Offline affiliate marketing methods can be an excellent way to either start or scale up your existing affiliate marketing campaigns. It might even be better for newbies to start out using offline affiliate marketing methods because of their simplicity and scalability. For example putting out flyers is familiar to most teenagers who have advertised lawn mowing or baby sitting services. So it seemed to me worthwile investigating this.
For me this all started with a question to my mind when contemplating my own affiliate marketing business.
The Question:
After getting some good results using
paid solo adds I wanted to find other methods to scale up that were both cheap
and simple to use. Then the question
occurred to me:
"Are there any good offline
methods for affiliate marketing?"
This question intrigued me since
there isn't much talk about this on the internet, but after doing some research
I found some very interesting and exciting results, which to be honest, I was kind of tempted to keep to myself at first. Then I though... nah!
The Answer:
There are Five easy and cheap offline
affiliate marketing methods that are actually quite profitable.
Here they are:
1.) Handing Out Business Cards
2.) Handing Out Flyers
3.) Putting up Posters
4.) Newspaper Classifieds
There's one extra method that will
take some work, but it pays off big time:
5.) Calling Leads on The Phone
So... What Now?
Now there is a way to do all of these methods to make sure they work effectively, so we will go through each one in detail. Many of these methods can also be outsourced so we will look into that as well, and some of them can be scaled up indefinitely, making them incredibly profitable, so let's get into it.
1. Handing Out Business Cards
Now don't roll your eyes so soon, though, I must admit I did when I first heard this, but then I thought about how easy
it could be and actually tried it myself.
I must admit it's not a huge source of sales, but it does generate a
steady stream of traffic to my blog and money site and it takes zero time. Just a bit of awareness.
So what do I mean?
Well, the only real work is taking
your logo and website name and putting it on a business card with your name and
email and of course the site address underneath. I'm assuming that you have a site or at least
an amazing landing page. If not you
should see my other article: Affiliate Marketing for Beginners.
So you go to the local copy shop, give
them your logo and details. The cost is
cheap, I got 1000 for for $100. Once they
are printed there really isn't any work to do.
You just carry your cards with you.
Let me explain: every time you're at a bank you can leave one
of your cards on the counter. Every time
you're in the super market you can stick a card on the community bulletin
board. Every time a friend asks why
you've been so busy you can tell him about your business and give him a
card.
By just carrying your cards with you
and paying attention you can drop them off during your daily routine in places
that you think are appropriate. If there
is an unemployment office near my route and I'm in the make money online niche
I might want to stick my card on some of the cars or leave it on the tables
there.
They key is to put them in places that might suit your business, but only when you are in those places as part of your daily errands. This basically monetizes your daily routine. The fact that you can keep a stack of them in your car and always have some in your pocket makes this probably the easiest low cost method.
They key is to put them in places that might suit your business, but only when you are in those places as part of your daily errands. This basically monetizes your daily routine. The fact that you can keep a stack of them in your car and always have some in your pocket makes this probably the easiest low cost method.
While the disadvantage is that there
is a limit to what you can accomplish with this, it doesn't take any extra time
or work, and the effects of building your brand and online presence will be
stronger as time progresses.
So this should be the first place to
start, and then we can scale up to flyers.
2. Handing Out Flyers
The natural extension of handing out
your business cards is putting out flyers. Believe it or not this can be a very effectictive offline affiliate marketing method. Obviously you don't want to be one of those annoying people on the
street pushing flyers into people's faces.
It's not effective, it will simply waste your time, and people won't like
you.
But you can start by posting them at
the local community bulletin boards once a week, on street posts where it's
allowed and under windshield whippers of cars.
Butting them on windshields is powerful since people will often see it
either when they take it off or if they notice it once they enter the car. You should probably use bright colors and
catchy headlines or a curiosity provoking image to get the person to actually read
it. Putting them on windshields takes
more work and I am lazy, so I would only do a few cars in niche targeted
locations.
Example: if you're in the martial
arts niche, you might want to only do cars outside of a sports center etc.
This method can be scaled up very
easily since you can pay people to place the flyers for you in various
locations. So once you get some sales coming
in you can start paying people to do it for you, and then add new cities and
towns. There is almost no limit to the
growth of your business with this method once it gets some traction. Make sure to split test and to track your
results so that you can improve your return on investment.
3. Putting Up Posters
A well placed poster is more powerful
than you think, and there is a whole industry that thrives on this such as www.theposterguys.com. Using posters as an offline affiliate
marketing method is also pretty cheap. You
can simply design your poster using a free graphics program such as Canva. I suggest making a few different posters and
split test them in your area before scaling up.
