How to succeed in affiliate marketing with HoneyBook’s top affiliate earner Candice Coppola

Akua Konadu
On today’s episode, we decided to do things a little bit differently. Last month, we hosted our very first Partner Summit where honey books top pros and educators gathered in San Francisco to learn more about affiliate marketing. And that is where today’s guests Candace Coppola comes in. Candice is a business coach, author and podcast host. And not only that she’s honey books top affiliate earner, she joins me on the stage for our very first live show of the podcast. And she shared with us the details of her affiliate marketing strategy that has led to her making half a million dollars in revenue alone. This live show was so fun and so impactful because Candice does a really great job in providing tangible tips that you can start implementing today to help you feel more confident in your affiliate marketing strategy. So let’s get into the episode. Hey, everyone, this is your host Akua konadu. And you’re listening to the independent business podcast, more people than ever are working for themselves and building profitable businesses in the process. So on this show, I get to sit down with some of the most influential authors, entrepreneurs and creators to break down the science of self made success so that you can achieve it too.

Akua Konadu
Hi, hello, hello. Well, first off, thank you all so much for being here. Our for our very first live show. This is such an amazing group to do this with. So I’m so stoked for us to get into this conversation. But before we hop in, if you guys if you have not yet please subscribe to the podcast, leave us a review so that more people can listen to the show. We have a QR code in the corner. So that’s just a great way to support us. So thank you so much. And let’s just hop on into it, Candice, because I feel like there’s so much to talk about, like Katie said, your honey books top earner affiliate marketing makes up like a third of your income. It does a little over a third. Yeah. And you’ve said that within three years, you’ve made

Candice Coppola
about what just under half a million dollars in affiliate revenue. Exactly. Yeah. So. So let’s let’s get to Teague.

Candice Coppola
Isn’t that crazy? Like I say that out loud. And I still cannot believe it? Yeah, it really is insane. When I started out on this journey of being a business coach. So I’m a business coach for wedding pros. I teach them how to make more money in their business. And prior to that I was a wedding planner. I sold my business in 2019, so that I could mentor wedding pros full time. And when I sold my business, I could have never imagined that I would be generating so much revenue through affiliate partnerships with partners like HoneyBook. It was never ever, ever on my radar. And I never created a plan or a strategy for affiliate marketing until COVID happened. And the wedding industry was completely decimated. And I sort of had to for my own business think strategically, and think about new ways to generate revenue for myself. And affiliate marketing was one of those things that popped in my head. I was like, Listen, I have such a great relationship with partners like HoneyBook, they have amazing audio book has the most amazing affiliate program hands down, can we not all agree on that. It is spectacular. They treat their partners so well. And they really incentivize you. And they also make it easy for you to refer a fantastic product. So I looked at my affiliate partnerships. And I thought, well, I have this link. You know, I’ve been sending it to friends. I’ve been sending it to colleagues, I could maybe do a little bit more with this. And that’s sort of how this all began. And it snowballed. Yeah, in the best of ways. The

Akua Konadu
best way is absolutely I think, you know, 2021, I think what was the word of the year pivot. Everybody was pivoting, especially in the wedding industry. And I love that you, you know, took what you had and made it work like you were already, you know, moving forward trying to figure out what the next steps were. And so you just just dove in and really tried to figure it out, which I think that just speaks to how as entrepreneurship, we’re so scrappy, that’s what I love about is that we may not have the answer, but we are going to continuously move forward. And so let’s break it down. Because I’m really curious about what some of the misconceptions that you potentially had surrounding affiliate marketing.

