Just recently, I’ve had someone contact me about promoting their new ebook. I was impressed with something they’d done earlier this year as it was new and unique and quite a good read too. Something I was happy to let other people know about.
As far as I can tell, the new ebook is more of the same – ie it’s the same subject with more detail in it. And it’s more expensive. My curiousity was satisfied with the first product, and I don’t intend to buy more of the same as my existing knowledge together with what was in the first book enables me to fill in any gaps. Or so I believe.
That person has contacted me in no less than 3 different ways. And not ONCE was I offered a copy of their new ebook for review. And until I have read it I won’t promote it.
I could be doing them an extreme disservice here, but it just seems to me to be a case of them wanting me to either promote site unseen, or buy it myself. Well, like I said, from the sales letter it just seems to be more of the same, so it’s very unlikely I’d be interested in it. I may be wrong.
In complete contrast, I was sent an email two days ago by another person who I’ve promoted for before. They have quite an interesting product, something I’m definitely sure lots of people would want to know about (based on feedback I’ve had).
That person sent me a link to download it so that I can review it. They know I might say no because I have plans of my own in that area, and I’ve explained that to them. But I also think that I could work in that product too, as complementary to what I’ll be doing.
So I’ll be downloading it shortly and taking a look. If it’s appropriate, I’ll let you know. (That person is on my mailing list so they’ll be reading this, hopefully with a smile.)
The point I’m trying to make here is if you want something, then you have to give first. I’ve talked about the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) before – you always have to look at what you believe the other person wants, and take care of that need.
You have much more chance of getting somebody to do something you want them to do then. It’s a basic emotional principle.
Here’s something else that I know some people might find strange. I’ve promoted products for no better reason than I like them. I’ve not taken my “cut” I’ve just said they were worth buying.
Sure you might find what looks like a cloaked link, but that’s just me click tracking to see what learning I can get from it. You know the kind of thing, I want to know are people as interested in something like this as I am? Or am I completely on the wrong track?
Lesson: If you want affiliates and JV partners to promote for you, there are some simple but very effective ways of achieving it. Sure, they might take a little extra time, but it’s well worth the effort if you get that all important partner in your niche to promote for you isn’t it?
But the first thing to bear in mind is, even though you do everything right, they still might say no, for any number of reasons. Don’t get hung up about it.
One of my mentors (Tom Beal, a great guy – my wife’s met him and likes him, so I know I’m right about that) has a very cool saying:-
“Some will. Some won’t. So what? Next!”
How To Get People To Promote For You
1 – Make It Easy For Them
If you make your potential affiliates or JV partners jump through hoops to promote for you, you’re dramatically decreasing your chances of them doing it.
Think about it.
They’re very busy people. Even if they *want* to promote your product, there’s only so much attention they can give you and it.
If it’s too hard, they won’t bother. Example: Just recently I joined a giveaway which may well be my last. I spent several hours having to fiddle around with stupid stuff that shouldn’t have been an issue, and I had to send emails to get them to explain what they meant by certain wording.
I stuck it out, and finally got my product approved on their site. It should have taken me 30 minutes, no longer.
2 – Don’t Turn Your Affiliates Off
Another example: I saw something that I was quite interested in and that I thought would be a good thing to do. Again, because it wasn’t clear on the site what I had to do, I sent a nice email to the owner. I received a very terse email back saying “sign up here”…
Hmm, okay. So I signed up. Once I’d signed up I was directed to a page that was stunning in it’s “turn off” qualities. Paragraph after paragraph of being told they only dealt with people who met certain criteria (list size, expected number of promotions etc.) and that I may be rejected. Well that did the trick for me.
I was out of there!
What was the site owner thinking of? How many potential affiliates and sales had they lost because of their elitist attitude?
Don’t ever make this same mistake, no matter how special you think your product might be. 😉
3 – Be Flexible
Be prepared to offer things like 3-day or 7-day “specials”, or even in some cases your potential partner may ask if they can waive their commission in return for a further discount for their list members. Don’t turn them down if they ask for this, just make sure it happens somehow, even if it’s not in your normal site flow.
