Affiliates - Do You Really Know How To Presell?

Power Affiliate Diaries
By Ewen Chia, CEO, Midas Touch Marketing
StuffYourInboxWithCash.com

Preselling is both an art and a science. You hear the importance of preselling mentioned frequently, but no one tells you how to do it.

I hope to shed some light on this topic in this post today.

What type of content is suitable for preselling? What you should focus on in order to turn a prospect into a customer?

These are important questions to ask. The real issue comes down to determining where the prospect is in the buying process and what they need in order to make a decision.

==> Start By Evaluating the Merchant

In order to presell effectively as an affiliate, you need to evaluate how good of a job the merchant does at selling. What are the merchant's strengths and weaknesses?

Some of the most common merchant copy errors you'll find are:

• Nature of the product is ambiguous
• Copy is poorly written and sparse
• Copy focuses too much on features, not enough on benefits

Just put yourself in the customer's shoes ask yourself the following questions: “Do I understand what this product is? What it does?”, “Do I instinctively trust the merchant?”, “How do I feel about this offer?”.

The answers will point you to the gaps you, as an affiliate, need to fill in during the presell process. You won't be able to please everyone, but you'll be able to write copy which “sells” the way you'd like to be sold to – and this is at least half the battle.

==> Pay Attention to Conversion Data

Once you have your first round of presell content in place, it's time to begin testing and tracking.

You'll be looking at several factors:

• On which day of the autoresponder sequence did the majority of prospects convert?

• What is the open-rate for all days in the sequence (regardless of conversion)

• Is there a point in the sequence when a noticeable percentage of prospects (who did not convert) stopped viewing your emails?

Here's a sample scenario...

Imagine you have an autoresponder sequence which lasts for 7 days.

Your conversion rate is much lower than you would like. You find that of those prospects who do convert, the majority of them are converting on the third day. Meanwhile, all others are ignoring the messages or dropping off the list.

This a cue that your content is failing to grab the majority of your prospects' attention right off the bat. The first two days' messages aren't strong enough.

At this point, you'll either need to re-write the first two messages in the sequence or take things up a notch and use day three's copy as the first message in the sequence – then re-write the copy for days two and three.

Then, you'll watch your data again. See if those changes hold attention for a longer period of time and watch what happens when the prospects hit the untouched messages in days four through seven of the sequence.

Each cycle will reveal to you the weak spots in your presell. Each presents an opportunity to further tweak your copy until you see improved conversion for the whole list.

This point may come at any time in the sequence, but the important thing is that your numbers show a majority of prospects opening your messages and a conversion rate up into a profitable percentage.

You might also want to experiment with how you deliver information. For example, you can test the response to a free e-book (containing presell content) on conversion rates. Also, test the impact of that e-book by offering it at various points in the process (on list sign up, on the second day, etc).

==> Experiment with How You Convey Information

At times you may have more than one idea in mind for how to approach the presell.

You might have one set of copy which focuses on a 'story-telling' approach, and another which focuses on facts, benefits, freebies, etc. If this is the case, don't be afraid to test both methods by splitting your leads into two lists in order to test the response to each method.

This approach is beneficial especially when you aren't familiar with an industry, and aren't sure what your prospects want to hear. You will find one list outperforming the other, though, and this will give you a lot insight into the market's mindset. You can adjust your approach accordingly from there.

==> When In Doubt, Investigate

No clue where to start?

Spend some time researching all of the merchant sites in your industry and drop in on any related message boards or chats you can find. This will give you a peek into the language used by your prospects.

You might be surprised to find phrases and jargon in use that you weren't aware of before. You can also get a feel for the market's mindset, daily concerns any potential objections they harbor. For example, you might notice some threads complaining about the price or quality of a product similar to yours. Bingo! This is a potential selling-point or psychological trigger you can use to your advantage.

==> Final Points

Your job as an affiliate is to presell.

Preselling works when you know how to do it, and falls flat when you don't. There's a lot more to it than just dumping some mildly entertaining content into an autoresponder and hoping for the best.

Effective preselling requires forethought, planning, research and experimentation.

Master all four of these steps and those paltry commission checks will be a thing of the past...

The 'Midas Touch' is Yours!

Ewen