A tale or two of your own…
This is the part where I am supposed to tell you about affiliate marketing and how we are getting ready to learn some trade secrets. It’s the introduction section of this series and you know…
All that is true. We are going to learn a WHOLE LOT about how to do affiliate marketing successfully in the coming sections, but…
…that’s not how this starts.
Have you ever seen The Hobbit?
I’m talking about Peter Jackson’s big budget rendition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic tale, The Hobbit.
It’s a fantasy adventure trilogy and if you like that kind of thing, check it out because it’s pretty great but anyways…
…that’s not the point.
There is a special part in the first movie of that trilogy that really epitomizes what we are about to do with these coming emails.
It’s towards the beginning while our unlikely hero, Bilbo Baggins, is still sitting comfortably in his own living room talking to an unkempt, mischievous, yet wise old wizard, Gandalf the Gray.
Bilbo is pondering the coming adventure.
Here is how that conversation went:
Gandalf: You’ll have a tale or two to tell of your own when you come back.
Bilbo: Can you promise that I will come back?
Gandalf: No…and if you do…you will not be the same.
It was a fantastic way to really start that adventure and you know, I feel the same about this report we are about to embark on.
I want to talk to you about affiliate marketing.
I’m not going to waste a bunch of time telling you how it’s an easy way to make money online, or how it’s beginner friendly.
You knew those things already, and if you didn’t, well you do now.
I have another, in my opinion, more important subject I want to talk with you about over this series of emails.
The art of promoting someone else’s product (and it is an art make no mistake about it) comes down to a few things if you want to be successful.
One) You need people who care what you have to say. I.E. a hungry or open and interested market.
Two) You need a way to track your efforts. All affiliate links must be tracked so that you can see where your time and effort is getting results.
Three) And this is the most important thing, you need multiple angles with which to promote whatever it is you are trying to convince people to buy.
Finding a market? Finding people who care about a specific subject? Well that’s not too hard.
Almost every market is represented on Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Instagram and hundreds of places in between.
Tracking? Again, it’s not difficult to find a solution for tracking your affiliate links. There are many options, free and paid.
A quick google search will provide you with plenty of alternatives.
No, this email series will focus on the most important part of great affiliate marketing.
Angles for promotion.
I’m talking about marketing angles. That is to say, a method of conveying information about your offer to potential customers.
For example if I wanted to sell you a fork to eat your dinner I might say:
Angle 1) The fork is the optimal utensil for eating. It can do almost everything a spoon can do and many things it can’t. For that reason, it would be unwise to not have one while eating.
Now I could go on and on about the features and benefits of using a fork and that would be great. It would convince some people to buy a set of forks however…
It’s not enough.
You see those are the easy sales. The ones that already know they need a fork and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and they bought from me.
It’s a great angle. Direct, to the point…and it’s also overused. So while it’s great for one message to your email list, or on your Facebook timeline, or a Reddit post…
What happens when you want to post about this fork every day for a week?
Won’t people get tired of hearing about the features and benefits of a fork?
Absolutely they will, and they will tune you out. Unless…
…you find new ways to talk about the fork. That’s where the marketing angles come in.
What if in our next message we didn’t talk about the features and benefits of “the fork” but instead we told a story.
The story would be about the person who invented the fork, and briefly detail the origin of how this thing came to exist.
Of course, we’d offer a link to buy the fork, as we talked about the trials and tribulations of the inventor.
And then the next day, we might come back and talk about some famous movie that happened to have a very funny scene using a fork.
Again, a link to buy the fork would accompany that post.
The day after that, we’d use another angle and so it goes for as many days as we want to promote that product…
What you are doing here is building a case for the product.
All of these angles come together to form a strong highway that leads right back to the product you want to sell.
It’s multiple messages, multiple points of exposure, firing on multiple angles.
This is a recipe for success with affiliate promotion. With a plethora of marketing angles at your disposal you can sell virtually anything effectively.
So the question becomes, what are these “marketing angles?” How many are there and how can I learn them, so that I too can sell things effectively?
Now that…
…is what I want to talk to you about in these coming sections.
Marketing angles for affiliate promotion. They can be used by email, in social media posts, in blog posts, in podcasts, in youtube videos…
You name it, marketing angles can be used everywhere to sell whatever it is you are trying to sell.
Now…let’s not pull punches here.
This very well could be the most important report you have ever read, so be sure to pay attention, print it out if you need to, because this is the kind of thing…
…you come back to and reference for years.
