0:00

Welcome to another special edition, 100 Million

0:02

Dollar Leads, audiobook podcast

0:05

collaboration, self-licking ice cream

0:07

cone, me working with me, hand shaking

0:09

myself, promoting

0:12

this book for free on my podcast. And

0:14

so, me being an affiliate

0:16

of myself. Today we talk about affiliates

0:19

and partners. It's going to be a heater episode. This

0:21

is 35 minutes, one single chapter, and then we have

0:23

a section conclusion, which you will

0:25

definitely enjoy. Because if you've

0:27

been watching this or listening to this a few weeks apart,

0:30

then you'll want to have the recap so you can put it all together

0:32

in your head into one simple framework. But today

0:34

with affiliates, I'm going to be talking about how you

0:36

pick the right affiliates, what kind of offer to make them, how

0:39

to get them advertising, how to keep them advertising, and

0:41

the many lessons I've learned along the way to doing over 75

0:43

million dollars in sales, not

0:46

spending a dollar of advertising on my own, but letting other

0:48

people advertise for me. Hope you

0:50

enjoy.

0:54

Affiliates and partners. Nothing makes

0:56

friends like money. December 1st, 2018.

0:58

I had no idea how the Prestige Labs

1:01

launch would go. I had no idea if our clients would like

1:03

it. I had no idea if the technology we built would work.

1:05

I had no idea if payouts would happen on time. I

1:07

had no idea if our warehouse would mess up orders. But

1:09

I did know over a year of preparation went into this launch.

1:12

We put everything we had into creating a top-tier product. We

1:15

spent over a million dollars custom building affiliate software

1:17

and training. And we bought three million dollars

1:19

of inventory for sales that may never happen.

1:22

It took every business skill I had to make Prestige Labs

1:24

real. And in just a few hours, we would

1:26

roll it out to our gym owner affiliates. I

1:29

felt like a kid on Christmas Eve. And if it didn't work, it

1:31

wouldn't be for lack of effort.

1:33

Author note.

1:34

The Game podcast, episode 98, titled, I

1:37

Remember.

1:38

If you want to go back in time, you can hear young me

1:40

talk about my thoughts and concerns the night before the launch.

1:43

You can be right there with me. It's episode 98

1:45

on my podcast, The Game, with Alex Ramosi. I titled

1:48

it, I Remember. This is before I knew the success

1:50

it would become. To find it, just go wherever

1:52

you listen to podcasts and search Alex Ramosi. It'll

1:54

come up.

1:55

Launch day.

1:57

I finished the two-hour presentation soaked in sweat.

1:59

It's done.

1:59

I sold the opportunity to sell my supplement

2:02

line at their gyms. I would train the

2:04

new affiliates to promote Prestige Labs at their gyms.

2:06

So for this to work, they would have to go through the training and

2:09

use it. But if they did, everyone would profit.

2:11

I had no idea if it would work. Three weeks

2:13

later, we made $150,000 in total sales. Meanwhile, $3

2:17

million of the product sat in an air-conditioned warehouse.

2:20

It didn't work.

2:21

At this rate, including operating costs and affiliate

2:23

paths, it would take five years to break

2:25

even.

2:26

Even if we could stick it out, our premium product

2:29

would expire well before then.

2:30

We were all but screwed. I felt miserable.

2:33

It was terrible. Who am I to think we would sell

2:35

all that stuff? I just wasted millions. How

2:37

could I be so stupid? But

2:38

on the fourth week, something wild happened.

2:41

Boom! $100 grand on a Monday. Boom!

2:44

$110,000 on a Tuesday. Boom! $92,000 on a Wednesday.

2:47

We did over $450,000 in sales the fourth week alone. The

2:50

trend continued.

2:57

We averaged more than 300 orders per day across 400

2:59

plus active affiliates. Orders just kept

3:01

coming in.

3:02

Check out the snapshot of our internal report

3:04

below. It shows from left to right revenue

3:06

by week. I couldn't believe the results. Sometimes

3:09

I still can't for everyone listening.

3:10

It was $429,383, $411, $404, $452 in terms of revenue per week through this launch.

3:18

The best part is I didn't advertise or sell

3:20

any of the products at all.

3:22

No paid ads. No sales teams. Nothing.

3:24

The affiliates did everything. And the affiliate machine

3:27

I built still prints money this day. So

3:29

if that sounds like something you're interested in, hang tight. Because

3:31

I'm going to show you exactly how I built it. How affiliates

3:33

work. An affiliate is a lead-getter.

3:36

They are an independent business that tells their audience to buy your

3:38

stuff.

3:39

Affiliates seem like referrals on the outside, but are much

3:41

different under the hood. First, they have their own

3:43

business and do their own advertising. Second, they

3:45

agree to offer your stuff to their engaged leads

3:47

in exchange for money, free stuff, or both.

3:50

Now, you get affiliates by advertising and then

3:52

making them offers just like you would customers. But

3:54

affiliates demand a unique type of offer. Instead

3:56

of offering your product, you offer a fast, simple,

3:59

and easy way to make

3:59

commissions promoting it.

4:01

And that can mean literally millions of engaged leads

4:03

to your business. So this makes affiliates one of the highest

4:05

leveraged lead getters out there. Why you want an affiliate

4:08

army? Each affiliate you get adds

4:10

another stream of leads and customers. So recruiting,

4:12

activating, and then integrating with an army of affiliates

4:15

causes crazy scaling fast. That's

4:17

good. We want that. Compare these two scenarios.

4:20

Scenario number one. You sell 10 customers

4:22

per month worth $10,000 each.

4:24

Your business caps at $100,000 per month.

4:26

In 12 months you've made 1.2 million. Assuming

4:29

no other advertising, your business plateaus. Low

4:31

leverage. Scenario two. For the same

4:34

effort you sell 10 affiliates per month. Each

4:36

month those affiliates bring one of those $10,000 customers.

4:40

Now every single month you add an extra $100,000

4:43

in revenue. In 12 months you've made $7.8 million.

