Joint Venture Marketing: 7 Most Common Questions Answered
Free Download
The Ultimate
Sales Copy Blueprint for Super Busy Experts and Entrepreneurs
A complete 5-step system for writing sizzling hot sales copy, without investing 1,000s of hours to become a "world class" copywriter or spending 1,000s of dollars to hire one:
We respect your privacy. Your email is 100% safe with us, never shared for any reason!
Affiliate programs and joint ventures are where you enlist other business owners to drive traffic to your website and help sell your products.
They’re essentially two sides of the same coin.
So for the sake of simplicity, I’ll just refer to them here as a joint venture.
When done well, things can get really exciting in your business really fast.
In fact, a single joint venture – with the right partner – can launch your business into the stratosphere at warp speed!
But that’s not going to happen unless you’ve properly planned for it.
So to help you do that, here’s answers to the 7 most common questions we get asked about joint ventures.
Featured Article
Special Training Series
February 21, 2019
March 7, 2019
March 21, 2019
April 4, 2019
April 18, 2019
#1: What's a Joint Venture Program?
A joint venture program is a performance-based program that offers commissions to partners who promote your products and services.
In simple terms:
1. Someone sends you a prospect
2. You turn that prospect into a buyer
3. You split the revenue from that buyer with your partner
You’re not paying for advertising that may or may not result in a sale.
You’re only paying for results.
So it’s a low-risk revenue share model, and a very cost-effective way to drive targeted traffic to your sales message.
It doesn’t cost you a penny until after the sale is made.
One of the worst things you can do is launch a joint venture program before you have a proven product and a proven sales message.
Your partner is taking a big risk mailing your offer.
If they get burned (i.e. very little or no sales from their efforts), I can almost guarantee they will never mail for you again.
So just because you can get someone to mail for you, doesn’t mean you should.
At least not until you have a marketing campaign that’s converting.
That means you should have a proven product, a proven offer, and a proven sales message.
Having an established track record of product sales and conversion rates also makes it a whole lot easier to recruit partners in the first place.
Start building relationships with key players in your market now. Then approach them with your offer once you’ve got proven results to share with them.
Put the focus on making money for your partner, and you’ll make money in return.
Who else is publishing and selling in your market?
You should know who every thought leader, expert, or “guru” is in your specific marketplace.
What’s more, you should be on their mailing list and be familiar with every product they sell.
You can also start by researching other products in your market.
For example, if you sell products or services that teach people how to play the piano, go to Google and search for “affiliate program: teach piano.”
Then research other key channels in your niche:
- Blogs
- Online forums
- Ezines or newsletters
- Social media
You’ll quickly find a whole bunch of experts you can start building a relationship with for future cross-promotions.
There are two primary ways to manage a joint venture program.
First, you can run a “self hosted” program which means you run it yourself.
You use specialized software that’s installed on your own servers, you manage and track everything yourself, and you send the checks out to your partners.
It gives you more control, but it’s a whole lot more work to manage.
Second, there’s the “hosted” solution where you use third-party software to track and manage everything for you. All you have to do is send out the checks.
We use, and recommend, an all-in-one e-commerce platform like Kartra that’s designed to handle all of your email marketing, order processing, customer data collection and follow-up, marketing campaign automation, and more.
In a nutshell, Kartra manages and tracks all of your partners for you.
It gives your partners access to a control center for links, stats, and support material … and it tells you how much to pay them at the end of the month.
A third option, if you really want a “hands off” solution, is an affiliate network such as Clickbank, JVZoo, CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction), Market Health or ShareASale.
These affiliate marketing networks list and connect potential partners, and they handle the entire transactional lifecycle.
They keep track of commissions, collect the money for you, and even pay the commissions.
The upside is ease and speed in getting your joint venture marketing in place.
The downside is a lack of control and customer data.
The answer is, it depends.
In the online marketing community, a 50/50 split is pretty standard for an evergreen product where there isn’t any extra work involved beyond delivering the product.
If the seller has to provide one-on-one attention, such as consulting time, the split may be weighted more toward the person selling the product.
A good first step is to start with what other affiliate programs in your market are offering.
Consider offering a performance incentive to partners who bring you a lot of high-converting traffic.
These types of partners are generally referred to as Super Affiliates.
There’s no reason you have to give every partner the same commission structure.
The simple answer: The more, the merrier.
You want to make it drop-dead-easy for your partners to promote you.
That means giving them cut-and-paste marketing copy and materials that they can just drop into their websites and autoresponders:
- Email swipe copy
- Banner ads
- Customized registration pages
- Social media posts (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)
- Etc, etc, etc
Most of all, you should have a high-converting evergreen sales webinar or lead generation magnet that your partners can offer to their lists.
Don’t just expect them to send traffic to a stale, boring website.
If you don’t have a proven money-making campaign, complete with swipe copy, you need to create one immediately.
And don’t ask potential partners to promote you until you have one.
#2: What's the Best Time to Launch a Joint Venture Program?
#3: How Do I Recruit the Right Joint Venture Partners?
#4: What Type of Software Should I Use to Run My Joint Venture Program?
#5: What's a Good Joint Venture Commission?
#6: What Marketing Materials and Other Resources Should I Provide for My Partners?
#7: How Do I Effectively Manage and Motivate My Partners?
At the end of the day, keep the Golden Rule in mind and remember that the more money they make, the more money you make.
Treat them like gold, because that’s what they are.
Pay them consistently and on time.
Offer contests and incentives. Anything goes. I’ve seen just about everything on the table including cash, iPads, laptops, trips, cruises, and even cars.
Provide regular communication and support, including email updates, newsletters, partner websites, or anything else that allows you to effectively keep in touch.
Be there when they need you, and get back to them quickly.
Above all, keep the 90/10 principle in mind. 90% percent of your sales will come from 10% of your partners. In many cases, you’ll find it’s closer to 98/2.
So focus 90% of your energy on the 10% of high performers.
And never underestimate the power of a few good joint venture partners to transform your business in the blink of an eye.
Until next time!
Paul
10 Quick-Start Business Blueprints for Passion Fueled Profits