How to Use Content in an Affiliate Launch

"How do you maximize your content strategy during an affiliate launch?" This topic hits close to home today!

While I'm in the thick of my affiliate promotion for Digital Course Academy 2022, I thought I'd share with you the behind-the-scenes for my content strategy.

I'm sharing the five pillars of content that make up my promotional strategy and digging into how I've learned -- from several years of launches -- where to focus my time, energy, and effort.

Whether launching an affiliate promotion or for your products and services, you'll find something extra special in this episode. 

Transcript

5 Pillars of Content: 0:00

There's one thing in particular that has surprised me about running my online business and creating content. I love promoting other people's programs and services that I love. If you've never heard me talk about being an affiliate or affiliate marketing, don't worry, we're gonna get hot and heavy into my biggest strategies in today's episode. But I want you to consider this as something that you're going to try. If you've never done it before, I'm going to give you some time to put this on your vision board your goals list for 2023, right, because I know we're not there yet. We're not there. We're not at the point in the year when this episode goes live anyway, maybe you're listening to this way in the future. And maybe it's the you know, different kinds of planning time. But right now where we are, we don't have a set plan for what's going to happen next year, we have to finish this year. But I'm going to challenge you, I challenge you a few episodes back about having a website be on your list for 2023. And I think that 2023 should also be the year that you try your hand at promoting other people's programs, or software that you love. Or even if it's just favorite books on Amazon, like I want you to put affiliate marketing on your radar, start learning it now. Because there's just so much you can learn in doing this. You can learn new strategies, you can try new strategies that you've never thought of using before. And it's just, I mean, I don't want to it's gonna sound cheesy, I'm gonna say it anyway, I was gonna say I don't want to say it, but I'm gonna say it anyway. The possibilities are endless. When it comes to figuring out how you want to promote stuff. Every time I do an affiliate launch, I learned something new. I have been doing. Oh, my gosh, let me see. I started putting our sign up for amazon affiliates, probably in 2016 2017. So I figured out what affiliates were How do you have to put disclaimers on your website? How do you have to make sure that people know that you're getting paid for this, and so on and so forth. I've been doing this for a while. And I still learn something every single time I do an affiliate promotion. So it's why we're breaking things down today. And I'm going to tell you how to use your content in an affiliate launch. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the profit podcast where we teach you how to start launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we? All right, I really didn't say this in the beginning. But this episode is going to be pretty meta today. The reason why is I am recording this while I'm still in the middle of an affiliate launch. So you've probably seen already that I am an affiliate for digital course Academy. This is Amy Porterfield program that she puts out every year. And I am in the thick of it. And I thought you know what I really want to share with you behind the scenes what I'm doing so that we can continue this conversation because what I don't want to happen is I finished this launch. It's great. It's incredible. It's amazing. And then I just move on. And there's not like a clear lessons learned of what I did differently in this promotion. Because like I said, I learned every single time, what to do differently, how I can promote better and where I can be the most strategic, because I've made lots of mistakes, maybe that's another I'm gonna like put that in my notes here. That's going to be a future episode, the mistakes that I've made during previous launches, because I could this would be a two hour episode if I went into all the mistakes that I've made and doing affiliate launches, but that's not what this is about. We're gonna talk about how to use your content in an affiliate launch because it's fresh on my mind. I am in the thick of it right now. And I want to have this as a reference for myself and something I can also share with you today. All right, so Are you ready, this is where, if you're running, if you're driving, then just listen up and go to the show notes later for everything we're gonna talk about today. But if you are at a place where you can look at the show notes, or you can take notes, get out your pen and paper, because this is where you're gonna want to do that. So the show notes for today's episode are KrystalProffitt.com/episode369. That is where you're gonna find everything we're talking about here today, as well as some other podcast episodes and YouTube videos that are going to be great resources for affiliate marketing. If that is brand new to you, then you want to go watch this one YouTube video that is what is affiliate marketing and why like, why is it important? How do I use it? Go watch that on our in the show notes. But let's dive in. Because we got a lot to cover today. So first and foremost, I have to cover the five pillars of content. And the reason why I call them the five pillars of content is because these are the five pillars of my content. This is what I do. I'm not giving you theoretically have all the possibilities. Like no, this is legitimately what I have been doing. The last few weeks as I have been preparing for this launch, creating content for this launch, strategizing for this launch, like this is my blueprint. This is my blueprint for an affiliate launch. And the five pillars of content. We're gonna step through all of these, but it's where I create all of my content. So we have podcast episodes is one YouTube videos is two, social medias three, number four is your email list. And number five is your website. These are the five pillars of content. And now I'm going to break down how I'm using these in this particular launch. And what that looks like why I made these decisions.

