158: No Time to Create a New Offer? Do This Instead

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Welcome to the Creators MBA Podcast, your go to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners craft robust growth strategies that combine the magical world of digital products and selling them via automated funnels and savvy e commerce practices. Join me as I unravel the secrets to boosting digital product revenue and designing long term business growth. From exclusive interviews with industry leaders to in depth analysis of successful digital product models, this podcast is your guide to thriving in the digital product marketplace. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

In today's episode, I want to talk about a common issue that I think many of us face. I know I do, and that is the constant pressure to create new offers and services. This can be overwhelming, especially if you're a solopreneur or maybe you just have a very, very small team like I do. Or if you're juggling multiple roles and your resources in time are stretched thin. Think about it. When you're creating a new offer, it's more than just coming up with this brilliant idea. You have to do the market research, you have to develop the offer, you have to do all the marketing for the new product. And that can be just overwhelming in and of itself. In fact, depending on what you're creating, let's say that you're creating a signature course. The development of the offer alone can take months, and we know that market needs are continually changing, so you have to keep the offer fresh and updated. So it just feels like it's never ending. So in this episode, I want to focus on a solution to to this challenge and that is affiliate programs. Now, this idea for this podcast episode came to me after I was working on our business financials closing out 2023, and I realized how much revenue came in from us promoting other people's products, but also how much money we personally paid out in affiliate commissions in 2023, which was over $30,000. So not only were we helping other people make money, we were also promoting other people's products that we didn't, quite frankly, have to create. And we don't have to keep them updated, we don't have to do the customer support for them. We're just making money from promoting those products. So it's a win win for everybody. So today I want to discuss how this can fit into into your business strategy, helping you increase your earnings while minimizing your time and resource investment. So let's talk about affiliate programs. If you're not familiar with what I'm referring to here. Let me explain what it is. An affiliate program is a marketing arrangement where somebody will pay you commission when you promote their product. And let's say your audience purchases that product. So maybe you're sending out an email, maybe you're promoting it through a blog post, maybe you're promoting it on social media. It's really like being a salesperson for somebody else's products. So when you join an affiliate program, what they're going to do, they're going to give you a unique link to share with your audience. And if somebody in your audience clicks on that link and makes a purchase, you're going to earn a commission from that sale. So in this scenario, everybody benefits, right? For businesses, it's a cost effective marketing strategy because they're only paying for successful sales, right? They're only paying you if somebody in your audience purchases from you or purchases from your link. For affiliates, it offers this opportunity to earn income by promoting products that they believe in. Right? I only promote products that I have, you know, tested out or I've used or 100% believe in, but I don't have that hassle of creating those offers and maintaining those offers, whether it's a course or a software or whatever. Let's talk about a little bit more about the benefits of promoting them. Now we know that it requires significantly lower upfront investment compared to developing your own product, right? You don't have all of that. You don't have to worry about creating the product, you don't have to worry about keeping it updated, you don't have to worry about delivering that product or customer service. All of that is handled by the product creator. For content creators and bloggers and influencers, it is a way to monetize your existing platform and audience. So if you have built up an email list or if you have a very strong and engaged social media following, you can promote affiliate products products to them and, you know, basically earn money from doing that. It also gives you a diverse income stream so you're not putting all of your eggs in one basket. So you can get some affiliate income. You can get some income by promoting your own products. So it's just, you know, giving you other ways to earn money in your business. Just to give you an example. So in hobby school, after our monetize your craft summit, which we do every single, we're also promoting a free dream business bootcamp which is hosted by Marie Forleo. So we have a certain segment of our audience in hobby school who want to basically turn their hobby into a money making business. So they're perfect for this. They generally haven't started their businesses. What Marie is covering in the boot camp, this free boot camp is perfect for them. At the end of this boot camp, she's promoting her signature course, which is B School. I'm very familiar with B School. I went through it years and years ago when I first started my business. So basically, you know, definitely a fan. I know the ins and out of what's included in B School and I know that it's perfect for these guys. So when somebody signs up for this free boot camp and they end up purchasing her offer, which is her, like I said, her signature course called B School, she is going to promote it after the boot camp and if they end up purchasing, I will earn a commission on that sale. So it's perfect for us, it's perfect for the audience. I'm bringing new