To succeed in the field of affiliate marketing; there are certain things you need to avoid.
- Helping and Guiding the Buyer – Rather Than Just Selling
- Not Testing Enough
- Joining Too Many Affiliate Marketing Programs
- Not Tracking Properly
- Not Providing Comparison Table
- Providing Unbelievable Claims and Statistics with ‘Make Money Online’ Text
Affiliate marketing is the most promising advertising foundation for businesses trying to maximise brand awareness and boost sales. The biggest benefit of affiliate marketing is that it gives you a low-risk distribution channel and excellent measurability, as businesses only pay for action taken. However, there are too many unknown factors involved.
Affiliate marketing is a strategy that requires you to be abreast with the latest trends. It also demands time investment and effort to ensure your plans move in the right direction. So, that opens up the room for errors. In an online business, errors can break trust, which hampers business dramatically.
Read on to discover more about each of these.
#1: Helping and Guiding the Buyer – Rather Than Just Selling
Affiliate marketing is not about selling; it is rather about offering guidance and help to readers. It is crucial for affiliate marketers and teams to understand the difference.
The job of selling belongs to the department of the sales page. Affiliate links would lead readers to the sales page without telling them that they should BUY right there!
Remember, most visitors usually look for relevant information, entertainment, and help. You have to get them to have faith in you and the products you are recommending. Do not attempt to overtly monetize the sites and turn your pages into a digital brochure. Instead, you should aim to help your readers with tips and sound advice.
In fact, you can guide your users as to what they should buy and what to avoid, thus building trust. Giving a review of certain products creates a neutral feeling, rather than being an overburdening salesperson. Your approach is all that matters here!
#2: Not Testing Enough
Before sending out anything to your readers, make sure it is checked. That clearly indicates that you should check all the links and what they lead to. There cannot be anything worse than opening a link with high expectations only to be led to promotions. It breaks the bond of trust with readers, which is hard to build.
If you invest time in testing, you will get a better result from affiliate marketing. Make sure your links are genuine and informative.
#3: Joining Too Many Affiliate Marketing Programs
Too many cooks spoil the broth!
It would be a grave mistake to join every single affiliate program that comes across. While it is crucial to cultivate multiple income streams online, you shouldn’t take more than you can handle.
There are different types of affiliate programs for respective businesses and brands. Only go for the relevant ones wisely rather than overloading yourself.
#4: Not Tracking Properly
Affiliate programs are lucrative only as long as you know which direction it is flowing.
Whenever you make sales, you would like to know where you sale is coming from. That would enable you to identify the pages that are converting well, thus giving you an opportunity to grow and scale your campaign.
For instance, Amazon has the most fantastic affiliate program, and it is easy to track an Amazon link through the Amazon affiliate program dashboard. Have separate tracking IDs to know which page or campaign is doing well. That is a smart way to grow.
#5: Not Providing Comparison Table
Trying to promote one single product through affiliate marketing is a great idea! However, if you compare the product to 2 or 3 similar products, it would boost your post. Also, you would be posting not just one product but more.
In doing so, you would be offering your readers with a comparison table to help them decide which product is suitable for their needs. Similarly, as you track your product page, you can see which page is doing better and having a greater conversion rate.
Comparison pages are not just helpful for your readers, but they are profitable for your growth as well.
#6: Providing Unbelievable Claims and Statistics with ‘Make Money Online’ Text
When you visit online forums or web page, you have probably seen the make money online messages with an affiliate link. Some people even promote weird pages with headlines like – “I made 100 million dollars with this link.” Would you ever click on that link? Bet, you wouldn’t!
Avoid making any such false claims and comments online. You can talk about how a particular product or service has benefitted you, but don’t intend to trick your readers.
Affiliate marketing is a profitable business for people who are focused and self-motivated. For others, it is a learned skill. Now that you are aware of the greatest mistakes affiliate marketers make, avoid them at all cost. It would certainly boost your credibility online and promote your business in the long run.
