Forum Moderators: skibum
I have read on this forum more than a few times that most of the bigtime Affiliate Marketers have hundreds of small sites promoting 1 or more products in each. I have heard the word "sell" used with these sites a lot too. Here is where I am confused:
A lot of Affiliate Marketers say that pre-selling is what makes Aff Marketers money. Not hard selling another persons product.
Pre-selling basically means: "Warming a visitor up so that they click-through to the Merchant site in a ready to buy frame of mind"
Now this is definitely not hard selling. You are basically recommending a product to the person, but at the same time I think you have to show some expertise in the area or else why would they believe your recommendation?
I would really appreciate any knowledge you have on this, and some suggestions too if any.
Thanks,
C.K.
1) Generate targeted traffic
2) Presell through the delivery of valuable content that the visitor wanted
3) Guide them to the purchase (merchant's Web site) as a motived and interested buyer
4) Check your PO box for your check
Whether you write an article about your new car and briefly mention the car wax you use to keep it gleaming or you say: "YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE HOW CHEAPLY WE'RE SELLING ACME CAR WAX! WE MUST BE CRAZY! THE COMPETITION ARE GOING BALLISTIC - BUT WE DON'T CARE!"...
Surely both are selling?
Arguably the former more than the latter, in fact.
pre-selling = marketing
selling = sales
The marketing folks give you the information that makes a product or service so compelling that you want to get it on your own. The sales folks call and tell you repeatedly how great their product is, how you want theirs, and that they are awating the order.
Listing a partial product description and then saying "click here for more info" is the wimpy way to close sales. People want to know that you are confident in what you are selling and asking for the order conveys that thought.
Otherwise, they will continue to look for more information and buy from your competitor.
Remember, if you don't ask for the order, you won't get the sale.
Always
Be
Closing
People used to tell me that ABC stuff when I worked in offline sales too... it doesn't make much sense. What's it supposed to mean? "Always keep closing persistently" or "Always be on the verge of closing until you spy the right opportunity" or what?
To be effective, you need to do both. Pre-sell to whet their appetite and then ask for the order with "buy it now..." or something similar. The key is to ask for the order several times. If they don't buy with your first close, then you need to circle back with another product benefit and close again.
Listing a partial product description and then saying "click here for more info" is the wimpy way to close sales. People want to know that you are confident in what you are selling and asking for the order conveys that thought.Otherwise, they will continue to look for more information and buy from your competitor.
Remember, if you don't ask for the order, you won't get the sale.
Always
Be
Closing
The Merchant is the one asking for the sale multiple times, right? To me, preselling makes sense.
As an affiliate if you make a hard sale type copy for the reader to read for any given product, and then they click over to the Merchant and get slammed again with hard copy sales, "get the order now", type stuff... I don't think it flows.
Thoughts?
C.K.
As an affiliate if you make a hard sale type copy for the reader to read for any given product, and then they click over to the Merchant and get slammed again with hard copy sales, "get the order now", type stuff... I don't think it flows.
I agree with you... There are many different ways a consumer can react to a pitch and you'll never please everybody.
I tend to like soft-sells and get turned off by a hard push. If I am on the Web, I am first doing my research and then *possibly* purchasing online. If I like a content site *and* I want to purchase online *and* the content site gives me the means to, I will *likely* purchase through their links. That is not always the case though.
If the content site is pushing me too hard, I begin to wonder if their content is at all worthwhile or just meant to drive revenue. I like the information presented to me to be real and accurate and in my mind, the site will lose credit if I think they only want the sale.
The is a huge difference between sales and marketing -- I don't care what they say. I happen to be a pretty good marketer, but I'll be the first to say that I suck at sales.
I have written numerous "how-to" articles (syndicated both online and in print) that have driven hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales, but couldn't sell the product to save my life...if I had to directly call on a prospect.