Candice Coppola
Yeah, a lot. Yeah. Which I’m pretty sure everybody listening to this will have similar if not all the same. One of my first big misconceptions was I needed to have a huge following in order to make any kind of meaningful income off of affiliate marketing. And back in 2020, I did not have a huge following. I had a following, but it wasn’t enormous. Nowhere near a million people following me on any platform. And to this day, I don’t have a huge following. I have 300 mighty subscribers to my YouTube channel, which I launched in 2023. And I have about 20,000 people who follow me on Instagram. I don’t have a huge following, but I do have an engaged following, which has really helped me in every facet of my business. So that’s one myth that I had had to bust for myself and you might be thinking affiliate marketing is great, but I don’t have a huge following. And I’m not an influencer. So it’s not going to be the right fit for me. And I’m here to tell you, I’m not an influencer. I’m 42 years old. I am like, not the influencing type of person. But I am an influencer on my own right, you know. So I think that’s the first myth. The second myth, I think, people have is, is that well, then I have to talk about it all the time. And I don’t like to be salesy. As a huge fear, we have like a big hang up, even in our own businesses, it can be really hard to sell, because we don’t want to bother anybody. We don’t want to offend anybody, you know, we just want to want everybody to be happy, and buy my stuff if you like it. And so for affiliate marketing, you might think, Oh, I’ve got to be pumping my links out, and I’ve got to be constantly online, it takes so much time. That’s not true. I don’t think that’s true at all. I like to say that I’m a decision maker for people, I’m a business coach, I have courses, I have a membership, I have a mastermind, I have a digital shop. But ultimately, I’m a decision maker people come to me so that I can help them make decisions. And when I think about affiliate marketing, I think about how I create content that helps people make decisions, especially when we talk about HoneyBook. I create content that gives people the information they need, from my perspective, to make a decision that HoneyBook is the right platform for them. And then any other any other businesses that I might represent. So that’s another myth I think people have. I also think that people think it takes a lot of time, you know, to mark I mean, we don’t have enough time to market our own business, you might be saying, well, I do a really poor job selling, selling my own stuff. How am I going to sell someone else’s? And I mean, I think that’s really valid. But you don’t have to always be on social media selling your stuff, or affiliate marketing, I have to tell you, I don’t really use social media as part of my affiliate strategy at all. So if I was able to become honey books, top earner with social media playing like a very small percentage of my overall strategy, that just goes to show you that it isn’t necessary that you have to be on social media selling all the time.

Akua Konadu
Yeah, oh, you just share so many good things, especially the social media part, right? Because we all know, a lot of us are burnt out with social media, it’s really hard to grow organically. So it’s like how are you? Marketing? How, like, how exactly are you doing that, especially when again, it’s really hard to sell, we already struggle sometimes just selling our own sort of like services. So now we have to add something else on to sell, how are you implementing that I really would love to know your journey from your like the first year that you started doing it all the way through where you are. Now walk us through each step and kind of that messy middle of because you know, you didn’t start out with a membership, you didn’t start out with a mastermind, these were all things that you had to build to be able to earn what you’re earning now. So let’s start from the beginning and just kind of share with us of just how you were able to make it work. What were some of the key decisions that you made that propelled you forward?