This must be the ugliest sales page I’ve ever seen…
So in the last section I told you that we were going to be doing a deep dive into the wonderful world of marketing angles.
I believe that effective marketing angles are the single biggest contributing factor when it comes to generating more affiliate commissions online.
Not only that, when done well, they endear you to the market and extend the life of your customers.
The first marketing angle that I want to teach you about is called “The Insult” and it is highly counterintuitive.
That is to say, it doesn’t seem like it should work, but in actuality, it works like GANGBUSTERS!
With “The Insult” what you want to do is pick something about the product you are promoting that is pretty inconsequential.
Maybe it could be an ugly sales page, or a bad product name. Perhaps it’s a video course and the instructor speaks in a fairly monotone voice.
I want you to think “nitpicky” here. You’re going to focus on something that really isn’t going to matter that much to your customers.
Next, I want you to spend the majority of your message kind of insulting this one particular thing about the product you’re promoting.
If it’s the name of the product for example, you might start your message off by saying “this is the worst product name I’ve ever seen…”
You could go into detail about how bad it is, and why you think so.
You could pontificate on what makes a good product name, and how this particular product name is the opposite of that.
People are drawn to the negativity, and when they see that opening line they’re going to want to read what you have to say.
Don’t hold back here, you can feel free to really grind on the insult for a little while.
After all, you essentially bought people’s attention with the promise of a little negativity so don’t be afraid to deliver on that.
But as you are insulting this fairly insignificant detail of the product you’re promoting, be sure to mention that as much as you hate the name of this product, or the ugly sales page, or whatever nitpicky thing you have chosen to harp on about…
…you felt like it was your duty to tell people about the product anyway.
You literally HAD to talk about it even though it pains you to do so.
The reason being, is that this thing actually works and you made a promise to yourself to let people know whenever you find great products out there that actually do what they say they do.
So as much as you might hate the sales page, or think the name is probably the worst in the history of product names, you HAD to tell people about this thing because it works so well.
“The Insult” works because of a few reasons.
Number One) It pulls people in with the promise of negativity and this gets their attention. Everybody is drawn to a little negativity. It’s like it’s hardwired in our DNA. We can’t help it.
Number Two) The thing that you are nitpicking about is not going to matter much to the customers.
Customers don’t care about an ugly sales page and they don’t care about a bad product name.
What customers really care about is that the product they’re going to purchase actually works and gets them the result that they’re looking for.
Number Three) This marketing angle works because on a subconscious level we all root for the underdog, and when you start making fun of someone, you put them in that role a little bit.
So as you’re utilizing “The Insult” just make sure that you’re “nitpicking” on something inconsequential and you’re stressing the fact that you HAVE to talk about this product even though it pains you…
…because the thing actually works and it delivers on what it says it can deliver on.
This is a highly effective marketing angle, because it is so counterintuitive and it serves as a pattern interrupt.
Now, if you don’t know what I mean when I say pattern interrupt, I mean:
“a way to alter a person’s mental, emotional, or behavioral state to break their typical habits.”
In other words, it’s a way to get them to stop skimming your message and actually pay attention.
The important thing to remember about “The Insult” is that you don’t overuse it.
It’s a fine wine that you break out here and there.
If every single week you’re insulting another product about its name or its sales page being ugly, then the effect of “The Insult” is going to wear off.
So remember, use it here and there sparingly and it will work wonders for your affiliate marketing campaigns.
Now you might think, “when SHOULD I use it? What do you mean HERE AND THERE? What would the appropriate time to use it be?”
Well, the good news here is that there’s never any shortage of bad product names or ugly sales pages.
In fact most products that you would consider promoting probably have some minor detail that you can nitpick that’s really inconsequential.
So break this one out when something stands out to you as inconsequential but glaringly bad. It’s one of those “you’ll know it when you see it” kind of situations.
This all started with…
In the last section, we were talking about “The Insult” and how you can use this counterintuitive approach to get people to pay attention to what you have to say and to actually take notice of the product.
If there was one weakness of that angle though, it’s that you can’t use it all the time.
While very effective, it’s something that you have to use here and there and on occasion. It’s not a “workhorse” angle.
Today, I want to talk to you about another marketing angle that you don’t have to use so sparingly.
This is something that you can use with pretty much every single affiliate marketing campaign you run, if you choose to do so.
It’s a little something I call “the vendor case study,” and essentially what you’re going to be doing is telling the origin story of the product vendor and how the particular product you’re promoting came to exist.
