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Having an affiliate product means nothing if your readers don’t click on your affiliate links. Here are the best ways to promote affiliate links.
So you got accepted into an affiliate program. You’ve got your affiliate link and you’re ready to go!
But go where?
The next step is to plug your affiliate product.
Today, I list down the best ways to promote affiliate links: creating custom content, making a resources page, and tapping into your email list.
Incorporating your affiliate links throughout your content is the simplest way you can promote your affiliate links.
As a blogger, you’ve probably written about products you liked and recommended and linked out to them occasionally. You can do the same, only this time, the links you’ll be including are affiliate links (which you should always disclose as a best practice).
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The content you’re writing should be relevant to what you’re promoting. If your product is truly relevant to your blog topic, you’ll find yourself writing blog posts where your affiliate link can be incorporated naturally.
A great way to do this is by writing a comprehensive post that aims to educate your readers, and then include your affiliate link as a soft sell. Whatever topic you choose, make sure that it’s content that will be valuable to your readers for a long time.
Don’t forget your old blog posts; if you’ve already written about your affiliate product before, you can go back and edit that blog post with your affiliate link. That way, you’d have updated old content, plus added a potential source of profit to it.
Custom content built around your affiliate products is slightly more assertive than just sprinkling your blog posts with affiliate links. You don’t need to do all of these at one time, but I do recommend trying all of them at least once and then seeing which ones work for your audience.
Here are some content types you can experiment with.
Sharing your personal experience and opinions about a product is a good way to get people to click your affiliate links.
When an internet user is searching for product reviews, that means they’re almost ready to purchase the product. More importantly, when they read positive things about the product they’re interested in, they’re more likely to purchase it.
That doesn’t mean you should only be singing your affiliate products’ high praises. You need to be honest and list down its features, its pros and cons, what it does well, and where it falls short.
Make sure that you’re discussing points that your audience will very likely ask about the product. It’s a good idea to read up on reviews of competing products, even the comments on these reviews, to get a sense of what a potential buyer wants to know about a product.
If you’ve chosen the right product to promote to your audience, you’d be able to say a lot of positive things about the product you’re promoting without trying too hard. People will trust your recommendations, especially if you include proof that you actually used/experienced the product.
Here are some tips to create an effective product review:
Include a summary box in your post. A summary box looks like the image below:
Image from CollectiveRay
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The summary box catches the attention of buyers that are close to actually buying and are just looking for a quick opinion before making a final decision. Plus, it gives casual readers a brief version of what to expect in your post.
You can include a short sentence introducing the product and its purpose. Then, you can include ratings for individual features, pros and cons, price, and a call to action (CTA) with your affiliate link.
Commiserate with your readers first before going straight to the product features. Sometimes, we’re so excited to review the product that we forget that the product is supposed to solve certain problems that our readers have.
Your readers don’t want to know what the seller says the product can do. They want to know what it actually does from someone who has used the product. They want to know if the product can actually solve their problems from someone who has the same problems as them.
Make it clear who the product is for. The best way to ensure that the right people click on your affiliate link (i.e., those who are seriously thinking about buying the product) is to point out who the product is actually for, as well as who it’s not for.
For example, you might say “X product is recommended for people who want Y. If you want Z, then this product is not for you, and I would recommend other products like A, B, or C.”
This allows readers who aren’t a good fit for the product to leave and not waste time and money going through the buying process only to find that it doesn’t fit their needs. Plus, it signals to your readers that you aren’t just after their money; you care about recommending the best possible product for them.
Establish the value of the product. The best way to do this is by showing rather than telling. Images and videos of what the product looks like and how it looks link in action will work better than wordy descriptions.
Provide some alternatives. If your readers aren’t convinced that the product is for them by the end of your review, it’s good to let them know that there are alternatives to that product available.
Plus, by including this in your review, it strengthens your authority and lets them know that you’re giving them an objective choice.
Example: Beauty product review
A product comparison is a bit different from a product review in that you aren’t writing solely about your affiliate product, but about a number of products under the same category (i.e., competitors).
In effect, you don’t go into as much detail as a product review, because you want to emphasize key features and how similar or different the products are from each other. Still, include enough images and other proof that you indeed used both these products to come up with your opinions.
As with the product review post, your opinions here have to be objective and honest. If the competition outperformed your affiliate product in certain aspects, don’t hesitate to mention that. Again, if you’ve chosen your affiliate product wisely, you’ll still be able to recommend it even if it’s not perfect.
This would require a lot of research, and might even require you to purchase competing products for you to come up with a thorough comparison of all the products involved. It may seem a bit overboard, but knowing your product’s competition is an advantage for you.
Knowing what products you’re up against gives you an idea of what your product does better and what it does worse. You also get an idea of how competing products are being promoted, and if your target audience would also be interested in those products.
It’s possible to be an affiliate for competing products, though a discussion on this would merit an entire post. For now, be aware that as long as you follow the terms and conditions of your respective affiliate programs, there should be no problem.
Example: Comparison of email marketing software
A product roundup is more of a list than an actual detailed description of the products and their features.
Although there’s a lot more research involved than reviews or comparisons, product roundup posts add to your perceived authority, making the additional work worth it. Plus, compiling the best products in one post makes it a valuable resource for your readers.
Because you don’t have room to get into detail, what will really stand out in your product roundup would be your product descriptions.
