In this article, I’ll share my “ChrisNotes” from an Affiliate Marketing training I attended, taught by Pat Flynn. These notes, and how I lay them out in this article will provide a “getting started” road map if you’re new to affiliate marketing or simple be some tips you can use to improve your current marketing efforts.
Who is Pat Flynn?
I figure that a lot of people may not have hear of Pat Fylnn, so let me introduce you!
Pat is the genius behind smartpassiveincome.com, a website dedicated to helping people leverage affiliate marketing.
Pat also has several other businesses and is an advisor for several companies.
He is also extremely successful at affiliate marketing and makes multiple six figures a year from his affiliate marketing business.
I guess what I am trying to say is, pay attention!!
The Four ‘P’s
These Ps will serve as an outline when developing a strategy to promote an affiliate product.
- Problem
- Promise
- Proof
- Personal Experience
Let’s go a little deeper…
Problem: Obviously the product needs to provide a solution to a specific problem in order for there to be a reason for someone to purchase it.
The trick here is knowing the product and the market well enough that you can identify the problems your specific affiliate product or service helps solve.
Promise: What is the promise your product or service offers? This is a way of looking at each of the product benefits and figuring out, how to position the benefits to help people see the value of and how your product is a solution to their problem.
Proof: Ideally you should be using the products and services you rep as an affiliate marketer! So you should be able to show the proof of how the specific product has help you or your clients.
I do this a lot with client stories. I talk about how I use ClickFunnels to help my clients improve their sales etc. I have the ability to also show stats from the ClickFunnels software to give people the proof.
Personal Experience: This is also about the stories you can tell, of both how the product has helped you and other people. As this is personal experience it is best to share your stories, again, this is why you should be a consumer of the products you rep.
This can be fun because you can do videos showing your results, or showing break through that you had using the product, or showing people how you learned to do a specific thing with the product, etc.
Pro Tip: While I have applied these 4 Ps to the affiliate product you’re going to market, if you’re going to use the strategy of developing your own product that supports an affiliate product, then you should apply these 4 Ps to that product as well!
You Need To Know The Buyers
One of the greatest benefits to being a consumer of the products you market is that you are the market, so it should be easier to identify and connect with the right people.
When you’re working with your target market, remember they are people, who have the same problems you have/had and the same questions you once did.
Simply go back, evaluate your journey to finding this specific solution and use that to start connecting with your people!
Here are a couple questions to help you think through this:
- What are they already buying?
- What kinds of things are they trying to learn in relation to those products?
- What is the first step they need to take?
These questions help you think through the buyers journey and help you develop ideas around what kinds of supplemental products or content you can develop to help connect with your people.
What are they already buying?
This question is designed to help you think through some of the less than ideal solutions people may be buying so that you can better position yours.
It’s also a good way to find groups of your people so that you can reach the masses through your marketing efforts as apposed to 1 or 2 at a time.
What kinds of things are they trying to learn in relation to those products?
When you buy something, like software. There is, most of the time, a learning curve. Most people would like to learn how to use their new software fast, so that they can start using it. So once someone has purchase this software or started a trial, the next thing will be learning how to use it.
As an affiliate marketer, you could have a course that takes people through this process of getting started with their new software.
That is exactly what Doug did. He has an awesome FREE course for people using ClickFunnels.
Once people use your Affiliate link to purchase a product you give them the free course as a bonus.
What is the first step they need to take?
The first step would be purchasing the affiliate product. So what could you do to help them through that process to ensure they use your link and you can support them through this journey?
One simple way is to offer a done-for-you service. We set everything up for you, then provide this free training on how to get started.
Now the DFY service can be free, if the affiliate commission is big enough to support that, or you could charge a small “consulting fee” to do it.
You could give them options. The DFY service, or here is a video/checklist, something they can use to help them through the process as they do it themselves.
Affiliate Marketing Promotion Strategy
The key to a solid affiliate product promotion is to treat the product like it’s your own.
What does that mean exactly?
For one you really need to know the ins and outs of the product. The good and the bad.
But you need to talk like it’s your product and be open to helping people from decision to success with the product.
This includes doing things like:
- Answering pre-sale questions
- Addressing issues with product (customer support)
- Answer questions about product usage
- Offer Problem => Solution scenarios “how it helped me”
The more content, video, audio, articles, you put out there with this type of information, the more opportunity you’ll have.
In some case you’re going to attract the attention of active users of these products you rep. Which is fine, there is still ways to make money.
For someone that did NOT use your affiliate link to purchase a product, you can charge for the “free” courses, you can charge a consulting fee that is equal to the commission you would have received had they purchased with your link.
However, the content should be enough to get them to become loyal fans that will purchase the next thing through your link!
Most Successful Type of Content
In his training, Flynn says that the content that converts the best for him, are those that provide demonstration, “demo videos”.
He then shared a couple ideas to help make this easier for you to implement.
- Find existing demo videos/content and make a better one
- Keep the videos or read under 20 minutes
- Think, “how can I make this so easy for the viewer”
I’ll add that there is a great way to do #1 with a blog post. It’s called “YouTube Cut Up”.
Find a demo video on YouTube, then you screenshot several parts of the video and use written word to explain the steps.
This way, you do not have to create the video, or images, you can just repurpose someone elses content.
Be sure to embed the full video at the very end of your article, that way if they do want to watch the video, they can do it on your site instead of leaving you to go find the video on YouTube.
The Wrap Up
Hopefully you got some good insights out of that info, something that will help you get started with Affiliate Marketing or help you propel your business.
If you’re going to take away one thing, I’d say to always remember that you need to treat these products your rep as if they were yours. Take ownership, get involved in communities, be part of the solution not the problem. Find ways you can add a ton of value to the product and the users.
If you have questions or need more information, feel free to use the comments, contact me, or use the chat!