4:45

And it grows every

4:47

month thereafter. Same

4:49

work, more money, high leverage.

4:51

Let's use Allen, my software company I grew with affiliates

4:53

to show how this works in the real world.

4:55

Allen grew with three levels of affiliates.

4:57

Agency super affiliates who brought agency leads.

5:00

Agencies who brought local business leads. Local

5:02

businesses who brought in and consumer leads. One

5:04

super affiliate added 10 agencies per month. The 10

5:07

agencies brought in a combined 50 or so

5:09

local businesses per month. Those local businesses

5:12

brought in a combined 2,500 leads per

5:14

month.

5:15

Allen worked those leads for about five bucks a

5:17

pop. A cool $12,500 per

5:20

month. But it didn't stop there.

5:22

Each super affiliate brought in more agencies

5:25

who brought in more local businesses, who brought

5:27

in more leads every month after that.

5:29

So every super affiliate we signed on brought in

5:32

$12,500 at the first month, $25,000 the second month, $37,500 the third, and

5:34

so on. With

5:38

only a few agency super affiliates we

5:40

scaled to $1.7 million per month within

5:42

six months of launching.

5:44

That's why you want an affiliate army. So let's

5:46

build one.

5:47

How to build an affiliate army in six steps.

5:49

Affiliates are among the most advanced way to get leads. First

5:52

you have to convince them to advertise someone else's stuff. Second

5:54

you have to convince them to advertise your stuff.

5:57

Third you have to keep them advertising to make them

5:59

a long-term lead source.

5:59

It seems like a lot and it is but I have

6:02

good news.

6:02

I built two companies with affiliates, Allen and

6:04

Prestige Labs. Together, they've done more than $75 million

6:07

in revenue from 5,000 affiliates.

6:09

And the affiliate strategies I share work

6:11

for me so they can work for you.

6:13

I'll break down each step. Step one,

6:16

find your ideal affiliates. Step two, make

6:18

them an offer. Step three, qualify them. Step

6:20

four, figure out how to pay them. Step five, get

6:22

them advertising. Step six, keep them

6:24

advertising.

6:25

That's it. Let's dive in.

6:27

Step one, find your ideal affiliate. The

6:30

ideal affiliate has a business with a warm audience full

6:32

of people like your customers. Start making a

6:34

list of those businesses. If none come to mind,

6:36

answer these questions about your best customers.

6:38

What do they buy? Who

6:40

provides that stuff? Where do they go? What

6:42

businesses are in those surrounding areas?

6:44

What do they like to do? Who provides those services?

6:47

If direct to consumer, the employees of

6:49

your consumers could also make great affiliates.

6:52

What type of businesses do they work for? What

6:54

kind of jobs do they have? In a nutshell, who's

6:57

got my leads?

6:58

For example, when I started Allen, agency

7:00

owners were my ideal affiliate. So I made a list of 200

7:02

products and services for agencies and the businesses

7:05

that deliver them. After a little bit of work, I

7:07

realized they fit pretty neatly into categories. Software's,

7:10

products, equipment, services, groups they belong to,

7:12

and events they attended. Every time I create a

7:14

new affiliate hit list, I start with these categories.

7:17

Note, if you find a business that falls into multiple

7:19

categories, there's a high chance they've got a lot

7:21

of good leads for you. Now that I know the businesses

7:23

that had my leads, I knew exactly where to put my advertising

7:25

efforts. It wasn't fancy, so don't overthink

7:27

it. Action step. Make a sheet with

7:30

each of the questions and categories. Search online

7:32

to fill it in. If you struggle, call up your customers

7:34

and ask them. End result. Create a lead

7:36

list of your highest potential affiliates. Step

7:39

two, make them an offer.

7:41

We make the affiliate offer and advertise it the same

7:43

way we would any other offer.

7:44

We call out our audience, show our value elements, then

7:47

call them to action. But affiliates will only

7:49

sign up if we give them a strong reason. Thankfully,

7:51

it's pretty simple. Since affiliates are businesses,

7:54

or start businesses by signing up, you offer

7:56

them a new way to make money.

7:57

We'll start with the call out. Call out. for

8:00

potential affiliates often include the affiliate

8:02

business owners themselves, aka attention

8:04

spa owners. The affiliates' customers,

8:07

aka, do you work with busy professionals who spend

8:09

all day in meetings?

8:10

Results the affiliate business's promise, aka,

8:13

to the heroes who heal the stress of others.

8:15

Products and services the affiliates deliver.

8:17

If you sell lotions or scented oils, this

8:20

is for you. To our own customers, do

8:22

you know anyone who owns a spa? Now that

8:24

we can grab a potential affiliate's attention, let's

8:26

make it worth their while. There's

8:29

an unlimited number of ways to show value, but

8:31

all money-making offers follow a similar

8:33

structure. That's good news. We don't need

8:35

to reinvent the wheel. Most affiliate money-making

8:38

offers show value like this.

8:39

Make more money from your current customers and

8:42

get more leads than your current offer. Dream outcome.

8:44

With a high chance of working since your customers

8:47

already want the product, perceive likelihood of achievement.

8:49

Without needing to build, deliver, or provide

8:51

customer support for the product itself. Effort and

8:53

sacrifice so you can start selling it tomorrow.

8:56

Time delay. Action step. Explore

8:58

the different value elements and fill in the blanks. I

9:01

won't go deeper on this since we've covered already. You

9:03

simply need to make affiliates the customer you're advertising

9:05

to. Now that we've got the potential affiliates interested

9:07

in our offer, let's qualify them.

9:09

Step 3. Qualify them.

9:11

Potential affiliates become actual affiliates

9:13

when they understand and agree to your terms. And

9:15

just like customers, we want to get them their first win as

9:17

fast as possible.

9:18

So we set up our terms to force them to win as fast

9:20

as possible.