With the vendor case study you’re looking to answer a few questions.
- Who is this product vendor?
- How did they go from working a normal job to selling this product?
- What struggles did they face along the way?
- Why does this particular product now exist? What problem does it solve?
Make no mistake, that with “the vendor case study” you are looking to tell a story.
The good news is that most of the answers are going to be right there on the sales page for the product. Also you don’t need to write the next great American novel.
You just need a couple of paragraphs explaining the backstory for this product vendor.
You are looking to humanize this person. The goal is to make this product vendor more than just some dude selling a random product on the Internet.
I’ve used the sales page, product vendor blogs, YouTube channels, About me pages, even emailed product vendors every once in a while to get the information I need for an angle like this.
It might sound like a pain to do a little bit of research but to be honest with you it’s usually really easy to find this information.
Product vendors want people to know about them.
Pretty much every person who sells things on the internet has an origin story and they are usually not shy about sharing it.
So when you are creating your message, the key here is to start with the vendor origin story, move to the problem, move to the solution they discovered, and then move to the product they created to help other people who were having that problem.
For example:
“John Smith didn’t start out making hundreds of thousands of dollars teaching people about online traffic…
Actually 3 years ago he was completely broke, lost his job, wife just left him, and he couldn’t even afford his own internet.
It was so bad that sometimes he even had to visit the local food pantry for free canned goods. What a difference 3 years makes, right?
So what happened? How did he go from that horrible situation to making all that money online?
Well it all started at his local library…”
That’s the origin story. Just an example here, you can’t just make stuff up. It needs to be real.
In any case, now I’m going to move into the problem, then I move into the discovered solution, and then I move into the product that our hero created to help others.
The vendor case study is a great marketing angle and really goes nicely after a hard promotional message.
All about the benefits, baby…
Okay so in the last section we were talking about product vendor origin stories and how we can use that story to make the product a bit more than just a product.
We were looking to build a little personality around the situation, or create a little legend, so to speak.
Now, I want to take this in a different direction. I want to talk to you about a marketing angle I like to call “The Product Benefit Case Study.”
With this angle you’re not going to be focusing on the product vendor. Instead you’re going to be focusing on the benefit of the product itself.
For example, If I was gonna be promoting a product about traffic then I would spend my message talking about the benefits of good traffic and how much of a game changer that can be for someone’s business.
If I was going to be promoting a product that was an all-in-one make money online system, I would talk about the benefits of having everything I need in one place and not having to search around all over for various pieces of the puzzle.
If I was going to be promoting a product that was, for example, a package of emails with a PLR license, I would talk about the benefit of using PLR to save time and eliminate the learning curve.
I can give examples and tell stories about people who have successfully taken advantage of this benefit.
When I use this angle, I like to focus on just one or two stories of people who have succeeded from the benefit that the product I am promoting provides.
Remember, the person or people you talk about don’t have to have used the product you are promoting.
It’s about them experiencing success with that benefit. It all hinges on the benefit that the product you are promoting provides.
The idea here is that I’m going to be taking the prospect to that place of success with these stories.
Then, of course, after you take them to that place of success and show them what it’s like when they successfully achieve that benefit, the next question becomes, “Okay so how do you get there? Where do you start?”
And that’s when you pitch the product that you’re promoting as the solution that can help them acquire that benefit.
This is a really powerful marketing angle and it can be used in a variety of ways over and over again to great success.
Some things never go out of style…
Today I want to talk to you about a classic that’s worked over and over again throughout the years.
When it comes to the internet, a lot of things change, but some things never go out of style.
This is a marketing angle that I call “the 4 plus 1” and it works like this:
One) First, identify the main benefit that the product you’re trying to promote provides.
Two) Next, I want you to come up with four simple ways that a prospect could achieve that same benefit.
You don’t need to go into massive detail with these, you just need to briefly give a few sentences on how to do the tactic.
For example, if you were promoting a course about affiliate marketing, then you do a little research and come up with 4 simple tactics for affiliate marketing that people could use to get some results.
Remember, just a few sentences on each tactic here. I want you to think in terms of a brief overview.
Three) After that, you are going to add the fifth way to achieve this benefit, again with just a few details briefly described in a couple of sentences.
Now, this way is different in that it is a brief overview of what is covered in the training you are promoting.
Four) Finally, you mention that this last tactic is one of your personal favorites and the one you recommend the most when it comes to achieving that benefit.