leads to Marie, right? So it's perfect for her. And it's just a perfect solution for everybody all around. And I know that B School can definitely help them. But let's talk about how to promote an affiliate program effectively, because it's not. It's not. And I'm trying to figure out how to say this, but it's not just putting out links, right? It's not just sending it out an email with link or posting it on social media with a link. It is a little bit more than that. It's a strategic process that you really need to plan effectively. Now the first step is choosing the right affiliate program. So your affiliate program that you're going to be promoting, it needs to align with your brand values. It needs to resonate with your audience. Like I said, what I'm doing with B School, I'm very familiar with that program. I took that program years ago when I first started my business. Every year I sign up for it again. So Marie allows previous B schoolers to join live every year. So I always go through it, look and see what's been updated, making sure that the content's been updated, right? Because it's a signature course and we know that it takes a lot of work to write to keep those courses updated. So I definitely go in there and look at that. Now for an affiliate offer like this, like it's a signature course. I don't have the pricing in front of me, but I think it's over $2,000. It might be 2,500, it might be 2,000. I can't remember right off the top of my head, but it's a It's a significant investment, especially for somebody who's just starting out on their business journey. So for an affiliate offer like this, you may also need to in your own special bonuses to encourage sales under your affiliate link. So this might include like additional courses or supplemental material or even some live coaching, anything that you think your audience might need to help achieve results. So keep in mind that it's more, like I said, it is more than just sending out links or sending out an email with the link to say, you know, go check this out. So once you've identified a potential program, the next thing I want you to do is to evaluate their commission payouts. So I want you to look for programs that offer competitive commission rates, look at their payment terms, look at their payment, their payout thresholds or timelines, really understand how they are going to be paying you. And I can tell you that I've been in affiliate programs where I was getting that monthly recurring affiliate commission on a regular basis. And, you know, they changed the terms and that, you know, revenue just stopped. And that's extremely disappointing. So really pay attention to their commission payouts and how they are paying their affiliate. So that's going to help you figure out if the potential income that you can earn from that affiliate program, if it is really worth the effort of you promoting it. Because I can tell you, it's a lot of work to promote these affiliate programs. So there's one affiliate program that I promote in the fall that pays 50% commission on a $2,000 course. So it is definitely worth my effort to promote that. So let's talk about some of these strategies for promoting affiliate products. In general, you're going to want to do a few things. For evergreen programs, content marketing is a powerful tool. So blogs, video, podcasts, all of them offer platforms to create engaging content that you can integrate affiliate products in that you love and recommend. In fact, I try to do this on every piece of content that I develop. I think, you know, is there an affiliate product, especially if I'm not promoting one of my own, but is there affiliate product that's tied into this that I can kind of weave into it that I know that I love and recommend? So as an example, as part of this podcast episode, I'm including an affiliate product that goes into the ethical practices of affiliate marketing. And I know in this particular course, she goes in and outlines what is required legally to disclose when you're doing affiliate marketing. This is perfect for this episode. Now, social media is another avenue to promote your affiliate links. And we Definitely do that. But I would say that email marketing is my absolute favorite way to promote affiliate products. So sending out newsletters with valuable content and embedding affiliate links within those emails, we have seen a high engagement and a conversion rate from that. Because, you know, there's something about email marketing that really allows for that tailored approach so you can target specific segments of your audience with those products that they're likely to be interested in. Going back to the example that I mentioned about B school and what we're doing with Marie and promoting that free business dream business bootcamp, we are not sending that out to our entire hobby school list, which is, you know, close to 17,000 people. We are only sending it to those individuals who attended a certain event, you know, that we offered, which was our monetize your craft summit. Because we know that those people are the ones who are interested in turning their hobby into a money making business. Everybody else on the list, they haven't indicated to us that that is something that they're interested in. Maybe they will be two years, three years down the road, but right now they have not raised their hand and said, you know what, I'm interested in, you know, making money from, from my hobby. So, you know, with email marketing, you can be very tailored in terms of who you offer your affiliate products to. Now the one thing I just want to mention here, you have to consider when you're promoting other people's products, you have to think about ethical practices. The one thing I would say is transparency is key. You always have to disclose that your content includes affiliate links, whether that's your blog, whether your posting on social media, whether you're sending it out via email. This is legally required, but it also is just good business practice, right? It fosters