Pre-sell vs. Sell

[jackson992]

I am currently reading The Affiliate Masters Handbook and the term pre-selling is coming up a lot. What is the difference between this and selling. Do only content sites pre-sell? If sales sites do it, what does it consist of?

[Linda Buquet]

Great question Jack. If I had time I would write a book on this topic! I have not read The Affiliate Masters Handbook so I don't know their views, but here is my cut on it.

Sales sites should pre-sell! Affiliate sites can't SELL the product because the sale happens on the merchant site, in their cart. But affiliates can optimize the chance of a sale and certainly encourage a click a click by pre-selling.

Here is how I would build a pre-sell page for a merchant - even if you use a datafeed of the merchants links.

1) Nice merchant banner on top ( or visual appeal)

2) Merchant testimonials about how easy it was to order, how great the prices were or how fast the delivery was. If the merchant does not have any testimonials see if there are any good ones in BizRate or epinions.

3) Coupons - use them if they have them.
Add a coupon link to top of page.

4) Then have your products links

5) At the bottom of page have all the coupons listed, linked from the top coupon link.

Off the top of my head - this is a great pre-sell affiliate page.

[jackson992]

This sounds great Linda! Only thing I might change is banner ads. According to this book banner ads are BAD! So, the better thing I think would be to use creative text ads which I think may be a form of pre-sell also

[Linda Buquet]

Jack,

Agree banner ads are bad as far as click-through, I was just thinking to dress up the page and give it some color and also for brand recognition of the merchant a banner on top may be good.

[happypoon]

Banner Ad's "are not bad" and in general can be much more effective than just a text link.

Any marketing shouldn't rely on a single implementation as noted by Linda's comment in the presell post.

The hype on text links being so much more effective than banner ad's IMO is largely based on BHO type parasites with millions upon millions of users who all redirect via a simple text "non banner based link". This surely skews the numbers of what type of link is and isn't effective.

By the way Hi Linda :).

[Linda Buquet]

HEY POON!!!

So glad to see you over here and thanks for sharing your opinion on this one!

[jackson992]

Thx Poon!

Good to see you here.

By the way, is there a chat for the people here?

Also, please see my post in site review. This person is driving me up the well. I don't handle it very well when someone tells me my site sucks

[rlrouse]

The best form of pre-selling isn't really "selling" at all in the classic sense.

Let's say that you promote a web hosting company as an affiliate. On your affiliate page, tell the (short) story of how your friend/mom/client messed up her site while attempting to install a CGI script.

Explain how Joe, the friendly tech support guy (who answered the phone on the first ring) patiently helped her straighten out the mess over the course of the next 45 minutes. He then offered her a free month of hosting as compensation for her trouble even though she caused the problem in the first place.

Make your affiliate page an interesting, helpful article, not a sales pitch. A person in need of a new web host, after reading this story, would be searching high and low for a link to sign up!

Of course, my story was made up and exaggerated, but you get the point. But you can find real stories like this by looking for customer testimonials on the vendor's website.

What I'm trying to say is the best form of pre-selling isn't selling at all. It's simply creating an attitude in the customer that is so interested in the product that after the affiliate link is clicked he is wanting to be sold on the product.

[Linda Buquet]

I agree with above comments. My view is that affiliates need to optimize their chance for a sale by stacking the deck in their favor.

People buy what they Want not necessarily what they need. Buying is an emotional process. Many merchants just provide the tech specs about the product with no emotion. So testimonials really help and coupons or anything else that helps the customer feel "comfortable" buying or "safe" for buying or "smart" for buying or "look good" for buying helps to stack the deck in your favor. (Notice these are all feelings.)

Study up with some Tony Robbins or Dennis Waitley tapes for some great psychology of selling info.

Another emotional pre-sell is to help the customer "see or feel" themselves with the new product. "Imagine" yourself up in the mountains in your new SUV. Picture yourself in front of the fireplace on a cold winter night in this soft, warm fleece robe from XYZ merchant. I'm being a little corny but you get the "picture!"

I created some short little text links for a client using these concepts. "Travel in Style with Luggage from XYZ" "Travel 1st Class with Luggage from XYZ". These subtely conjure up the image of how good you will look and feel with new luggage for your trip - Instead of the standard - buy now, lowest prices text link.

Read some back issues of http://www.grokdotcom.com for some great info on increasing conversion rates.

[Linda Buquet]

Hey Jack there is Chat here, to answer your question. It's right on top. I never go there, I don't do chat, so let me know how it is.