Launch From The Affiliates Perspective

Making A Small List Perform Like A Large One

As a launch manager and an affiliate I’ve been behind the scenes on too many launches to remember. I want to share this perspective with you today because it may uncover a lot of insight into your own launches.

What’s important to know about my background is that I often work with lists that are much smaller than the average affiliate, and I’m still one of the top affiliates when I use them. This means my conversions on average are much higher than the big listers as well as more consistent.

It All Goes Down In The Leaderboard

Affiliates can be extremely competitive. They all want the top spot. Usually the number one affiliate is bringing in 80% of the traffic or more. I’ve seen so many launches where the small affiliates complain about whatever the top affiliate is doing that’s giving them an advantage in sales. Then the launch manager will shut down the top affiliate to make things more fair.

Are you friggin kidding!? This is the most nonsense idea I’ve ever heard, we’re in business to make money! The smaller affiliates need to learn to step up their game and that’s end of story.

That’s my stance on it anyway. I just wanted you to know a bit more of what it’s like on my side of the table when it comes to launches. Affiliates have their own interests in mind and you need to keep order among them or bad actors can ruin the whole launch.

Here are a few pointers on how you too can take a competitive advantage when working as an affiliate.

It’s all about finding an edge. You need to examine yourself, your business, and what resources you have available to you that others don’t. I used the example of creating a “flaw” in the product. I want to explain this concept in more detail. When I say “flaw” I don’t mean it in the sense that the product is no good, I mean it to say that the product is “imperfect.”

Flawed diamonds are still pretty great, right? I’m playing the role of the guy who comes up to the artist and says, “Hey, you missed a spot.” That’s where I add in my unique solution that can only be purchased through me.

Finding Your Flaw

What I do here can be seen as the reverse of turning weaknesses into strengths. Like on a job interview where they ask for your biggest weakness but you actually want to say something that’s also a strength like “sometimes I work too hard.”

For example, if a product is large and comprehensive I’ll say it’s too big. That it’s unwieldy and it’s great content but it’ll take you a long time to get value from it. See, I’m still praising the product even as I’m highlighting the flaw. I still want the sale!

Then I offer the customer my special bonus that helps to alleviate the problem of the flaw. I’ll give them a quickstart action plan specifically tailored to the product. It works because the problem I pointed out is universal, but the solution I’m providing is only available just through me.

When I play, I’m playing to win and I encourage you to as well.

Action Steps

1. Consider what resources you have available in your business and network that others don’t.
2. Look for flaws in the affiliate product you’re promoting, if needed create flaws from reverse engineering the strengths.
3. Develop a solution to the flaw you’ve pointed out and offer it as a bonus to your list.

 

Results You Will Achieve

Find a product’s flaws and using them to your advantage to become a top launch affiliate.

This article is based on an EHQ interview with the mentor.