Who/what should you promote….part 2

In the financial/trading niche there are an abundance of products/services/tools to promote. But quality is the key. This series is designed to help me relay to YOU what info you need to think about before you promote. Read last week’s part one of “who/what should you promote” to catch up.

OK moving right along, class, today I’m going to dive into an important part of trading/investing affiliate marketing…WHERE DOES MY TRAFFIC GO??

Whenever a company comes to you and asks you to promote their offer, you need to do a bit of digging BEFORE you put up banners, send out emails, or write blog posts.

WHY???

Because that traffic is YOURS! You earned it, they trusted you with their info, and they trust your opinion…so you should know what they’re getting. This trust factor is what companies are after when they approach you to market their products. So you need to be extra careful with what you promote because if a company does something that you’re not comfortable with in their marketing…how do you think your audience is going to feel?

You should always know what’s happening to your traffic. Are they going right to an order/sales page? Are they going to opt-in to a form and then be pitched ONE product? If they opt-in are they tagged to me, how long? If they opt-in will they only see your products/tools? How many sales cycles does that person go through in order to sell your product?

Let’s address one thing at a time…

1. They (your traffic) goes to a sales page.

OK this is pretty straight forward where the only research you should do is on the product itself. If it’s a click to sale then it’s on you to know that you’re promoting a quality product that will truly add value to them. Now, you do have to understand that ‘products might work for some and not for others’ so do not limit yourself to what you can promote. This doesn’t mean if you’re a forex blog to start selling ETF stuff. No, it means if you’re a forex blog present your audience with a wide range of materials in the forex niche.

2. They go to an opt-in page.

This is where it gets tricky and you really have to do some HW.

First, you’ll need to sign-up yourself to see what the process is. If you’re expecting your audience to opt-in, shouldn’t you?? This will allow you to see what happens initially with your info. Do you get sold to right away? Do you get the expected free content? If right from the ‘get go’ you’re not happy with what you see…bail. Stop right there and move on.

If you’re happy with the initial content hook, then you can move on to finding out the next steps. Now if you’re being asked to promote for a launch you’re going to have to TRUST that person telling you about the opt-in process. Do you trust the person telling you the process? Do you really think that process will work?

If you’re promoting for a free service/report that doesn’t put people into a timed sales launch, then you’re in luck because you’ve got time to see what that company does with your info. Whatever your opting into, you should eventually be sold something from that company as that’s where YOU’RE going to make money. You can get paid money for the lead, but the goal is to have the traffic you drive BUY something. Depending on the cycle it can take longer. Your affiliate manager contact SHOULD have that cycle length. If that cycle length is focused on that product then you’re good….

But if you start to see a lot of promotions coming to you from that company you should ask questions. Why am I getting this email about xyz when I opted in to abc? Are you an affiliate of xyz, is that why you’re promoting them?

If your traffic is being sold to on OTHER STUFF before the product you wanted them to buy, you should bail. The focus should be on getting your lead sold into a product of that company, nothing else…period!

Now, you have to understand that at some point your lead might get promoted to something that you’re also promoting. This sucks, but it’s part of affiliate marketing. If the company that took your lead SOLD them on one of their products, then you shouldn’t have any issue as you’ve made your money. But if you’re seeing promotions for xyz course or brokerage house A then you really need to take a step back and see what’s up.

The company asking you to promote and drive leads should be focused on SELLING THEIR PRODUCTS FIRST! If they’re not…BAIL! If you sign-up to get a free report and within a month you’re getting all these different emails from the same company you should NOT promote for them. That lead should only be funneled into a sales process.

3. They will be sold other stuff, but product 1 should be first.

You have to understand that people in this business want to make money…heck YOU know that. But you also have to be ok with being able to share leads in order to get money. It’s a risk yes, and yes the person you’re promoting for is probably going to sell the heck out of that lead in 3 months, but know that their focus is on product sales.

Again this is just hammering the point home, but if you’re giving your traffic to someone to sell a product to, you’d better darn well know that the product you want them to buy IS WHAT THEY ARE BEING SOLD FIRST AND HARDEST!

Any questions???

Any comments???

OK part three I will give you my advice on the WHO!!

Stay tuned and please share if you enjoyed!

All my best,
Brad