Followup, The Secret to Success in Affiliate Marketing

Followup, The Secret to Success in Affiliate Marketing
By
Robert Thompson

Whether I promote SFI, Goji, Amway or any other Affiliate
Marketing program, it seems that I always hear the same
complaints for mother affiliates in those programs.

"I never hear from my downline!" or "No matter how many times I
write, My downline affiliates never seem to get involved." In
fact, this is very common throughout the affiliate marketing
industry. In most cases it takes as many as 100 new affiliates
to gain one who is active and will actually take action to
build a business.

This is totally unacceptable, and avoidable if you use proper
followup techniques. In fact, the one in one hundred ratio can
be improved dramatically by using a solid followup plan. The
plan included in this article has four parts that if followed,
will cause your affiliate marketing results to skyrocket.

Get Your Reader`s Attention

What I mean by this, is that you need to get them to actually
read what you have to say. Those interested in a business
opportunity usually sign up for several different programs.
Each of these programs is competing for the readers attention,
and as a result, your messages can easily be lost in the
clutter.

What is needed is a way to make your messages stand out from
the crowd. Snappy headlines help, but to really get a reader`s
attention, try using Ecards in your followup program. Ecards
have a couple of advantages that can ignite your followup
campaign. First, everybody likes getting a greeting card and
when they see a notice in their in box that someone has sent
them a card, their natural curiosity gets the best of them,
and they open the card. Second, most Ecard providers provide a
tracking service that notifies you when a card has been opened.
This allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your followup
campaign.

Here are a couple of hints that will definitely help you in the
use of Ecards. First, limit the use of these cards to special
occasions. Your initial introduction, and a congratulatory
message upon completion of a training event should do the job.
Do not over use them, or Ecards can become ineffective.
Second, keep your messages short and sweet. The idea is to get
your reader used to dealing with you. After a couple of
contacts, they will be more likely to look for your Email
address on normal correspondence.

Ecards are available from a variety of sources and are usually
provided for free by the major Internet Service Providers. You
can also purchase custom cards for a smalll fee from companies
like Hallmark.

Write a Newsletter

Getting responses from your downline affiliates is all about
building trust and your initial contact is only the beginning.
In order to develop this trust, follow up on a regular basis
with a newsletter to your entire organization. Make your
newsletter fun and upbeat. Include a useful article or two,
and a couple of references to useful tools. Also, if one of
your affiliates achieves a milestone, for instance Top 100
placement, mention it in your letter with a congratulation and
a nice reward. Spend some money for a co-op share for them, or
send them a free Ebook.

"But I only have a couple of affiliates right now" you say.

It doesn`t matter if you have two or two thousand affiliates in
your downline. The effects are the same. By sending out a
newsletter to your affiliates, you will generate interest,
establish yourself as a leader, and as someone who cares about
your team members. This goes a long way toward establishing
trust and fostering teamwork.

Special Announcements

Special Announcements are the next step in building trust, and
generating activity within your afiliate team. If you discover
a really exciting tool, or maybe an intriguing post on
business forum that will be useful to your affiliates, make a
special announcement to your team. This may not light a fire
under every member of your team, but it only takes one or two
folks to become active to really change the dynamics of your
entire organization.

Delivering Your Messages

Most affiliate programs provide a simple autoresponder which
allows you to send group messages. Most of these only have the
capability of sending text messages, but to send your
newsletters and announcements, they can be extremely effective.
If you want to really get your teams attention, try using one
of the many commercially available autoresponders on the
market today. These will allow you to set up and deliver not
only text pages, but HTML documents as well. For those of you
who aren`t familiar with this, an HTML newsletter looks like a
miniature Webpage, complete with color, banners and hyperlinks.
This is a great way to give a little bit of pizzazz to your
written communications.

Keep in mind, that you can send newsletters and special
announcements to your team, even if your team only has a few
members. By properly wording your messages, you can create the
illusion that you are leading a very large organization. This
lends credibility to your efforts, and your response rate will
improve.

Continue to Refine your Messages

Look for words and phrases that have a tendency to "tell people
what to do" and replace them with "suggestions and
recommendations." Nobody likes to be told what to do, and when
it happens, the natural reaction is to rebel, or worse yet, to
ignore your message. When this happens, you will lose your
affiliate forever.

Enlist the Support of Others

When you finally do get a couple of interested and active
affiliates, involve them in your daily activities. There are
two immediate benefits to doing this. First, you will build a
relationship that benefits both of you, because both have
unique qualities to contribute to the business relationship.
For instance, their talents can be exploited in the areas of
editing and proofreading. Second, you will be able to train
your affiliate on how to proceed in their business. You will
be able to pass on key knowledge as to what has worked for
you, and what to avoid.

Remember, if you are getting a lousy response to your followup
efforts, chances are that you only need to refine what you are
doing. Use Ecards to get a reader`s attention. Keep your
messages short and simple. Be sincere. Build trust among your
team members with newsletters and special announcements.
Continually refine your messages, and enlist the support of
others on your team.

By following this short lesson, you should see a dramatic
improvement in your response rate, and a corresponding
increase in your commission checks. : )

Paul White is a 42 year old former teacher. He now helps people
all around the world to become wealthy online. Whatever you
are selling, visit the popular site: http://www.profitmountain.
com (http://www.profitmountain.com) and if you subscribe to
Profit Mountain`s FREE wealth building newsletter, you will
also receive FREE advertising for the next 12 months! (Worth
$200!) as well as loads of other things!