How to Write Killer Copy to Power Your Affiliate Program Career
When you’re working online, one of the first things you learn is that content is king. So, you put in the time to research what your audience wants. You come up with some great ideas. You work hard to find images that will arrest the attention. Then you fill in the gaps with hastily written text… And spend the next few weeks wondering why it’s all gone wrong. The copy you write to present your dating offers is your way of triggering an interest in the subject of your affiliate program. It’s akin to starting a conversation. It gives you a voice and a base upon which to build audience trust and loyalty. So, the big question is: how do you get it right?
7 Tips for Creating Effective Copy for Affiliate Program Success
1. Spend time creating a powerful headline
Your headline/title is obviously the first thing that your readers will see. So, it’s this that should drag them in. There are various ways to do this, from asking questions to using power words. You have to find a style that suits both you and your intended demographic. But the long and short of it is that your affiliate partnership program income depends upon your ability to attract an audience. And your headlines are integral to that.
2. KISS
Keep it simple, sweetie. It’s an age-old adage, but it remains true. You need your copy to reach as many people as possible. So, you need to keep it as simple as possible. Use short sentences – 20 words max. Use language that the majority of people will understand. While it can be fun to be clever with your copy, you risk alienating your readers. A good tip is to write as if you were talking to a child. Just take care not to patronise.
3. Use power words
A power word is something that grabs the attention. They spark the emotions of readers in a variety of ways. Examples could be: new, shocking, exciting, success, power, killer… You’ll notice that we used two of those in our headline here and another in our sub-heading. They’re there for a reason! In affiliate program advertising, you have limited space to make your sale, pushing up the power words can help.
4. Make it personal
This section could also be called ‘work on people’s emotions’. If people feel that your copy applies to them, they’re more likely to act upon it. Using personal pronouns – you, I – as if you were talking to an individual builds a link. And makes it easier for your readers to see themselves in the situation you’re discussing.
5. Tell stories
While facts will always have an audience, it’s stories that engage people. If you want your readers to see you as an authority, you need to let them know that you’ve been there, done that and bought a whole ruck of t-shirts. Stories keep you reading. And the longer some one reads your texts, the more opportunities you have to get them to click your affiliate program’s links.
6. Build upon the benefits of your offer
Say you’re working with an online dating affiliate. The dating offers you’re trying to promote come with all sorts of features, from free subscription bonuses to the complimentary use of translators for international dating sites. While this is all very interesting, most people simply don’t care about the nitty gritty. They are only interested in what your service can do for them. Your angle isn’t ‘a month’s free subscription’. But it could be ‘how you could find love in a month for free!’
7. Finish with a CTA
The whole point of what you’re doing is to produce an action from your readers. You want your pay per sale links clicked. So don’t forget to ask your readers to do just that. You don’t want to fill the text with demands for clicks – that can kill your SEO. But finishing with a call to action is essential if you want your copy to work.
Copywriting can take time. It’s not easy for everyone to master it – that’s why there are so many freelance copywriters around. But it is worth the effort to get your copy right. So, take time to practice. Produce different copy for different markets. Monitor your results and see how you could do better. That way, soon your words will be reaching their targets every time.