Affiliate marketing has become a popular way to earn some serious money. What initially started as a method to get some extra cash flowing in your bank account has quickly became a full-fledged career choice for savvy marketers.
This post will help you identify areas that you need to focus on if you’re a budding affiliate marketer or a successful marketer that wants even better results.
There are many important components in a successful affiliate marketing strategy, but content is a central part of it. You may get some attention with a flashy ad, but only valuable content will help you convert.
Try these five unique forms of content out and see what work best for your business.
eBooks
Attention and trust are two key elements in affiliate marketing and eBooks help you gain both. Taking advantage of the fact that people love free things, affiliate marketers can attract an audience by making their eBooks available for free download.
Creating eBooks that answer your audience’s questions or solves their problems help affiliate marketers gain trust. When people trust you, they are likely to buy into your suggestions and recommendations.
Have an interesting and informative eBook written, plug in affiliate products, and make it available on your website for free download – just ask users to provide an email address. This way, every time someone downloads a book, you will get a new lead as well as an opportunity to earn money.
The better your book is, the higher the chances that people will buy your recommended products using your affiliate code or link.
Example
Take a look at the following screenshots to see how Michael Ezeanaka promoted an affiliate product in his book on Affiliate Marketing…
Product Reviews
Detailed products reviews are another great way to promote affiliate products. Reviews are very popular with buyers, which is why many marketers promote and endorse products.
Don’t confuse reviews with sales pages. Overly positive review may help you get sales in the short-run, but they’ll make your affiliate dream a nightmare in the long-term.
To make it reviews work in your favor, you’ve got to give honest reviews. Rather than being overly promotional, share your experience with the readers. You can also answer the questions you think people might have.
For example, if you are reviewing a skincare product, tell people how you used it, how it helped you cure a particular skin condition, or improved your skin.
Your goal should be to inform, guide, and persuade your audience to buy a product without damaging the trust they have in you. Keep your review informational and not salesy.
Example
Here’s a review from the website of a Seattle based fashion and beauty blogger.
There are many affiliate links throughout the review.
Videos
If you haven’t already, you should try to promote affiliate products with the help of videos. Depending on the product or service, videos can be informational, in review form, or even be a tutorial.
Let’s say you are promoting a technical program – you can tell people how to download it, the various features it has, and the benefits it offers.
By providing a visual walk through, videos make it a lot easier for your audience to understand complex products or services and the right way to use them.
A lot of affiliate marketers also use videos because they want better engagement. And with the ever increasing popularity of vlogs, it has become easier to do endorse a product without aggressive promotion.
Example
Check out the description of this video by a fashion blogger.
These are just some of the links given in the description. Also, she has clearly stated that she collaborated with Michael Kors to showcase their watch in her vlog. There is also a disclaimer at the end stating that the products she is promoting include affiliate products.
Guest Blog Posts
While most marketers maintain an active blog because they know its potential for affiliate marketing, very few leverage the power of guest blog posts.
Getting your posts published on the blogs of industry leaders and renowned bloggers is a great way to increase website traffic. However, make sure your blog posts include effective keywords, are informative, and well-written.
Guest blog posts increase your exposure and reach. Thereby giving you the opportunity to promote your website or product to a greater audience than you could otherwise reach. This ultimately increases the chances that your readers will make a purchase through your affiliate link.
If you want to add diversity to your affiliate content, find the best blogs in your niche and get your posts published on it. However, never market products or services that are not related to your targeted niche. While this may provide you temporary monetary benefits, it will only harm your credibility and reputation in the long-run.
Example
Take a look at the screenshots taken from a guest post on a popular blog.
The post contains some affiliate links. When you click on them, they take you to a third-party website that offers different online courses and certifications.
Customized Landing Pages
Landing pages are one of the crucial elements of affiliate marketing campaigns. Renowned affiliate marketer Charles Ngo claims,
Landing pages can be a game changer if you execute them correctly. Here are some of the most common mistakes that may negatively affect the performance of your landing pages.
They Appear Unreliable
You’re not going get results if the landing page doesn’t match the advertisement. Every element of the landing page should reinforce the message or give the same offer given in the ad you used to attract your audience. A message mismatch is often the reason of increase in the bounce rate and decrease in conversions.
Lack of Coherence
Just like there needs to be uniformity in the ad and landing page, there should be coherence among all the elements of the page. The headline, copy, and CTA of your landing page should give the same offer. And the images should complement your offer. There needs to be consistency in everything – elements, language, and branding.
Generic and Mundane Designs
Although there are no rules or a cheat sheet for a high-converting landing page design, you should aim to make your page as creative and appealing as possible. An aesthetically appealing landing page can improve customer engagement.
Learn color psychology to understand how different colors can be used to highlight certain areas and why it is important to leave white space.
Too Many Distractions
A high-converting affiliate landing page is one with minimum to zero distractions. Too many distractions are often the reason why many affiliate marketers lose a considerable number of visitors. A landing page should not have navigation options, ads, or anything else that can divert the attention of your visitors.
In addition to all these factors, make sure your landing page is customized according to the product or service and the target audience. It should also be optimized for both desktop and mobile devices.
Example
Check out this landing page on Eastbay.
The landing page is simple, displays the product it advertised, and has plenty of white space. To encourage visitors to make the purchase, the discount offer is displayed on the top of the page.
Do Not Cast Your Net Too Wide – Choose your Niche!
The idea of earning money by selling affiliate products is so exciting that many affiliate marketers get carried away and start promoting too many products. This can be counter-productive.
In affiliate marketing, broader isn’t always better.
Do not try to sell everything!
While you can sign up for multiple affiliate programs, try to stick to one industry or niche. If you start promoting products from various different industries, you will not be seen as an authority in any of them. Also, people are less likely to trust opinions of affiliate marketers who sell everything and anything.
To gain audience trust and build credibility, carefully choose a niche and products that you promote.
Most importantly, create different types of affiliate content to attract, engage, and encourage prospective customers to click on your affiliate link and convert. The more you experiment, the more you’ll learn, sell, and grow!
Author’s Bio
There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution for businesses that are looking for great content. Your marketing goal, target audience, the industry you operate in, the size of your organization, even the platform you plan to publish the content on makes a difference in your requirement.
As a Sr. Editor at a blog content service, Mathew and his team at Content Development Pros have helped small and large businesses get results through content. Look no further if you’re looking for copy that stands out, makes an impact, and converts. They’ll help you achieve your marketing goals through creative, well-researched content that follows the best SEO practices. Get in touch today!