This is where you drop your affiliate link and tell them, THIS product is the best place to get started, because it goes in depth on how to use this particular tactic the right way, and it’s your number 1 recommendation right now to achieve this particular benefit.
And it’s that simple.
The “4 plus 1” works great and it can be used over and over, because you’re providing actionable content right there in the email inbox as well as offering your prospects the perfect place to get started.
Also, I have to say you can use multiple variations of this. The “4” is arbitrary. It can be done as a 2 plus 1 or a 6 plus 1 as well. Whatever feels right to you.
I wouldn’t make it longer than 6 plus 1, though. It’s too much information to consume.
Let’s get meta…
I’ll tell you, that “4 plus 1” marketing angle and things similar to it have really made a lot of money for many people over the years.
It’s the perfect blend of actionable content and “where to get started.”
But now I have another absolute no-brainer that can be used in pretty much every affiliate marketing campaign that you run.
It’s a little something I like to call “The Meta Bonus.”
With “the meta bonus” marketing angle, what you want to do is talk about your actual marketing campaign with your prospects in the message.
Let me explain…
You essentially, let them know you’re sending out several promotional messages on this particular product and when they pick up this product through your affiliate link they’re going to get every one of your messages as a special bonus.
Now you can offer them personal use rights on the complete set of your messages so that they can model their own messages after yours, or you can go the extra mile and just offer a PLR license on all of your messages.
The cool thing about “the meta bonus” is that you’re already creating this bonus as you write your messages.
It’s completely unique, something that no one else can offer, and you’re giving your prospects something extra when they buy the product through you.
It’s a great marketing angle to tack on to your campaign and it works like a charm every single time.
People love to collect things, and they also love getting a ready made affiliate campaign that they can use to promote the same product you are promoting.
The best part is, they know it works, because they are currently reading your messages and potentially buying the product through you.
The proof is staring them in the face.
Whether you’re recording videos, writing emails, or posting to a Facebook group, the meta bonus is something that can be used over and over again because it’s just you giving other people access to your content.
Free never goes out of style…
…and a free unique bonus? Well, everyone is interested in that.
In addition to the one message you write, talking about the meta bonus you can also briefly mention it in your other messages.
For example a simple PS message where you simply state:
“Hey did you like this message? Well it’s part of an eight message series and you can get access to all eight of them when you pick this product up through my link.”
So that’s the mighty meta bonus marketing angle. Use it and crush your campaigns!
The What I Did Today Formula…
The “what I did today” is such a versatile marketing angle. I love it because you can use it no matter what you’re doing, where you’re at, or what you’re promoting.
This angle is a formula and there are three parts that make it work.
Part One) The story. First, you take an emotion that you have felt today or sometime recently.
It can be joy, sadness, frustration, excitement, boredom…it could be anything.
I want you to briefly tell the story surrounding that emotion. If you were sad yesterday, what made you sad yesterday?
If you were excited today at the grocery store, why?
I’m talking about a paragraph or two here. You don’t need to write the next great American novel.
The thing about good content is that it usually has some kind of entertainment value and some kind of a takeaway or a less and attached to it.
This story that you are telling acts as entertainment value.
Next let’s talk about that lesson…
Part Two) The lesson. All right so now that you have your story the second thing you need is some kind of a lesson or take away.
Remember the first rule of marketing and promotion:
It’s never about you, it’s always about them.
No matter how much you might be talking about yourself or telling a story about your day it always circles back around your prospects. So the lesson is very important.
Now this is completely easier than it sounds. We are all human and we all experience the gambit of emotions.
What’s true in real life when it comes to emotions is also true in business no matter what someone is trying to accomplish.
For example, let’s say I was frustrated yesterday because the store was completely out of milk.
When I told that story, I could easily segue into a lesson about how that frustration kind of reminds me of some of the frustration that people feel when they’re trying to achieve a certain kind of result online.
Perhaps, in my example about the milk I would go on to talk about how I finally calmed down and went to a different grocery store and was able to get the milk that I needed.
That kind of reminded me that in online business people sometimes have to adjust the plan to achieve the result they are looking for.
In both cases it absolutely did zero good to get frustrated. Simple lesson, but highly relatable.
And now the last part…
Part Three) The pitch. So the third thing that you need to make this marketing angle work is the pitch. You need to pitch the product you are promoting.
So you might think, “well how do I go from a lesson about some story to pitching a product?”
The easiest way to do this is to use a simple question that people always ask, when it comes to many things in life:
Where do I get started?