Candice Coppola
This is such a great question. And I love how you’re positioning this at the different stages I took or really from zero to where I am now. So that anybody listening to this, you can sort of find what stage you’re in, and maybe apply some of the same techniques. In 2020. As I mentioned, COVID, the wedding industry was decimated, I needed to get scrappy. And this is often when you’re at a crossroads in business. This is often when some of your greatest ideas come to you. And you don’t realize it at the time. But in retrospect, you’re like, Oh my God, if it wasn’t for that hardship, or if it wasn’t for that obstacle, I would have never had to push myself in this direction. So that’s how I see this. And maybe this is your Crossroads today for you. So in 2020, with COVID, I had just launched Well, first of all, I had just sold my business in October of 2019. I have impeccable timing, by the way. So I got out of the wedding industry at exactly the right time. And then as we all know, COVID happened. And the wedding industry, the events industry was decimated. And I had just launched my first product prior to this. I was just doing one on one coaching, which I loved. So I launched a group coaching program. It’s called wedding pro insiders. And it was a success. The launch was a success. I did it in October. And then here comes February, and March and things just tanked. People started unsubscribing from it, and it was just it was just difficult. So that’s when I said okay, I’m gonna go into my affiliate relationships and see what I can do. And I use the same techniques that I’ve used for every business I’ve started. I went back to the basics. And I said, How can I generate leads? What works for me to generate leads? What do I know? And so if you’re just starting out, this is what you need to do. You need to go back to the basics of how you started your business and got your first customer and for me that’s blogging. I have been blogging since there was Live Journal. I have been blogging since WordPress was the first blogging platform. I’ve been blogging for an excruciatingly long time. I already told you my age so you know I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager since I had my first computer. I I know SEO, I know how to blog and I know how to keyword research. I know all of this, I also know how to write. So I said, let me start writing blog posts about tools that I use, that I think could benefit people, especially during this time, where things are so uncertain things are so crazy. Why would you want to invest in something like HoneyBook, during COVID? Well, during COVID, HoneyBook, rallied around his independent creators, HoneyBook made us feel like we were going to weather this storm together, they created resources in town halls, and all these amazing opportunities for us to feel not alone, but also have resources to sustain our business. And of course, it was in their best interest, because if we don’t work, they don’t work, right. So I said, this is what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna talk about my partners and how they’re helping people during this time. And so I just wrote blog posts. And because I know what I’m doing, and it’s actually quite easy to learn, I started to generate leads, I also made honey book, a sponsor of my podcast. And they don’t pay me to be a sponsor, but I get to throw out my honey book promo code. And I also get to share my link and also encourage people to sign up for honey book using my podcast, the power and purpose. So that’s how I began with just a couple of blog posts that felt very current and timely, I knew what people were searching for. And I knew that the content was very, it was on trend, people wanted to consume everything they could about strategy to help them through COVID. And so that’s how I started. I

Akua Konadu
love that. And just to even add to that, because you leaned into your strengths. I think sometimes as business owners, when we find ourselves at a crossword road of like, what we’re going to do, you sat took the time, and was like, Okay, this is what I know I can do. This is what I know I can control. And that’s what I’m going to lean into. And I think that was just so smart. And yes, back then blogging was key. And so I was even really surprised that you’re still blogging. I mean, does anybody here have the misconception like blogging is dead has already been hearing that, especially with like the evolution of video? I mean, I think it’s still extremely powerful.

Candice Coppola
It is number one, yes, I would show you my Google Analytics stats I have. So most people find me, even for my own programs through blogging. I don’t just use blogging for affiliate marketing. I do. But I also use it for my own programs. people discover me, because I write high quality blog posts that teach them something or answer their questions. While we’re not like running to someone’s blog, or you know, to see their latest post anymore. We are using the Google search box for pretty much everything you want to know how to fried chicken, you want to know how to you know, start a business, you’re using Google. And I show up in Google, when you’re starting an event planning business when you are a wedding Pro, and I don’t gatekeeper content. This is a thing that I think gets in the way for people growing their business, especially in the education space. And then also for affiliate marketing, you might feel like, well, I can’t say too much, because you have to pay me for that. That’s part of my program. That’s part of what I’ve created. And I have the opposite mentality. I think I can put out everything I know about business on my blog. And you’ll have to piece it all together and make it make sense for you. Or you can hire me, and I can help you one on one. Or you can buy something I’ve created that will take you step by step and there’s value in purchasing that. So it for you if you have not if you’re not blogging, you should be

Akua Konadu
yes. And I think people i It sounds like people still are, which is great, because you know what I mean, I think 68% here of affiliate marketers, like SEO is their top traffic source. So I think again, it’s still powerful. So I think blogging is still key. So now, that was what you did the first first year, right? You’re blogging. And so what did you do the second year after that, now you’re generating leads? Now you’re starting to see that things are working? What did you do after that? I

Candice Coppola
think also what helped me continue going on this journey was tracking all my statistics. It’s a really big motivator when you can look at data. And then that data can help drive your next decision. I want to encourage you in affiliate marketing and in your business to try to create as many data points as you can to help you make better decisions. One thing I did was I just created like a silly spreadsheet that I use to this day to track all my affiliate marketing revenue. And I just have it line item by partner. And then each month what I make from that partner, it’s very simple, but it’s motivating because I can see how it’s growing, and how the work I’m putting in is actually paying off. And when you get checks when you get paid, you pay attention, and you want to do more. And so this leads me to the next layer of my affiliate marketing, which was Pinterest. I as a wedding planner, like Pinterest is where it’s at. It’s always been where it’s at for me. And Pinterest is just a visual search engine. People go to Pinterest every day for recipes out for ideas. And whatever it is you might be selling in education or what your business does. So I created lots and lots and lots of pins that direct to these blog posts that people can find on Pinterest and my Pinterest traffic is insane. I think I probably get like four or 5000 people a month on my blog, just from Pinterest. And I think that’s great search engine volume for my niche market, which is wedding planners and wedding pros.

