Welcome to Wear Wag Repeat Podcast Episode 54: How to Sell Without Being Salesy. No matter what you do in the pet industry, you have a business and that means you’re trying to sell something to someone. I hear from people all the time that they don’t want to appear “salesy” so they tiptoe around what they’re offering. In this episode, I’ll let you in on a little secret mind shift I made so that I never feel sleazy and salesy. I’ve learned how to authentically and effortlessly sell sponsorships, items in my online shop, signups in my online course and influence purchases through affiliate sales.

HOW TO SELL WITHOUT BEING SALESY

What is the mind shift I made to become authentic about sales?

If you’re always authentically you and you really believe in what you’re selling to people, then no one’s going to think you’re sleazy. No one’s going to think you’re salesy because you are an authentic person and you’re passionate about what it is that you do. So let me give you a few examples. If you are an influencer on Instagram or a blogger, you may try to generate some revenue through affiliate links. That’s a great way to get some income on your social media and your blogs. A lot of people promote those things in a way that is not authentic or organic to the rest of their feed. And that is when it might come across as being a little salesy. But if you are only promoting products that you truly believe in, then you’ll see a much better result.

My dog is an influencer so what am I even selling?

There are so many dog influencer accounts on Instagram. I could probably follow a thousand or 10,000 accounts and never reach the end of it. So if you have a dog influencer account, maybe you’ve gotten some free stuff through that account, maybe you even gotten paid to do some posts. Something that you could be selling is a sponsorship on your Instagram account. Maybe you’ve only ever been reached out to from brands or maybe you’ve direct messaged a brand and they’ve offered to send you something for free.

Something really important to consider is creating a little media kit or a rates list of how much you’re going to charge for a sponsored Instagram post. Does that include one Instagram story or five Instagram stories? Are you going to put the link in your bio? These are all different kinds of things that you can incorporate into your little sales package when you’re selling sponsored content on your Instagram account. And honestly, there’s no account too small or no account to large who can be doing sponsored content on their account. Don’t underestimate how much brands appreciate having that kind of original content because usually influencers will grant them permission to share those kinds of images on the brand’s social media feed.

How can I incorporate products, affiliate links, and sponsored content into my social media without feeling sleazy?

I actually use a tool called MeetEdgar. It’s a social media sharing tool where I write my social media posts, schedule them to go out and they recycle how often they go out. So if I write five different versions of a social updates with a sponsored blog post, that sponsored blog post will be reshared on my social media every month or every other month depending on how much content I have in my library.

And that gives the brands that I work with continued value, but it’s also continuing to link people back to my content. Hopefully then they can click on affiliate links where brands track the traffic I’m driving to their website. And that’s a really easy way to keep the conversation going and keep all that content feeling organic within my feed.

Amazon is one of the largest and easiest to get accepted to sites for affiliate links. I actually have an influencer storefront, which is a tool Amazon offers to you where you can curate a little online storefront of your favorite products. So I have different categories like new dog, essential, stylish dog, mom must-haves, and DIY supplies. And I’ve put all my favorite products in there. And so that way I can just share a link to my storefront all the time.

There’s another way you can capitalize on Amazon’s affiliate opportunities. You can actually set up an Amazon wishlist and link that in the Instagram bio link. You could also just share it as an update on Facebook or Twitter. Another way to capitalize on it is to create a pin, pin it on Pinterest and link it up to your Amazon shopping list or a storefront or wishlist. That way people can easily buy the things that they need. And if you’re an influencer, people can easily buy the things that you recommend. And if you’re lucky enough to actually have your products listed on Amazon, then you can link directly to your own Amazon storefront.

CHECK OUT THE SHOP!

The Wear Wag Repeat Shop is OPEN! to check it out and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @tmistick if you liked this episode or order anything from the shop.

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