You see, affiliate marketing is based on solving a problem. Everyone reading your message, we have to assume, has a problem.
That means if you started your message talking about a positive emotion that you experienced then you would eventually talk about how maybe they haven’t experienced a lot of that positive emotion lately because they haven’t had any success with this particular problem.
For example:
Now the sense of accomplishment I felt yesterday after completing my goal of walking all week for exercise made me feel pretty good, I have to admit…
…but it also was a reminder to me of how many people out there are frustrated because they are NOT achieving their goals of online business…
It feels great when you achieve a goal, but it feels equally as frustrating when you don’t…
If you started your message talking about a negative emotion that you experienced recently then you would end up talking about how maybe they can relate to this negative emotion because of the problem that they’ve been experiencing.
For example:
“The thing about it is, although I learned that sometimes we have to adjust to accomplish our goals, it doesn’t change the fact that initially I was pretty frustrated that I couldn’t just get the milk at my normal store…
Maybe, you can relate to that frustration on some level if you are struggling to succeed in online business. You know you have to adjust, but it’s frustrating and maybe you aren’t sure how or where to start…”
So in both cases, whether you start with a story about a positive emotion or negative emotion, you go on to say:
“if that’s you and you can relate to what I’m saying then I have the perfect place for you to finally get started when it comes to solving this problem…”
And that’s where you drop your affiliate link.
The “what I did today formula” is great because it’s a real “soft promo” kind of message.
Most affiliate marketers are out there hitting people over and over again with hard promotions.
After a while all the features and benefits just start bleeding together and people get kind of blind to the things being offered.
The “what I did today formula” is another example of how you can add a human element to your promotional strategy and essentially make people relate to you, seeing what you’re selling as more than just another product.
If you use marketing angles like these enough then it starts to become an experience or an event when you promote things.
It will endear people to what you do, and more importantly, create repeat customers.
Connecting the dots…
Okay, so the next marketing angle that I want to talk to you about is called “connect the dots.”
And with “connect the dots,” what you want to do is take the product that you are promoting, identify what the benefit of it is, and then go into different ways that people could actually utilize this product.
I’m talking about real-world scenarios here.
For example, if I was promoting a product teaching people how to drive traffic with Facebook groups, I might combine it with another tactic I know teaching how to create lead magnets that will attract Facebook users specifically.
They are two separate tactics but they could go together extremely well to form a new unique strategy.
This kind of thinking is going to make your prospects feel like they have Insider information and some kind of extra advantage on succeeding with this product.
Often as an affiliate, it’s our job to produce eureka moments. What I mean by that is many times prospects just need you to show them the possibilities.
A simple suggestion of, “what if you used THIS along with THAT?”
Those kinds of “think out loud” brainstorming style messages are really, really powerful because you are not filling in all the blanks.
You’re leaving room for their imagination and creativity to take it and run with it.
This works really, really well promoting PLR packages, or products that teach one specific skill and aren’t necessarily focused on an all-in-one system.
Connect the dots is a very effective marketing angle because you’re essentially connecting the dots for people on how specifically to use this product for success.
You’d be surprised how many products out there just unintentionally confuse people when it comes to how they might be able to use it to succeed.
Even some of the obvious ones like products about driving traffic still confuse people sometimes, especially when it’s talking about driving traffic from platforms that people might not be familiar with or understand.
Let’s say I’m trying to promote a product that teaches people how to grow a giant audience on YouTube.
I could combine the strategies taught in that product with a tactic that helps people do YouTube without appearing on camera…
…because I know that one of the big fears people have when it comes to YouTube is being on camera.
Another thing that people hate about YouTube is how much time and energy they have to invest in editing videos.
So if I talk about a strategy for simple, fast, effective, free, video editing, and how it’s going to go perfectly with this product I’m promoting…
…well, that’s the kind of thing that’s going to get people excited about the product and THAT is the “connect the dots” marketing angle.
Oftentimes the products that we promote as affiliates have gaps in them.
They are not complete solutions, and even when they ARE complete solutions, generally we have 2 cents we could add to that product.
All these gaps present great opportunities to create a “connect the dots” marketing angle to promote the product.
This is a really effective angle and sometimes it’s the exact small push that will actually get someone who is on the fence, to pull the trigger and buy the product through your affiliate link.
Following the steps…
Okay, so the next marketing angle that I want to talk to you about is something I call the “Step by Step.”
And with this one I want you to think about the product that you are promoting and create the “prequel” to that product.
I don’t mean create a giant involved product or anything.
