It is absolutely no secret by now that affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and lucrative ways of earning passive income online. Affiliate marketing is the act of earning a commission by promoting a company’s products or services on your website or blog, usually through a referral link or unique code. The following article is going to explore seven ways to ensure that you write content that converts for affiliate marketing sites, which will be informative, eye-catching and most importantly, have the highest conversion rates possible.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
One of the truly unique attributes of having a voice in the online space is being able to command an audience’s attention, influence them, and mobilize them towards an action of your choosing. Many people in these positions can be tempted to throw any and every product recommendation they can find in the direction of their readers, without doing their due diligence in researching the product or service and trying it out for themselves. This could potentially be an affiliate marketer’s greatest downfall, and while it may have big returns in the short-term, it can come at an extravagant cost and cause them to lose credibility with their readers for good.
It is extremely crucial for you to thoroughly investigate the products and services you choose to promote before exposing them to your readers. Readers are constantly bombarded with advertisements of all sorts from the moment they open their eyes in the morning till the last moment of their day, and it is highly necessary for you to set yourself apart by not only being informative to them in what you offer, but also by being as transparent as you possibly can with your review of the product from every angle.
Furthermore, don’t be afraid to mention the flaws of the product if they exist. While it is very helpful to highlight the benefits and attributes of the products and listing out all of the reasons someone should buy it, it is also crucial to mention any faults or shortcomings you may have experienced by using the product or service. This doesn’t mean sabotaging the image of the product, but being honest and open about what customers should expect, and reminding them that there is no product that is perfect. This will add another layer of trust between you and your audience, and it will increase the likelihood of them trusting your future product reviews.
Make it about the Readers
While it is important for you to find the products that you are promoting through your content to be satisfactory in your eyes, you shouldn’t forget to cater to your readers’ wants and needs. Afterall, it is the audience who is at the very core of your business, and without them there would be no one to read your content and ultimately buy the products you recommend. It is every affiliate marketer’s dream to be able to promote products or services that they truly love all of the time, and while your taste in products may align with that of your readers often, that will not be the case for every single circumstance.
Keywords Are King
The game of affiliate marketing could be a tough one to play, and many content creators might get discouraged due to the ferocity and the high levels of competition within the industry, but having the right tools and tactics can help you become a master of the game quicker than you thought was possible. The tools of this game are keywords, and finding the perfect ones can be the determining factor of whether you soar to the highest levels of success or are added to the statistics of those who tried to make it but failed.
SEO
In a space where everyone is seeking the attention of potential clients, customers or subscribers, it is necessary for you to have your voice heard loud and clear in order to set yourself clearly apart from your competitors and gain a substantial advantage over them. One of the most significant methods of acquiring that distinction is to optimize your SEO strategy and campaign. Search Engine Optimization is a must for anyone seeking to rank highly in search engine results and drive the largest possible number of potential customers to their business.
Email lists
Email lists are often an overlooked method of reactivating your current consumer base or even reaching out to new and potential consumers. This lifeline has, in many cases, been one of the reviving factors that has brought many former clients back into the realm of purchasing, and it has made given birth to more repeat purchases than almost all of the other methods combined.
There is something truly unique and special to be said about reaching out to your readers individually, customizing your message and mentioning them by name. Email lists have the power of creating that intimate connection between yourself and the consumer, and make them feel like they are more than just a number on your list of subscribers.
There are a multitude of ways to start gathering emails to start your list. Here are just a few:
Making use of organic traffic: Potential customers will find their way to your website or content one way or another as long as you are using the correct means to do so. Creating a landing page where your information, and most importantly your email, is required in return for something of value such as a free e-book or a discount on a future product, is definitely a method that can be utilized to start building your very own email list.
Current readers and consumers: The current audience of readers you have currently consuming your content is a gold mine of opportunity when it comes to building your email list. This base of consumers has expressed their interest in your content, and if they have been following your content for a while that means they have expressed loyalty to your blogs and articles which makes them very likely to trust you with their contact information and their personal emails. One way of enticing your readers to share their emails with you is to incentivize them with exclusive content and previews of future articles and so on. Readers love knowing that they have priority access to content before anyone else, and the aspect of exclusivity is something that adds another layer of value from their vantage point.
Cross-Promotion:
If you are aware of a certain website that has an email list in a niche that is similar to yours, try to work out a deal in which you can both promote each other and in turn grow your number of subscribers. If people are subscribed to an email list in a specific niche, it is quite likely that they would subscribe to another email list for additional similar content.
Funnels
Since the end goal of affiliate marketing is to point potential customers towards a merchant where they will ultimately purchase a product or service, it is very important to understand sales funnels.
To put it simply, a sales funnel is the journey which a customer goes through from the moment they know about a product, till the moment they make a purchase. Business experts have created an acronym for sales funnels known as AIDA which stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. These four steps in the purchasing journey are extremely powerful and they are ultimately what drive the sale home.
