What are the Best Ways to Promote ClickBank Products in 2012?

With the New Year approaching I have been thinking about the best ways to market ClickBank products in the coming year. Although much has changed since I began marketing with ClickBank nearly 13 years ago, many of the same marketing principles and practices still hold true. Trust, integrity, transparency, communication, and honesty are the cornerstones for a successful ClickBank business and ever more so in today’s online environment.
What’s been interesting to observe over the years is how the Internet has transformed from a place of anonymity to a place of ever growing transparency. The days of hiding behind a website and selling your products anonymously are quickly disappearing. With the advent of more social tools and resources on the web, people are increasingly buying from those they know and trust. In addition, a person or company’s reputation is becoming ever more important as every comment about a customer experience is now shared, spread, and stored indefinitely on the web.

With the increasing demand for reputable, honest, and responsible merchants I think it’s fitting to say that in 2012 the best way to promote ClickBank products will be to adopt sound business practices by…
Engaging with video – The Internet is a social medium. In order for people to trust and buy from you, engaging with them to build and maintain trust is imperative. Video is powerful because this allows you to engage your visitors in a way you simply cannot do otherwise. You need to be putting your face out there; you need to let people see and hear exactly who you are. Gimmicky infomercial type videos without a real person in them and videos with a fake voice and only screenshots may work for now, but going forward they will lose out to credible videos with real people who engage and connect.

Standing out with social media – The Internet is only growing and increasing numbers of people are signing up for ClickBank every day. It’s now easier to get lost in the sea of noise, and as a result you MUST be unique and you MUST connect with your audience. A great way to do this is to engage with past, present, and potential customers using social media. By engaging with people you’ll immediately stand out as someone they can get to know, trust, and buy from. Make sure your business or website has a social media presence and you’re using that to engage.
Delivering more value – In the past, customers were not as Internet savvy and there weren’t as many places for them to share their bad experiences. Today is a different story. Word spreads even faster with sites like FaceBook and people are looking to others for instant recommendations through Twitter. One of the easiest ways to build trust and deliver value is to simply live up to your promises. If you want to take your business to the next level then under promise and over deliver. If you can do that you’ll be doing more than the majority of affiliates and vendors, and you’ll also be one of the few marketers that people want to buy from over and over again.
Thinking long term – So many people online start out thinking they can make loads of money by finding some loophole in the system or exploiting some secret tactic only a few know about. As we get into 2012 these little known tactics have all but disappeared. For example, this year, Google made many significant changes in their search algorithm, decreasing the traffic to countless websites overnight who were trying to game the system with poor content and low quality inbound links. If you want to build a sustainable business in 2012 you need to stop playing games for a quick buck and start building your business for long term success.
Learing from the past – As we move forward into 2012 we shouldn’t forget the lessons we learned in 2011. This year we watched as ClickBank implemented stricter guidelines and tighter regulations in regards to quality and transparency for their vendors. We saw Google change their search engine algorithm focusing more on original unique content that provides value. We also saw the launch of Google Plus, another social network which forces you to use your real name and identity. As you can see, all of these changes are heading in the direction of value, trust, and openness.
In 2012 I only see the trends of transparency, integrity, and trust continuing. More and more we’ll see a move toward honest and ethical business practices, which will certainly be the best way to promote your ClickBank product in 2012 and beyond!