I just mean a simple 5 to 10 step checklist that would get them right up to the point where they were ready for the information in the product.
For example, let’s say I am promoting a product about how to get traffic.
Well, I could do a little 10 step checklist teaching people how to quickly put together a lead magnet that would actually help them build a list.
By the time they go through my simple checklist, they will be ready for that next phase, which we all know is driving traffic to that lead capture page.
That’s perfect because the product I want to promote is going to show them exactly how to get that traffic.
This angle is great because:
First) It actually gives value in the message itself.
People aren’t going to feel like you are just in it for the money, because you are actually teaching them something right there.
Second) It sets you up for a great pitch. A question that people ALWAYS want to know the answer to is, “what’s next?”
Think about that for a second. No matter what you are doing in life, generally several times a day you are going to be asking yourself, “what’s next?”
It’s a habit that exists online as well, whether people are reading emails, reading posts, going through products, or consuming any piece of information, undoubtedly they will ask that beautiful question, “now what?”
And you’ll be there to tell them. It’s a perfect pitch.
So if you want to implement this angle, just think “prequel.” What would the person who is buying this product need to know how to do ahead of buying this product?
It’s an angle that can work good for any product, but it works best on products that teach one specific thing, like affiliate marketing, or list building, or traffic driving.
Also, like all these angles, it takes practice to figure out good ways to use it.
For example:
If I am promoting a PLR package, I can do a simple step by step on how to sell PLR. Then I point them at the package.
If I am promoting a product that teaches affiliate marketing, I can do a simple step by step on free alternatives for every tool an affiliate marketer needs for success. Then I point them at the course that teaches them affiliate marketing.
These are just a couple of examples on how you can use “the step by step” to get more affiliate commissions.
The 2 Post Interact…
Today I want to talk to you about a marketing angle that I have used multiple times to great success. It’s called “the 2 post interact” and it works like this:
First) You send out an email to your list, or you post on social media, or make a simple youtube video but essentially this post is going to ask a question that relates to the benefit the product you want to promote, provides.
For example, if I am going to be promoting a product about losing weight, I would ask people:
“What are some of the biggest challenges you think people face when it comes to losing weight?”
Then I wait for people to respond.
Second) I take all the questions and problems that people bring up and I put together a simple FAQ talking about some of those problems.
The other thing I talk about in that FAQ is how the product I am currently promoting is a great solution and solves most, if not all of these problems for people.
This FAQ would be a second post or youtube video or email, depending on where you are doing your affiliate marketing.
If we are talking about youtube, be sure to put the 2 videos in a playlist together.
I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. Don’t lie in your affiliate promotions.
If there are big problems that people bring up that you know the course you are promoting does not address, could you provide a simple bonus that might address that one issue?
I probably don’t have to tell you that utilizing bonuses to fill the gaps of a product you are promoting is a very effective tactic.
When you stack that with this “2 post interact” angle, you can really see some nice results.
A conveyed thought…
Wow, over these last several sections, I’ve really done an information dump on you.
In all honesty, the marketing angles I’ve given you over these last eleven sections are responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.
BUT…
We aren’t done. I still have more affiliate marketing gold to drop on you when it comes to marketing angles and selling other people’s products.
The next one that I want to talk about is called “The Conveyed Story.” It’s a marketing angle which is extremely versatile because it allows you to “borrow results.”
Let me explain. With the “conveyed story” what you do is:
First) Identify the subject of the product that you want to promote (whether that is driving traffic, building a list, email marketing, affiliate marketing, etc.)
Second) Go find a youtube video or a blog post talking about this subject that has an interesting story or some actionable content.
Third) Write down the bullet points of the youtube video, or blog post that you are consuming.
Fourth) Now, what you want to do is convey the story that you watched or read in that content. Basically, you would start it like this:
Hey guys, I just read a great blog article about driving traffic that I thought was really cool, it was by Joe Smith (mention the creator of the content but do not link back to the article or youtube video) and essentially he was talking about…
You would then go on to convey your bullet points.
Essentially telling the story of that blog post or youtube video, but in your own words and acknowledging where that content came from.
Fifth) Next is the pitch. How do you do it?
Well, what you do is acknowledge that this is a great tactic or story that you just shared and you hope it helps, however the fact of the matter is it’s not enough to get people to success.
It’s just one tactic.
Then you go on to say that if they are really finally ready to get started with (whatever the subject is) then your number one recommendation is (whatever the product you are promoting is.)
