When you sell a product, it is important to understand precisely what it is you’re selling. As an affiliate marketer this is even more crucial to consider as you might not necessarily have a complete understanding of something that you didn’t create yourself.
What this really means, is understanding the ‘value proposition’. And essentially, this means understanding how the product really benefits the person who is buying it. Understanding this is what will allow you to truly communicate the USP of your product in such a way that people actually want to buy it.
What is a Value Proposition?
The best way to understand this is by recalling the old saying:
“You don’t sell hats, you sell warm heads”
In other words: people buy hats as a means to an end and that in this case, is a warm head.
You’re probably not selling a hat but rather a digital product such as an eBook. So what is that a means to an end for? If the eBook is about getting great abs, then that end is abs but it’s also probably confidence and maybe even a better love life. People want abs because they want to feel good and look attractive.
If you’re struggling to work out what your value proposition is, then you can try using the ‘five whys’. This means asking why people are buying something… five times. Why do they buy your eBook? And why do they want that? Why? Why? Why?
By the end, you should have gotten to the ultimate motivation that makes your product attractive.
Selling the VP
Once you know this, you can now use this incentive as your main bargaining chip in all of your marketing talk. Recognize that people buy things based on their emotions – so use the value proposition as your emotional hook and you should get a lot more sales as a result.