Hello, black-hats!
We, the affiliate marketers, know that the client needs to be warmed up before making a sale. Especially nutra guys understand how important this is.
Just like that, straightforwardly, the CR will be weak, and it's unlikely that anyone will buy anything. It's better not even to start experiments; I tried a couple of times out of interest, and there's little sense in it. The pre-lands for all advertisers are of the same type, there's nothing special there to surprise our "patients."
How can we warm them up? How do they do it in Nutra, and how do "normal" white supplement brands do it? Let's study, compare, and find a golden mean that can be used in funnels to make the conversion more enjoyable and pay off faster.
Pre-lands are on our side; we can change this variable as we want. With landing pages, the situation is a bit more complicated; not many advertisers agree to change the pre-lands on their side. You either have to have a good relationship with such an advertiser or find reasonable people who will adapt. (Find me!) It's easy with pre-lands; you just fix them.
Of course, depending on the sub-vertical, the pre-lands also differ. Warming up the keto audience (women) is different from potency (men) or offers for the elderly. Different approaches and promises work in different geos. But today we'll try to capture a little bit of everything so that new thoughts come to mind, and perhaps an interesting combination is devised.
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Why warm them up?
Those who worked in ordinary e-commerce, like Shopify, etc., remember such a standard - the standard conversion in online retail is 1%; if you have 2-2.5%, then you're the boss. Nutra and supplements are the kind of goods that can provide a stable CR of 4-6%, even 8-10% for some brands, advertisers. I would say 2-2.5% is the minimum for Nutra SS/Trial and Supplements.
We understood why we need to warm up. We do that to increase conversion, EPC, and other important metrics by which you measure your funnel. We, people, are a bit animalistic (a lot), and we need to be interested, tickled in our complexes, before making some important decision. For example, parting with $100+ on an unfamiliar website is one of those decisions. There are a bunch of studies on how feelings and emotions influence our actions and decision-making. Especially with the target audience that buys Nutra. The first stage of decision-making is emotional, the second is "to think." With the help of the pre-lands, we tickle the first phase - emotions, feelings.
What feelings, emotions do we need to evoke in the buyer to break through these 0.5-1% conversion and rise to 5-6+% CR? Let's speculate:
Trust. During the warming-up process, we establish trust in the product. Health is a very personal and sensitive issue. In Nutra, it's often intimate. Text about the drug, video, review, customer feedback, social proof can help with this.
Pressing on Complexes. If you're John from Utah and you have a small fortune in your pants, you probably have some complexes and dream of raising a dragon in your cage. You're trusting and naive, saw an article on Facebook, something like in Men's Health.. About how wives cheat on guys like you, and gammis will help solve all the problems! It clicked under the rib, need to take 5 jars for $200!
Giving Hope. The main thing here is not to overdo it and not to drive the devil openly. I wouldn't promise a person that they'll be cured of complex diseases like diabetes, hepatitis, etc., it's not kosher. But raising a dragon in a cage, that's another story! Harmless.
Interest. People are curious; you need to be able to intrigue them and not overdo it. Oprah lost 40 pounds with the help of Keto potions, I can do it too!
Awareness. Creating an initial level of awareness about our product, especially if we're selling something little-known and new. And in Nutra, almost all products can be attributed to this category.
Pleasure and comfort, laziness. People are lazy and don't want to spend time and energy solving their problem through long and working methods. It's okay to deceive them that a pill from the internet will decrease or increase some part of their body.
Urgency: A sense of urgency, for example, through a limited offer or promotion that is valid for a certain period. Oooonly today, time's ticking!
And other feelings that can push him/her to part with money. Put yourself in the "patient's" shoes and think from your perspective. I stutter a bit, and if there was a boom in Nutra against stuttering, I would create super pre-lands because I know the pain of people with stuttering. Here you need to be a bit of a psychologist.
A minute of theory. Funnel
Before writing, let me touch on what a funnel is for those who are in the dark. I drew it for my white brand, on my knee. Because of this, I remember about retargeting and UGC here. In black-hat, there's also retargeting, on the advertiser's side. Maybe I'll describe it in another text. If there's an error in the funnel scheme, forgive me, the honor student.