Akua Konadu
I think, again, it just highlights that evergreen content, about how it’s just still powerful how it’s still bringing in bringing you in revenue, which I think is so key. And so another thing I’m really curious about too, is right now you’re using Pinterest, but then how are you also implementing other products and services, and then being able to, you know, utilize some strategies to pull in more people for affiliate income?

Candice Coppola
Well, when I think about writing a blog post, I think about what do I want this to do for me? And when I think about Pinterest, I think well, what do I want to drive people to how am I connecting those dots? Over the last four years, I’ve developed this whole ecosystem of content in my business, you know, they there’s a study that talks about how trees talk to each other. And below the, the forest floor, there’s all these roots, they’re all connected. And I think of my content strategy like that two things are talking to each other. So Pinterest is talking to my blog, and my blog is talking to the affiliates that I represent. And then also just my own products. I’m writing blog posts that have an end goal. And that end goal is to get the reader to do something I want them to do. Maybe I want them to opt into my email list. Maybe I want them to click a link and save 50% Maybe I want them to purchase something from me. So I’m always thinking strategically about what I’m writing and what I’m putting out and how it’s connected to my overall business model.

Akua Konadu
Yes. And so even to talking about email list, because I think again, we had a previous episode that just launched today with hope Taylor, I’m talking about how a lot of the times when it comes to selling our products and services we see on social media people with these big followings. And we assume that that’s where they’re selling, we easily forget about that they’re making the money through their email list. And so how was that key for you and your strategy, uh, my

Candice Coppola
email list is everything. Sometimes I forget how powerful it is. I go to social media, I launched my product, and it’s defeating, to be honest with you guys. And I’m sure you can all relate you put something out on social media, you’ve worked so hard to create a product, you’ve worked so hard for a campaign, you put it out there, your mom’s like in it, your business coaches, like shout out to mom, your granny’s like and like your best friend, you know, and then nobody else is engaging with it. It’s so defeating. It’s really hard. My email list is not like that. Email marketing in blogging, SEO are the I think the two secrets to not only the success of my business, but the success of my affiliate marketing. So as we graduate through, right, we had years zero 2020, then we had 120 21. As we enter into 2022, what we started to do in that ecosystem was bring email marketing into the affiliate fold.

Akua Konadu
Yes, I love that. And so as you’re bringing in the email marketing, right that like no trust factor is so key. So how are you? How are you doing that to where like you now feel comfortable, like boom, like I’m confident enough to sell these products that I just know that I love and adore and then could benefit my audience?

Candice Coppola
Well think about it. Email marketing is the way you accelerate that know like and trust factor. You know, you’re we’re getting a lot of cold leads, we’re getting cold traffic, people are searching Google, they’re finding you, but they don’t know you. And so there’s no like and trust factor for anybody who doesn’t understand what this is, in marketing and buying. People need to trust you, in order to purchase to make a purchase from you, there needs to be that trust. But first they need to know of you. And that’s where the blog post comes in, then they need to like you. And this is where social media and email marketing comes in. They get to know you, they understand who you are. And then they buy, right then they trust and they buy. So when we think about email marketing, I use email marketing, to accelerate that know like and trust factor. And also to direct people to where I want them to go based on who they are, and what they need. I think about my customers as how they are in their stage of business journey, right? I serve people at all different stages. I serve at the very beginning where they have this brilliant idea. And the like, I want to be a wedding planner, i Sir, I serve them at that stage. I serve them at the stage where they’re two, three years into their business. And things are rapidly moving forward. But they don’t know what to do next, the messy middle stage and then sometimes even the end stage where they’re like, I want to sell my business too. How do I do that? So I create content that serves at each stage and my email marketing segments my list so that I’m segmenting them based on their stage of business or what type of business they’re in. And then I’m able to serve people content via email that will support them in that stage