9:21

I do that by getting them to invest. I

9:23

prefer they invest their time, their money, and in the product

9:26

itself. Any can work. But 9 times

9:28

out of 10, if they pay, they'll pay attention. Here

9:31

are the two ways I get my affiliates invested and winning.

9:33

Make them a customer and make them an expert. Let's

9:35

dive into each. Way number 1. Make

9:38

them a customer. Make them buy and preferably

9:40

use the product to keep affiliate status. This

9:42

is the lowest barrier investment that's worked for me. I

9:45

found the more money an affiliate invests in your product, the more money

9:47

they make. This should make sense. If they don't

9:49

believe in your stuff enough to buy it, they probably shouldn't sell it.

9:51

You can tell them I said so.

9:53

Pro tip. Bulk purchases.

9:55

If you need to make more money per affiliate, you can acquire them

9:57

to buy it in bulk. This was huge for a prestige-like

9:59

account. affiliate success. Once they bought

10:01

a big package up front, they started following through and

10:03

winning more. The bigger investment also made

10:05

them and us more money. If you have

10:08

physical products, then try bulk purchases. If

10:10

your company has a line of products like Prestige Labs

10:12

does, then toy around with different big bundles.

10:14

Here's how you phrase the offer. So you

10:17

want anything extra or you just want the minimum order.

10:19

By presenting a minimum purchase, they will at

10:21

least buy that. And more often than you

10:23

think, they'll buy more than the minimum. Bada

10:25

boom.

10:26

Way number two, make them an expert. I

10:28

make them pay for the onboarding and training that certifies

10:31

them as a product expert. If you have them buy a

10:33

product to become an affiliate, you can have them use that

10:35

as a credit toward certification. As in, the

10:37

certification comes with the products they

10:39

bought. Now, aside from actually

10:41

making the affiliate useful, certifying them does

10:43

two things. First, it covers the cost of advertising.

10:46

Second, it means I can afford proper onboarding and training

10:48

of every single affiliate.

10:49

How much do I charge? I

10:51

recommend 10 to 20% of what the average affiliate

10:53

makes in the first 12 months. So if your average

10:55

affiliate makes $40,000 per year selling your stuff,

10:57

then charge $4,000 to $8,000 to onboard and trade them.

11:00

Too low and you won't get them invested. Too high

11:02

and you won't get enough affiliates. I found 10 to 20% maximizes

11:06

the number of people who become active affiliates.

11:08

If you're just getting started and have physical products, then use

11:10

the bulk purchasing strategy from the Pro tip. Otherwise,

11:13

you can use the strategy for more reach out chapter and

11:15

raise the minimum investment every five signups until you hit

11:17

the sweet spot. Action step. Make

11:20

your affiliates, customers, experts or both, which

11:22

is my favorite way. If you don't get enough

11:24

people to start, lower the commitment. If you don't get enough

11:26

people to follow through, raise it. Step

11:28

four, figure out what to pay them. The

11:31

first biggest problem to solve with affiliates is getting them bought

11:33

in. But the second biggest problem is how to keep

11:35

them bought in. And no matter how you slice it, keeping

11:37

your affiliates bought in depends on how you reward them

11:40

for advertising your stuff. I prefer to reward

11:42

people that do things I like with money and free stuff,

11:44

especially if they make me money first. So let's

11:46

talk about that. When I figure out ways to pay

11:48

affiliates, I look at two basic things. One,

11:51

what they get paid for. Two, how much they get paid. Number

11:53

one, what they get paid for. Before I do

11:56

any affiliate payout money math, I ask myself

11:58

a simple question.

11:59

What exactly

11:59

exactly do I want the affiliate to do. Once

12:02

I figured that out, that is what I pay them for.

12:04

Then, more often than not, how much they

12:06

get paid and how often they get paid nearly

12:09

solve themselves. I pay affiliates for two

12:11

basic things, new customers and repeat

12:13

customers. Over time, if you track your metrics

12:15

better, you can pay them for steps before someone becomes

12:17

a customer. Like for lead matics downloaded,

12:20

appointment set, or anything else you know reliably turns

12:22

into sales for you.

12:23

Number two,

12:24

how much they get paid.

12:26

I suggest paying affiliates based on your maximum

12:28

allowable cost to acquire a customer. For example, choosing

12:31

your maximum allowable CAC. Let's say

12:33

we sell a single use product for $200 and

12:35

it costs $40 to fulfill. This

12:37

gives us $160 to pay the affiliate and

12:39

run the business. If we want an LGP

12:42

to CAC ratio of three to one, then three parts

12:44

go to the business, $120, and one part, $40,

12:46

goes to the affiliate. This means we

12:49

will pay up to $40 for an affiliate to get a new customer.

12:51

But here's where things get interesting. I used

12:53

to give away the farm, the whole CAC. I suppose

12:55

I still do, but I got pickier about who

12:57

I give it to. Not all affiliates are created equal.

13:00

So I suggest having a three tier payout structure.

13:03

Using the example above with a $40 maximum

13:05

allowable CAC, a three tier payout structure

13:07

might look something like this.

13:09

Tier one, 25% CAC equals $10 payout.

13:11

Anyone

13:14

who agrees to my initial terms would qualify.

13:17

Example, they sign up and buy products

13:19

or certification.

13:20

Tier two, 50% CAC equals $20

13:23

payout

13:24

once they activate.

13:26

Example, actually finishing the certification

13:29

they bought, doing a specific number of posts and outreach, doing a launch,

13:32

et cetera.

13:32

This gives a nice reward, twice the pay,

13:35

for activating.

13:36

Tier three, 100% of CAC equals a $40 payout.

13:41

They qualify for this once they sustain a

13:43

certain level of performance. Example, they

13:46

maintain five customers per month on subscription.

13:48

This tiered method also has a hidden and

13:50

very profitable side effect. The average

13:52

payout is much less than your maximum allowable

13:55

CAC.

13:55

This means if we leave the maximum payouts for top

13:58

affiliates, then we get to keep the.

