Generally Speaking Isn't Good Enough

As an affiliate marketer, you work to promote a specific product. You maybe chose this product (or even a family of products) because you enjoy them. Your product choice may stem from a pastime or hobby of yours. While you work hard to market the product, you enjoy the labor involved. You have found something to promote, that complements your personality and interests.

However, are you focusing your marketing efforts in the right way? Are you truly reaching the audience you want to reach for this particular product? You may be expending a lot of time and energy to get your message to a general audience. You feel the wider the net you cast the better. This is inefficient affiliate marketing. A general message, to a general audience, isn't good enough. A specific message to a specific niche is better.

It's true you will gain some sales from taking a general approach to your marketing. Crunching numbers will tell you that you're bound to connect with a few people. The thing is it's a poor use of your time for dividends received. You want the highest return, meaning conversions, for your marketing efforts. Focusing your message to an audience already interested in your products is wiser.

Say you sell article-marketing subscriptions as an affiliate. You may put an ad on an online-classified site under a general heading. You're hoping to reach the thousands upon thousands this portal reaches. How many of their readers do you think engage in article writing and are looking for a good article distribution service? It's a smaller number than you think.

Now consider that same ad in a newsletter sent out to writers trying to build their writing businesses. They no doubt write articles to promote themselves. How many of them do you think will engage in article writing and will require a good article distribution service? It's a bigger number than you think.

The lesson in all this is easy to see. You will gain more customers targeting your message to the right smaller group. You will gain fewer customers targeting your message to the wrong bigger group.

Here are a few quick tips for marketing to a specific niche:

* Take the time to consider the websites and blogs you visit "related" to your affiliate product. You may visit sites that personally interest you that complement that product that interests you. It's all about your natural inclination towards certain things. Those website and blog visitors may have a need for your product. Therefore, consider placing an ad on one of these websites. Post comments to that favorite blog closely associated with the product you sell.

* Engage in article writing and then look for an article distribution service that deals with a broad spectrum of publishers. Look over their publisher and category list. Choose publishers of your niche. Don't just send out articles haphazardly to general interest sites. Target your categories and publishers just as you do your audience. They will then get your articles to that audience.

* Spend time investigating the plethora of social forums on the Internet. Yes, this takes time, but it's worth it. You may be surprised at how many unique forums there really are on the Web. There will most certainly be one related to what you sell. Consider our article example above. There are hundreds of forums devoted to writers and writing. Go there and present your article marketing subscription program. Go to affiliate marketing sites and do the same.

* Consider your offline associations. You may be a part of groups, clubs, organizations, et al that relate to your affiliate product. You may find a captive audience through these associations. You may even find people there interested in the affiliate opportunity itself. That's an efficient way to build your downline, too.

* Finally, a great way to market to a specific niche is to study that niche regularly. Market research is a part of affiliate marketing. While you won't devote as much time to it as the experts do, you must devote some. On forums, blogs, and in chat rooms you can learn much about what your target market is thinking. You can notice trends, and latest news, as well as their concerns and needs. Then you can define your marketing message to them more clearly, because you are on their wavelength.

Take the time to create specialized advertising, articles, and promotions to your target market. Don't market to everyone in the hopes you may happen to sell a few of them. Understand who your true niche is. Find out where they are exactly, whether online or offline. Then get out that message tailored just for them.

Seed Newsvine

Bookmark this article in your preferred program

Comments

Add Comment

Popular Articles in this cathegory

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.