What Does “Know, Like and Trust” Mean to Affiliates?
You've heard it before: "customers buy from people they know, like and trust. So let your personality shine."
That's fine if you've got a product to sell, but what if you make your living as an affiliate? Does the advice still apply?
In short, yes. But not only in the way you're thinking.
The obvious upshot of "know, like and trust" for affiliates is that customers will buy more on the recommendation of people they know, like and trust.
But it doesn't stop there.
You'd also like your readers to know, like and trust the sellers of the products you're promoting. My suggestions:
- Do some Blog Riffing on the seller's blog posts leading into your promotion.
- In your promotions, don't just talk about the product -- tell the seller's story too.
- If you can, interview the seller and share the interview with your readers.
Anything you can do to create an association between yourself and the seller in your readers' minds will transfer part of their knowing and liking of you over to the seller.
Can you get a picture taken with them? Can you get a picture that doesn't look like two strangers who met in the hall at a conference? Even better!
One word of caution: if you send your readers to someone's website through a non-affiliate link (for example, to a blog post), they may end up subscribed to the sellers mailing list and then buy through their link instead of yours! So do what you can to get them to click your affiliate link before they buy.