Akua Konadu
and I love that I love again, just showing the the systems that you have created to be able to sustain that, right? Because as you have so many things like that you have your YouTube channel, you have your podcast, you have your mastermind you have your products, but you are creating a system that where you’re still able to serve people and be able to get that that income. I mean, I’m really curious, you know, because obviously, even with social media, I mean, do you think it’s, I think you mentioned this, and I agree with you where you said like, it’s a lot easier now to get people to know like and trust you. I mean, I think it’s like I read a stat to like nine and 10 people will purchase from somebody that have left a review that people really want to know and trust you. Do you think it’s an ally? Do you also agree that it’s now easier to get people to trust you?

Candice Coppola
I do. I think I have a house full of Stanley Cups and all this stuff I bought off of Tik Tok even strangers on Tik Tok, telling me that I needed some Amazon find, you know, I think that we want to be given permission to purchase or to buy into the things that we already know we want. And we look and we seek out that permission so that we can make that decision. Remember, I said I was a decision maker for people. I see my role in in affiliate marketing and everything I do as helping people make decisions about what they should purchase, what direction they should go in. So yeah, I think I honestly think it’s a lot easier these days to get people to know like and trust.

Akua Konadu
So I think you know, just the point of like, just getting started and just talking about it and just talking about because sometimes again, we can get really overwhelmed because I mean, these were all very strategic steps, which which are our absolute absolutely key, and so important to success. And I think, again, a great way. So if you just don’t know, it just started just talking about the products of how well it’s benefited you and your business. And I think people are more inclined, especially on social media, though. It’s not like the major source for you. But I think you can still be so so beneficial.

Candice Coppola
I agree. Yeah. And for if social media is where you attract a lot of your clients, then that is obviously the place where it might not be where I’m at right now for affiliate marketing. It’s where I’m going, though, yes, yep. But if you were there right now, that’s the low hanging fruit you should be, you know, trying to grab at, you should be using your social media people are looking to you, they follow you for a reason they want to hear from you. And I really want you to understand this, instead of hiding, instead of being scared to sell. Instead of showing and hiding from your honest, I need to start showing up for people they want to hear from you. They want to know how you built your business. They want to know what products you use, for your business and for your house. They’re just interested, we’re naturally curious about what other people use and how they got to where they’re going. And they’re waiting for you to tell them why they should use honey book? Or why they should use another partner that you partner with?

Akua Konadu
Yes, I love that I think I’m really interested to know too, because you just mentioned that in 2018. For you’re leaning more into social media, I think the landscape of entrepreneurship is drastically changing, right? With AI and so many other things. What are some strategies that you’re leaning into? Right? That’s what I’m really curious, curious about to know what you’re gonna be doing?

Candice Coppola
Well, I hired a coach to teach me how to get brand deals, because I feel like this is the next step for me. In addition to affiliate marketing, I want to partner with brands in a meaningful way, create content for them be a face for the brand, in a very organic way, though brands that I know like and trust brands that I use and brands that I feel are very closely aligned with my ideal clients needs as well. And so that’s what I’m looking to do in 2024. And the thing that I’ve learned that actually shocked me was is that brands want to partner with us. Brands are waiting for you to reach out and say hey, you know, I would love I have an idea or tell me what your goals are. This is one thing I’ve learned from my business coach is to ask just simply ask what are your goals for the for the new year for your business? And let the brand tell you what it’s looking to do? Is it looking to increase trailers? Is it looking to increase signups? Is it looking to build brand awareness? Is it looking to deepen its relationships or partnerships. And from there, you can sort of come up with a plan of how you can help them achieve that goal, but they’re dying to partner with you guys. You guys are leaders, educators, experts, you bring so much to the table. Whether you have a small email list 300 people on your your YouTube channel, which shameless plug please subscribe to my YouTube channel. But they want to partner with you. And there’s something interesting about the I guess you call it a micro influencer, somebody with a small but mighty following who pays attention and who’s really engaged. You have a lot to offer and it’s also in the brand’s best interest to partner with experts like you because you make marketing easy for them. As you were saying, you know the know like and trust like we we buy from people who we know like and trust but We also seek out our peers to recommend things to us. And we buy based on what our best friend purchases or some random girl we found on Tik Tok, who we just think knows what she’s talking about. My case, yeah, right. And so brands know that. And they know that you have the ability to persuade people to purchase things, or to encourage people to invest in themselves and purchase products, they want you to represent them, you make it so easy for their marketing. And user generated content is really where it’s at. I think it’s more effective than running like television ads, or, or some of the more traditional forms of marketing and media, having someone point the camera at themselves. And they just talk honestly, about a product is way more powerful than seeing an ad on television. Yes,

