Dean Mackenzie December 25, 2020 When I’ve spoken with people who want to sell something on the Clickbank marketplace, they often talk about a “killer sales video” or “kick-ass design”. Both of these are important, but they’re not the only factors behind whether a Clickbank promotion enjoys any success.
In my experience, there are FIVE elements any successful promo needs if it’s going to bring in the sales and attract affiliates. And like any good recipe, you need all five ingredients to make it work. Just like it’s almost impossible to bake a cake without flour or sugar, a promo without good copy or an audience won’t get far.
So, let’s dive into each element…
Offer
If you don’t have an offer, you don’t have a promotion.
Simple as that.
That said, it’s more than a case of throwing something together, slapping some packaging around it, and then hoping your marketing can make up for flaws or deficiencies. (And yes, this unfortunately does happen.)
A great offer is perhaps the most powerful persuasive factor out of this five. A first-class product that helps people solve a problem or satisfy a desire doesn’t necessarily need world-class copy or million-dollar design to sell. Sure, both help – but if people actually want this, you’re already onto a winner.
Of course, a great offer usually doesn’t just fall into your lap. It takes time to develop, test, and refine a great offer. If you’re just getting started on your offer, you might like to read this handy list of things to consider.
Laying out EVERYTHING in your offer (even if it’s a digital product) is a great way to show the full value.
Copy
Now, as a copywriter, I’m biased towards thinking a successful promo needs powerful, persuasive copy. And top-performing promotions do have copy that:
- Grabs attention
- Holds interest
- Builds desire
- Encourages action
(Yes, that’s the classic AIDA marketing principle so eloquently outlined by Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross!)
Copywriting is a specialist skill, so while there are many different tactics and approaches you can use, it’s probably best to outsource this to a specialist.
All that said, copy is not the core ingredient of a promo. In fact, if you’re familiar with the 40/40/20 marketing rule, you know that typically only 20% of marketing success comes down to the creative. So while you shouldn’t ignore the copy (or the design), you can’t rely on them to be the backbone of your promotion.
Great copy isn’t just persuasive, it often entertains or educates prospect reading or watching
Design
Sometimes, you’ll see a stunningly designed VSL or sales letter smoothly promoting a Clickbank product.
Other times, it’ll be black text, white background, and not much more than the odd picture.
Either way, design is a big factor when it comes to helping or hindering how well a promotion converts.
But when we say design, I’m not just talking about the aesthetics. How a sales page or website is built can play a huge part in smoothing the path a prospect takes towards the sale… or throws up obstacles. In many cases, ugly design done to make it easy for a customer to buy, read the copy, or navigate a site, will often work better than a “pretty” design that gets in the way of those.
Like copy, design is a deep skill that can take years of learning. If you’d like to dip your toes into learning more about why “ugly” design can work, you can start here.
Great design isn’t just about aesthetics, but supporting the copy to make a super-persuasive promo.
Audience
If the finest orchestra in the world is playing to an empty house, does it really count?
Now, the comment might be a little tongue-in-cheek, but the concept holds true. You can have an amazing product supported by world-class copy and crystal-clear design, but if nobody ever gets to your sales page, it’s a wasted effort.
When you typically deal with sales funnels and promotions, you’re talking either B2C or B2B. Of course, there are big differences between the two segments, especially when it comes to your target audience. But with Clickbank, the equation changes again.
Because you’re not just selling to business decision makers or people off the street. You’ve actually got two different audiences that your promotion is targeting:
- Prospects to buy your offer
- Affiliates who will market your offer
Now, #1 is your typical buyer and is where much of the revenue is being generated. But #2 is critical to how you get those typical buyers. This one of the main reasons people use Clickbank to promote their offer: to tap into the rich vein of affiliate marketers ready to boost
Like SEO or ads, affiliates are another channel in which to attract customers. Affiliates will market your offer, whether it’s on their site or to their email list, in exchange for a commission that’s usually a percentage of the offer’s price.
Many affiliates are specialists at traffic generation, and can send a veritable flood of potential buyers your way. For more sophisticated offer owners, it’s a no brainer. Why?
Because a lot of times, the money isn’t made on the front end (or the first purchase). That’s often just there to acquire a new customer. It’s upsells and future purchases where the real value lies… which is why businesses are often happy to surrender 100% of any profit from that first buy to an affiliate who got the customer in the door.
Again, this is a detailed topic, and not the goal of this article. If you do want to know more about front end vs back end (i.e. the extra or repeat purchases a customer makes), you can find a great explanation here.
Find the right affiliates, and they’ll send scores of potential buyers towards your promo.
Persuasion
Unlike your product, the copy, the design, or even the customers turning up thanks to affiliates, there’s no tangible persuasion element. Instead, it’s baked into every other part of your promotion.
By making your offer as useful, relevant, and attractive as it can be to the target audience, you have built-in persuasion the moment it’s ready to be sold.
Great copy by its very nature – regardless of whether it uses “persuasion hacks” or clever tactics – is soaked in persuasion.
Design that supports the sale and makes things easy for the customer amplifies the persuasion that a fantastic offer and first-class copy bring.
And of course, affiliates who help you get more people across your promotion are “agents of persuasion” in themselves.
Does Your Promo Have All Five?
While I’ve focused on the elements to make a Clickbank promotion successful, there’s not a huge difference between those that live in the Clickbank marketplace and those outside. Practically every promo you run is going to need some mix of all five to bring in the money.
So… does your promo have all five?
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