My techniques on how to increase sales in affiliate marketing is built around something I called “the soft pitch pipeline formula”. These techniques were developed to do two main things: build trust, and reduce the amount of “hard selling” needed to promote your high ticket affiliate products (hence the “soft pitch” part).

How to get leads for affiliate marketing using Moosend

The first step to take before affiliate sales closing is to make sure that you generate high quality leads as fast as possible and automate your sales process to create customer-journey using autoresponder for affiliate marketing.

The first mistake I see some affiliate marketers make is not leveraging email marketing software for lead generation and sales closing.

Email autoresponders like Moosend are one of the best tools that will ease your marketing efforts and help you to automate your sales process for better conversion.

I specifically recommend Moosend for affiliate marketing based on their pricing and unique features. Using Moosend email marketing tool is one of the best decisions you will make this year. 

Affiliate Disclosure: Cehub is a reader-support platform. Meanwhile, we may earn a little commission at no additional cost to you when you upgrade to Moosend pro plan. Thanks for your support!

Register on Moosend to increase sales in affiliate marketing

By the end of reading these 5 proven techniques to increase sales in affiliate marketing, you might be thinking of how to implement the strategy right. Well, the best way to do so is by leveraging email marketing to nurture your leads and start a sales pitch at the end of the pipeline.

In this guide, I’m going to show you affiliate marketing strategies for beginners and how to target audience for affiliate marketing without spamming your audience with promotion.

Imagine a series of pipes. These pipes represent the experience or “flow” your audience go through when they visit your website or join your sales funnel.

Read Also: 7 best website builder for affiliate marketing

On one end is cold traffic entering the pipeline for nurturing, and on the other “exit” end of the pipeline is the affiliate sale or conversion.

Between these two points, there are 5 powerful segments that combine to make up the total experience of your sales funnel or brand:

1. The Relationships you cultivate with your audience

2. The Products you decide to promote

3. The Experience you have with those products

4. The Proof or testimonials that those products work

5. The Pitch or “sell” of those products to your audience

These 5 proven techniques can vary in strength and size. For example, if you have an amazing relationship with someone, it doesn’t take much to convince that person to do something for you.

In this case, the relationship segment during the customer journey is extremely long, so the sales pitch segment doesn’t have to be long at all.

For example, say your wife is pregnant. It’s 2 in the morning and she wants you to go to the store and buy a Little Debbie’s Fudge Brownie. Well, you’re probably off to the store to buy instantly.

She doesn’t have to extremely pitch you before you do whatever she asks you to do. Definitely, there’s a strong relationship between you and your wife and it, sometimes, compromises your decision making even if that will make you uncomfortable.

Don’t instantly pitch to prospects on your first contact. Instead, nurture the prospects and understand their desire and interest.

As an affiliate, that’s exactly what you should try to avoid when pitching your new prospects.

By focusing on the first 4 techniques of the pipeline which are the relationships you cultivate with your audience, the products you promote, the experience you have with those products, and the proof you can share with your audience that the products work, you can make the sales pitch shorter and less aggressive when matching their inbox with your affiliate links.

If you set up the first 4 techniques of the pipeline the right way, you will hardly pitch harder to get your audience to click through your affiliate links and make a purchase.

Let’s go over each of these 5 proven techniques now. Are you ready?

Let’s get started:

Technique 01: Relationship

Cultivating a strong business relationship with your audience is the foundation of trust. It also allows you to get to know more about your audience and their best interest, so you can understand their pain points which will help you to segment your audience and recommend different affiliate products based on their needs.

That way, you can choose potential affiliate products that perfectly meet their needs and pain points.

A lot of people were trying to do affiliate marketing by finding a hot selling product that offered a tangible commission, then build a sales funnel around it and promote it by driving traffic using Facebook ads and Google Adwords.

That tactic used to work, but Facebook and Google have caught on and started smashing down on those Ads which make it much harder for affiliates to pull off a reasonable income.

Ideally, on a strategic and professional level, it’s just not the right way to do affiliate marketing if you’re interested in building a lasting business.

Instead, you need to put on your pants and take a longer-term approach that centered around building an audience and customer relationship with your own affiliate marketing blog that can generate quality traffic, leads and conversion on automation.

What does that look like?

First, you need to identify a target audience that has a specific pain, problem, or goals that they want to achieve.

By studying the target market and understanding exactly what they want, you can discover proven ways to help them achieve their goals and overcome their problems.

Do not go into it with the aim of finding an affiliate product, but to know your audience and find solutions that can quickly help them solve their problems.

