How to implement this strategy without pissing off affiliates?

5 replies
I have a simple question on how I can use my autoresponder to boost sales, without risking my relationship with affiliates.

Some products on clickbank make you an initial offer, and then eventually a cheaper offer. They do this either by virtual sales pop-up or maybe via autoresponder.

I prefer autoresponder. But I don't want to offer my product any cheaper. I just want to take perceived risk away from the customer and offer a small fee up front with the remaining payment after 30 days. What I would like to do is pitch my product via autoresponder the "normal way", and then say after 7 or 8 email messages I would say:

SUBJECT: You can try out [product name] for only $5 today.

BODY would have intro and then,
"Listen - I know that on a logical level you understand that my product comes with no risk. This is because if I don't deliver, you'll ask for your money back. I've created a quality program so I know that won't happen, but how can you be sure I'll deliver on the guarantee? Let me make you an offer that takes your perception of risk and drops it to the floor. Using the link below you can buy my course (which regularly sells for $29) for a mere $5. That's all you'll pay today. and you still get the same money-back guarantee. Then, after you use the entire course for 30 days, you'll be billed the final $24 payment. I am extending this offer to make you more comfortable as a buyer, so please only use this if you plan to give me a fair shot"

(the copywriting is probably horrible, but you get the idea).

Has anyone tried this? I'd setup another product in clickbank to simply be $5 on day one and the rest after 30 days (recurring payment with only one recurring pay period).

Problem is this:
1) I can't track affiliate referrals with my autoresponder (aweber)
2) I don't want to piss off affiliates.

Possible solutions:
1) don't do this at all
2) wait 30 days from signup to make this offer so the affiliate referral credit would be zero anyway? Cookie expires ...this means any sales coming from the strategy would not have gone to the affiliate anyway?

I'd be grateful for any thoughts/advice here.
#affiliates #implement #pissing #strategy
  • Profile picture of the author Mark Brock
    Originally Posted by Chris Thompson View Post

    I have a simple question on how I can use my autoresponder to boost sales, without risking my relationship with affiliates.

    Some products on clickbank make you an initial offer, and then eventually a cheaper offer. They do this either by virtual sales pop-up or maybe via autoresponder.

    I prefer autoresponder. But I don't want to offer my product any cheaper. I just want to take perceived risk away from the customer and offer a small fee up front with the remaining payment after 30 days. What I would like to do is pitch my product via autoresponder the "normal way", and then say after 7 or 8 email messages I would say:

    SUBJECT: You can try out [product name] for only $5 today.

    BODY would have intro and then,
    "Listen - I know that on a logical level you understand that my product comes with no risk. This is because if I don't deliver, you'll ask for your money back. I've created a quality program so I know that won't happen, but how can you be sure I'll deliver on the guarantee? Let me make you an offer that takes your perception of risk and drops it to the floor. Using the link below you can buy my course (which regularly sells for $29) for a mere $5. That's all you'll pay today. and you still get the same money-back guarantee. Then, after you use the entire course for 30 days, you'll be billed the final $24 payment. I am extending this offer to make you more comfortable as a buyer, so please only use this if you plan to give me a fair shot"

    (the copywriting is probably horrible, but you get the idea).

    Has anyone tried this? I'd setup another product in clickbank to simply be $5 on day one and the rest after 30 days (recurring payment with only one recurring pay period).

    Problem is this:
    1) I can't track affiliate referrals with my autoresponder (aweber)
    2) I don't want to piss off affiliates.

    Possible solutions:
    1) don't do this at all
    2) wait 30 days from signup to make this offer so the affiliate referral credit would be zero anyway? Cookie expires ...this means any sales coming from the strategy would not have gone to the affiliate anyway?

    I'd be grateful for any thoughts/advice here.
    Quite a predicament you've got there!

    I'd suggest opting for your second option. By all means send emails to your subscribers before they buy in order to ensure they see you as someone that adds value and someone they want to hear from. Then after the Clickbank cookie has expired for the affiliate that subscriber visited your site through then I don't see anything wrong with trying ot make a sale at any cost.

    As you said, the affiliate wouldn't have made anything anyway after the cookie expired. Why should that stop you from making a sale?

    I'm as interested as you to find out what others think about this issue Chris. As you've obviously thought of, this could very well cause some serious problems if not done correctly first time! Could be a sticky situation.

    If you don't get any other replies then I say stick to your convictions. Just looking at the title of this thread shows me that you obviously care about your affiliates (even if it's just for a traffic purpose) and therefore you won't do anything if it will annoy them and force them to leave and stop promoting you. If their cookie expires, why not resort to price-cutting to ensure you make a sale?

    Good luck with this Chris. Take care.

    Mark
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    AWOL

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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Thompson
    Anybody have an opinion on this? Given the emergence of those annoying virtual sales assistants, I'd think this more "clean" variation would get some traction here. Same price, different payment approach, and not a spammy popup that blocks the browser.

    Thoughts?
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary McCaffrey
    You can add an extra field to your aweber form for the affiliate ID, hide it in a hidden DIV and populate it from the ID in the address bar using PHP.

    Then attach the ID in your follow-ups.

    If I get more time later I'll give you the exact code you need to do this. Its pretty simple to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary McCaffrey
    Create your optin form in aweber, with the extra custom field for the affiliate ID.

    Make sure your salespage ends in .php instead of .html

    Find the part of the optin form code that is asking for the affiliate ID and make sure its 'type' is set to 'hidden'.

    <input type="hidden" name="custom_field_id" value="<?php echo $_GET["id"]; ?>">

    Note the value of the custom field should be <?php echo $_GET["id"]; ?>.

    This will take the affiliate ID from address bar and populate it in the hidden affiliate ID aweber field.

    Then you can attach the affiliate ID in your followups.

    I'm pretty sure this is all correct, I'm not a programmer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Thompson
    Gary - very cool ... so this way the replies that go to people (leads) will have the affiliat's ID in there. Awesome idea.

    Now if you are using wordpress for comtent manaagement how do you get around the problem of not having PHP sales pages?
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