5 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
We have been in the marketing space for years and have personally experienced almost every problem and pitfall imaginable in the industry, yet we have still have managed to thrive.
Now, our goal is to help aspiring entrepreneurs and digital marketers achieve the same results.
Throughout this post I will be covering some of the major reasons why people fail during their affiliate marketing efforts, and how you can avoid making these five common marketing mistakes.
Marketing Mistake #1: Learning only through trial and error
This is by far one of the biggest marketing mistakes you can make, not only in the affiliate marketing space but in any business.
In order to avoid complete failure, you must not only be able to learn from your own mistakes but you must also be willing to learn from other people’s mistakes.
For example – when I was young I was told to look both ways before crossing the street, because if I didn’t I could get hit by a car and die.
I didn’t need to learn through trial and error to learn this lesson.
This is why networking with other affiliates is so important in this space. By sharing experiences with one another we can help each other improve. If you only rely on your own trial and error you will surely fail.
Marketing Mistake #2: Not attending events
Networking is probably the most important part of affiliate marketing in our experience, I can’t stress enough how vital it is to meet and network, in person, with other people in the industry.
The best way to network in the affiliate marketing business is by attending conferences and going to the events and after-parties. People are very on guard on the tradeshow floor, and this is not a good place to network. Instead, seek out any related social networking events that are going down.
There are usually several different events going on each night of the conference, hosted by numerous companies and high-level marketers.
Another place to make high-level connections is at mastermind events.
Peter and I attend several masterminds each year, usually once per quarter right now. I can’t begin to describe how many valuable connections we have made attending these mastermind sessions, and how important they have been to our continued success in the industry.
Marketing Mistake #3: Not investing in yourself
I am a firm believer that until you have $100,000 in the bank, you should not invest in anything outside your self-education.
When you work for yourself, self-education is the difference between success and failure.
Your mind is the engine of your business and if you don’t feed it you will break down and crash. Every, single, month, Peter and I have always invested in paid training in some form or another.
If you do not continue to invest in your education you will surely stop growing.
In the internet marketing industry especially; changes happen so quickly that if you don’t stay on top of current trends and information you are likely to get left behind.
For example – Facebook’s algorithm and features are changing every month.
The types of things I choose to invest in for my self-education are courses, high ticket masterminds, conferences, mentorship, and books. It’s true, even a small investment of $20 for a book covering best practices for copywriting or marketing can change your whole business outlook.
If you do not have $100k in the bank, next time you are thinking about investing in stocks, crypto, or even real estate take that money and invest it in yourself.
Marketing Mistake #4: Not testing enough campaigns
Testing campaigns is vital to success in affiliate marketing, even if you already have a successful campaign. A big mistake that many people make is not launching enough campaigns.
I think that a reasonable amount for a one-man show is to test at least one campaign per week. This is achievable even if you are currently in full-time employment.
If you have partners or a team to share the load, you can test even more. A campaign test should include at least one offer, one landing page/funnel, one traffic source, one image ad & one video ad.
You should set a limit of around $250 for your test campaigns, to gauge if it has potential. If it loses more than 50% net ROI, it’s time to drop it and move on to other marketing campaigns.
If you are already running several successful marketing campaigns, that doesn’t mean you should stop testing. A huge marketing mistake made by some affiliates is that once they have a profitable campaign, they stop testing, go to the beach, take a vacation, and stop working as hard.
Within a few weeks or months, their campaign dies and they are left with no income again.
Keep testing, optimizing and retesting.
Marketing Mistake #5: Not building a list
The typical affiliate sends traffic to a landing page and hopes that the user completes the offer on their first visit; if the user doesn’t complete the offer then they are gone for good and will never convert on your page again.
This is why building an email list is important.
Instead of just making money one time, promoting one offer, you can promote several affiliate offers over time once you collect their email. This increases the average lifetime value of your campaigns and provides a more stable income.
So, if your campaign dies, you still have access to an email list that you can mail anytime to generate revenue.
The most important part of building a list is to make sure that you are getting the user’s permission and consent to receive email from you on your landing page.
You then need to provide your audience with valuable content they can utilize, so they want to hear from you regularly.
If you can create a balance of promotion and value and build a good relationship with your list, then you will create a long term valuable asset you can leverage to generate income.
In conclusion, there are hundreds of marketing mistakes that someone could make in affiliate marketing but these are a few of the most important ones.
If you have been falling short in any of these categories, then it is time to take a step back and re-evaluate your decisions. If you have not yet started your marketing journey, then make a note of these mistakes and be sure to avoid them at all costs.
To the top,
Tyler Day