Is posting affiliate links all over the internet your current strategy to get free leads for affiliate marketing?
As the internet has evolved, affiliate marketing has become one of the most popular and lucrative ways to make money online.
Top affiliate marketers have been known to earn multiple six and even 7 figures per month from multiple affiliate programs online.
On social media, this method of online business has been portrayed as an “easy” way to online riches. Which has seen millions of people hop online hoping to strike it rich with this business model
As many people find out however, it’s easier said than done. You need to have a constant flow of leads to keep your business going
But how exactly do you get free leads for affiliate marketing businesses? That’s what we cover in this post
What is Affiliate Marketing?
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is basically a business model where you are paid a commission for referring customers to a company.
That’s it. We do this everyday anyway if you think about it. Have you ever recommended to a friend where they can buy a certain type of sneaker? Have you referred them to a hairdresser or mechanic?
Chances are that you have.
We do it naturally. We recommend things to people all the time. And companies know this. Which is why many clever companies have created affiliate programs where they basically give you a referral link, which you provide to customers when they are interested in making a purchase.
Once the purchase is made, the referral link provided to you by the company helps them determine who sent them the customer and they then pay you a commission for your efforts.
Affiliate commissions vary anywhere from 3% to 100% of the sales price of the item or service offered
Major companies like Amazon, Nike and even Emirates Airlines all have affiliate programs. So this is a legitamite and lucrative online business model
One of the reasons affiliate marketing is so popular is that you dont need to create your own product or service. Until you feel you are ready to sell your own products or services, you can recommend the services and products of other companies and get paid for it.
Why Most People Struggle To Get Free Leads For Affiliate Marketing
While affiliate marketing is a great business model, especially for online business newbies who are still learning the ropes, it isn’t easy.
Because to succeed at online business requires you to understand Marketing as well.
And lets face it.
The average person looking to make money online doesn’t understand marketing at all.
This is why the marketing strategy of most inexperienced affiliate marketers is to register as an affiliate with various companies. Then take their affiliate links and post them all over the internet, hoping someone will click on it so they can earn a commission.
Others take a more risky approach, posting videos on platforms like TikTok and Instagram making income claims and boasting about the huge earnings that they may or may not have earned. While this strategy might work for some, it soon begins to put content consumers off and paints a bad picture of the industry.
After all, what you do online is what your prospective customer thinks they have to do as well to make sales.
So if they see you as a sleazy marketer, they ask themselves whether they will have to do the same thing if they become affiliate marketers as well.
Social platforms have also become alert of marketers making income claims, which is why many affiliate marketers get their accounts shut down on platforms like Instagram and TikTok
How To get Free Leads For Affiliate Marketing Success
If you want to stand out in the market place and not be seen as a sleazy, boastful marketer promising get rich quick results then you need to become good at marketing like the top affiliates.
If you look at videos by some of the top marketers on the internet, you’ll notice that all of them hardly ever post about how much money they make.
So what do they post to get free leads for affiliate marketing?
The answer is informative content that helps their audience achieve their goals or helps them solve a problem
Ever watch the Food Channel?
Notice how the chef in the show focusses on teaching his audience how to make a certain food, without pitching them something to buy?
How many viewers and fans would ask that Chef for advice or help if given the chance?
The answer is probably more than 90% would ask for more help and guidance and will likely buy the Chefs latest cookbook when he releases it.
This is what some marketers call “Attraction Marketing”
It’s the type of marketing that gets customers to come looking for you, instead of you running around chasing after them
Attract Leads Instead of Chasing Down Customers
If you can get customers to come looking for you, instead of you chasing after them, then you’ve won half the game
The idea is to create a foundation of content all over the internet that acts like a trail of sweet treats leading to your home made of candy
Your goal should be to show up daily in the market place, creating valuable pieces of content that act like a roadmap, drawing attention to you and your brand where you help a certain customer achieve their goals
Getting leads doesn’t mean “making a sale”
Lets be clear, when we speak about how to get free leads for affiliate marketing, we are NOT speaking about making a sale
What we are speaking about is giving away free pieces of valuable content that makes people raise their hands asking for more and giving you their permission to make contact with them. That is a lead!
Who is your perfect customer?
Now that you know you have to create valuable pieces of content. The question is, what type of free content should you create.
The place to start, is thinking about WHO your customer / audience is.
