Last Updated on March 2, 2024
Every purchase made involves an emotional investment. Whether it’s driven by necessity or auxiliary, customers tend to base their buying decisions on what they need and what they want. Many entrepreneurs and marketers believe that most purchases—if not all—are more emotionally-driven than logical. While this is not essentially wrong, it affirms one of the most potent effects of advertising, the one that makes consumers think that there is a void in their lives that need to be filled and that buying the product in the ad is the way to do it.
This is why many advertisers aim at the emotions of their target audience when promoting products and services. More often than not, it is emotions and not judgment that consumers use as a compass when buying things. In many cases, buying is not a question of why people need to acquire something; instead it’s a matter of why they must have it. And if everything goes well, it’s a win-win situation for both the seller and the consumer.
Tapping on the Emotions of Affiliate Marketers
This same principle can be applied to merchants who wish to recruit more marketers to enroll in their affiliate program. By appealing to the emotions of affiliate marketers, merchants can have a better shot at enlisting affiliates who will help them sell their products. Also, with the prevailing trend of online shopping, promoting and selling online becomes a more viable business endeavor by the day, and we have numbers to prove that.
In a study conducted by LivePerson and LoudHouse last year, they found that out of the total number of respondents coming from the five Western markets they surveyed, 65% of consumers indulge themselves in buying online. In a separate study, market research firm eMarketer also predicted that retail sales through mobile commerce will rise to $38.4 billion in 2013.
It’s not hard to imagine these numbers rising in the coming years, and that’s one thing. For business owners and online marketers to take advantage of this trend is another story. The question now is how do merchants exactly persuading affiliate marketers to sign up to their affiliate program?
Approaching Affiliate Marketers
What some merchants might not know is that there are a lot of affiliates who are continuously looking for more affiliate programs to try and engage in. Some of them in fact originally started in the industry as blog owners and webmasters. The trick to catch the interest of these affiliates is through compelling outreach. It’s still advisable to compose personalized e-mails, ones that call their prospective affiliates by their first name and are friendly in nature. To make the outreach more gripping, merchants should also offer incentives such as a full-blown feature on your site or freebies.
Here are other crucial actions that merchants can do to further their affiliate marketing recruitment efforts:
Powerful content.
In the world of affiliate marketing, content plays a central role. A website that has substantial and evergreen content is a force to be reckoned with since this is an asset that is highly shareable and easy to track. However, website owners should be reminded that content does not only mean articles and blogs; also covered in this area are images, videos, contextual links, and widgets. Through their website’s content, merchants should be able to speak to affiliates and appeal to their emotions to make them more interested in enrolling in the program.
Relationship building.
It’s common among bloggers to be social and the whole of Internet is teeming with them. Merchants only need to build relationships with affiliates by taking the first step of getting in touch.
Blogger invitation.
After merchants become congenial with affiliates, they can begin introducing the possibility of the latter to join the affiliate program. The business owners should also be able to establish a secure means of payment as well as specific incentives.
Audience engagement.
One of the things that make a merchant’s site valuable is the attention it is getting from readers and followers. It’s important that the posts and forums jumpstart discussion as this helps a site build authority.
E-mail campaign.
Bloggers are always excited by e-mail no matter how much they get and this is where compelling outreach comes in. Sensible affiliates respond well and immediately to catchy e-mail messages from the subject to the closing remarks. It’s also essential that merchants follow up on affiliates that they wish to enlist to show their sincerity.
To appeal to customers’ emotions may be a feat expected from a merchant but to be able to attract affiliates also takes a lot of work thus making it an achievement on its own. With these principles and elements in mind, reaching out to affiliate marketers should be not much of a chore but genuine relationship-building experiences.