1. Podcast Episodes: 7:00

So number one, podcast episodes. So how do you use your podcast episodes in an affiliate launch, there's a few different ways to do these. And I've done all of these over the years as well as within this launch right now, that is happening in real time. And the first one is, if you're going to be promoting something, you can consider creating dedicated podcast episodes around that. So if you want to, for example, that would be the interview that I did recently, with Amy Porterfield. She came on the podcast we talked about her bootcamp that she had, which was incredible, and actually just wrapped up. So if you are in course confident the boot camp, I hope that you loved it because it was so so fun. And that was what I did, I created this podcast episode that was all about getting you excited about learning from Amy. And then towards the end of that episode we specifically talked about going to and purchasing course confident. And then from there, I have had dynamic content on the podcast, I have had short ads that tell you about one of her free resources or the fact that the cart is open. And this is when you should buy it. Then I've also had baked in ads here and there, which are saying like kind of like the dedicated episode where it's like, Hey, you want to go sign up for the masterclass you want to go do the bootcamp. And there's different ways that we can really approach how you want to be strategic with your podcast in a launch, but this is what I have been doing. So if you're brand new to affiliate launches, my recommendation is first to start doing calls to action on a regular basis on your podcast. If you're a podcaster you should be doing it every single time. Even if it's just subscribe to the show. Or follow me on Instagram, join my email list like whatever it is, you need to be making regular calls to action. So your people are used to hearing you ask things and they actually take action. Because when you go to sell something in the future, it's a natural next step that they're like, Oh, I'm gonna go check this out. What's Krystal talking about? What is she selling? And of course, all the other things come into play like is it a good offer for them? Is it in alignment with what your content is about? That's another episode for another day. But I just wanted to share those are really the three strategies that I use for my podcast episodes.

2. YouTube Videos: 9:45

Now. Let's transition in to YouTube. So YouTube this year, I haven't focused as much on promoting heavily on my YouTube channel. I have crew created videos that are strategic to the launch. But last year, I feel like I really, really overdid it on video, like stressing myself out on the back end. Okay, this is the behind the scenes, I was killing myself to put out three videos a week already. And then on top of that, I was like, why I have to create extra special videos for this affiliate launch. And in doing that, I realized there wasn't as much of a return on it because video is so much more centered around search than it is real time publication. So I could get into someone, I'm like, Oh, don't go down that rabbit hole. It's like right there. I wanted to jump into that. But that's a topic for another day, just know that I made a mistake last year. And this year, I knew that I still wanted to have video content. But I wasn't going to bend over backwards to create a ton of video and not see the return on investing that time and energy and effort. Because I'm gonna tell you where I did spend that time, energy and effort. So for a YouTube launch, if you're doing an affiliate promotion, I still recommend having one or two videos, because that makes it easier to link on social or even talk about it on your podcast and put it in your show notes or create you know, something fun that like the visual aspect of video is really great, especially if you want to showcase a website or say hey, you know, here's, here's a great walkthrough of what you can expect, or I love sharing Franchesca story of make sure you go watch that I'll link to it in the show notes of this episode. But I was able to share a student testimonial from someone who was previously part of my bonus program with DCA. So I was able to share some really cool videos. But again, I didn't like kill myself to make those videos happen. I made it easier on this launch. Okay, so that's YouTube.