Let them know that the product is current for the times, 100% relevant, and perfect even for beginners.
Again, don’t lie. Don’t just mindlessly repeat the things I am saying here. Make sure they fit and are true.
That’s the “conveyed story” marketing angle and like I was saying, it’s really versatile because you can pull content from so many places.
You could literally use the “conveyed story” marketing angle ALONE over and over again and probably really get decent affiliate commissions.
With that you would be sort of adopting this role of a reporter.
Now if you think that takes away your authority or somehow doesn’t position you as an expert, I would say firstly, do people watch the news? Of course. Daily, right?
So reporting is powerful.
Secondly, you don’t need to be “the expert” to get people to listen to you or to make sales. It’s nice to be “the expert.”
It’s convenient, but not everyone can be “the expert.”
I have found most “experts” are really good at one or two things, and really mediocre at a lot of other things.
So what happens if they want to promote something they are only mediocre at? They adopt the role of the reporter.
Getting Incendiary…
Alright, so the next marketing angle that I want to talk to you about is called the “incendiary trending topic” marketing angle. This one’s pretty straightforward.
What you want to do is start off by talking about some really hot topic that’s polarizing.
The topic that you pick does not need to be in your niche and it doesn’t need to be related to the benefit of the product you are promoting at all.
It just needs to be an incendiary trending topic, and by incendiary I mean polarizing and often with more than one strong opinion.
So, again with this angle what you’re going to do is start off by talking about an incendiary topic but you’re not going to pick a side, you’re going to stay very neutral.
There is a lot of emotion stirring around these polarizing incendiary topics. Do it well, and you could tap into some of that emotion, and redirect it at your promotion.
Next, after you talk about this polarizing topic (remembering to stay neutral) what you’re going to do is comment on some of the polarization surrounding this topic, pointing out how frustrating it is that this topic is dividing so many people and how confusing it can be at times.
Then you’re going to move on into making the point that although we might be polarized on that particular topic one thing we can all agree on is that it’s really frustrating not getting results with whatever it is your target market is trying to get results with (and also whatever problem it is the product you’re promoting happens to solve.)
That’s when you ask the question:
“So are you frustrated with [problem A] and are you also sick of fighting about things that probably don’t really matter as much as we’re making them out to matter?
If that’s you…I strongly suggest you check out this product. It’s my number one recommendation when it comes to solving [Problem A.] Let’s stop wasting our time fighting about dumb stuff and get back on track.”
This marketing angle is really strong for a couple of reasons.
First: You lead by talking about a polarizing subject which is going to draw people in. You’re essentially buying their attention with something captivating.
By doing this you’re basically leveraging all the marketing they have already been inundated with by the social media outlets when it comes to this polarizing topic.
Second: You’re acknowledging and tapping into the emotion that this particular topic brings out in people.
Then you’re redirecting that emotion towards something productive that you know these people already care about. It’s a healthy redirect.
This marketing angle works great but let me give you a word of warning here. It’s a little bit of an advanced tactic.
It’s important that you stay neutral when it comes to the polarizing topic.
Remember you are not here to give your viewpoint or opinion on this topic.
People who respond to you by email, or comment on your Facebook post, or wherever you’re posting this angle, give them a chance to have their opinion and let that be okay.
Don’t get wrapped up in stupid polarizing trending topics. You’re strictly using them as a jumping point to promote your affiliate products.
I don’t suggest jumping right into this one. Get more comfortable with some of these other marketing angles I talked about before you start taking this one on.
If you have been doing affiliate marketing for a little while and you feel comfortable, then go for it.
As of this writing I’ve seen incendiary topics such as Trump, covid-19, Russia versus the Ukraine, and a slew of others…
…act as really interesting jumping-off points for people who want to promote products that have nothing to do with those topics.
Just make sure you handle it in a classy way. If you mess it up, you could come across as exploitive and sleazy, but more importantly, it won’t be effective.
Check out what I just bought…
So in that last section I was talking to you about an advanced marketing angle that I’ve used in my affiliate marketing from time to time.
That’s great and all, but now what I would like to do now is talk about something that anybody can use, no matter what your skill level is.
In fact, when I look at all of my subject lines on emails that I have sent out over the past several years, guess what the subject line that has got the highest open rates out of all of them has been?
It’s the one that implements this marketing angle I’m about to reveal now.
And listen, this doesn’t have to just be for email. You can use this in a Facebook post, you can use it as a YouTube video, subreddit post, blog post, whatever…
It’s versatile.