I placed the pre-land in the second place from the top. It's an integral part of the funnel. A pre-land can be text, video, influencer, etc. This part of the funnel can be called interest. And the advertisement, the top of the funnel, is awareness. Well, and below, of course, everything is striving towards sales.
If there's no pre-land/interest in the funnel, the profitability of any online sale will be broken.
What to warm up with?
- What are the options for warming up?
- Standard affiliate marketing pre-lands.
- Review articles, informative ones.
- Articles comparing several products.
- Quizzes, calculators, questionnaires.
- Videos, YouTube, VSL, etc.
- Social networks, influencers.
Let's go through each of them, look at examples, links, and screenshots. I like to compare white-hat and black-hat Nutra/Supplement. I work on both fronts, and in this note, I described a bit of both approaches.
Standard affiliate marketing pre-lands
There are a bunch of them; affiliates have come up with all sorts of things! I won't list them all; it will get too long. I'll touch on those that recently flashed in my funnels.
Fake articles using celebrities, doctors.
As an advertiser, I cross these lands and say "God forbid." It can cost and hurt a lot. Some of my American advertiser acquaintances had such a sad experience. Lawsuits for several million dollars because affiliates used stars in the pre-land. In the US, courts are an expensive pleasure + you can go to jail.
Affiliate marketers know that sometimes this is a working scheme. But people are slowly getting smarter and not falling for such tales. And if the advertiser finds out that you're indulging in such things, they may not pay. Ask before doing such things.
Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz, popular guys in the US. Affiliates pester them all over. But I wouldn't pour on that; it's an outdated story.
Fake articles using well-known resources, shows
How many years has this pre-land been around? Does it work for anyone in the US? I've been seeing it every other day in Google for a couple of years. We tested it many times, nothing works out
Timer, a comment block from 2016. Cannes lion taken. I could tell the names and photos from the comment block by heart after a couple of minutes of preparation :)
There are many such pre-lands; I don't want to chew them over. You've seen them already: Shark tank, Oprah, scientific sensations of the student, etc. Maybe it works on new geos for SS/Trial or through some new sources. Of course, if you rework it, come up with your own fairy tale, it might work. You need to test.
Fake articles, adult-oriented
This approach works if you work with it correctly and take something of your own or something fresh. Of course, it works for ME offers, not really for others, unfortunately. This is where we promise to raise a dragon and that the wife won't go anywhere. If the same song is sung on the landing page, the puzzle may come together.
Of course, all these pre-lands are only used for Noutrovets. A normal white supplement brand won't risk its reputation and deceive the buyer like that.
Let's move on to pre-lands that can be used by both Nutra and supplement brands.
Review articles, informative ones.
SEO style. In 98% of cases, they are paid or specially placed articles.
This is a standard marketing approach. Essentially the same as what was written above, but without shocking content and sensations. Both black-hat and white-hat players use it.
A minute of theory
Black-hats working with SEO traffic occupy search engine rankings with such articles, both free and paid placements. White brands do the same, but they carefully write articles, and their links are better and more weighty. Why? Because white players play the long game, and it's important for them to raise their domain in the rankings through these links. Nutra brands mostly don't care about their domains; they can change several times a year. Buying links and placements is called link building.
Let's see how Supplement brands do it; I'll show a couple of examples.
For example, the brand Nutrafol. They're cool and big guys, their office is across the street from me, in NY. This is a white supplement brand that fights against hair loss. They write and order many cool articles, reviews.
They write in different styles, place them on authoritative sites.
And now let's look at a Nutra brand. The quality of the material and the site is not as elegant as that of Nutrafol, even though they tried. Teaser headlines, shock content.
Not a single photo, the text doesn't contain anything valuable for a normal buyer. All about exposing and dissecting the "super effective formula."
Search for such reviews on Google. Compare the black and white approach. You, a normal adult, what would you fall for before making a purchase? That's right, I would probably go for quality and useful material.
And now, a moment of observation
I told my wife, she's not interested in hearing about my penis pills. Maybe the nutra guys will be interested :(
Type SS/ Trial offer that you pour on USU in Google from an American IP and you will most likely see the first article in the output about this miracle drug on outlookindia.com. This is a site with a relatively good DA on which a majority of good advertisers buy links and articles. There will be a lot of prelands, which I wrote about above. But when you search for "Keto" etc on it, nothing comes up. I think it's a bit of a joke to post there, even though the link is relatively inexpensive. But normal reputable sites do not sell us, advertisers, links and articles on their pages about miracle pills for penis and weight loss. Okay, this is already a little different field.
