I work with a lot of people in a lot of different niches on implementing a done-for-you affiliate marketing system, and one of the most valuable tips I give across the board is to “backend” your autoresponder with an affiliate sequence made up of offers that you get paid a commission on. Hence, a “hidden” affiliate system.
Here’s what I mean…
Usually, when someone gets added to your list, it’s for a lead magnet. After they sign up for your lead magnet, you typically take them through a bonding sequence or try to sell something immediately. That’s what we call the Thank You Page Funnel.
From there, though, it gets a little convoluted.
Depending on what you have set up in your system, you might promote lower-end products, upper-end offers, webinars, and other internal stuff – your products and services. This is where list segmentation and automated rules come into play.
For most people, that’s where the process stops for a done-for-you affiliate marketing system. You promote what you have for 10 or 20 days, and then your prospects may or may not get dumped onto a general list that you mail occasionally…
Therein lies the problem.
Most people I know end up mailing pretty haphazardly. They might send an email or two a week, but that’s about it. So, your prospects, the people you worked so hard to get on your list, are just sitting there getting mailed to every once in a while!!
That’s where the “Backend Affiliate Sequence” comes in.
When you finish mailing your products and your folks get moved to a “general list,” there’s a perfect opportunity to send affiliate products.
You see, chances are, the folks who were going to buy your stuff already did… And the folks who didn’t probably won’t! Why not send them to products and offers you get paid a commission on?
Here’s an example…
Let’s say you build an Internet marketing list with your affiliate marketing system, and you have a report and a video course you sell. After promoting those products, what do you do with your new audience?
You could put them on your list and promote random offers…
Or, you could copy and paste the Biz Opp Affiliate Sequence into your autoresponder and get 89 days of extra promotion! The same goes with other niches… The Survival Niche. Or the Relationship Niche. Or Investing!
You name it, there are products out there that you can promote to your list for a commission!
Setting Up A Hidden Affiliate Sequence
To set up a Backend Affiliate Sequence, or BAS for short, here’s what you need to do…
Step 1: Know Your List
This is where knowing your audience comes into play… When you know your audience, you can figure out their pain points and what issues or problems they’re trying to solve and connect them with the right products. At its heart, this is what every good affiliate marketer does.
You see a need in the market, and you either find a product to help them solve it or create it yourself. The blessing of finding someone else’s product is that you get an affiliate commission each time something is sold. You don’t have to worry about customer support, sales copy, or any of that…
Step 2: Find Relevant Affiliate Products
You’ll next want to find products out there with affiliate programs already set up. For example, thousands of digital products on Clickbank can be promoted as an affiliate. Amazon, JVzoo, Commission Junction, and Linkshare are also great places to look.
Thousands of products can also be promoted in the major CPA networks… Plus, many vendors have private affiliate programs they pay out manually for.
I like to go through more extensive networks like Commission Junction, Clickbank, and Amazon because their payout schedule is set. Every month or every week, you get a check. It’s dependable.
Step 3: Collect Your Affiliate Links
Now that you’ve found the products for your done-for-you affiliate marketing system, it’s time to organize your affiliate links. A good way of doing it is to keep a spreadsheet open on your computer or a text file with the affiliate links and the products they correspond to.
You’ll want to keep these handy because the next step is the most grueling part of all… Writing the emails!
Step 4: Write Your Autoresponder Emails
In some markets, the more significant products have ‘swipe copy’ that the product owner writes for affiliates. In many markets, though, we aren’t so lucky (especially in obscure markets like dog training or diabetes).
There’s no easy way to do this – you have to sit down at your computer for hours (or days) and write email after email promoting the merits of each affiliate product. Usually, I’ll write 2 or 3 emails per product, which will be sent out sequentially.
So, Day 1 through Day 3 promote one product. Then, I give the list a break, and Day 6 through Day 8 promotes a different outcome. This, of course, takes place after you’ve enabled all of your internal products!
Step 5: Set Everything Up
Now, it’s time to set everything up in your autoresponder… Paste the emails into whichever platform you use (Aweber, Getresponse, OntraPort, etc.) and set them up to fire sequentially for however long you have emails written for!
If you’re promoting five products, they might drip out for three weeks. If you encourage 15 products, they might go out for 90 days.
You want to ensure that your system is working for you long after the folks who buy your internal products leave!
The Easier Way
Inside Scriptly, there are affiliate sequences that you can plug your Clickbank ID and name into, and it does all of this work for you…
We’ve found the affiliate products that sell well and assembled them all into autoresponder sequences that work. We use them in our niche campaigns day in and day out.
You can always find an updated list of affiliate sequences on the Scriptly Autoresponder Engine page – the current ones being the Biz Opp campaign, survival campaign, women’s ex-back campaign, and men’s ex-back campaign.
We’re also running a special bonus on the Biz Opp Campaign right now, where you get a bonus Lead Generation Campaign and Affiliate Training!
… So, if you’re in the Business Opportunity market (Make Money Online, Internet Marketing, Work From Home…), this is for you!