13:59

leftover profit from the others. We can

14:02

use the leftover money to run huge contests,

14:04

advertise to get more affiliates, incentivize rising

14:06

stars, et cetera. Or I suppose we

14:08

can just plain pocket it. For example, if 20%

14:11

of sales come from tier one, 20% from tier two and 60% from

14:13

tier three, your

14:15

blended payout is $30 instead of your

14:17

maximum allowable CAC of $40. This means

14:19

your LTGP to CAC ratio just went from three

14:22

to one to four to one. And often

14:24

cutting marketing costs by 33% can

14:26

translate into a 10 to 20% increase

14:29

in net profit at the end of the year. A massive

14:32

jump.

14:32

Pro tip, pay with product

14:35

if possible.

14:36

Sell three, get it free. Everyone

14:38

likes free stuff, often more than

14:40

what it would cost them to get it. Rewarding

14:42

performance with product is a cheap and effective way

14:44

to keep them winning. They value it at retail,

14:47

but it only costs you your cost, a nice

14:49

arbitrage of value. Set sales tiers

14:51

and bonus your affiliate with product or credit toward the

14:54

retail cost. At lower tiers, you

14:56

can even compensate exclusively with free

14:58

stuff. For example, if your affiliate

15:00

sends you tons of massage clients, it's totally

15:02

acceptable to reward your affiliates with free massages.

15:05

At low volume, a massage

15:07

is often worth more to them than sending them

15:09

a check for $30, your cost. But

15:11

as affiliates send you more customers, they'll usually

15:14

opt for more money. After all, cashing in 100 massages

15:16

becomes unrealistic. At Prestige

15:19

Labs, offered anyone who sold more

15:21

than three packages per month, a free $200

15:23

bundle of their choosing. This also made

15:25

every affiliate a sponsored athlete. They

15:27

got free products for life, as long as they kept three

15:30

clients per month buying. I called

15:32

it,

15:32

sell three to get it free.

15:34

Action step,

15:35

figure out what you wanna pay affiliates for so you can

15:37

plan out how much to pay them, with what and

15:39

how often.

15:40

Step five, get them advertising, launch.

15:43

Like referrers, how much value affiliates get

15:45

from you determines how much they advertise your stuff. So

15:48

treat them like customers. Give them something good,

15:50

fast, and nothing does that for affiliates like

15:53

big launches and lots of cash. Here's how launches work. Affiliates

15:56

advertise your lead magnet or core offer to their

15:58

audience before they can buy it. They

16:00

post, they do warm reach-outs, they

16:03

run paid ads, they may even do cold

16:05

outreach. They do as much advertising

16:07

as they can until the day of the launch. When the

16:09

product is available, they sell it to all the engaged leads

16:11

they assembled. Some sell one-to-one,

16:14

some pitch the whole group, and others simply

16:16

make the product available. So if you're going to do

16:18

launches to activate affiliates, which you should, you

16:21

may as well do them right. I used the whispertea

16:23

shop method. I can't remember where I first heard

16:25

this, but the name stuck. Just launch.

16:30

Hey, I hope you're enjoying the book chapter that you're listening

16:32

to right now of $100 Million Leads. I

16:35

took a long time putting it together for you. And

16:37

so my only ask is that you just take a quick second

16:39

and leave a review for the book on

16:42

Amazon. It's the number one way that people find

16:44

books. And this is a way

16:46

of getting more people into our world. And so our mission at

16:48

acquisition.com is to make real business education

16:51

accessible to everyone and I need

16:53

your help. And so if you could do that, just that

16:56

one small action, and it has a trade

16:58

for the two years that I took putting this book together for you, it

17:01

would mean the world to me. So thank you. Before

17:05

we get launching, remember, good launches have

17:07

the work done ahead of time.

17:09

So do all the work for them. Then they

17:11

can plug and play. Let's break down each launch

17:13

phase. And I'll give an example of my

17:15

book launch to drive each point home. Note,

17:18

this is how you launch anything, not just affiliates.

17:20

I put it in the affiliate section because I haven't found a better

17:22

way to activate affiliates than launches.

17:25

Whisper. Think call outs. Like an

17:27

ad, the key to the whisper phase is curiosity.

17:29

Keep the product itself mysterious and a hint

17:32

at how big of a deal it is.

17:33

Keep whispers short.

17:35

And bonus points if you show behind the scenes of making

17:37

your product. If you have something in the works,

17:39

you can start the whisper phase a few years out. The

17:42

further out you start whispering, the bigger deal it becomes

17:44

to your audience. We start this early because

17:46

the longer something appears to take, the more an

17:48

audience will value it. For example, all other

17:50

things being equal, an audience will value a product

17:52

that took 10 years to make more than one that took 10 days.

17:55

So show your work.

17:56

Remember, curiosity comes from wanting

17:58

to know what happens next. So embed questions

18:01

about the product in their minds. We need to

18:03

tell them about something they want to know more about.

18:05

And then say,

18:06

not yet.

18:07

For example, during the whisper phase of my book

18:09

launch, I posted content, reached out to friends, emailed

18:12

my list, told potential affiliates about major

18:14

updates to the book. I showed what draft I was on,

18:16

I took pictures behind the scenes of me printing out drafts, I

18:19

showed the many versions of the frameworks I drew, I shared

18:21

videos of myself editing the book clearly in the early

18:23

morning and late at night, etc. All that

18:25

made people who want to get leads get curious

18:27

and pay attention.

18:28

Action step.

18:29

Start whispering every 4-6 weeks until

18:32

you get 60 days out. Then, whisper

18:34

every 2-3 weeks until you get 30 days out.

18:37

Then, start teasing.

18:39

Tease.

18:40

Think elements of value. It's

18:43

time to start satisfying all the curiosity

18:45

you created during the whisper phase.

18:46

Reveal your product, make the day to the launch public,

18:49

and start showing the elements of value.