3. Social Media: 12:16

We're gonna transition into pillar number three. And that social media I have previously again, I have gone above and beyond for social media, I stress myself out, I was like freaking out, oh my gosh, I didn't do something really special and super creative. And I need to go into Canva and create these graphics. And I need to do this and it needs to be animated and needs to be this and he's having to write music. I did not do that this time. I didn't. Because again, the return on those previous years that I've done that on social media has been minimal. I've probably had a few people trickle in and get curious about it on social but those aren't where my hot leads are coming from. It's the next two that we're gonna talk about in a second. But this is something that I still am doing reels, I'm still doing video because I know that that is the thing that Instagram wants and Instagrams my main social media platform too. So if you're on Tik Tok, or you're on somewhere else, like it could be different. But I'm still pushing reels out that are promoting the podcast episodes in the YouTube videos, where I am mentioning the affiliate promotions or if I'm pushing someone to the podcast, I'm assuming in my mind, I'm like, well, they're going to hear the dynamic content, or they're going to hear the dedicated episode, where I talked about this in depth. So I don't have to spend as much time creating 1000s of social media posts, whenever I can just be really strategic with where I'm sending them. Again, it all goes back to calls to action and the strategy that you want to have behind the content. But also I'm not creating brand new content for social media. I did a few like I've done a lot of stories actually, this lunch instead of just regular post, like in my feed, I did a lot more stories inviting people to the boot camp and the DCA sneak peek and, you know, just coming and join and joining in. Can I get tongue tied there for a second? Joining in are looking at my bonus page. I did a lot of that on Instagram stories, but I didn't create a bunch of fancy stuff. Okay, this was reused content, either from my podcast or my YouTube, or it was something that I created that would specifically fit the platform. And for me, it was just easiest to do a lot of Instagram stories. So that's where I landed on this launch with social media.

4. Email List: 14:55

Now, here's the one where I spent a lot of time a lot a lot of time. And this is my email list. I spent a ton of time y'all will not believe like I have my my notebook here in front of me that I used. I started writing emails for this launch. Back in July, September, when I'm recording this episode, I started writing emails for this launch in July. And why is that? Krystal? Why did you spend so much time on your book because it works. Okay. My emails from what I have learned and doing so many affiliate launches is that the email list is the red hot leads of people that are actually going to read your content, consume it, and take action. This is what I have seen. I have been this is my third year being an affiliate for DCA. I've done other affiliates like BC stack and pod podcasters kit, like my email list. I know, this is what what deserves my time, my energy, the effort. And so I knew that that that's what I wanted to concentrate on, I didn't care as much about having the perfect YouTube video to put out for this or creating the best reel that I could that would hopefully go viral. I didn't do any of that. I was like, I am making time to write the best freaking emails that I can ones that I know people will be so excited to see. And I've actually ever had a few friends reached out to me and say, girl, you are crushing it with your emails. In this launch your email, subject lines are fantastic. The stories that you're sharing are so good, they don't even care like they aren't even going to buy DCA they've already bought it like they went through the program when I went through the program, but they're still reading my emails because they're like, they're that good. And that just makes me so happy. It makes me so so happy. Love, love hearing this. So here's how I'm using my email list strategically during this launch, and what I will continue to focus on in the future. So I'm writing emails, obviously about the launch, like what's happening? What are the benefits? Like what what are the need to know things that people need to know that I can include in these emails? Why should they purchase DCA. And then I'm also linking to the content that I've created during the lunch. So people know that they have options, and they can find the medium of where they prefer to consume content. So I'm linking to podcast episodes, I'm linking to the YouTube videos that I have created. So they know that they have options on the table of where they can go and find content. And I actually wrote this down, I put it in my notes. So during this launch right now, I've written 22 emails that have been going out since August 1. So I told you, I started these, I started writing these in July, when I was on vacation. I was like, Oh my gosh, September so far away. Here we are. We're in the thick of this. I am patting my previous self on the back and saying, Thank you so much for getting a jumpstart on this because in five weeks, I will be releasing over the course of this launch 22 emails. This is on top of my regular Friday emails. Did you hear that number? Five weeks 22 emails on top of my regular emails, that's a lot of emails. A lot of emails, y'all. But I'm not afraid to segment my list and send another email during a launch to those people that have shown interest. But also just so you know, like some people are listening to this saying, oh my gosh, Krystal, I know you've sent way too many emails, you'll know there is an opt out button at the bottom of every single email that I have sent out for this launch. And I suggest you do the same thing. You can go look at exactly what I did. If you're on my email list, go to the bottom of anything that I've been talking about DCA, any of those emails, and you'll see where it says opt out of this and just receive my Friday emails, you can click on that button. If you really don't hear any more about DCA. Click on that button. And it will show you it reroutes you to a page on my website that says okay, you've successfully opted out you will just hear or you'll just receive my Friday emails done done and done. So having an opt out button gives me that permission to keep sending to my audience to send these 22 emails in five weeks to my audience because I'm like, Hey, I gave them a chance to say, I don't want to hear about this. Yes, I have gotten a ton of unsubscribes over the last five weeks. But that's also what happens with a launch. It's okay, I'm not afraid of an unsubscribe, it doesn't cut as deep as it used to in the beginning of my business. And I don't think that you should be scared about those either. I have four boys upstairs right now screaming and playing basketball in the house. I was like, oh, okay, they're playing their technology, they are full blown screaming right now. So hopefully y'all can't hear them too much. But we're gonna get through this, we're gonna, this was my time to record. And I don't want to pause and scream at them to be quiet. So hopefully, it's not as bad as I think it is.