Articles comparing several products.SEO style
A very similar approach to the previous one, but several products are taken, and an engaging and useful text is written in which a certain drug wins compared to others.
Various tricks are used to highlight a particular product. They put scores on a 10-point scale, arrange them from top to bottom, do not add links to "losing" products, and so on.
A popular approach in the black and white camps.
And here's the native Nutra. Well, they tried, not bad!
Reviews are a cool type of pre-lands that can convert well. But there are nuances.
I'm telling you a scheme from personal experience that has pros. We ordered jars of Keto Nutra competitors and took our own. We took photos of these jars on the iPhone and created a long native review article. Of course, my brand is number one - link, rating 10/10, recommendations from nutritionists, etc. It turned out natural, and people fall for it. Where did I get the idea? From AG1, a white brand. Look for a screenshot of that pre-land in the previous article.
p.s. sometimes you can find photos of competitors' jars on the internet and save money without buying them.
Here's another idea for you! Real reviews or product comparisons on Reddit, Quora, etc.
Here's another great example {link}
Quizzes, calculators, questionnaires.
I love this funnel in both white and black approaches. Why?
- People are drawn to such "interaction"; it's interesting.
- You can hook them with their complexes and desires in the questions.
- The client feels the "personalization" of the offer, the feeling that the product is specially selected for them.
- A high-quality and well-thought-out quiz looks trustworthy and professional.
They are used in many niches: dating, crypto, white goods, and of course in our native Nutra and supplements.
An example of black magic. They disguise them as Reddit, hospital sites, popular publications, etc.
At the end of the quiz, you can lead to another pre-land, for example, a "hospital" that had the quiz or shock content. Or straight to the offer's landing page.
White quizzes are nicer and more thoughtful. Questions are factual and not excessive. They often add them directly to the site, as a CTA button in a prominent place. Because it's a working thing!
Excuse me for no hair and no penises and shock content :(
The quiz button in a prominent place on the site.
The questions and answers are interesting. Ask your girlfriend/wife to take it, and you'll likely get stuck on $100+ hair cosmetics at https://actandacre.com/pages/quiz-1. I got stuck :(
Here are a few more cool ones:
- https://rawbotanics.com/pages/quiz
- https://actandacre.com/pages/quiz-1
- https://ro.co/hair-loss/
- If you're interested, knock, and I'll send you some more in private messages.
Where can you collect quizzes?
Many options, here are a couple of working ones:
- https://www.involve.me/templates?category=quiz
- https://www.typeform.com/
layout designer for a few dollars will make drafts for you in a couple of hours
Youtube, VSL, and other videos as pre-lands.
Videos before the offer are used in many niches. It can be long, as in crypto/forex, or half a minute, as in dating or e-commerce. It can be an hour, as in VSL, or 15-second stories. Directly on the pre-land or separately, on YouTube, or in social networks. A lot of options. In Nutra, a popular story is fake reviews on YouTube and VSL.
As with articles, the difference in approaches between black magic products and white products is very different. Black magicians usually don't bother and stick trash with an AI talking head. With a video sequence cut from screenshots and a voiceover. Or small fraudster-bloggers who shoot "reviews". I have done and ordered such works for my offers; it's embarrassing to watch. You can type in Google some "keto offer review" and be inspired by this shame:
The comments in such videos are a separate art form.
Meanwhile, Supplement brands approach the issue very sensibly, ordering professional reviews from bloggers, with a beautiful picture and presentation:
the white guys have it all nice
Of course, brands pay money for this, or you can agree on an affiliate link. But it's not embarrassing to show people such content.
Video is a top tool; it works very well in the white story. We are actively testing it. Often, these are plus tests. A purchase with video reviews often costs less than with paid traffic. But this is also work, and you need to find an influencer and an audience that will convert.
Unfortunately, I don't know the conversion of Nutra with video. But I see that all my black magic offers and the offers of my acquaintances are in those embarrassing YouTube reviews and new videos are constantly being added. Affiliates working with such traffic post these videos; I don't get involved there. Every week a new "shameful" review appears, probably it somehow works.