18:51

Use the what-who-when framework

18:53

from the Paydads chapter. For example,

18:55

during my book launch, the tease phase, I

18:58

was more specific and revealed more hard information

19:00

about the book. I started advertising how the book

19:02

satisfied the dream of limitless leads, of

19:05

doing less work, and getting it done faster

19:07

than they could imagine. I also showed dozens of examples

19:09

using the book to its potential.

19:11

Action step.

19:12

Start teasing once per week until 14 days out.

19:15

Then, tease twice per week until 3 days

19:17

out. 3 days out is time to shout

19:19

from the rooftops.

19:22

Shout. Think. Call to action. Give

19:24

specific actions for the audience to take when the

19:26

product launches. Now, you start pounding

19:29

the audience with bonuses, scarcity, urgency, and guarantees

19:31

around being the first ones. You shout to

19:33

get as many people exposed to your offer as you can. For

19:36

example, during my book launch, the shout

19:38

phase, I gave specific calls to action. Short,

19:40

sweet, clear reminders to register for the book launch. I

19:43

reminded everyone of the exclusive bonuses only

19:45

for people who bought during the launch.

19:47

Action step.

19:48

Shout at least twice a day, starting 3

19:51

days out. On the day of, start

19:53

shouting every few hours until 2 hours

19:55

out. Then, shout every 30 minutes

19:58

until you launch the product. Pro tip. Tip,

20:00

movie releases.

20:01

The best real world example of Whisper T

20:03

shout is movie releases. They do five

20:05

second trailers a year out, then 30

20:07

second trailers, 90 days out, then longer

20:10

trailers as the date approaches. They drive curiosity,

20:12

then interest, then action.

20:14

Action step,

20:15

get your affiliates to launch.

20:17

Set them up with everything they need to Whisper

20:19

T shout right. They do the advertising,

20:22

you get the engaged leads, everyone gets paid.

20:24

Step six,

20:25

keep them advertising.

20:27

The strategy we use to start them advertising differs

20:29

from the one that we use to keep them advertising. In

20:31

an ideal world, you sell an affiliate once and

20:33

they send engaged leads for life. Integration

20:36

gets us there. I've got three ways

20:38

you can integrate your product into their offer. I

20:40

order these from easiest to hardest. First,

20:43

you can get them to give away your lead magnet with every

20:45

purchase of their stuff. Second, you can get

20:47

them to sell your lead magnet separately to their

20:49

audience. Third, you can get them to directly

20:51

sell your core offer. Number

20:54

one,

20:55

they give away your lead magnet for free, which makes

20:57

their core offer more valuable for no extra cost,

20:59

then you upsell your core offer and every

21:02

offer thereafter.

21:03

Number one,

21:04

affiliates give your lead magnet away

21:07

when somebody buys their stuff. The idea

21:09

here is for your lead magnet to make the

21:11

affiliates offer more valuable. This

21:13

allows them to charge more for it and get

21:15

more leads than they could without it. Remember,

21:18

the best lead magnets give away a free

21:20

trial or sample of your thing, reveal

21:23

a problem, or offer a single step

21:25

of a multi-step solution. Here

21:28

are examples of each,

21:29

samples and trials.

21:30

Say I sell massages and recruit the personal

21:33

training studio next door as an affiliate. Now,

21:36

everyone who buys personal training from them gets a free massage

21:38

from me. The personal training studio now has

21:40

a stronger offer they can charge more for, and we

21:42

get more massage leads, everybody wins.

21:45

Reveal a problem.

21:46

Instead of giving a free massage, we

21:49

offer a free or discounted posture assessment

21:51

with every training package they sell. Assessments

21:54

and discounts add less value to the affiliates offer,

21:56

but some people will still do it. And to be clear,

21:59

after assessing the customer, you make them an offer

22:01

to solve the problem you revealed. One

22:03

step and a multi-step process. Say

22:06

you have a three-part treatment plan, massage,

22:08

stretching, and adjustments. People get

22:10

enough value from one step, they fear missing out

22:12

on the rest of the steps. So the more they think the other

22:14

steps will help them solve their larger problem, the more

22:16

likely they are to buy them.

22:18

What I did, we'd get gym affiliates to give

22:20

away a free nutrition consult to every new member.

22:23

Then we'd upsell our products at the consult. They

22:26

can market that they have nutrition consults included

22:28

to get more leads, and they could charge more

22:30

for the added value. And we would get the

22:32

opportunity to sell those leads, everybody

22:35

won.

22:35

Pro tip,

22:37

white label lead magnets.

22:38

One of my favorite strategies is to let them use the

22:40

lead magnets I've already made for my audience for

22:43

theirs. Just make sure your affiliates agree

22:45

with how you give value and understand your call

22:47

to action. At most, a few tweaks in

22:49

copy will make your lead magnet work for them.

22:52

For example, for gyms, I made white labeled

22:54

no logo, meal plans, grocery

22:56

lists, food prep instructions, et cetera. Gave

22:59

them to the gyms to use the lead magnets for their

23:01

customers. All they had to do was slap their

23:03

logo on it, and boom, their audience got to benefit

23:05

from all my work instantly. And

23:07

we both got more leads.

23:09

Two,

23:11

they sell their core offer, then they

23:13

upsell your lead magnet. Then you

23:16

upsell your core offer and every offer thereafter.

23:19

Affiliates sell your lead magnet. Basically,

23:22

the affiliate can sell anything of yours that turns

23:25

their customers into your customers. It could be a book,

23:27

an event, a service, a software, a sample product,

23:29

et cetera. Also, giving affiliates all

23:31

the cash from selling a lead magnet that you fulfill

23:33

becomes all profit and no work for them and

23:35

attract your proposition for any business. Your

23:38

money comes by selling your main

23:40

thing for more than it costs you to deliver your lead

23:42

magnet. And if you do it this way, you

23:44

don't need to split any money with them on your core

23:47

offer. Another win-win. Example,

23:49

they sell each of those things we gave away for

23:52

free in the step above. They sell your massage

23:54

at a discounted price. They sell your assessment,

23:56

which you could do one-on-one or in a group format like a

23:58

workshop. They sell... sell part one of

24:00

your multi-step solution.