Make exceptions for those that ask. Even if you do a lot of work for them to set something up and they then don’t promote after all, you can re-use what you’ve done for someone else.
4 – Set Up A Wide Range Of Promotional Tools
This is almost part of #1, but deserves a mention all of its own.
Because people like to promote in different ways, make sure you have lots of different pre-done ads they can use. And make sure they can just copy and paste the relevant ad code and that if possible it also includes their affiliate ID. There are scripts that can do this for you.
Your pre-done ads should include (but not be limited to) email ads, text ads for forums and email signatures, Google ads, banners and other promotional graphics.
Again, make it as easy as possible.
5 – Offer Them Your Product Up Front
You’re approaching them remember? You Have To Give In Order To Receive. Don’t ever forget that.
Give them your product with no expectations. It doesn’t cost you anything unless it’s a physical product, and even then it’s only going to be a few dollars in shipping usually.
So give them your product without expectation. Make your email copy compelling so that they click through to take a look at your JV page. Then make your JV copy short and to the point, preferably with a 2 minute explanatory video. If they like, they’ll get back to you.
6 – Play At Your Own Level
The biggest mistake newcomers can make is to approach someone well known. How many people do you think do that every day? The larger marketers will only deal with people they’ve met, so unless you’ve gone to a seminar somewhere and struck up a friendship with them (and made them remember you), there’s zero chance of them even responding.
Find marketers or product owners at your own level. As you become better known, then it’s likely that they will too. Especially if you help each other.
If you’re pulling in customers from several different sources, and then sending them off to several other product owners, and they’re doing the same, YOU ALL WIN. I’ll write more about this another time.
7 – Don’t Ask Them To Ring You
It ain’t gonna happen. They’re way to busy to get involved with every time-sucking leech that only wants something from them. If you’re lucky and they’re in a good mood, they might write back explaining they don’t hand their number out to everybody that asks for it.
Some will have a phone number on their site. The chances are it won’t be them you get to talk to.
If, against this advice, you do decide to write to someone asking them to ring you, at the very least explain what it is you want to talk to them about. With details.
I regularly receive requests from people to “discuss a possible JV” with no details whatsoever. If I’m very busy, I don’t reply. I’m not being rude. Okay, I AM being rude, but when I have a lot on my plate, the last thing I want is distractions.
I usually have a lot on my plate, and I’m not alone in this.
If the distraction contains detailed information, then I at least feel the obligation to spend 10 minutes checking it out and writing a reply.
8 – Be As Personal As Possible
If there’s someone you really want on board, then make them a short and personal video (2-3 minutes) of you talking to them. This is incredibly powerful.
Even though the words themselves might be the same words you use for everyone else you do a video for, and you’re reading from a teleprompter, or have the script memorised, it doesn’t matter. The simple act of introducing the video with a direct “Hey! I’ve made this video for you John Smith. Yes you, John!” etc. really makes people sit up and take notice.1
If you received a video like this and the person sending it was friendly, personable and funny, wouldn’t you feel like you knew them? Wouldn’t you want to help a friend?
So in some cases (all if you have time), at least make a personalised page for them to sign up on, that refers to them by name.
Don’t over hype, respect people’s intelligence. (You should always do this anyway.)
9 – Remind Your JV Partner Or Affiliate
Once you have an agreement from them, remind them of it. Again, they’re just as busy as you are, and they might forget to do anything for you. If they say “yes, but not for a couple of weeks”, wait 12 days and then send them an email.
You’ll probably get “Oh dude, I forgot, I’ve been SO busy, I’ll sort something out for you this evening.”
10 – Don’t Let It Get You Down
Above all, if someone doesn’t promote for you, don’t get despondent. It doesn’t mean anything other than it wasn’t for them or they’re too busy, or they have their own plans in that area.
It’s not because they have anything against you. Usually.
Remember…
When all is said and done:-
“Some will. Some won’t. So what? Next!”