Social networks as pre-lands
I'll tell you about a cool case that you probably haven't heard of. Facebook groups of brands with customers are a popular topic in the Supplements industry in the US.
For example, the Obvi brand group has 70k followers. They lure people into this group with email newsletters from abandoned carts, advertisements, after ordering in Thank you emails, etc. And when a person enters this group, their doubts can quickly be dispelled, and they will either buy or make a repeat purchase from Obvi. The posts look super native, people share how many pounds they've lost, write comments, and like. The perfect crime.
Such groups are created to warm up and increase retention rate.
I haven't thought about how to apply this to Nutra yet, but it seems like a brilliant idea to me. Write to me if you want to try something like this; I'll be happy to experiment.
I won't go into detail here about Instagram or Facebook posts as pre-lands. An Instagram post is a pre-land at the bare minimum. But Nutra brands don't use social media, they don't bother. And it's a big mistake because such things with social activity greatly increase trust. Even among scammers.
What other pre-land options are there?
There are a few more tricks. But you have to work, not just show off (((I'll write about them in another note.
You definitely shouldn't do such things
I added this screenshot after writing the article. It's painful. Affiliates often send me such pre-lands. The screenshot I left is a decent example; often it's just a photo of a jar and a clumsy CTA button "VISIT THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE".
Why are you doing this, my dear?? What do you want to tell the client with this invention? Save the money you'll pour down the drain on this and take your lady on a date instead.
How to find pre-lands?
You know them better than me. Spies, Google search with a US IP. Or Offervault - the offer name - Google search. Porn sites can also give you ideas (for work purposes).
Which one to work with?
This is the most interesting and painful question. It depends primarily on the product you're promoting, the Geo, the source. Of course, it's better to use fresh ones or create your own, but you can create "your own" if you're into the material and understand the approach at least.
When we work with affiliates and promote something together, I often ask them to show me what they use in the pre-land. They proudly show their "own" pre-lands, and they make me smile. For example, the guys just replace Oprah with Kardashian and the CNN news header with some Forbes. Or they change the photos in an old pre-land without changing the story/text or stupidly don't change the product names, and so on. Quite creative))
By "your own," I mean come up with some new story, a completely new celebrity. If you're promoting Keto, ask some girlfriend based in the US to come up with some trends from here, new stars who were overweight and lost weight. For example, a trend for the female audience - Anti-Bloating remedies, celebrity - Ashley Graham, and so on.
Bloating has been a super trend here for the last couple of years; suddenly, girls started to worry about it a lot. Type in Adheart, TikTok: bloating, and you'll understand what I mean. Supplement brands are all over this bloating. Superfood mixes, gummies, weight loss pills, collagens promise to help with bloating, among other things. Well, why not promise something trendy like that, "patients" of Keto gummies or other nutra for the female audience.
Study the Geo, trends, and audiences you work with more deeply. And another piece of advice, ask the affiliate managers about their approaches. Don't be afraid to show them your pre-land; they can suggest and definitely won't steal this treasure from you. But don't trust newbie managers. Look for a competent beast.
I'll write separate texts soon about which pre-lands to choose for different nutra/supplement niches.
How to create pre-lands?
The easiest way is to download them with some utility like Sitesucker (for Mac) or WebScrapbook Chrome Extension, or there are site downloaders for pre-lands. Or the old good Ctrl + S in Windows or Command + S in macOS. You can assemble them in some Weblow or WordPress plugins, lots of options. Check the page in Google Page Speed to ensure the loading is okay and go into battle.
Outro
Pre-lands are an important element of the funnel in Nutra and supplements; you can't do without them. Nutra people need to change their approaches, adapt to the audience, and be creative in new ways. Americans aren't as dumb as the affiliate marketers on the other side of the shore might think.
I wish you to create a pre-land that won't marinate the client but warm them up.
If you're interested in going into the positive or discussing my favorite Nutra, knock!
At the request of hard workers, I created the Sirka channel. There will be my previous and upcoming notes. And my smart friends, black magicians, and marketers will post something useful and interesting there.
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Wishing you all wealth and goodness!