24:02

What I did.

24:04

The gyms would sell a nutrition console with us

24:06

and keep the money. They'd

24:07

maybe charge $99 or $199 to sell an hour of our time. If

24:11

we were clever, we'd let them keep all the money. If

24:14

we do, they'll send even more leads. Then

24:17

we'd upsell our products during the console.

24:19

Three.

24:20

They sell their core offer, which is

24:22

the same as your core offer. You

24:25

upsell more stuff from there. Then

24:27

you split the money. Either you split the upfront

24:29

cash, all the cash for a certain period of time,

24:32

or all the cash forever. I prefer to pay

24:34

forever, so my affiliates stay motivated to keep my customer

24:36

forever. And I never cap payouts. Number

24:40

three. Affiliates sell your core offer. An

24:42

affiliate sells your core offer directly to their customers

24:44

and adds another source of income without extra work. For

24:47

some affiliates, this is their entire source of income.

24:50

Many companies offer this structure as either

24:53

a new business opportunity or a bolt-on

24:55

to the affiliate's existing business. Either

24:57

way, anything you sell, they can

24:59

sell. When you do it this way, the affiliate

25:01

will get a higher percentage of your lifetime gross profit, but

25:04

you won't have to do anything but deliver. Example.

25:07

They sell your entire massage package. They

25:09

sell your entire program or services. They

25:11

bundle their services with your paid services

25:14

and charge an even higher price.

25:16

What I did. We taught gyms to

25:18

hold nutrition consultations with white label products.

25:20

We then taught them to upsell our supplements right

25:23

to their members and we split the money. All

25:25

three strategies work. They're just different. After

25:27

testing, we continue to do strategy one

25:30

twice per year as a big event and strategy three on

25:32

an ongoing basis. That being said, many

25:34

similar businesses in our portfolio use strategy

25:37

two. I'm just sharing what worked for us.

25:39

Bottom line.

25:40

Integration is the long-term strategy for

25:42

using affiliates to get enduring lead flow. Treat

25:44

affiliates like customers. Make your offer make

25:47

sense for their business. Make it so good, they'd

25:49

feel stupid saying no.

25:50

Action step.

25:51

Integrate with your affiliates by choosing whether you want

25:53

them to give away your lead magnet, to sell your

25:55

lead magnet, or to sell your core offer directly.

25:58

Those are the six steps to recruiting. an affiliate army.

26:01

Now that we covered that, let me give you three real-life

26:04

case studies to drive this home.

26:06

Three case studies you can model.

26:07

Service business case study number one, national

26:10

tax preparation services. My

26:12

friend's $50 million business prepares

26:14

LLCs, bank caps, and articles of incorporation.

26:17

He focuses on people starting businesses for the first

26:19

time, but he doesn't try to compete with LegalZoom.

26:22

Instead, he built it partnering with people who train

26:24

new entrepreneurs. His strategy is simple, help

26:26

those people sell more of their stuff by also selling

26:29

his stuff. So he offers every affiliate's

26:31

customer a free LLC setup. Remember

26:33

learning about the high cost lead magnet from section

26:35

two? This is one of those.

26:37

Launch. He does a big blast off seminar to

26:40

his affiliate's audience to kick things off. People

26:42

happily take him up on his free LLC offer. That's

26:44

his lead magnet.

26:45

Integrate.

26:46

Once affiliates see the success of this launch, they integrate

26:48

his lead magnet into their core offer. Then my

26:51

friend's team gets on the phone with the customers

26:53

his affiliates bring him for free. Here's

26:55

how he makes his money.

26:56

He sells them what they'll need next.

26:58

The services they'll need to start their business, boatkeeping,

27:01

tax prep, et cetera. He hasn't spent a

27:03

dollar on paid ads. His true advertising

27:05

costs are two things. One, delivering

27:08

his free lead magnet, the LLC setup, and

27:10

two, paying a percentage of every first

27:13

sale to the affiliates that sent them. That's

27:15

it. And everybody wins. Physical

27:17

products case study number two, Prestige Labs,

27:20

my supplement company. We sell gym

27:22

owners at gym launch and train them how to advertise and sell

27:24

their gym memberships. Prestige Labs

27:26

has a line of supplements for active adults. This

27:29

makes gym launch a perfect affiliate for Prestige

27:31

Labs. It's a community of gym owners that also

27:33

have active adult customers. So when gym

27:35

launch sells a new gym owner, they introduce the gym owners

27:37

to Prestige Labs. Then Prestige Labs

27:40

team follows the launch that integrate strategy above.

27:42

We really do this.

27:44

Launch.

27:44

We give the gym owners advertising materials so they can

27:47

re-engage their current and former customers. We focus

27:49

on warm outreach and posting content for a free 28 day

27:51

challenge. When they come in for the free challenge, the

27:53

gym owner sells them supplements to use with the program.

27:56

The gym owner gets more customers, they make money, we

27:58

make money, everyone wins.

28:00

Integrate.

28:01

After the launch, we teach them to sell supplements to every

28:03

new gym member. So when new clients buy

28:05

a membership package, the gym owner sets up a nutrition orientation.

28:08

At the nutrition orientation, the gym owner sells them $50 to $1000

28:11

of supplements. So if a gym signs up 20

28:13

clients per month and gets 70% of them to buy

28:15

supplements, we get 14 new customers per month

28:18

per gym. It doesn't sound like much, but when you multiply 4,000

28:20

gyms times 14 new sales per month

28:22

times $200 average order, it equals a lot

28:24

of money every month. Local Business

28:26

Case Study 3. Chiropractors

28:29

Chiropractors want new patients, and a portfolio company of ours teaches

28:31

them to use an affiliate strategy to get them. Their

28:33

model is simple. Go to high volume businesses

28:35

that have people that are in need of adjustments.

28:37

A gym fits the bill nicely. Here's what

28:39

they do.