Are they females over the age of 30 who just had a baby and need to lose some extra pounds?
Are they men over the age of 40 who have decided to take up mountain biking?
Or are they architects trying to pass an important professional exam to further their careers?
Knowing who your customer is, is the single biggest decision you have to make. You cannot serve everyone!
And the best way to decide on this is to ask yourself what hobbies, passions, professional experience or interests you have now or in the past.
The reason for this is so that you do not have to try to be something you are not.
For example, if you have never tried making money online and have never been through the struggles that an online marketer has been through, then don’t try to make this your niche simply because it seems like the right thing to do.
Look at your own life and ask yourelf what experiences you have been through and what challenges you have over come.
Did you grow up learning karate from from age 6 and went all the way to obtaining your black belt?
Do you actually enjoy teaching people about the sport?
Do you enjoy it so much that you would do it for free?
If so, then nothing stops you from positioning yourself as a master teacher in this area. Or perhaps you’ve only just started taking classes and you start sharing your journey learning the martial arts.
The point is that any struggles and lessons you have learned or are learning along the way can be valuable to someone who is a few steps behind you, looking for some guidance.
And that customer who is looking for guidance on something you have already gone through is your ideal customer, because you can add value to their life.
What needs, pains, problems or desires do they have?
Once you’ve decided who your perfect customer is, the next step is to ask yourself what pains or problems those people have.
This is where it helps if you choose an audience that is trying to achieve something that you have already been through. See how helpful it is if you have tried what they are currently attempting?
Because then it is easy for you to ask yourself…..
“What problem did I have to overcome when I was busy learning this?” and “How did I overcome the problem?”
When you identify these pains, problems and desires from your own experiences, you can literally speak their language
Your marketing message needs to highlight these problems that your audience faces. This is how they connect with you and begin to feel like you understand them. And if you understand them, you will be able to help them
Got it?
Great….
Now it’s time to offer them a solution to a single problem
Identify a Quick Win To Solution One Of their Pain Points
Once you’ve identified the various problems and pains that your audience has, the next step is to select one or maximum two pains or problems and provide a quick solution….for free
For instance if your audience is women over 30 who are struggling to lose weight after giving birth, you could offer “a Free work-out and diet plan to get your body back in within 6 weeks after giving birth.”
See how this offer makes a bold promise that addresses the problem this target audience might have?
And you could do this for any audience in any industry. It’s just about knowing your customer and the problems they have as well as the goals they are looking to achieve and then offering a free solution
Because you are offering them this information for free it helps builds trust with yoour audience before trying to sell them your service or product
This solution could be offered in the form of a free webinar, an ebook or a video series
Once you’ve put together the solution, the important thing is to collect some information from the customer before they can access the information
Only then do they become a ” targeted Lead”
To Get Free Leads For Affiliate Marketing: Capture Your Leads!
This is what you’ve been waiting for….
The secret to get free leads for affiliate marketing.
You need to capture the leads
Now, if you prefer not spending much money you could just manually capture the lead for the future.
However, communicating with each lead individually can become quite hard. Which is why we use things like capture pages and email autoresponders
Quite simply these software tools help you capture the contact details of your leads in a single place so you can easily communicate with them in the future
If you do not capture your leads, following up with them and building relationships becomes much more difficult
Relationship Building
This brings us to relationship buillding and making sales
After you have attracted the right audience with the right solution to solution a specific problem and you have captured the contact info of that person, the next step is to build a relationship with these people
We do this by continuing to deliver the right content on traffic sources like social media and blogs. But the best way to directly communicate with your leads is through email follow up.
This is where you continue providing valuable information to your audience and in between those communication methods, yes, you can then also make offers to them to buy your affiliate products which also helps them in achieving their goals or solutioning a problem
Final Thoughts: How To Get Free Leads For Affiliate Marketing
Most people think they should sell anything and everything when doing affiliate marketing. But that is not correct
You should only offer your audience products and services that can help them on their journey towards achieving their goals
If a product does not help them. DO not offer it to them!
So the way you get free leads for affiliate marketing (or any business for that matter) is by understanding who your audience is, what their problems are and then offering them solutions to those problems
Remember that the lead COMES to you when you understand the problems that your target audience faces and you know how to solution those problems in an ethical way
Offer value first and you’ll always have the upper hand in the marketplace
Sincerely
Aslam
