Net Frontier Marketing

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Building landing pages specifically targeted to converting sales on brand names from PPC traffic has been rendered extremely popular by many of the latest Affiliate marketing ebooks.

The problem is that competition has gotten rather extreme and almost everybody is doing it all wrong.

Before we get into the “how” of achieving these benefits, let us list them. Here is what a landing page should do:

• Get clicks for the lowest price possible (this can make a huge difference on your cost per click on Google Adwords)
• Get your visitor to read the whole page
• Plant your affiliate cookie by having the user click on your link
• Give the visitor an incentive to buy it from you instead of somebody else

As you can see the logic is extremely simple and straightforward. Trouble is, it’s easier said than done. With the simple guidelines below, you will be able to enhance many elements, simply by implementing missing items or giving your copy a brief facelift.

Lower Your Cost Per Click:

Google has been amply clear on this subject and yet it seems a lot of affiliates are missing the boat. The quality score of your landing page will make a big difference on Google’s willingness to send you cheap traffic. The formula is all but black magic…

• Include the keyword in the title of the page and in the first or second sentence of the review.Repeat this keyword as appropriate to get a keyword density of between 3 and 4%. Exact figures are not what we are looking for but you do need a minimum density to establish firm relevance.

• Include a link to privacy policy, terms of service and about us. These are the most often overlooked because many people think they detract from conversions. If done right, that doesn’t have to be the case and you can reap the benefits of giving Google what it wants.

Quite simply, all you need to do is make simple disclaimer type box at the end of your page. Smallish grey text with the aforementioned links. Make the links the same color as the text and format them so they are not underlined. Voila, a boring disclaimer box that doesn’t attract attention but incorporates all the needed elements. For extra brownie points, include a link to your home page or an authority site.

• Get your Ad CTR up there. Choose your product well and get in for the long run. You’re already putting in considerable effort so make it pay off. Test and tweak your ad until you find the winner and start out bidding high. It may seem fearful at first but you will be able to lower your bids gradually while retaining a high CTR and position. Medium to long term, you will make more money and pay less for more traffic.

Ads that tend to work well follow the same formula of attacking the product, cultivating doubt and offering free information. “Is product XYZ a scam? Don’t buy before you know the truth. Free Report Here.”

Get Your Visitor to Read the Whole Page:

This is a tough one. Remember this person has the choice between your review and likely a dozen others. They know it and so should you. You need to squeeze in certain elements that will help you make the sale but you also need to keep interest and readability high.

• Use tiles, subtitles, bold and perhaps even color

Make the text look easy on the eyes. If each individual part looks highly readable, it makes it easier for your visitors’ ADD addled brains to keep reading.

• Use a Product Attack Title

Visitors are becoming more and more savvy. Their instinct is telling them you want to sell the product. Throw that instinct off as hard as you can right in the beginning without losing credibility as you attempt to close the sale later.

“Is Product XYZ a Giant Money Sucking Scam?”

So far so good, the visitor needs to read on. You can tone it down depending what market you’re in. The most competitive markets need such “blood and gore” titles.

• Introduce yourself and develop credibility while siding with the customers.

“Hi. My name is Alex Goad. I’ve been earning a living online from 2005.  Since then, I’ve been fooled more than once. That’s why I wrote this page. I’m damn sick and tired of being taken advantage of. I’m extremely skeptical of sales letters and I hope you are too.

If you want a “no B.S.” lowdown of product XYZ, stick around and I’ll even tell you a secret tactic I stumbled upon that makes me hundreds of dollars a week on autopilot. You’re going to love this.”

Introduce Story Breaks:

Nothing holds attention better than curiosity. Notice the “secret” tactic being used above? That helps the user keep reading. Tell a story and stop right before the punch. Keep the whammy for later and the visitor feels compelled to keep on reading.

“I really wasn’t sure about Product XYZ until my friend Steve called me at 1am last Friday talking like his pants were on fire.

I was half asleep on the couch but when I heard the excitement in his voice, I sat bolt upright and was about to give him some flak for waking me up but he kept going on about a hidden message he found in XYZ. Now this guy is no quack and I started to think he might be on to something. More about that in a minute.”

• Be brief and concise about the product. Stay very cold and objective, raising your enthusiasm just a bit at the end as you validate the quality of the purchase. Right when that happens, transition into another negative.

“On page 56, that’s when I had an epiphany. How could I have overlooked something so simple yet effective? I’m pretty sure you’re going to have an “aha moment” here too. Nobody else talks about this and that’s what makes it so powerful.

As I started applying what I had just discovered, my enthusiasm quickly died down when I realized it was going to be a lot harder to apply than I thought.

I reread the manual and there was this gaping hole where the author had either accidentally or voluntarily left out a huge chunk of information needed to apply the XZY tactic. Personally, I think the author did this on purpose so that only a select handful of people would really get it…”

• You’re now ready to fill the void left by the product creator with your custom tailored bonus.

Plant the Affiliate Cookie:

If you’ve built dozens or more landing pages, you’ll have noticed this too. While blogging on Net Frontier Marketing, I’ve built my fair share…

No matter how attractive your bonus is, some people will buy the product and never claim the bonus. How did that happen?

