Simply put, a Bonus is a form of Incentive Marketing. BONUS MARKETING!
I see it all the time. A big product launch is underway and the person running the launch gives out a hefty commission which then elicits people to put BONUSES (aka bribes) out to their readers, lists, affiliates, etc.
They do this to ensure that you buy the product from THEM over another affiliate.
Why not? They want the commission.
So, here’s the formula for BONUS Marketing:
- First of all, make sure you are allowed to do bonuses with the product you want to promote.
- Figure out how much commission you stand to make by promoting as an affiliate.
- Take a look at what your competitors are giving out as bonuses and make sure yours is better. This may entail taking less commission since you’re giving something away that may cost you money. BUT, since you’re getting commission before you give out your bonus it’s not really an upfront cost.
- Finally, put together your bonus offer. Make sure it sounds great and IS great. People aren’t going to trust you if you promise them a guide worth $2,000 and give them something worth $3.95.
- Blast out your offer with your bonus to your people.
Bonuses (aka Incentives) can be used for your own products as well.
If you are launching a product then why not give a free trial, big discount or a special report/guide as part of signing up? It’s your own product, you don’t have to follow any strick rules about incentivizing… so why not!
You could make the argument that there are a lot of free loaders out there and that people will just want to take advantage of your bonus with no real intention of staying on your site (or will intend to return your product right away). And, that is true. But you could also get some people that started off with the intention of not sticking around and ended up sticking around because you blew them away with your bonus, product or whatever. So, it tends to even out.
This is generally done for high dollar $1200-$2500+ products that have plenty of leeway to pay out a hefty commission. These are usually high quality products that don’t get a lot of returns. If the commission is high, a lot of people are willing to put in something of their own as a bonus to ensure they get that commission.
A lot of affiliate marketers don’t do this because they are so used to the CPA industry that generally does not allow it. In the JV marketing world, it’s done all the time. When one of our bigger products launches in the next few months, you will all have the opportunity to tag on as many bonuses as you want if you JV with us.
You are right, but there’s some research need to be done before offering bonuses, because you could scare your potential buyers and lost their trust. I consider the bonus should always be worth a lot less than the actual product.