UNDERSTAND THE LINGO OF MARKETING

Know Your Market Potential

Before you take a trip to a foreign country, you likely make it a point to try and learn some of the language, just so you fit in. And, so it is with affiliate marketing. Knowing the lingo gets you places. Here's a short list of terms you will need to know:  

Affiliate Marketing: usually associated with a commission structure that pays out only on one level 

Autoresponder or Drip System: software that automatically sends out email based on client programmed criteria 

Direct Marketing: usually used by people trying to differentiate

themselves from MLM (multi-level-marketing) 

Forced matrix: a type of sales commission structure

Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM): commission structure built on payouts at two or more levels

Networking: making connections with people to create a mutually beneficial affiliation 

Network marketing: used by the MLM industry to denote their businesses operate at more than one level

Powerline: beware the powerline as it's a system to build MLM businesses by telling those that join the company will give people sign-ups. They don't! The above terms are just some of the ones you will run into fairly frequently. If you run into others, do some research on the Internet.

Knowledge Is Indeed Power!

And now that you have some of the basics at your fingertips, you need to figure out what your market potential is and then know it inside out. You have obviously chosen your particular product or service because you feel it appeals to people. You have likely also chosen your product or service with an eye to building a team under you. Bravo for you if that is your goal, as team building with a good program or product/service dynamically increases your market potential. This is important because the larger your market, the wider your target markets become. The wider your target markets, the better the growth for your business.

To get a grasp of just how large your market potential really could be, you need to understand what your product or service offers to people, how it will benefit them and why they need your product or service. If you, for instance, market nutritional supplements, you will know instantly that virtually everyone, of every age, is concerned about their health. In fact the health supplement industry is booming. Thus, your marketplace suddenly becomes one without barriers.

You can market to anyone, anywhere, regardless of age, job or geography. You can also market to those new entrepreneurs like yourself, who want to jump on the work-at-home bandwagon. The numbers are literally staggering, so imagine how many potential team members you could source in that sector. 

Don't kid yourself about your market either; you will need to work your market to succeed. You will need to invest time, and yes – money, into making sure you have up-to-date training, product knowledge and are committed to your product/service and your team. An affiliate business is just like any other "traditional" business, it has to be worked to be successful. This seems to be a major mistake many recruiters commit when signing people up. They promise the new prospect how easy it is, how much fun, and how successful they will be – but – do not tell them they will need to work to be a success. 

The product/service will not sell itself, nor will it generate income on its own, or find you leads, or help you with targeting your markets. YOU need to do those things. And, if you do them in a slow, sure and steady way, affiliate marketing success WILL be yours.

The Tools To Start Marketing

As an affiliate marketer you really need to know what you’re doing, where you’re going, what to expect, how to handle and how to find and enroll prospects. Wow, sounds like a huge task right? It’s not, if you have and use the right tools, the right training and take action daily.

What tools do you need? Instant messengers – doesn’t matter which one or two you choose – just make sure they're a major part of your marketing strategy. E-mail is critical. A well-written e-mail can work wonders in person-to-person prospecting. Use phone marketing even if you don’t fancy it all that much. One quick call from a team member inviting them to a training session says lots about your commitment and leadership qualities. So long as you use relationship marketing properly, it will guarantee you enroll loyal team members, and keep them. They will then duplicate your efforts. 

Article marketing is smart marketing. YOU provide articles you've written to other Web sites, blogs and eZines for free. This sets you up as an expert, gives you leads, increased site traffic to your web site (if you don't have one of your own, chances are the company you are an affiliate for will have one) and improved search engine

rankings.

Blogging and SEO (search engine optimization) are two other tools. Blogging provides an arena to combine text, images, links to other blogs, and web pages. About what? About your business or product/service. You can post updates on what you are doing, what new additions there have been to your product/services, any specials/sales and even product photos. SEO here means understanding what human visitors might search for, and to help match those visitors with sites offering what they want to find. To use any of these marketing tools successfully, it’s important to work with the right people. People who can help you build your business, and that means recruiting.

Everyone knows you need to recruit for your downline, to make your online business a success, to ensure a good income. The term good, qualified, or partner wasn’t mentioned. That's because the prevailing "recruit anything with a pulse" philosophy only fulfills the need for warm bodies. Bad move for your online business success. Why? If you don’t take time to properly qualify your prospects, you can expect a) that they perform badly b) drop out quickly c) don't perform at all or d) cost you business by giving you a bad name and reputation. Spending time qualifying the people you are going to work with is worth its weight in gold. It takes some extra time, but you can’t afford NOT to do this.

If your business relies on cold calls, referrals, instant messenger communications, and e-mails, etc. you will know the importance of properly qualifying prospects. You learn about your prospect and their needs through your interactions with them and determine how your product can meet their needs.

What’s A Qualified Prospect?

A qualified prospect is a person (or business) who needs or desires your product because it satisfies a need or solves some problem they have. How can your prospect know if what you’re offering is going to help them since they’ve never heard of you or your product? Easy – because you’ve done your homework prior to contacting them and know your product/service willenhance their business.

Homework in hand, you start getting to know the prospect otherwise known as relationship marketing. Over time talking to them, you’ll get a clear picture of whom you are dealing with and you’ll know if you want to work with them as a member of your team. Remember: your product / service / business is YOUR business and you don’t want just anyone to help you build it.

Some will let you know right away they aren’t interested. Some will call you names. Some will laugh at you. Some will rule themselves out with their questions. Like: How hard do I have to work to make any money? How fast can I make money? Right then you know your business isn’t for them because they will not work to make IT work for them or for you. Don't waste countless hours of your time trying to convince people to work with you. 

They either want to because they recognize the value of the opportunity, or they don’t. They either want to succeed, or they don’t. There isn’t anything in-between. They either want to take action, or they don’t.They either want to build a business or they don’t. YOU need to figure this

out by qualifying them. Once you’ve done that, look out, your business will grow rapidly.

 

An affiliate can promote his or her products via various free and paid methods. There is software available that can automate multiple promotion processes which saves both time and money. I’m familiar with one software that specifically promotes Clickbank and Amazon products. This is not a new promotion method, but automation of the process maximizes the effectiveness of the method. Used properly to promote a sell-able product this  powerful traffic generator would drive 10s of thousands targeted visitors to your promotion and bring consistent profitable results. There's a 60 day money.back guarantee!