5. Website: 20:46

But we're gonna get through this because number five, the website. This is the thing I did not utilize enough in the past. All right, I feel like I did a pretty good job focusing on my email list. In the past, though, this year, I'm like, really, really focusing, like taking extra time to write really, really good emails. But my website was totally under utilized for the first, I would say few years that I started doing affiliate launches. Number one, I didn't even know how to do half the stuff that I'm doing this year, I just had no clue. I wasn't savvy enough on a WordPress website to make it happen. But two, I didn't look at my traffic to my website on a regular basis. Therefore, I didn't even think about it. I was just like, oh, well, it's just my website. But now that I look, and I'm like, oh, there are 1000s of people looking at certain pages every single month, like let's capitalize on this, shall we and not just have the same like, where's some real estate on my website that I can get more eyeballs on what I am doing during this launch? So here's what I did. The first thing on my website and like I said, I have a WordPress website, this, this really matters because I've had a lot of you say, I have Kajabi or I have Squarespace or what do you think about this other platform? I'm going to tell you all I have a WordPress website. That is what KrystalProffitt.com is Kajabi is where I house my courses and my products and I have like a paywall system, all of that is housed on Kajabi. So there's that clarification for anybody that was wondering. So on my WordPress website, I have taken advantage of the header at the very top. So the header meaning above the fold above above the fold, meaning right at the top as soon as you land on my website during this launch. And maybe I should take a screenshot because it won't be there after the launch is over. So I'll have a screenshot in the show notes. So if you're listening to this after this is over, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. But at the top, I've switched it out multiple times throughout this launch. I had my content creation quiz up there, I had the course confident boot camp, I had Amy's private podcast, I had her masterclass. And as I'm recording this, the cart open is at the very top banner because I want people to see it, I do not want them to miss it. I don't want them to miss this chance. But I also don't want to be super invasive, where they're annoyed. And they're immediately like, let me leave this website because this is just bothering me. So I did that this year. I have not done that in previous launches. The second thing that I've done on my website this year is in my podcast show notes, I was a lot more strategic about the different images and placements that I had on the show notes when the launch was happening. So for example, there was an episode that I did with Amy Right, the focus dedicated episode where I had, instead of the regular images that I normally have in my show notes, I switched them out for some of the ones that are more relevant to this launch. Remember, it's your website, you can do whatever he wants in your show notes. And you can have whatever images are different graphics or videos, whatever works for you. But I think it's important to take advantage of that real estate where you know, people are going they're going to listen to your podcast, they're going to go to your show notes because you've made them so valuable, that they're going to want to go see like Oh, what, what were they talking about? I want to go see in the show notes because you reference something and then they're gonna go to your show notes and they're gonna see the different images, videos or reference points to this launch. So it's just another opportunity for you to get in front of the right audience. Okay. The third thing with websites, I created specific pages dedicated to my launch. I didn't do a ton of these. But I did create a blog post. I guess it wasn't a page. I shouldn't call it a page. It's actually a blog post. That was all about getting to know Amy. And it was the five things that I've learned from Amy Porterfield. I normally don't do blog post, y'all. I'm like a show notes. Girl, I do podcast show notes. And that's really about it. That's what 99.9% of my website is, it's my podcast, show notes. But I wanted to do something different. And I created a blog post dedicated to helping people understand why I love learning from Amy, my journey with her how I've met her, and just all the incredible things that have happened ever since I started learning from her ever since she became my mentor. So I did that that was new. That was fun. It was different. I wanted to do something, do something different this year. And then I also created my bonus page. This is not new. I've done a bonus page ever since I've been a DCAA affiliate. But I definitely spent more time ahead of time on my bonus page. Like I did not wait. Because in the past, I think it was