In my post The Emails That Make Daily Affiliate Sales on AutoPilot I provided the 3 main tips that I have learned about successful affiliate marketing. Today I want to delve deeper into the purpose of your emails.
This is the topic that really helped me to learn how to make regular affiliate sales, and I am certain it can do the same for you.
When writing your emails, it is important to think about 1 thing. That thing is: people like to buy stuff, but they don’t like being sold to.
In other words, it is really important that your emails do not sound like a sales pitch. I think this is where a lot of new affiliates go wrong.
When I was learning about affiliate marketing myself, there was a lot of emphasis put on the idea of copywriting. That is the art of crafting good “sales content”. Now it might just be me, but any time I see those so called ‘great sales pages’ I do one thing. I read a few sentences then if it sounds interesting I scroll to the bottom of the page and find out how much the product is. If its within my price range and seems good value for money I will buy it. If its not there is NOTHING on those pages that will convince me to make that purchase.
I don’t think I have ever read an entire sales page in my life……. yet I do buy quite a lot of products.
Fact is, if someone is willing to make a purchase, and has the funds to pay for it they want to know:
Does it work & How?
For this part of the sales process there needs to be some sort of explanation about how it works. You can’t make a decision about buying a product when you don’t know what it does.
Has it worked for others (like me)?
The second question is usually around the proof that it works, not just for anyone, but for someone the potential customer can relate to.
Can I trust the Information?
Lastly, is the information from a reputable source.
These 3 questions are the reason I personally focus on providing the guidance for using, or the good points and bad points (what it does and doesn’t do) the results that I have got, and I share more information about myself than anything else.
In my opinion those things work a lot better than any sales copy can. As an affiliate, its is NOT your job to make the sale. It is your job to find the correct target audience, to explain why you recommend something, and to guide them to the place they can make the purchase.
The purpose of your email then is simply to open the door, that is to ‘presell’ or prepare the reader in advance for the sale to be made.
It should be more of a chat with a friend, one you trust and says yes it is actually pretty good – I think you will like it.