28:40

Launch. They get the gym owner to promote a 3

28:43

hour workshop where they show correct exercises

28:45

and posture to get more from their workouts. The

28:47

gym owner promotes the workshop for free or sells

28:49

the workshop for $29 to $99 a person. The

28:52

chiropractor splits the money with the gym owner. Hint.

28:55

If you give the affiliate, the gym owner in this case, 100% of the

28:57

money, they'll want to do it more. So

29:00

if a gym owner gets 30 people to show up for $99, they make $2,970 a profit for

29:02

zero work

29:05

besides a few emails and posts. At the workshop,

29:08

the chiropractor soft pitches their services and gets

29:10

a bucket of new patients.

29:11

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Integrate.

29:14

Long term, the chiropractor convinces the gym owner

29:16

to include one to two adjustments with every new membership

29:18

the gym signs up.

29:20

This increases the value of the gym membership

29:22

compared to the guy down the street. And it shows

29:24

the gym prioritizes its members' health and safety

29:26

a big concern for beginners.

29:28

And win. Now, every new gym

29:30

member becomes a lead for the chiropractor to follow

29:33

up with. They repeat this process with 30 gyms

29:35

and get more patients than they can handle.

29:37

Pro tip.

29:38

Employees are leads too. Companies

29:40

that hire a lot of people make great affiliates. This

29:43

is huge for directing consumer businesses and

29:45

wildly underused. Example. Every

29:48

new hire at a company gets a free massage in their new employee

29:50

packet. Or you can give free massages

29:52

to their employees at lunch. It's free, it's

29:55

easy, and lots of companies want to provide more value to their

29:57

teams. They get free value, you get

29:59

free leads. And since they're probably not in the same business

30:01

as you, there's no risk of you, quote,

30:03

competing with theirs. So employers can be

30:05

among the easiest affiliates to integrate with.

30:08

Cost and returns.

30:09

Affiliates can't work for my business, the loser said.

30:12

I have to make affiliates work for my business, the winner

30:14

said.

30:15

Be a winner.

30:16

When calculating returns with other methods, we compared

30:19

lifetime gross profit, LTGP, with cost

30:21

to acquire customer, CAC. So we spend

30:23

money to get customers and the customers in a profitable

30:25

business give us more money back. Affiliates

30:27

work differently. We spend money to get affiliates,

30:30

sure. We don't really make much back from affiliates

30:32

themselves. Instead, the money we spend

30:34

to get an affiliate comes back from the customers they

30:36

bring us. So to calculate returns,

30:38

we compare how much it costs us to get an affiliate with the gross

30:41

profit of all the customers they send to our business.

30:43

Example. Let's say we own a widget company

30:46

that grows with affiliates.

30:47

It costs us $4,000 in advertising

30:50

to get an affiliate. So CAC equals 4,000.

30:52

Our average affiliate sells $10,000 in

30:54

widgets per month and stays for 12 months. 10,000 per

30:57

month times 12 months equals 120,000 in

31:00

total sales. The

31:02

widgets have a 75% gross margin. In

31:04

other words, they cost 25% of retail price to make.

31:07

So 120,000 in total sales times 25% of total cost

31:09

of goods equals $30,000 total cost of goods. Now

31:15

we take the $120,000 total sales minus $30,000 total cost of goods equals $90,000

31:21

in gross profit from all the customers the affiliate brings.

31:24

We pay the affiliate 40% of gross profit. So $90,000

31:27

of gross profit times 40% payout equals $36,000 to the affiliate as payment.

31:34

Here's the gross profit we have left over after cost

31:36

of goods and payouts. $120,000 total

31:38

minus $30,000 cost of goods minus $36,000 payout equals 54,000 left over. So

31:45

let's find out our affiliate LTGP

31:47

to CAC ratio.

31:49

$54,000 of gross profit left divided by $4,000 to get an affiliate. 12.5 to 1,

31:53

not too shabby.

31:56

If you recall from earlier, we need at least 3

31:59

to 1 to have a decent business. Like the example,

32:01

we want the ratio to be even higher than that, 5 to 1, 10 to 1

32:03

plus. Now, if we had these

32:05

numbers, we'd just do more. But if your actual

32:08

LTGP to CAC is less than 3, here

32:10

are 3 ways to improve it.

32:11

Number 1. Lower CAC. We get affiliates

32:13

for less by improving our ads offer and sales

32:16

process.

32:16

2. Increase LTGP and Decrease

32:19

CAC. Get more to activate

32:21

by creating a launch process.

32:23

3. Increase LTGP. We

32:25

make them worth more by improving our integration

32:27

process long-term. With affiliates,

32:30

you have at least 2 layers of customers.

32:32

Your customers and the people who get you customers.

32:35

And if you've got super affiliates, you add a third. The

32:37

people who get you the people who get you customers. This

32:40

adds complexity, but if you can manage it, it's

32:42

worth it. Now that you understand how to use affiliates

32:44

to advertise and how to make them more profitable,

32:47

let's bring it all home.

32:48

Conclusion.

32:49

Like referrals, affiliates aren't an advertising

32:51

method you can do. They're people who advertise your

32:54

stuff to benefit you both. You do

32:56

the core 4 to get them, and if you want them to love

32:58

you, then you treat them like customers. Because

33:00

in a lot of the ways, they are. And if you

33:02

deliver more value to them than it costs to get them, especially

33:05

hitting costs, they'll get you more leads than you can

33:07

handle. And like we learned earlier, there

33:09

are 2 ways to create a compounding business. You

33:11

can find more people that never stop buying your

33:13

stuff, or you can find more people who

33:15

never stop selling it for you.

33:17

Referrals are the former, affiliates are the latter.

33:19

In theory,

33:20

once you build an affiliate army, you never need

33:22

to advertise again. They keep getting you leads month

33:25

after month. The main reason, it makes sense

33:27

for them. The way you do business, your leadership,

33:29

the value of your product all comes into play. You

33:31

are only as good as the goodwill you have with your

33:33

affiliate partners.

