If you’ve been trying to learn about building a successful coaching business, you likely subscribe to a LOT of different email lists. Have you noticed that when a coach with a big following is launching a new coaching program, their followers send you the same e-mail promoting their coaches product? The only thing that is different is the “from” line.
Would you like to learn how to get other people to promote your product to their audiences for you? The secret is affiliate marketing.
Partnership (or affiliate) marketing is when you pay someone a commission each time they refer a sale to you. You provide your affiliate marketing partner with a tracking link. The commission can be a flat fee, or more commonly, a percentage ranging from 10% to as high as 100% (for a low-priced entry offer). Most affiliate commissions are 20-50%,
Affiliate marketing is a win-win situation for both partners. For the partner selling the program, affiliate marketing allows you expand your reach to new audiences. For the partner promoting the program, affiliate marketing allows you to add an additional revenue stream to your business while connecting your community with resources that can help them.
Getting a top affiliate to promote you can change your business overnight. How do you build those lucrative partnerships?
The key is to make it as easy as possible to promote your business. Here are the criteria we use at Decisive Minds when deciding what businesses to share with our audience.
- Is the person already in our community? Most of the offers we promote come from our private clients, or from people that I know personally from coaching and mastermind groups. My promotional calendar is full. I give priority to people who are already in my “inner circle”. A great way to start a relationship with someone who makes money teaching is to enroll in one of their classes, be a good student, come to the calls, ask questions. You’ll get noticed.
- Is the offer a good fit for our audience? The Decisive Minds community is for coaches. Some of our coaches coach non-business or very specifically niched business topics. For example, we probably wouldn’t promote a craft product or a recipe book because those aren’t necessarily in line with our mission or our audience.
- Have they made it easy to promote? Does the person have an affiliate program in place? Can they give me a tracking link? I use Infusionsoft to create my affiliate links. If you are just starting out, you can use ClickBank or DealGuardian for quick and easy affiliate links. Are there pre-written emails and graphics to use. The more plug and play the experience is for my team, the more likely we are to promote.
- Is there a reciprocal opportunity? Will they have me as a guest on their podcast or teleseminar in the future? Can I count on them to promote my next product? Are they a potential event sponsor? If there is a chance for a two-sided partnership, we will prioritize promoting.
- Is there space in the promotional calendar? Sometimes, the opportunity is amazing, but the timing is just flat wrong. Don’t be discouraged if someone says “no” the first time. Keep trying. Also, the earlier you ask, the better your chances of getting a “yes”.
The best way to get started with affiliate marketing is to start making connections. Start small, iron out any kinks in your affiliate tracking process, and improve your marketing materials based on feedback from your partners. When you have a referral and marketing process that works, move on and approach potential affiliates with larger audiences.
Would you like to learn how to create a product that sells? Check out our Product Success Secrets class.
