9 Ways to Promote Your Local Affiliate Clients

If you’re giving local affiliate marketing a try, you know that it’s essentially promoting a business at the local level.

This means in order to make sales or generate leads, you must get traffic to your sites that promote your business clients.

The following is a list of some ways you can use to get targeted traffic to your local affiliate marketing websites.

1.   SEO

Yeah, it’s an obvious one, but it must be included. See my free SEO guide setting out my SEO tips.

2.  Press Releases

I use press releases extensively to promote my local clients. I use PRWeb (I bought an annual subscription to radically reduce the price per press release).

In order to send out a press release, it should contain some form of announcement or news about the business you promote. At first glance this may seem difficult … but it’s not.

I send out press releases promoting my local business clients on the following news items:

• new hires
• discounts/sales
• new locations
• new websites (only my sites promoting the business)
• events
• developments within the business
• new services/products
• new free guides or books I’ve written to promote the firm (that are informative)

In fact, you can create news on your sites promoting the business simply by creating a new video, a new report … whatever. If it’s new, it’s news. You aren’t dependent on the business coming up with news.

The more press releases you send that actually contain news, the more local buzz you can generate. The backlinks are good too.

3.  E-newsletters

Why not do the old e-mail marketing? Just be careful not to annoy too many prospects. After all, you’re promoting another business. Do it tastefully and don’t spam.

4.  Kindle Book

I haven’t done this yet, but I have a book in development that provides about 50 pages of information my clients’ customers would find helpful. I’ll then create a free Kindle book (I may charge for it … I’ll have to research this further). Inside the book, I’ll promote the business and include links to MY website that promotes the business (for tracking purposes).

5.  Coupon packs

I haven’t done this and won’t because the business I promote isn’t one that serves a large portion of the population. However, if you promote a business that offers something many people need (such as a mechanic), why not try a small coupon mailing. Most local newspapers and perhaps your postal service offers coupon packs in which you can have a coupon included.

This would work best I think, if you can get your client to offer a discount to include on the coupon.

Again, be sure the coupon lists your websites that promote your client’s business.

6. JVs with related / complementary local businesses

If your client operates a business whose customers are also customers of complementary businesses, see if you can pay to advertise in their e-newsletter (or print newsletter if they have one) or do an adswap.

Again, ensure traffic goes to the site you operate promoting your client.

7. Flyers handed out in a restaurant

I haven’t done this (because my clients serve a very small part of the community), but I think it can be great for the right business who offers something many people in the community need (dental services).

I learned about this firsthand. I was at a restaurant with my hudband and we were handed a $20 off coupon (it was nicely done up on thicker paper … not really a coupon) for all spa services at a local spa. Brilliant. I actually went to the spa and got a massage for $20 off.

Anyway, restaurants serve a huge variety of people. They aren’t complementary to spas except that some restaurant guests do use spas (or will with the right discount).

8. YouTube

I haven’t perfected videos for my clients yet, but I’m working on it. It’s hard because my client doesn’t want to pay for quality video footage (and neither do I). So I’m relegated to informative slideshow videos. I’m working on making them more professional. However, it’s hard because in my industry, competitors are investing big bucks in highly polished videos.

That said, I think video is worth trying once you have some decent SEO happening.

9. Paid advertising online

I’ve used Facebook ads (not terribly great), Google Adwords (excellent) and Plenty of Fish (not great for my client, but may be great for some industries).

With all three of the above paid advertising options, you can target locations, which is why they’re worth trying. The downside is you put money at risk … but if it pays, it pays off well. I’ve had the most success with Adwords and local affiliate marketing.

Online is still my focus

Despite many offline opportunities, I tend to focus promoting online. The reason for this is work I do up-front works for me indefinitely (except for paid online advertising). My aim is to get a consistent sales flow going so I don’t have to spend too much time each month promoting my local clients. So far I’ve succeeded with 2 of 3 services offered. The third is the most competitive (it’s the most lucrative) so I continue hammering away at it.