Akua Konadu
I agree. And I love with you, like you bring your receipts, like you’re very, very honest about your business and the products like you’re like, hey, if you would like to use this, these are the pros, but also to these are the cons and really just making sure to see that this is a good fit for your business. And I think that people are just so receptive to that. Because then again, is that authenticity piece, people know that you care that you have their best interests at heart. And I think that that is just so important. And so you obviously have done Pinterest email marketing, like what other strategies have you been implementing that have just made it like where you’ve been able to see your success. Besides

Candice Coppola
SEO, Pinterest and email marketing, I think the next step was to just ingratiate it into all my programs with my students. And this is a really natural step. As an educator, you can go right back to your students, and you can start to just fold in your favorite partners into your courses and into your memberships and into your programs. I launched my first membership, my only membership at this at this time, the planners playbook in 2022. And we decided to add on a partnerships and perks directory. This was sort of like an aha moment I had maybe a few months into the program. I was like, why are we not using our affiliate marketing in here? People are asking, what’s the best stock image website? Where should I go for this? So we created a partnerships and parks directory, it lives in our community. And we reached out to specific partners that we thought would be a good fit for our planners. And we just have all of our affiliate links there. We asked for a special discounts or considerations, which I think is really important in affiliate marketing. One of the keys to my success is that I do work with partners who offer incentives to the people who are signing up. And incentives are really important. It’s kind of hard to sell something at full price, it’s a lot easier to sell it at 20% off, or in some cases 50% All right, yes. That makes people click. They’re like, Oh, I mean, I love a deal. Right, I love a deal. So I’m going to use that coupon code, I’m going to use that promo code. And so that’s been a large part of the success too is finding partners who are willing to offer discounts, or exclusive discounts, exclusive coupon codes for our members. And where we can’t do that, in working with smaller businesses or smaller creators, offer us a perk, give us something special that we can give our members that just makes this relationship look really good. You know, they?

Akua Konadu
Yeah, I’m really curious to know to you, how are you reaching out to them? Exactly. Like I think, again, first impressions matter, I think being very strategic and how you’re reaching out to these partnerships, especially maybe if they don’t necessarily, if it’s a brand that you really love, and they may not necessarily know who you are, how are you building that relationship? Where like, okay, I can reach out to them and just make the ask?

Candice Coppola
Well, I think it depends on any partnerships that you’ve had in the past. I’ll just tell you what I’ve done. Yeah, absolutely. We have somebody on our team who is in charge of partnerships. Her name is Moya. And she’s amazing. And Moyer really was the brainchild behind our partnership program. She created it, she maintains it she reaches out. And it’s simpler than I think most people think it is. It’s simply just writing an email to someone at a company, whether they own it, or they’re in the department that might manage partnerships. And doing the ask, we just ask, we have this amazing product, we have this audience, we believe we have this synergy. How can we work together? And nine times out of 10 people are very receptive to our email. So there’s no big magic secret here. Which is good, right? Which is good. There’s no big magic thing that you need to do except start putting yourself out there and you’re you will you might get rejected you probably will people won’t won’t respond to your email or you won’t hear from people and that’s fine. Because there will be people out there who see the value in the communities that you lead and in the audience that you have, and they’re going to be very receptive to a partnership. Yes,

