4 Steps To A Successful Affiliate Marketing Campaign

4 Steps To A Successful Affiliate Marketing Campaign

 

Are you one of the affiliate marketers who spend too much time looking for the perfect and most profitable product to promote? Or are you one of those who would swear they have the best item people need and want yet they cannot find the right individuals who would purchase it?

 

If you are either of the two, you might find it interesting to know that affiliate marketing will most likely give you positive results and be more profitable when you focus on the search for the right niche audience instead of just trying to advertise the best product. Sometimes it’s best to not worry so much about the product and concentrate on your niche market.

 

This is because market demands fluctuate. The majority of the popular products today will be gone tomorrow. However, the groups of people who are responsible for creating the niche demands is pretty stable. That means your niche will probably never change – but the products you promote undoubtedly will.

 

Another reason you should prioritize your niche audience over your products is that once you do, you will be able to really choose from a vast array of great products specifically designed to satisfy your niche customers. In studying your niche, you will learn what they are looking for and really be able to seek out and focus on affiliate products that will help them achieve their goals.

 

So how should you go about finding your niche audience? Here are 4 steps to a successful affiliate marketing campaign.

 

1. Pick Something You Know

Choose an audience you can relate to and will feel comfortable representing. For example, if you are in your early to mid-twenties trying to make a living while paying off student debt, you may consider a niche marketing products to university students, graduates, or millennials. They will likely be struggling with the same issues you are and be looking for answers.  Selecting a niche so close to home will allow you to relate to your audience in a very personal and believable way.

Another example may be that you enjoy living a healthy life style, go to the gym each day and lost 40 pounds years ago and now actively keep the weight off. Others who are health conscious and even those looking to find a “real” and “lasting” way to lose weight will become your followers. This could be a great niche for you.

So choose a niche that includes a circle of people you tend to be interested in or are likely to hand out with or feel comfortable helping. This will help make your marketing interaction with them effortless and engaging.

To do some niche research and get basic audience demographics, use digital tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Audience Manager, and Twitter Audience Insights.

 

 

2. Identify The Issues Your Niche Faces

Here is when you should do a bit more marketing research. You will have to know more than your market’s demographics. You will need to see the kind of problems and challenges the group has encountered and where their pain is.  You should know your groups aspirations and yearnings in order to better know your customer. What do they want their life to be like? You should be able to answer that question for them.  This will help direct them to the products and services they would benefit from.

To gather this kind of information, you might need to access online databases, niche forums, blogs, and websites that tackle trends and show the general trajectory of your chosen market. Research is the key. Don’t be afraid to do it  – it is very important.

 

 

3. Research The Issues

We all know that people do not weigh problems equally. Some problems are easy to deal with while others require help to get through. There are also obstacles that people would simply rather pay to solve than deal with themselves.

Your job as an affiliate marketer is to learn the differences between the issues your target market generally face.

To identify one from the other, you may filter your online search using variables such as the following:

• The number of searches relating to finding a solution to a problem
• The number of searches per month that each problem gets, and then compare values
• The strength of search terms and their relation to the identified problem

You will want to understand the disparity between each issue so you can determine what issues people are willing to pay for help to solve. That then becomes a profitability center for you. When you know what their pain is, know they are willing to pay to fix it, all you need to do now is market the product to them and teach them to use it if necessary.

 

 

4. Offer Solutions

After figuring out what your niche’s issues are, you will need to go a bit deeper and find the products that will help the make their lives better.

Say for example your health buff audience is concerned with keeping their weight within the normal range without having to give up their love for food. You will want to find products that will help them with that and present them to them. Maybe there is a fantastic shake you take every day to give you energy and keep your weight in check? Perhaps you market that product to your list once they know and trust you.

It is important to speak the same language to your niche that they speak. They want to know what they are buying is the real deal and they need to trust you before they will do that. So find good products that really work. Sample them. Know all about them – the pros and the cons. Share that with your list. They will be excited to follow what you are doing when they know they can trust you.

 

Takeaway

Remember that some of your marketing efforts may work and some may not. For those that do, that is great. Keep doing it! For those that don’t work, you should reassess what you did and see if you can make it work with a tweak.

Many affiliate marketers are successful because they selected the right niche from the get-go. They target very specific groups of people and make sure they understand their problems. Once they have that, they market to them and sell them what they need to take their pain away. If you do as they do, you’ll find yourself benefitting from a variety of productive and cost-effective marketing endeavors. Indeed, strategic niche selection is the key to a successful marketing campaign.

 

Patrick Panuncillon spends most of his time leading a team of young professionals efficient at outsourcing business solutions. With more than eight years of experience in his field, Patrick has developed a knack for providing deliverables that exceed clients’ expectations. Despite his busy schedule, Patrick finds the time to write and create good content. Connect with him on LinkedIn.