Start with the problem solving, not the affiliate product.

Understanding your audience pain points help to increase sales in affiliate marketing

You need to become close friends with the people who interact with your website, social media or blog. 

Without that customer relationship, it’s much difficult to influence purchase on your website, social media or blog.

By meaningful transactions, I’m talking about building your KLT (Know, Like, Trust) that will lead to email list subscriptions, comments, clicks, likes, follows, shares, and retweets on your social media accounts, website or blog.

The funniest and hardest part is, a relationship takes time to build and takes less than a minute to break.

There are ways to speed up the process of building a relationship with your audience without compromising the quality of that relationship and I’m going to show you those techniques in this blog post.

How to connect with your audience to increase sales in affiliate marketing

There are few factors to consider when trying to build rapport with your audience before hitting their head with your sales pitch. 

These are common things that you already know but unfortunately you don’t realize their impact in sales and marketing.

If you have been looking for how to get sales in affiliate marketing, then consider the following factors and take advantage of it in your affiliate business.

1. The first step is to be personable and vulnerable

What makes YOU buy from a total stranger? Especially if the person is selling a product he didn’t make by himself.

In a lot of my content, be it blog posts or WhatsApp status, I try to share aspects of my personality.

Being vulnerable is one of the key factors you should consider when building your KLT (Know, Like, Trust).

Most of my audience knows a lot about me, that I’m an architect, that I love talking about self-help movies, that I’m still working toward my goal to help people make money online legitimately.

The point is, I try as much as possible to let my audience know me as a real person . Huh you can’t hide yourself or your brand from someone that you expect to pull out his card and purchase your product.

And as a result, they’re much more connected to me than if I were to spend all my time telling them about the strategies and tactics that will help them build a successful affiliate business.

What do my profession or my favorite movies have to do with affiliate marketing? Absolutely nothing but here is how this pinch of salt can trigger someone to taste your food.

But what does being vulnerable have to do with your affiliate marketing brand? Everything, because building a brand is the equivalent of building a relationship with potential customers.

People connect with real people on the internet, and the more you can become a real person in the eyes of your audience, the easier it is for them to connect with you deeply. It’s as simple as that.

2. Use storytelling to influence purchase and increase sales in affiliate marketing

Do you know that people are programmed to love stories? I have personally used storytelling to influence purchase on my blog, in my Ads, via my email list and even on WhatsApp.

When you tell a story, it’s easier for your prospects to quickly connect with you and trust you. They will also put themselves into that story.

Stories are an easy and personable way to relate to your audience and connect with them deeply.

You don’t have to dedicate your entire content to stories about random things to create a meaningful connection.

Instead, be very creative and share little examples here and there to illustrate concepts, craft honest stories that relate to the message you’re trying to share with your audience.

Doing this helps you convey powerful information and build those important relationships with your audience that will later make them feel comfortable around you and your brand.

I can’t give you my hard-earned money if I don’t feel comfortable buying products from you.

3. Practice ROAK to increase sales in affiliate marketing

RAOK is short for “random acts of kindness,” and it’s one of my favorite things to do when it comes to building a relationship with my audience. Why?

Because when you do something generous for your prospects, it leaves an amazing impression on their face.

It can be as simple as replying to your prospects’ WhatsApp status and reply to their comments on your social media handles. It helps people see that you’re a real person.

If someone has a question, answer them. It saves them time, and helps them remember who you are. Sometimes you can even take it a step further to follow them on social media and leave comments on most of their engaging posts.

It’s small things like these that can help you quickly cultivate a strong relationship with your audience as an affiliate marketer. 

So ask yourself, what kinds of RAOK can I do for my audience?

What unexpected favors can I do that will help me build a positive and long lasting relationship with them?

Technique 02: Products

Once you’ve started to build your audience and develop a business relationship with them, you’ll start to learn what your audience needs.

The next step is to identify products you can recommend to meet your audience’s needs and help them to make a buying decision.

Most affiliate marketers complain that they’re not making enough sales but they don’t realize that the product they chose to promote can make or break their affiliate business.

Apart from choosing a great product, keep in mind that sometimes the product will be ones that allow you to generate affiliate income and sometimes they won’t.

If you want to increase sales in affiliate marketing, never start with a product or commission in mind. Start with identifying a problem, then find a faster and better solution for it.

Remember, trust and relationships come first, always.

Once you’ve gotten to know your audience and their needs and pain points, how do you select a specific product?