Telling your readers about product features are helpful, but they can easily get that information elsewhere. What they want to know from you is how well a product works and how it made you feel. It seems cheesy, but playing to your readers’ emotional side can boost how desirable that product is.
For example, instead of describing a mop as merely “very absorbent,” you could describe it as “an enjoyable cleaning experience.”
Focus on the common problem that these products solve, how well each one solves it, and what makes each product unique.
For this type of post to work, the products should truly be the best. Including substandard products just to “fluff up” your roundup is not going to help your readers.
Example: Roundup of different pens for bullet journals.
You can also create tutorials to show your readers how your product is used.
This approach is a bit different from product reviews in that instead of just talking about the features, you get to actually show your audience how to use the product and how it can solve a problem.
You get to kill two birds with one stone: you get to promote your product and help your readers at the same time.
A product tutorial needs to have even more visuals than product reviews because you’ll need to show step-by-step instructions that are very clear and not confusing.
This type of post also lends itself nicely to being converted into a slide presentation for uploading into SlideShare, or even into a video tutorial on YouTube. Either way, expanding your platforms gives you more opportunities to expose your affiliate product to new audiences.
A resources page is where you list down and talk briefly about your favorite products and tools to do your tasks effectively.
When you’ve been blogging for a while, enough such that your readers ask you for recommendations and what tools or software you use to do different tasks, you want a resources page to refer them to. It’s an efficient and helpful way of answering their questions.
Your resources page is a great place to put your affiliate links together because pages are more permanent than blog posts. You can even place a link to it on your navigation bar so your readers (as well as search engine bots) can find this page more easily.
Here are some tips to create a helpful resources page for your blog:
Include alternatives aside from your affiliate products. Your resources page should contain the products that you’re personally using, but it shouldn’t contain only those products.
Remember that you and your readers have different requirements, even if you do have the same problems. You can certainly recommend those that have helped you immensely (and coincidentally are affiliate products), but if your reader decides they aren’t a good fit, it’s nice to present alternatives.
Segregate tools for according to their purpose. It’s easier to browse your resources page when it’s organized and grouped according to their purpose and which problems they can address.
Make sure to include the best tools, regardless of whether you’re an affiliate. Your readers will be asking you for your favorites, but they’ll be wondering whether it’s the best
You may not be using the objectively best product for a particular purpose, but there are reasons why the best product isn’t necessarily the best for you or for everyone. When you’re able to give good, acceptable reasons why, it keeps your reader confident in your recommendation.
(And, no, “they didn’t have an affiliate program” is NOT a good reason for not using the best product. Just saying.)
Example: Repository of blogging tools
Your mailing list is a valuable asset when promoting your affiliate offers. Your subscribers are already engaged with your content, plus there’s that trust factor that’s difficult to get elsewhere.
Here are some tips when using email as a tool for affiliate marketing:
Don’t let every email you send to your subscribers be a sales email. You need to bear in mind that your subscribers didn’t subscribe to your email list for them to get ads and to be sold to. They want to read content that’s useful and interesting, not advertisements.
Aim to send 80% valuable content and then 20% promotional emails. The more value you provide with that 80%, the more likely they are to respond to the other 20%.
Segment your list. Segmenting your email list means splitting up your list based on your subscribers’ preferences or behavior.
In affiliate marketing, you can segment your list by sending specific, targeted emails to those who clicked on a particular link on your email.
For example, you can send out an email with a link to your blog post that has an affiliate link in it. Using your email software, you can then track who clicked on it and send those people an email featuring your affiliate product.
Don’t overdo this, though; your subscribers don’t want to receive too many promotional emails, even if they’re interested in your affiliate products. One or two follow-up emails should work fine.
When sending emails about your affiliate product, don’t go into much detail. Give the benefits of your affiliate product without being long-winded. Be concise with your pitch.
On that note, don’t place too many links in your email. One link in the body of text, and one at the end should be enough.
For email marketing tips, check out our articles on how to build an email list, how to grow it, and strategies to apply.
Getting accepted in an affiliate program is half the battle. The other half is getting your audience to click on your affiliate links and actually complete the action required, whether it’s filling out a form, signing up for a free trial, or actually purchasing a product.
Here’s a recap of the best ways to promote affiliate links:
Now here are a couple more things to bear in mind when promoting your affiliate links.
Read the terms and conditions of your affiliate programs thoroughly. You might be violating terms and conditions without even knowing it. Not adhering to terms and conditions may cause your affiliate network or the merchant you have an agreement with to revoke your status as an affiliate.
Similarly, there are laws governing emails that may vary among different countries. Make sure you look them up before you start email marketing campaigns to promote your affiliate links.
You don’t want to do ALL of these promotional tactics constantly; you’ll want to know which ones are working for your readers and focus on doing those.
With certain plugins, you can create clean, easy to read links, plus get analytics on the links so you can see exactly where visitors and potential buyers are coming from. This will let you know which strategies are working best for you and which strategies aren’t.
Have you tried promoting your affiliate links? Which strategies work best for you? I want to hear from you! Hit me up in the comments!
JoAnne is your average, everyday, sane stay-at-home mom who believes in the power of the internet to make dreams come true. She has an insatiable appetite for chocolate, as well as all things internet marketing. She keeps up with the latest trends in blogging, affiliate marketing, e-commerce, and more.
