If email marketing is at the core of your affiliate sales business (as it should be!), then what you are dealing with is percentages. If you're getting a 1% response rate and, from that, a 5% conversion rate, then what you want is for those percentages to go UP! Simple, right? But how do you do that? Why is that one email sent to 2,000 opt-in leads generates one kind of response and a different email ad achieves far better results?
One word: EMOTION
You can do 'OK' by simply presenting all of the sensible & logical reasons why a product or should be purchased and used. That makes sense when you're selling, say... a vacuum cleaner. But when you are prospecting for new affiliates in money-makers like TrafficWave and Global NPN, it takes more than that. In fact, there's a little secret to it. You have to appeal to the reader's emotions. Naturally, there's a right way and a wrong way to do that.
Think of it this way: unless your prospect has a broken leg and you're the only doctor for miles around, she or he doesn't really 'need' whatever it is you're selling. While human beings 'want' many things, we only truly need food, clothing and shelter... and damned little else. So how do you sell something that nobody really needs? You do it by communicating how it will make them FEEL. For example, feeling 'secure', 'worry-free', 'independent', 'attractive', 'loved', 'in control of your life' and so on are powerful emotional appeals.
So when you're writing your email sales copy, always remember the appeal to emotion. Another good example is the fear of loss. Nobody wants to 'miss out' on something that's potentially life-changing. Just remember that satisfying emotional needs should be the general focus of your sales copy. I promise that if you do it correctly, it will multiply your response rates. Ramp up the intensity of your message by targeting the part of your prospect's psyche that is actually making the purchase decision, and you will make more sales. What I mean to say is that you must ensure that every benefit you offer... every "reason why" you present... connects directly with your prospects' strongest emotions. If you're not sure what they are, the Seven Deadly Sins are a good place to start because that's raw, basic human nature.
Now there's a delicate balance between a strong appeal to emotion and the same-old, overblown hype that everyone routinely ignores. That is why your email sales letters need to be carefully crafted works of art. Even if it's a 20 letter series in your TrafficWave autoresponder, each and every one of them needs to be a psychological masterpiece. Just do it right. There's no need for false, misleading, or unbelievable advertising claims. Falling into that mental rut has been the undoing of many otherwise savvy marketers. If any component of your sales message is less than believable, more prospects will be turned off than will buy. And if your product doesn't live up to your sales message, those who do become customers will be one-time customers only. They'll never believe you again and that's the WORST thing that you can do.
Just remember that the gut has long been considered the 'second brain', because that's where your emotions come from and it's where and why a lot of buying decisions get made. Remember that when you're writing or revising your best email sales letters!