To help you define your audience, think about a brand new visitor who comes to your sales page for the first time or someone who took his time to chat with you on Facebook about one of your posts he saw on Facebook.

This might be a tough question to answer, but you need to know what you want your target audience to do, because if you don’t, then everything you recommend is going to seem random.

Once you’ve identified how to help your new visitor to achieve their goal, think about how they’re going to get there. What’s their roadmap or path to success?

Defining the steps on this path will extremely help you determine the kind of affiliate products that will help your audience at different points along the path.

Knowing the exact products to sell as an affiliate is the most critical factor that may hinder your affiliate sales and your chances to succeed with affiliate marketing. 

Sometimes, my students used to ask me, “Bilal, which product should I promote?”

Whatever niche you’re in, spend a little time making a list of the products and services you have used. It can be one of the following products:

• Courses
• Books
• Physical products
• Software
• Coaching services

You also need to look beyond the products and services you already know and use by doing a thorough product research.

Thankfully, there are plenty of great affiliate marketing networks to find new affiliate products, including: Stakecut, Expertnaire, LearnOflix, Clickbank, ShareAsale, etc.

Hey dude remember not to start with the products, instead start with your audience’s goals and pain points.

If you put these tips into consideration, you will definitely find it super easy to increase sales in affiliate marketing without putting too much effort in promotion.

Also remember, your relationship with your audience can help them filter through all the noise on the internet and find the right products, because you’ve put in the work to understand what’s best for them.

But if a product doesn’t make sense to your audience, if it doesn’t deliver the promised results, then you shouldn’t promote it, no matter how generous the affiliate commissions may be.

Technique 3: Experience to increase sales

The next important technique to increase sales in affiliate marketing is the experience YOU have with those products.

Always remember that experience sells.

For instance, when you want to buy new gadgets on Jumia, you read other people’s reviews to help you make a buying decision.

Even when you want to download a free app on play store or apple store, you go through the app review right. 

Imagine how your real-life experience with a particular product can be of help to your audience.

You need to also feel the experience of your audience using the product. Obviously, if you learn that the product is quark, it’s not going to make sense to promote it to your audience!

And if it’s great, then you’ll be reassured that your prospects are going to find it useful.

I really advice you to use and test a product before you promote it, for three main reasons:

1. For your protection as an affiliate
2. It make you to become a resource
3. For you to get rid of the mystery

By showing your audience exactly how a product is used and the benefits of the product, they’ll be able to imagine themselves using it.

Show yourself physically using it. If it’s a digital product, share a screenshot of your purchase with them. 

Technique 04: Proof and testimonials

You can share your personal testimonials or proof on your blog, WhatsApp status, Facebook live, Instagram real, YouTube channel, or all of the above.

Whatever it is, give your audience tangible proof and demonstration that the products you’re promoting can change their lives for the better.

Technique 05: Pitch

Offering a bonus before you start your affiliate marketing sales pitch is the proven strategy on how to increase sales in affiliate marketing.

Lots of affiliate marketers uses the bonus technique while doing their sales pitch but don’t use it to its greatest advantage.

They’ll throw in random things that aren’t something the potential buyer needs.

If you really want to knock bonuses out of the park, create a bonus that truly complements the product you’re promoting.

This could be something like:

A PDF guide on how to use the product. Access to something you have that complements the product.

For instance, if you’re promoting a “make money online” course, give them a free guide on how to create a PayPal account. 

Because, to make money online you must surely need a reliable online payment gateway. And of course, PayPal is a bit technical to create. If you can offer a mini course on how to create a PayPal account as a bonus, you will convert a lot of prospects.

You can also give your prospects a special discount via coupon code on a related product or service. Just get creative!

Rapping up on how to increase sales in affiliate marketing

As we’ll further discuss more affiliate marketing tips in my subsequent blog post, you can also increase your sales by joining popular and trusted affiliate platforms with quality products.

One of the 5 best affiliate platforms in Nigeria are Expertnaire, Stakecut, LearnOflix, Selar and Digitstem. But, I’m more focused on Stakecut. 

Affiliate marketing is essentially about sharing your affiliate links with the right audience and the techniques you used to increase sales.

The best way to generate affiliate sales is to learn from affiliates who has done 7 figures and have track records based on the kind of results that you want to achieve. If you want to learn how I make money as a full-time blogger in Nigeria selling affiliate products online, kindly chat me via the WhatsApp button below.

So however you choose to share those links, whether on your sales page, WhatsApp Status/broadcast, on social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or via emails to your list—well, that’s affiliate marketing in action!