Akua Konadu
but also to love it to what Laney said yesterday is like it’s always a Like, good to go back, like, you know what I mean? Like it’s okay to be directed to, to make the ask to negotiate, especially if you know, like, okay, no is not the final final answer at all. Like, if you know that you can provide value, that opportunity could still be there, it may not be today, but it especially for the price that you love, it could be tomorrow. So I really love that as well. So now, my main question is, especially for 2024. What other major things do you see yourself doing,

Candice Coppola
I’m going to continue on the same track that I’m on. Because it works. And I think a lot of times we get shiny object syndrome, and we’re like they’re not, there must be this next greatest thing that I should be doing. And that’s not the case, I’m going to continue blogging, I’m going to continue to use Pinterest, and email marketing, nurture sequences that helped to move people to my affiliate partnerships, helps to sell other people’s, you know, content or other people’s businesses. And I’m going to start partnering with brands. It’s a big goal of mine. And for me, too, I also feel the desire to pare down my partnerships a little bit scale back, I have maybe 30 ish, 20 to 30 partnerships. And I want to put a lot of time and investment in just a few of those, and really double down on the content on email marketing. And as I’m growing my YouTube channel content over on YouTube and social media.

Akua Konadu
Yeah, I think the key here too, that I’ve taken most from this conversation is simplifying, sometimes all we have to do is just strip things down, simplify it and build it back up. And it sounds like that’s what you’re doing leading into 2024. And so one thing that I’m really curious that I want you to answer is, especially people that especially if we’re in here, we all see the value in affiliate marketing, we all know that it’s key. But if we’re not seeing the success that we would like, what do you think that what steps can we do to kind of get them the needle moving?

Candice Coppola
This is a good question. I think the first thing I would do is ask, Well, why am I not seeing the success that I’d like at affiliate marketing? You know, you can’t be disappointed by the results that you get from the work you didn’t do? So you have to ask yourself, Am I putting in the work? Now, we took you on a journey of where I started and where I am now. But I did start somewhere. And I started with what I knew. And I built it from there. So don’t take the whole elephant in one bite, you’ve got to start with where you are now. Where is your audience? Where is your your Where are your biggest supporters? Where does it just feel natural to integrate your affiliate marketing strategies. I will tell you though, that SEO is where it’s at. So if you’re not blogging, and if you are not creating, and it’s so easy, it’s so easy, because you don’t have to show up in makeup, you don’t have to get your hair done. You don’t have to look queue, you don’t have to be on camera. If that’s not your jam, it’s so easy to write. And then also with AI, there’s this opportunity to at the very least get an outline going for yourself. So you’re not doing it from scratch, I would never recommend just copying and pasting a chat GPT blog post. Google says it’s it’s not going to consider that in search engine rankings. But that could very quickly change it could very quickly decide, You know what, I don’t think that I’m going to rank your blog post as high anymore, because it’s aI generated. So just keep that in mind. But it is it has never been easier to make money on affiliate marketing than it is right now. And I’ll tell you, if you’re not going to do it, I’m gonna do it. So you can come collect your check, or I’ll come collect it for you.

Akua Konadu
Definitely I want to open up to some questions in the audience, because I think that you have just dropped so many gems. And again, I think simplifying, again, what you said earlier is that I’m not doing anything different than anybody else. It’s the fact of that consistency. I’m being consistent. I’m making this a priority. I’m showing up and I’m doing the work. And I think we have to be realistic and realistic with that, especially when you’re making half a million dollars in affiliate marketing. These are the systems that I’ve had in place and building one on top of the other. So what is some things that you can do today that’s going to help project you forward? And so a couple questions that we had in the audience that I really want to ask is, this is from l&d and cubicle to CEO what are the most underrated affiliate strategies that create the greatest impact and results?