Once you've found a high converting poster design you can take your
poster to a local printing shop and mass distribute it around your city or
town. As with your flyers you should
track the traffic coming from each poster and/or location so that you will know
where to focus you money and time when you scale up.
Again, just like with the flyers you
can scale up by paying people to post the posters for you. Services like 'the poster guys' can
distribute posters over a wide area in your country usually for a very low
price such as $50 for 100 posters. This
method can be very powerful for getting traffic and sales, but it is even
better for long term brand awareness which most business people know to a very
powerful factor in growth, and sales.
I suggest doing this once you are
getting a good stream of traffic from your flyers as you will have gained a
better sense of what works and what doesn't and this will help you quite a bit
when choosing your poster design and which areas to target.
4. Newspaper Classifieds
This is probably the easiest but most
expensive method here. However, with
some practice and when done well this method can earn you a lot of money. This method can allow you to narrow your
leads to a more targeted audience. For
example, if my money site is in the health niche, then I will post under health
in the classifieds. The quality of
traffic I get will be higher as a result of this.
This is not the only benefit. For one to two hundred dollars you can get
tens of thousands of targeted leads to see your ad visit your site. More people read the classifieds more than any
single website. Just think of how many
eyeballs you can get on your ad if you post in a newspaper for a large city
like New York or New Jersey?
When creating your add you will also
need to split test and track the traffic coming from each ad. Catchy headlines along with strong calls to
action are important. If you pay extra
to have your pages logo included in the ad it is also very strong for building
brand awareness and trust. The important thing with all of these methods is to
be creative and always test and keep track of your results.
So far these methods are pretty easy
and what I like to call idiot proof. The
first three can be started almost for free, they are all simple and all very
scalable. The last method is cheap, so
cheap it's almost free but it actually involves a bit more work. But when done right it will give you
unlimited laser targeted email leads every day.
5. Calling Leads on the Phone
Now I know this one won't be for
everyone especially those who are resistant to making sales calls, but if you
can eventually get over that and get comfortable making sales calls the sky is
the limit for you. Of course this is
fully scalable as well since there are many call centers for hire that you
could pay online to do this side of the business for you.
But even if you did it yourself, with
a bit of practice you can make a ton of money.
Now this might not work for all
niches buy basically you can google 'phone leads + your niche' and you can vet out
some good lead providers.
If you are in the affiliate marketing
niche or the mlm niche then I have something for you here that is very
special.
But it's only for mlm and making
money online.
There is a program called MLM Recruitment on Demand that will give you up to 100 targeted leads per day for
life. They charge a one time fee of
fifteen dollars to access their service, but after that you can get 100 phone
and email leads per day for life.
These are very good leads. What do I mean?
Their lead are phone numbers and email
addresses from people who are interested in or have been involved in multi
level marketing. So you will be calling
people who are not shy of marketers and who are actually interested in the
niche that your site is promoting.
Basically these are people who will
want to hear about your business opportunity.
The worst thing that can happen is that they won't be interested, but
the chance that they will be interested in visiting your site or subscribing
your list will be very high.
The leads I get from this service
tell me the persons name and the business they were once involved in.
So my script is stupid simple. I just call and asked to speak with the name
on my lead. If I tell them if they are
still in the business name mentioned on the lead and if they recommend it or
not.
I then introduce myself and ask them
if they are currently interested in in checking out a new business
opportunity. If they are I confirm their
email address that I have on the lead and/or update it. I then tell them I will email them some
information and a link to the website.
It works like a charm. I get quality visitors and I build my email
list at the same time and it doesn't cost me a penny. I was very she and nervous at first, but when
I realized these people actually wanted to talk about their former business and
about 1/3 wanted to hear about mine, it actually became a fun and relaxing way
to pass a few hours each day.
So this last one is really worth
trying. But even if you don't use it,
the first four methods will definitely bring you sales and grow your business
to a new level.
Conclusion
I hope that in this article you now
know that here are real offline opportunities and that you now have a little
cheat sheet to follow which will bring your affiliate marketing business to
much higher level. Combining these
methods with online paid traffic has brought many super affiliates tens of
thousands of dollars per month. If you
use these offline affiliate marketing methods and work on your online business
platform you can also make some serious money.
The key point to remember from all of this is to always split test and
track your traffic and results.
Here
is the cheat sheet:
Easy and Cheap Methods:
1.) Make and distribute business
cards during all your day to day activities.
2.) Make and distribute flyers on
windshields and community bulletin boards.
3.) Make and distribute posters
around your city or town, particularly downtown.
4.) Publish your site in newspaper
classifieds—stick to big urban centers like New York.
More Advanced:
5.) Get quality leads and call people
on the phone.