Well it won’t happen if you don’t plant the affiliate cookie early… Some readers are just too impatient to make the purchase to read your entire review.

Remember, when you are bidding on the brand name, the traffic is extremely targeted and the customer is itching to whip out their credit card and make the purchase. Often all they need is a tiny bit of validation and the deed is done.

They may not even finish your review. Finding it more convenient to go back to the merchant site by clicking on one of your links than having to find the site again by their own means, they just gave you an easy sale.

Either that or they clicked your link to view the sales page again, forgot about your page, read another review and purchased from the site directly. No matter how it happens, you just got an easy sale.

Thus the importance of planting your affiliate cookie early and often.

The last thing you want is for the customer to leave your site. The best way for them to leave your site is with the firm intention of buying through your specific affiliate link because they want your bonus. The second best way is for them to leave by clicking on one of your cookied links earlier in the text because they were tired of reading.

Some marketers only put their affiliate link at the bottom of the text, assuming the visitor will go through the entire text in linear fashion and end up right where you want them. Unfortunately, that is often not the case.

I am often surprised by this but it repeats itself time and time again. People buy through my affiliate link on a review page that offers a solid bonus and they don’t claim the extra.

Plant your affiliate link in the text right there at the top and then use it again every couple of paragraphs.

This is even more true with a big product launch. People have been pre-sold for days if not weeks. They are itching to buy. This creates a regular feeding frenzy as affiliates fight for the easy sale. Bid prices go up in the several dollar range but conversion are high.

In this case, I’ve seen as many as 30% of buyers not claim their bonuses. Those sales were consummated because the affiliate link was there early to be clicked on.  Enough said.

Incentivize the Purchase:

Ya that’s right, incentivize. As I write this, Word underlines the term in red, but make no mistake, incentivizing should be a part of your vocabulary.

It takes many shapes and forms and can even become a mode of marketing in and of itself: giving users rewards to buy things through your affiliate links.

I have entire sites that do nothing but let people earn rewards for completing trials and surveys that are cookied with my affiliate link. Check out this incentivized marketing script and you will understand what I mean.

Although the word doesn’t officially exist yet, its meaning is amply clear. It refers to giving the buyer a bonus or in another reason to buy the product beyond the benefit of the product itself.

The Rich Jerk was the first to publicize this method. He suggested you give cash back to your buyers in exchange for them purchasing through your link.

There is a little problem with offering cash back though since a lot of products are too easily refunded and certain buyers make a regular practice of returning products. That means the safe marketer needs to get paid by the affiliate network before he gives cash back to the buyer.

It all looks good on paper but I’ve found this particular application more theoretically appealing than in practice. Users might be enticed into buying from your link for a direct $30 rebate on the latest product, but that loses a lot of its appeal if they have to wait a month or two to get their money.

Thankfully, there is a different and far better approach. You can offer a complimentary digital product. This is what I’ve done with my most successful promotions: propose something intimately related to the product I am advertising.

If you remember above, we left off transiting from the review to the bonus part of the pre-sell. We’ve generated interest, drawn the reader and demonstrated that the product was a winner without using any hype.

We then called out the product and showed a flaw or shortcoming that dooms an otherwise sharp offering to lie in the graveyard of internet products that couldn’t deliver.

The good news is, you have the solution and you’re about to clinch the conversion.

People like money but they like products more, otherwise they would keep their money and not be looking to buy another one. Pricing is a very flexible thing on the internet due to scarcity and uniqueness.

Who says such and such ebook is worth $97? The author does, that’s who. And you have no alternative. Either pay the price or do without. The same holds true for your bonus.

Could a well made bonus have a value of $67 or more? It sure could. This appears to be a much stronger value than a $30 cash back offer and it also solves 2 problems. It fixes the product’s fatal flaw and can be delivered instantly at no cost to you.

The transition would look a little something like this:

“When I saw that this “magic bullet tactic” wasn’t as straightforward as I’d first thought, my first impulse was to call it quits and go back to what I was doing before.

But it seemed like such a waste and I knew if I could make it work, this would be big. Really big. So I rolled up my sleeves, did my research, tested until my eyes were about to fall from their sockets. And then I hit the nail on the head. I wasn’t in the bathtub when I cried “Eureka” but I’m sure I felt just the same way.

I was now one of the only people able to use the full power of the XYZ tactic and it paid off immediately. I got my first “insert result here” about 2 hours later and the rest is history.

I’m tempted to be selfish but my conscience will only allow me to go half way. Plus I’m too proud of what I did to keep it to myself. That’s why I’m going to allow the next 20 people who buy XYZ through my link to hold this extremely powerful guide in their hands.

20 people. That’s it. Not one more. If you’re sharp, you understand what this means. I guarantee you; you’ve never see anything like this.”

And there it is, you’ve introduced scarcity, finished with a bang and created even more desire in a red hot prospect. You’ve done your job and you’re ready to reap the rewards.

This is a rinse and repeat tactic. It will work for you again and again.

This is the recipe of the secret sauce. The affiliate that uses it will soon be a rich affiliate.