What Affiliate Marketing Training Overlooks
Affiliate marketing training is generally designed based on the style of the teacher. That makes sense. What the training often ignores, though, is that we’re not all the same. There are three basic types of affiliate marketers, and your type plays a huge role in how you ultimately promote offers. Which one are you?
The Numbers Guy –
The numbers-based affiliate is a very logical, testing-oriented affiliate. Instead of using a lot of intuition, he or she will rely heavily on available data, then test and test while letting the numbers guide the way. These affiliates tend to be men, and they are usually very analytical in most aspects of their lives. This can be an extremely effective way to market, but it also means that you’ll typically have a higher rate of new campaigns failing, along with a bit more expense to get things going. The upside is that these guys can optimize the heck out of any campaign. Once they are onto something good, they make it great.
The Intuitive Marketer –
These are the affiliates who have a pretty good understanding of the way a certain market works, and they use that intuition to craft campaigns. What they’re not always good at is testing and tracking. Even still, it doesn’t always matter because when these affiliate marketers are good, they’re really good. They tend to have a much lower failure rate early on, but without a lot of work, they often lack the ability to really optimize and scale a campaign.
The Relationship Marketer –
These affiliates may share traits with either category, but the fundamental difference is that they’re audience builders. They don’t care as much about guessing demographics or optimizing campaigns because they’re building a following and marketing to those people specifically. When these affiliates are well-liked, they can be hugely successful on their limited follower base. The downside, of course, is that not all followers spend a lot of money, and marketing strictly to fans can be a big limitation on total income.
Which of these affiliate types are you most like? Are you a hybrid, or do you find that you have to work really hard on a particular skill? Share in the comments!