the friendships that can develop over a drink at the hotel bar.
Live events are the cherry on the Sundae though, there are things you can do on an everyday basis to build relationships with other vendors and potential affiliates.
Be active in industry forums and Facebook groups like the JVZoo group. Answer questions and offer help when you can. Praise and encourage people when you can, people will remember and what goes around comes around.
Get Noticed
Almost all top vendors started out as lowly affiliates promoting other people’s products and slowly made their way to the top.
There is a “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” code in this industry. It’s much easier to get someone to promote your launch if you have already promoted them.
Another benefit to promoting other vendors is that they will start noticing you, especially if you start making it on to their leaderboards. That’s why it can pay off to be strategic about what you promote. It can often be better to get into the top 10 affiliates on a smaller launch than to be another forgotten number in a huge launch. Start small and build your name as you grow.
Get Your Ducks In A Row
Money talks and the most important factor in attracting affiliates is of course to create good products that sell. This is where you need to put most of your efforts.
Create good products that will help your customers… products that your affiliates will be happy to recommend to their lists.
Don’t forget your upsells and your entire backend funnel. At the end of the day most affiliates look at their EPC (earnings per click) and 50% commissions on a single $17 offer will not be exciting for most of them. You need to have some good upsells at higher price points to boost your EPC.
Make it as easy as possible for your affiliates to promote you. Create swipe emails, ads, banners and as many affiliate tools as you can. Showing that you care and go the extra mile will go a long way to inspire people to promote your products. Plus many affiliates are lazy (or busy). Make it easier for them to promote you than all the other products launching on the same day.
And do not skimp out on your design, video and copy. Most affiliates will just skim your offer before dedication whether they will promote or not. Your offer needs to make a good first impression and it needs to make the affiliates believe it will convert and make them money.
Time To Launch
If you take the time to help others, interact with them and promote their products… nobody will mind when you come asking them to promote your launch… so don’t be shy.
If you have a great product, show confidence in your offer. A big affiliate competition with big prizes can help you catch attention and it shows you believe in your launch.
You can absolutely post ads in various Facebook groups too but nothing beats the personal touch of contacting people directly. You should even consider making unique and personal invitations and videos for the most important affiliates.
For the biggest affiliates you can even consider offering them unique perks like higher commissions, ad space on your thank you pages, emails in your follow up series or guaranteed future promos from your.
And remember to build an email list with your affiliates, this is at least as important as your customer list. Doing so will make it easier to quickly recruit affiliates for future launches and just as importantly to make sure your affiliates follow through and promote when you launch.
Don’t worry… this may sound like hard work but in reality it’s very easy. Most people won’t do it, giving you an easy edge when you do.
Just remember to be friendly, helpful and to encourage others. Promote their launches to the best of your ability and don’t forget to stay in touch and continue to nurture your relationships in between your launches.
Doing so you will see your army of super affiliates grow at a steady pace.