I’m talkin about the “check out what I just bought” marketing angle.
With this one, no matter where you’re posting at you want to start with the line:
“check out what I just bought…”
When you’re making a YouTube video, this is the title of your video.
If it’s a Facebook post, then this is the first line of that post.
And if you’re riding a good old-fashioned email, then this is the subject line:
“Check out what I just bought…”
After that, you proceed to let people know what you just bought and why you felt like it was a good idea to buy it.
Now, obviously this marketing angle hinges on the fact you have actually bought the product.
If you haven’t bought the product then what you want to do is you want to replace “check out what I just bought” for:
“check out what I’m trying right now..”
It goes without saying that you can’t use this marketing angle unless you have literally been through the product, like the product, feel like the product has great potential, and plan to be using the product.
In other words, don’t lie to people.
Don’t be a rotten individual.
Don’t be a villain.
Don’t just say whatever you have to say to chase the money bag.
Money will come to you if you are being honest and it will come to you in a more sustainable way.
This one is really simple, and really effective.
It works because many times people vote with their wallets, and they vote with their time.
If you believe in this product enough to buy it yourself, or enough to actually spend your time trying it out and actually doing it, clearly you believe in what you’re talking about.
That is quite the vote of confidence and it will convince many people to pick up that product.
Okay so that’s the “check out what I just bought” marketing angle, and I have one more really cool one for you.
It’s actually one of my favorites but I’m going to save that for the next section.
What a movie…
Let’s rewind the clock for a minute. Let’s go way back to the first section in this series on affiliate marketing angles.
Do you remember what I started this off talking about?
In case you’re like me and have the freaking short term memory of a hamster (lol) let me remind you.
I started this series off by talking about Peter Jackson’s 3 movie trilogy rendition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s, The Hobbit.
Well, I was using a marketing angle on you there. It’s one that I like to call “The book review.”
Now, I know, I know…I wasn’t talking about a book there, I was talking about a movie. I get it. However…
With “The book review” marketing angle, you can use books or movies or TV shows. They are all interchangeable.
I use the word “review” loosely here. You aren’t going to REALLY be reviewing anything. And it isn’t always going to be a book.
The way this works is you take a certain part in a book or movie that you like, and you pull a lesson out of it that can help your target market.
Then you are going to segue that lesson into a pitch for the product that you are promoting.
In the first email that kicked off this series, I talked about a part in The Hobbit…
…then I segued that into a lesson about how affiliate marketing is a lot like a journey…
…after that, I simply made the connection to this series you were about to read and how they were going to change you for the better.
Now that was a pretty weak lesson and a very soft pitch. I was just appealing to your sense of excitement and curiosity. But…
…it still worked.
The fact is, “the book review” marketing angle is an amazing way to change things up when you are promoting something.
It can really act as a pattern interrupt, because people don’t know where you are going with this when you start.
They pay more attention and skim less because you did something unexpected when you started talking about something out of niche.
I have to tell you, of all these marketing angles I have talked about, this one is probably one of my favorites to use.
Not because of its effectiveness by itself (in fact I think it works a little better in a series where it can be used in conjunction with other angles) but…
…it’s one of my favorites because it gives me a chance to just spout off about whatever I happen to be watching or reading at the time. There is freedom in that.
I mean, just because you happen to operate in a particular niche, that doesn’t mean it’s ALL you want to talk about, right?
And, likewise, it’s not all people want to hear about either. Marketing angles like “the book review” humanize you as a marketer, and build brand loyalty.
That brand loyalty will extend the life of your customers.
In Closing
All this stuff only work if you actually use them.
A lot of people come online with big dreams to make money with online ventures.
Affiliate marketing is one of those ventures that people get into with the promise of EASY money.
The problem is, most people spend far too much time “learning” and far too little time actually doing anything productive.
Wish you the BEST.
AFFILIATE BLACK BOOK
Best Affiliate Training Programs
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- Income School Project 24 – $50 (11.14%) up to $100 (22.28%)
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Social Media Management Tools
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Stock Image Websites
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- Shutterstock – 20% commission
Email Marketing Platforms
- Aweber – 30% recurring commission
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WordPress Themes
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- Elegant Themes – 25% recurring commission
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- Premium Coding Themes – 35% to 50% recurring commission
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Graphic Design Websites
- Fiverr – Up to $150 for new user sales
- 99Designs – $35 to $80 per sale
- DesignCrowd – $35 per sale
- TailorBrands – Up to 30% per sale