If you are new to affiliate marketing, one element that’s really important is to establish trust with your prospects. A lot of people are still pretty sceptical about buying things online and that’s because the news about scams are endless.
Follow the tips below to help you establish trust in affiliate marketing and you will increase the chances of making the sale:
1. Provide Info About Yourself And Your Company
Sure, your sales page is well-written and you make a compelling argument for people to buy what you are selling but most people take a moment to figure out who they are buying from.
Today’s savvy online consumer will probably look for an About Us page so that they know who they are buying from. Omit this and chances are that you’ll have fewer sales because even if people want to buy, they won’t know if they can trust you.
2. Prepare To Be Googled
After people know who you are, they’ll want to find out if you are trustworthy. Building your name and online reputation is important because when people surf for your name and / or your company name. What they find on page 1, 2, and maybe even 3 of the search engine results will help them make their buying decision.
Google yourself and look at your name as a potential customer and think about whether or not what you find makes you look like a trustworthy marketer. (Next week’s post will help you optimise your name so subscribe to get that delivered to your e-mail or feed reader)
3. Make Guarantees
Hopefully you’ve found a product to market that has a money back guarantee. As an affiliate marketer, of course you don’t want charge backs from returns if you can help it, but the lack of a money back guarantee is a barrier to buying for many online shoppers. Seeing that there is a no-risk guarantee will often be the deciding factor in choosing to buy.
By guaranteeing what you represent you can remove doubt, which can be a great way to establish trust. And if you promote great affiliate products the chance of returns will be low.
4. Be Genuine
Don’t fill your sales copy with hype. Know what you are talking about! Most consumers will see right through hype. Get informed about how to be a successful affiliate marketer and one of the lessons you’ll learn is that being honest and genuine in your conduct will positively impact your business. Your trustworthiness will shine through.
Sean Rasmussen
Aussie Internet Marketer
Learn Affiliate Marketing with Year Of The Affiliate © 2012
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sean,
It is so true, one has only to be caught once by an unscrupulous marketer, to make you more careful with whom they deal, when buying products and information online.
If we want to establish ourselves as Affiliate Marketers we must be totally transparent.
Rita
.-= Rita Pepper´s last blog ..Victorian Style Beauty =-.
A great product combined with transparency, integrity and ethics is the key to any successful business Rita.
And you are the best example to show that it works.
Because there is always this rumor that you only can win by being bad, but that is just not true – honesty and ethics work and can make you really successful (as you have proven).
.-= Renee´s last blog ..Self Improvement Books – What Are Your Favourites =-.
I believe that this comes back to one essential factor – only promote (as a affiliate) a product or service that you truly believe in.
If you believe in what you are promoting and are honest and ethical, then you have nothing to fear. People who usually use more devious methods to make a quick buck generally get a bad reputation rather quickly in today’s environment.
.-= Cemil´s last blog ..Affili@syd – Affiliate Marketing Conference =-.
The product is certainly a big part of the equation Cemil. If you cannot honestly say that the product will do what it says it will do… don’t market it
Hi Sean,
You make some excellent points. I think the best ways to establish trust are by choosing a product that you genuinely believe in, giving an iron clad money back guarantee and being completely open and honest.
I think you have to believe in the product are marketing. It must do what you say it does and you have to be prepared to back up those claims. If there are any problems, apologise and refund the customer’s money immediately.
Finally, be honest and act with integrity. Your online reputation is everything.
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Learn and Earn – It’s a Marathon Not a Sprint =-.
If you can do that Jazz, you will be on the right track for success
All good points, Sean. Finding that product that you believe in well enough to honestly market can be a time consuming portion of the complete process. Also, if you have a common name, like mine for example, it may be difficult to get it onto the first page of Google. In that case it makes sense to adopt a company name. With a little bit of thought you may even be able to come up with a catchy name that people will remember and will be unique enough to achieve first page ranking with little problem. As an example, consider the name of our band – Grateful We’re Not Dead. It’s amazing how easily people remember the name and we’ve never had any problem filling the first page on Google.
.-= Don White´s last blog ..Psycho- =-.
Be genuine and honest in all that you do online and remember what you have done in the past will be there to be found by simple searches on google.
As for products absolutely believe in what you are selling. Go with quality and know that your customers will get looked after if you are an affiliate.
That’s the point Helen. Nothing disappears on the Internet.
And for dishonest sellers – they can’t just disappear and go onto “a new Internet” to find others they can betray. Every feedback about them is visible for everybody that takes the time to do a bit of research.
So if you plan to stick around for some time and be successful, you better do it in an honest way – which will be reflected by the feedback about you.
.-= Renee´s last blog ..Self Improvement Books – What Are Your Favourites =-.
Hi Renee,
That’s a great point. The dishonest sellers can’t just move onto “a new internet” to find new people to rip off. However, I’m sure they’ve learned a little about how to manipulate the first few pages of the serps so that you only see good things about them.
However they can’t hide all of it. If you’re prepared to go back a few pages in the serps, you’ll be amazed at the stuff that’s there. It’s because they know that most people don’t search beyond the first page of results.
If I’m looking for information though; I go back a lot of pages to make sure I get all the information before I make a decision.
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Finding Your Passion =-.
Hi Renee,
That’s a very good point. Marketers risk their reputation if they don’t “do the right thing” by customers. I had a chance recently to notice an Ebay seller, who received negative feedback by a coustomer. Negative feedback was given due to late delivery on item.
It appeared to be unfair. A seller doesn’t have any control over the speed of Australia Post. I wonder how marketers deal with negative feedback, especially when it’s unfair.
.-= Jill Brown´s last blog ..Couples Marry at Common Law =-.
Hi Jill,
This exact thing happened to me with my own ebay store. I make a point to post the items within 1-2 days of getting the order (mostly posted on the same day) and I if Australia Post loses the item or it gets delayed for some reason, we get the negative feedback. The only thing we can do is reply to the feedback to give readers our side of the story.
.-= Jackie Stenhouse´s last blog ..Types of Child Anxiety Disorder =-.
I agree, Establishing trust in affiliate marketing would be imperitive to your success. I will only buy online if I can learn a little about the people I’m buying from plus if they offer a money back guarantee, I feel less vulnerable.
.-= Jackie Stenhouse´s last blog ..Types of Child Anxiety Disorder =-.