like the first year I was waiting until like cart open. And I was like oh yeah, I should probably create this page. And I can do it super fast. No, it still takes me forever to create a web page from scratch, especially one that has as much information as that one did. And I think it took me two days, it took me two days to make my AP plus Kp bonus bundle page. So yeah, don't wait, don't wait on that kind of stuff. I think I started that one, mid August. And my goal was to have it completed by the first of September. So yeah, that one I spent extra time making sure that was gonna look good. And then the last thing for my website that I did that I didn't even know you could do it is a feature. I have a Divi layout, which you if you are WordPress user, you've probably heard of elegant themes, but Divi is the theme that I have on my website. And it has a super cool feature that I feel like such a nerd. But I'm like, Oh, let me tell you about this fun thing that I learned because I had no idea you graphic designers, website designers, you're probably laughing at me, it's okay, I'm fine. I don't even care because I am giddy about learning this. But I created a layout that I could save globally across my website so that throughout the launch, I could switch out the content that was there. So for example, I could put this layout and all of my show notes or in specific show notes. And then when it went from this free resource to the boot camp promotion, I could switch out that content in one place. And it would switch it in all the places that this layout was, this is a game changer. And I will use this in all promotions moving forward. Because now I could switch it to Amy's masterclass. And then I could switch it to her cart open images. And then when it's all said and done, I can delete the whole thing, and then it will go away. And we'll pretend like it was never there. So super cool. I highly recommend learning about any of these shortcuts and features. But it's one of those things that you won't know until you get started your first affiliate launch. Please make it easy on yourself. Please make it basic, even if it's just adding a web page on your website that has all of your favorite tools and resources. That's why I recommend everybody starting it's why I created a tools page on my website, go to KrystalProffitt.com/tools, and you will see all of my affiliates there. So you can go check out like a template or an example of what you could do for your website. But you can also check out my favorite tools. Because when people ask me I'm like, oh, go here, instead of me having to repeat everything. 1000 times I just say, oh, here I have a web page for it. Go check it out. But if you want to know more about how I run affiliate launches, let me know. I love talking about this stuff. I really do. I love showing and sharing the behind the scenes and if this is something you want to know more of then send me a DM on Instagram or tell me in the Facebook group and I'll continue to you know, level up this conversation and give you even more. This is like just barely scratching the surface. And I was really excited about this launch for DCA because it's the most in depth that I've really gone in specific areas and I feel like it's just getting to better and better every year. So I was super excited about it. And big shout out to anyone that join the bonus bundle with me because we're gonna have so much fun. I'm so grateful that you decided to join me in digital course Academy this year, and I cannot wait to get started.

DCA Promo & Outro: 30:18

If you're listening to this in real time, you still have a few more days, you can still join us. If you are listening to this after then sorry, you missed the boat. Maybe next year, you can join us in the bonus bundle, but go to KrystalProffitt.com/episode369 If you do still want a chance to come hang out with us and go through DCA together. But that's all I have for you today. So much like I told you we could have gone down 17 Different rabbit holes I didn't we kept on track on pace. The only other thing I want to share with you is go to the shownotes because I do have some other resources I have how to get started with affiliate marketing, which is a podcast episode. Then I have how to work with affiliate partners and brands. If you're like well Krystal, you know affiliate launching that sounds fun, but I don't even Where do I even get started? How do I get partnered with someone where I can promote their products? Well have a podcast and a YouTube video that you can go watch and listen to to find out where to get started. And then of course I already told you about the very first introductory to affiliate marketing that you should go watch. It's what is affiliate marketing and how does it work. So that will all be in the show notes, all these fantastic resources. Go check them out. Again, that's KrystalProffitt.com/episode369. That's all I have for you today. So as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.