New affiliates have to learn a great amount of industry-specific terms to understand the basics of the business. SOI is usually among the first such terms you‘ll encounter. Affie firmly believes you should take the time to learn the basics so you don‘t get overwhelmed and give up before you have even really started. Hence, we are here to teach you all about SOI offers in affiliate marketing.
What is SOI?
Single opt-in offers, or SOI for short, is a type of affiliate offers especially suitable for beginners. This is true since the affiliate gets paid after a single user action – most often submitting their email address or filling out a form. This is the only step needed to complete conversion in this type of offer. In other words, this is the easiest method of getting your visitors to complete a conversion and become leads.
On the other hand, there are DOI (double opt-in) offers that require the user first to do one action, and then confirm it, again usually via email. DOI evolved from SOI to prevent affiliates from using bots and entering fake email addresses themselves to profit. Since there are some ways to cheat this system, we recommend you to learn how to detect bot traffic in a few easy steps first.
SOI Offers in Affiliate Marketing: SOI method
SOI offers are the easiest way to generate leads and grow a mailing list. However, it is no secret that getting someone to give you their email address isn‘t easy. People do not like reading through tons of spam. Hence, they often resort to giving a fake email address which is impossible to track if you don‘t send out a confirmation link in an email. In other words – you will have to give your visitors a strong incentive to trust you with their emails before you get them. The more popular methods include
- Temporary free memberships
- Coupons and codes
- Free ebooks on the topic at hand
- Tickets to an online lottery
After the visitor submits their email address, they will start receiving promotional emails from the company or the affiliate. The goal of these emails is to turn the visitor into a customer by getting them to purchase something – a different type of conversion. Hence, it is important for your site to look as enticing as possible, and be easy to use. This especially applies to your landing pages. A good SOI landing page focuses on the benefits of submitting your data, has a layout that frames it as a logical next step, and contains a compelling call to action.
There can be a reason for concern, especially if you are only starting your affiliate business. Some companies and affiliates alike will sell the user‘s information to other companies offering similar products or services, as it is an easy profit. This can, in turn, affect the reputation and visitor satisfaction, and overall experience. Hence, we implore you to check affiliate forums and find out if anyone has had a bad experience before you accept the offer.
SOI marketing
As we have stated previously, SOI is a way to generate leads. The next step is SOI marketing, or, in other words – using the email addresses to advertise products and services. This means crafting a compelling newsletter that will offer valuable content and opportunities. Again, if you spam your visitors, or offer nothing of value, it is very likely your emails will end up in the recycle bin. Hence, it is important to use other forms of advertising as well, such as social media. Consider the leads you get through SOI offers to be just the baseline you need to improve upon and give even more incentives to.
SOI Offers in Affiliate Marketing: How can affiliates use SOI?
Affiliate publishers themselves can use SOI for lead generation on their own websites. This way you can include your promotional links into email newsletters, and see if that raises your conversion rate. The truth of the matter is – you will need to remind visitors of your offers and get them excited to view your content as well.
The most important piece of advice we can give you is to use your emails to instill trust. Don’t abuse the fact someone gave you their email address, but offer some value after the fact instead. Present your offers truthfully and in a timely manner, so you don‘t fill their inboxes with a bunch of unnecessary emails. When it comes to email marketing – less truly is more.
How SOI relates to your content
As you probably can guess, getting many leads through SOI campaigns means nothing if those users opt-out before actually completing a conversion. In that case, you have gone through the hassle of planning the campaign, creating a landing page, and getting new leads – all in vain.
That is why you should take the time to make sure you have done everything in your power to make going through with purchasing the logical thing to do. You should see SOI lead generation as a jumping-off point for your campaigns. You must make sure to bring your audience content with actual substance. Them being on your mailing list is what makes it easier to spread this content, and it has to be good enough to capture your audience‘s attention. In other words, getting the leads is only the start, and the work continues with you crafting compelling articles, videos, podcasts, or a combination of all three. If your voice is new and interesting, you have some expertise or look at a familiar topic from a new angle, your leads will turn into paying customers in no time.
As you can see, an SOI campaign isn‘t difficult to execute and can open a lot of doors for you if you combine it with great content and enticing products.