3 Ways To Boost Your Affiliate Marketing Sales (That Don’t Involve Getting More Traffic)

Affiliate marketing is a type of business where a merchant meets a publisher to advertise or promote their products or services on their website using special links and banners. The aim is to get customers to view these promotions and click on them, thus leading customers to the page where they make their purchase from the merchant.

Everyone stresses that to boost your affiliate marketing sales, you need to get more traffic. Driving traffic to your website is good (and important), but it's not the only way to boost your affiliate marketing sales.

You can use your existing customers to increase your sales, and this may be even easier than trying to get new customers. By improving your customers’ loyalty to you, you increase your chances of boosting your affiliate marketing sales with huge profits.

When your existing customers trust you, you even stand to get more traffic from them. In the end, you aren’t the one getting more traffic to your website: your customers are it for you.

So, in addition to working to get more traffic to your site, consider the following tactics for capitalizing on the traffic you already have.

Offer Bonuses For Purchasing Via Your Affiliate Links

As an affiliate marketer, you usually get affiliate links with unique codes from the merchant whose products or services you are promoting. When you get customers to click on those links, they're redirected from your website to the merchant’s website to complete the sale. The code in your link lets the merchant know that the sale was made from your link, and you get a percentage of the sale.

To thank customers for doing business with you, or to encourage them to keep doing business with you, you can offer them bonuses for purchasing items using your affiliate links. Let them know that making certain purchases via certain links will earn them bonuses.

These types of bonuses show your customers that you appreciate them and the business they bring. Bonuses can also mean more sales for you.

Create A Sales Funnel

A sales funnel is a strategy you create to bring prospective customers through the various stages that lead to a sale: awareness (1) of your product or service, (2) interest in what you are promoting, and (3) willingness to make a purchase.

For a great how-to on creating a sales funnel, check out this article by John Hughes: An Introduction to Sales Funnels (And How to Use Them on Your Affiliate Website.

Always Build Trust Before Making The Pitch

Your customers need to trust you before you can sell them anything. Trust is what keeps customers loyal, and loyal customers help boost your affiliate marketing sales. How can you get your customers to trust you before making a pitch to them?

• Know What You Are Selling

You need to be an expert on the product you're promoting. They products should be within your niche, and you should understand them well. Being an expert in your field makes you more confident, and puts you in a great position to convince customers to buy from you.

• Know Who Your Customer Is

You have to know who you are promoting your product or service to. Some affiliate marketers make the mistake of not knowing who their target buyers are, and end up pitching the wrong product or service to the wrong audience.

• Ask Questions And Pay Attention To Answers

Get to know your customers. Ask them questions related to what they need, and pay close attention to their answers. What the customers say gives you more insight into how you can better serve their needs. It allows you to read between the lines, allowing you to anticipate their yet unstated needs and meet them appropriately.

• Don’t Criticize The Competition

Never say anything bad about the competition to your customers. Rather, make them understand why they should buy from you, and not the competition. If possible, refer your customers to the competition if you feel their needs will be better met when they buy from them. This helps the customer see you as honest and friendly, and leaves them wanting to do more business with you.

• Be Honest and Helpful

Always be honest with your customers and try to be as helpful as possible. A satisfied customer is a loyal customer who might even refer people to your website and increase your affiliate marketing sales.

Keep these three methods in mind, and you'll be well on your way to growing a strong and healthy affiliate marketing business. Remember:

1. Offer bonuses to existing customers for continued purchases via your affiliate links
2. Create a sales funnel
3. Build trust before making the pitch

Do you have any tried-and-true methods for making the most of your existing customers? Share them in the comments!

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