33:34

Arrange it right, and you should both be better off

33:36

from the relationship. And they

33:38

should be able to spend more dual-car customers through a more

33:41

compelling offer, higher profits, or both. In

33:43

return, you get more engaged leads. So

33:45

why doesn't everyone do this? They don't know it's

33:47

possible.

33:48

They don't know how, or they don't want

33:50

to. Simple as that. Hopefully,

33:52

we solved all 3 of those issues at once. Remember,

33:55

advertising always works, it's only a matter of efficiency.

33:58

So once you start, keep going.

33:59

until it works.

34:01

Action step, advertise your affiliate offer until

34:03

you get 10 to 20 affiliates.

34:05

Get results with those affiliates and use their feedback

34:07

to work the kinks out of your offer, terms,

34:09

launches, and integration strategy. Then,

34:12

scale like crazy by turning their results into your

34:14

first patch of affiliate lead magnets. Free

34:17

gift, build your affiliate army bonus. As

34:19

you can see, I'm a big fan of building affiliate programs

34:21

when they're done right. To help you do it right

34:24

on your first try, I made an in-depth video training

34:26

for you. You can get it free at acquisition.com

34:28

forward slash training, forward slash leads. Enjoy.

34:35

Section four, conclusion. Get lead

34:37

getters.

34:38

The last skill you ever need to learn is how to

34:40

get other people to do everything you need for you.

34:43

We do the core four to get engaged leads.

34:45

Form outreach, post content, cold outreach,

34:47

and paid ads. And we use them to get

34:49

two types of engaged leads. The ones that become

34:51

customers or the ones we turn into lead getters.

34:55

Lead getters come in four flavors. Referrers,

34:57

employees, agencies, and affiliates. Each

34:59

have key strengths.

35:01

Customer referrals have the biggest potential for low-cost

35:03

exponential growth.

35:04

Employees have your direct influence and run your

35:06

business on your behalf. Agencies

35:09

teach skills you keep forever

35:11

and can transfer to your team. Affiliates,

35:13

once you get them going, can operate entirely on

35:16

their own. You can either do the advertising

35:18

or other people can. And there are more, quote,

35:20

other people than there are of you. You get more leads

35:23

for the work you do when you have help.

35:24

So if you want to get a ton of leads, this

35:26

is the way.

35:28

Maybe your head is efficiently spinning. Now

35:30

that you understand these advertising methods, you see leads

35:32

everywhere you look. We have so many ways to grow.

35:35

And you'd be right, but you don't know which

35:37

one to focus on. Any or all of

35:39

these lead methods can underpin a successful

35:41

lead-getting strategy. And I put them in the order

35:43

of what happens naturally. If you start

35:45

on your own, you tend to get your first referrals before

35:48

you start building a big team. And

35:50

when you start building a big team, employees, you'll

35:52

probably start looking for professionals to help. And

35:55

only when a business owner has a handle on managing people

35:57

inside of their business do they need to get the go-ahead. to

36:00

try and manage people outside of their business, affiliates.

36:03

In any case, you have to forget the idea that everything

36:05

is going to work out the first time. If

36:07

you think you're going to become a millionaire the first year you go

36:09

out on your own, you're probably wrong. It's very unlikely.

36:12

And an obsession with getting rich quick will

36:15

likely ensure it never happens. People try

36:17

shortcuts for a decade until they realize they

36:19

should have picked a strategy and stuck with it for a decade. If

36:21

you do that, success is inevitable. Once

36:24

you find something that works for you, stick with

36:26

what you pick. Those are the best words

36:28

of encouragement I can offer. The

36:30

longer you play the game, the better you will get, and the more success

36:32

you will have. Just don't quit or

36:35

switch methods after seeing a few losses. It's

36:37

normal to lose in the beginning. In fact,

36:40

I expect to crack a new lead source in three to six

36:42

months, and this isn't my first rodeo.

36:44

So if your expectations are faster than that, do

36:46

you think your expectations are reasonable?

36:48

We covered a lot here. This section was

36:50

how you scale. You get other people to

36:53

help you. They are the missing link. Each

36:55

has their own strategy and best practices. Use

36:57

what applies to you now.

36:59

This leads us to section five,

37:01

get started. I wanna put everything together

37:03

for you in a nice bow so you know exactly what to

37:05

do next. Together, we'll eliminate

37:07

leads as the bottleneck in your business forever.

37:10

Onwards.

37:12

That concludes the second to last episode of

37:14

the $100 Million Leads podcast collab.

37:17

And in the spirit of affiliates and partners, I'm

37:19

gonna ask you to be an affiliate of mine, and

37:22

not in the way that you might expect. So you

37:24

might not know this, but many people charge for audiobooks.

37:26

That's a common trait. That's how most people do it. And they don't

37:28

even see that as like a brand ask. It's like, of course

37:31

you're gonna charge for an audiobook. But

37:33

I chose not to do that, despite spending probably

37:35

more time on this book than most people spend on their books, when

37:37

they just have ghostwriters pump them out so they can make 20 bucks on

37:39

everybody.

37:41

But here is my ask.

37:42

If you can be an affiliate of mine and send this

37:45

chapter or any chapters, or just the

37:47

first chapter of this book to somebody else, it

37:49

would mean the world to me, and maybe to them.

37:52

And something that you may not know that I found out

37:55

way too late in life is that when you introduce someone

37:57

to something valuable, they associate you with

37:59

the value. that you gave them. And so you can gain

38:02

relational capital by introducing new

38:04

people to valuable things. And so I hope that

38:06

I can be that channel for you. And

38:09

next we will have our very last episode that

38:11

will conclude the $100 million leads book. I'm

38:14

not even going to tell you what's in it. It's just going to be good because

38:16

who gets 10 chapters in and doesn't

38:18

finish the 11th. So I'll see you in the next one.

38:22

This has been $100 million leads

38:24

written by Alex Ramosi, read by

38:27

Alex Ramosi. Copyright 2023

38:29

acquisition.com audio production copyright 2023

38:33

acquisition.com media.