There are several funnel types, especially when it comes to the world of affiliate marketing, and here are a few examples:
Book Funnels: A lot of marketing gurus and experts have written or recommended a book to their followers and encouraged them to order the book through an affiliate link. More often than not, if the book is printed, the customers are told that the book is free as long as they only pay the shipping cost involved. This strategy is extremely effective, and it has seen high amounts of success within affiliate marketing.
Course Funnels: Many business personalities and content creators produce low-cost courses for their consumers to enroll in. Once the students have been enrolled, the content creators introduce affiliate and supplementary products which may be used in accordance with what is taught in the course. This is a very popular funnel among business owners and marketers, and it has gained a lot of traction and recognition in the past few years.
Webinar Funnels: This has become one of the greatest sales funnels of the digital age, and almost every online business personality has been involved in it in one way or another. A free webinar is introduced to an audience and told to reserve a spot for themselves at a specified date and time. After providing their email, they are sent a link to the webinar. While the webinar can certainly have immense value, the ultimate objective is to have a product placement within the webinar which is recommended by the expert, and customers are encouraged to take action towards purchasing the product or service. It is worth mentioning that in instances like these, two objectives are achieved at once. The first is funneling the customers towards the purchase of the intended product, and the second is retaining the information and email of the customer in order to add them to the list, to be retained for future product recommendations and so forth.
Conversion
The success of an affiliate program is measured by the percentage of conversion it has. The conversion rate through affiliate marketing put simply, is the amount of transactions that take place through the affiliate, compared to the number of impressions (clicks on a referral link for instance). Logically speaking, the higher the conversion rate is, the more successful the affiliate campaign is. Now you ask, how can I increase my conversion rate in order to maximize my affiliate marketing earnings? That is exactly the right question, to which we have a few simple yet extremely effective methods listed below:
Gather as much knowledge as you can from the company regarding the specific affiliate program.
Give your potential customers a reason to shop through you by having an additional discount that only you provide if possible.
Make sure the transaction is as smooth as possible from A-Z. Have as few clicks involved in the customer’s purchase journey as possible, from the moment they click your link to the moment they checkout to purchase.
Strongly Consider a Content Writing Service
Writing content for affiliate marketing sites, especially when having to combine all of the previous factors, may seem like a daunting task that could be seen as an extra hindrance in a business owner’s mind. Luckily, the availability of content writing services can give website owners peace of mind when it comes to formulating articles that are affiliate marketing based. The benefits of hiring a content writing service for affiliate marketing endeavors are simply too many to count, but here is a short list of some of the advantages you will experience should you choose to go down this route:
Saves you precious time: Time is the most valuable asset that any single one of us can have. Hiring a content writing service not only alleviates you from the stress of having to fill your page with content, but it also frees you up to focus on other crucial aspects of your business which demand your time and expertise.
Gives your old content a makeover: Old content, while valuable, is always in need of an update. Content writing services have professionals on board who are in tune with the latest marketing trends and strategies, and they will know exactly what methods to introduce to your readers and what tone of voice to utilize based on the specific demographic of your audience.
Improves Search Engine Rankings and SEO: It is tremendously vital to have content that is produced with quality of the highest caliber, and that is where content writing services come in. Their professionals are trained to use the exact keywords needed in order to help your article (and consequently your website) have a high ranking within search engines. Google for instance, has software which detects links of inferior quality, and those that contain broken links and so on. That is precisely why having content with proper meta descriptions and appropriate headlines is necessary.
Boosts conversion rates tremendously: Having a strong call to action which influences your audiences towards the direction of a purchase is ultimately what you are seeking to do as a business owner and marketer. The wording of these statements is highly sensitive, and it is one of the core competencies in which content writing services excel at. Being exposed to an influential statement that requires action on the consumer’s part is much more likely to be received positively and acted upon when the tone of voice is that of authority and credibility, and that is exactly the manner in which these professionals are trained to write in.
Automation of Content: When you have a content writing service hired, you are able to schedule and automate the articles that you need produced, and you are able to have them published in a timely manner for any occasion or event that arises.
Every single niche is catered to: Regardless of how knowledgeable you are as a business owner, marketer or writer, there will be times where you will need to produce content which is highly technical, and that may be out of your realm of specialty, and it may not be of any interest to you at all. Having a service with a team of experts on board ensures that you will be given the most qualified candidate for each specific niche, and will leave all of the heavy lifting to the specialists of the industry.
While the upfront costs of hiring these service providers may seem like a deterrent for many website and business owners, it is important to keep in mind that the long term success and the high conversion rates, along with the significant ROI will more than make up for the costs incurred in hiring them.
In conclusion, writing content for affiliate marketing websites can be extremely rewarding in more ways than one, and it is a service that is always in demand. Always make sure to keep integrity and transparency at the forefront of your priorities when producing that type of content. Make sure to enhance your articles by optimizing your keyword research, and by optimizing your sales funnels and SEO campaigns. Finally, always keep in mind that content writing services are simply a Google search away.
