Are you building a Facebook fanpage for your affiliate marketing business?
The key to staying in business is to make money. Big surprise, right? Everyday, the work day starts and everyone shares that same goal. Make some money. And to make money, we have to make sales right? And to make sales, we have to market our products and services. Because unless people KNOW about what we’re selling, they can’t buy it.
The big cell phone companies spend somewhere between $4-5 million EVERY DAY marketing their services. TV ads, radio, newspapers, billboards, direct mail, magazines. They make sure that EVERYONE knows their brand. They understand that people don’t buy from strangers. So they make sure that EVERYONE is familiar with them. Marketing is so important, that last year Verizon Wireless spent about $1.65 billion on its advertising.
The point here isn’t that you should spend more money on your marketing. The point is to understand what that money is being spent on. Why are they spending that much? Everyone already knows who the big carriers are. Everyone has their favorite cell phone companies.
The fact is that the money they spend has people talking about them. All your friends talk about their cell phones and their cell phone service. (To be honest, it gets a little annoying for me!) These companies have created an interactive and responsive community. Their ads, their subsidized phones, their features, their free giveaways… all these things add up to not just customer loyalty, but buzz and conversation.
Because selling to a stranger is tough. Very tough. But give that stranger a way to get to know you and get familiar with you. And THEN sell to them, and you have a very different result. This was the idea behind this last post on creating an email AUTORESPONDER SERIES. To establish yourself as an expert and earn their trust. Internet marketers and more specifically, affiliate marketers, can benefit greatly from this.
But let’s build on that. One of the things I started doing last year going into this year was starting a Facebook Fan Page. Affiliate marketers, take note. The goal is not to create a page about a certain producr or service. But about the industry. About you. About your brand. You could have a facebook page about online marketing. About MLM. About health & wellness. Whatever your industry focus is.
Create a Fan Page about that. Contribute solid content and tips on a regular basis. Spend some time online finding free giveaways that you can post on your Fan Page in exchange for a ‘Like‘. Or write up your own free report and give that away.
The goal is not to sell on your Fan Page. Not yet, anyway. The goal is to create an interactive community. You want people reading and posting on your page. Interacting with each other. Making this page their own. Ask them questions. Find out what moves them and write about that. Share articles, news, and information about what they want to know. Be a resource for them.
If you go to Facebook and do a little research, you’ll see the best fan pages aren’t selling. They have tons of fans, and they’re all interacting. They’re sharing their opinions and talking. They’re ‘hanging’ out.
Take a minute and think about how this can benefit you. If you’re an internet marketer who has one product or business you’re focusing on, what can you do with this? If you’re an affiliate marketer, promoting several products, what can you do with this?
If you’re affiliate marketing, this can be gold for you. Every new product means new research, a new campaign, and finding new traffic. It’s a lot of work to do over and over. It’s one of the main reasons that most affiliates don’t last beyond a few years or so, even if they’re profitable. It’s a lot of wear and tear.
But if you build a community over time. That knows you. That you can ask questions to and bounce ideas off of… where does that leave you?
Imagine finding a new product to promote. You do your research and are confident it’s a solid product. You go to your fan page which has 1,000-2,000 engaged members. You add a new post: ‘Hey guys! I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve been researching a new product for my customers. I found a pretty solid one that does XYZ. But I could use some help. I’d love if 5 people could test it out for me and post some reviews. Who’s up for it!?’
Maybe you give the volunteers a discount link as incentive. Maybe you offer something else for free as incentive. If you’re doing well, maybe you give them the product on your own dime and write it off as an expense. Or maybe you tell them to try it and then get a refund through Paypal. The creative side is up to you.
But when those 5 people post their reviews on your Fan Page, what do you think is going to happen? Others are going to check it out. Not because you’re selling it, but because their peers are talking about it. Because their peers recommended it.
If you have a blog, download a simple plug-in that automatically posts your blog posts to your facebook page. As your Fan Page grows, people will want to know more about you. They’ll want more information. They’ll want to know why this page is so popular. And your posts will give your fans content to look forward to.
Get out there and make a name for yourself. On Facebook.
To Your Success,
Adel
Adel (‘Oddle’) is a longtime internet marketer and online marketing coach. Far from perfect, he has spent many years (and many dollars) learning just about every mistake there is to know when it comes to online marketing… all just so you, dear reader, won’t have to suffer through that same agony.
He now works online full time, doing things the right way. You can visit his newest blog – www.RecruitingForMLM.com – for more helpful information, to contact him or to add his Facebook page and follow him there!