that trust with your audience. The other thing I would say is only promote products that you generally believe in or have used yourself. So that helps you build those long term relationships with your audience and really does enhance your credibility as somebody who's going out and say, yes, putting your stamp on it. I believe in this. I know that this is a good product. So I'm going to put a link for the mini course that will help you follow the legal requirements for affiliate marketing. And yes, it is, it is an affiliate link. So I'll just go ahead and tell you that. But I'll make sure all of that is in our show notes so that you have that information. Now I mentioned earlier in the podcast episode that one of the reasons I really got the aha for this podcast episode was in we were working on our financials, and I realized that we paid out over $30,000 in affiliate commissions in 2023. I'm like, hello. You know, setting up your own affiliate program and having other people promote your products is another way to boost your digital product revenue. So I want to go into a little bit more about that because I do believe that this can be a game changer for your business. Now we pay out 50% commission on our digital products, and I really do that just to make our affiliate program appealing to those who are promoting our products. So we have, like, in hobby school, we have a lot of people who just promote our summits. They're not speakers, they're just affiliates for us. And, you know, they do a really, really good job promoting those summits, and they make good money for doing that. So it's really just another avenue for expanding your reach without increasing your marketing budget. Right, because I'm not paying them for leads necessarily that are coming in. Right. I am paying them if they make a sale. So that is, you know, one of the huge benefits for opening up your own affiliate program. So let's talk about. If you're thinking about, you know, like, destiny, this sounds great. That's. This is on my list to do. I really want an affiliate program in 2024. Let's talk about how to do that. Now, the first thing you're going to need to do is to choose your affiliate price platform. We use ThriveCart for our online courses. We also have an affiliate program for our Shopify stores that's used, that uses their integrated solution. We haven't done a lot with our affiliate program with hello. Content in the hobby school Shopify store. That's on my list to do for this year. So the majority of our revenue for our affiliates are coming through ThriveCart. A lot of your online course platforms, they're going to have an affiliate program already built in. So if you use something like Kajabi or Teachable, you can use those platforms for tracking affiliate sales. So check into that. We have, like I said, we've been using ThriveCart. It's been working absolutely fantastic for us. Now, the next thing you're going to need to do is decide on your commission rates in your terms. So this involves deciding on the percentage of the sale that will go to your affiliate. Like I said, for us, we pay out 50% commission. But depending on your course, your business model, how you're serving your students, 50% might not be doable. Let's say that you have A signature course. And you do a lot of. Of support in there. Maybe you're doing, you have a dedicated Facebook group, let's say that you're doing, you know, weekly lives or weekly zooms or whatever, that's a lot of work on your part to support that course. So 50% might not work for something like that. Maybe you do 30% or 40%. I can tell you that anything from like 50% to 30% or 40%, all of that is perfectly fine. I would check and look from a competitive standpoint, because you want to be competitive, but also be realistic. The other thing you need to look is kind of going in and figuring out how often will you pay your affiliates and any other rules that you're going to have regarding affiliate content or marketing practices. I know for a lot of the affiliate programs that are. That I'm in, especially for the ones that are for these live launches, they're very clear on what's required in terms of, you know, disclosing affiliate links and all of that. Now, I know that you're going to be ethical in doing that, but you may want to clarify for anybody who's marketing your products what your expectations are. Now, the next thing you're going to need to do is to recruit affiliates, and you're going to need to put together a promotional pack for them. So you can start out by, you know, reaching out to your existing customers, your social media followers, any business contacts. You know, maybe reach out to somebody who's not necessarily a competitor, but they have an aligned audience. But most importantly, providing your affiliates with the resources is critical. So what we generally do, we give them images, we give them email swipe files, we give them real templates, we give them social media swipes. So we're giving them all of this information to make it super, super easy for them to promote our products. So there you go. That is how you would go about setting up an affiliate program for your products. If you are interested in delving into this further, I'm going to put some resources in our show notes for a membership that I recommend to help you get your affiliate program set up. So there you have it. If you're pressed for time and resources, I want you to consider adding relevant affiliate program products to your promotional plan or even set up your own affiliate program to boost your revenue in 2024. And I would love to continue this conversation with you. If you have any questions whatsoever about increasing your digital product sales, reach out to me on Instagram. You can also find me on LinkedIn and tell me a little bit more about you, your business and how you help people. Let me know that you listened to this episode and we will chat again soon. Bye for now. Now, before you leave, I want you.

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