Candice Coppola
Probably email marketing. Yep. blogging and SEO for sure you even know that but I think email marketing isn’t necessarily on people’s radar, or mostly thinking I need to get on Instagram, I need to be creating reels or tiktoks or YouTube videos where email marketing is super effective, even if it’s to drive traffic to those channels, where you talk about the product. So let’s say for instance, you are repurposing content, and you do an amazing reel about one of your partners and why you love the partner you could create inside of your nurture sequel Hence, when people sign up for your email list, you’re sending them emails that are nurturing them. And they’re automated. You don’t have to do anything, they just go out. And you can include an email in your nurture sequence about this partnership and linking to this reel or linking to your YouTube video, which then drives traffic to that channel helps to increase viewership, but also gives you the chance to connect with the customer in a video way, inside of email. Love

Akua Konadu
that. Yeah, that’s the thing. That’s again, it’s I think that’s the main thing is email marketing, we’re still sleeping on.

Candice Coppola
So good, it is so good. It makes so many sales off of email marketing, like I was saying before, I could throw something out on social media. 30 people like it, it’s pathetic. But I sent an email to my list, which is just over 10,000 and teaching children to hate bills are being paid.

Akua Konadu
Okay, so another question that we have is from Dahlia, what were some of the greatest challenges you faced when it came to pivoting? What are some words of wisdom or advice you could give to someone considering a pivot? And was it hard to let go of that season in business to embrace the new one ahead?

Candice Coppola
It was a this is such a great question. And I think we all reach turning points in our career, where we just don’t love what we’re doing anymore. And we have a greater love, have something else, something else has caught our eye. And it can be so hard to make that pivot because our whole identity as independent business owners is wrapped up in our business, we live, eat and breathe our businesses. So even if it’s a mild, gentle pivot, like I feel like my pivot from being a very successful wedding planner and author to then moving into coaching was pretty simple. It can be very difficult, I will tell you that if you are feeling the tug, to make a change, you’ve probably been feeling that for a while. And you can sit and wait and ask yourself all the questions, wait till it’s the right time. Or you can take some steps to feel out what a change would look like. I waited too long. I waited too long to where I was burnt out, I was tired. I didn’t love wedding planning anymore. And I was also really stressed. I’ve never had anxiety, I’ve always just been like a very easygoing, gogogo person. And I would wake up on wedding mornings and be stressed out to where my husband had to like, sit me down and give me a pep talk. That’s when I knew I needed to let go, I had changed. My life had changed in this business wasn’t serving me anymore. And it was time that I acknowledged it. And I made the pivot and I don’t regret it for one single day. Not one single day, there’s never

Akua Konadu
going to be a right time.

Candice Coppola
There’s never a right time for anything. The right time is NOW I just believe in trusting your intuition in your gut. Trust what your brain is telling you what your heart is telling you. It knows best. Absolutely.

Akua Konadu
I love that. It’s such it’s such good feedback. And so another question just from Tanisha is when pivoting or changing the audience, how did you change the messaging, what works best for you,

Candice Coppola
this is where people get really hung up, I think is is like you feel like you need to silo your messages, you need to have a separate Instagram account for this and you need. That’s not we can’t be doing that. We don’t have the time. We don’t it just it silos your voice. You just need to show up in your messaging exactly as who you are. And being a multi hyphenate multi passionate entrepreneur is very normal now is we’re all you know, Hawking our wares and our weird we have all different, you know, all different revenue streams. And that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. So don’t feel like you need to adjust your marketing message in any way or you need to silo it and be coaching over here and doing something over here. Just bring it all together, simplify, amplify and just be you people will naturally gravitate towards you. And who cares if they’re not interested in one thing you talk about? Because they’re interested in the next and they’ll hang out around you to hear what you have to say, and the things are interested for.

Akua Konadu
Yes. Oh, that’s such good, so many key things that you have been sharing. And this one, I love this question. So I really wanna make sure that we get this one into, do you have goals each month that you tried to hit with your affiliate revenue? And how did you hit those goals?

Candice Coppola
I have sales goals every single month. sales goals are so important in business and I feel I feel as though most small businesses and most independent entrepreneurs don’t set sales goals and I don’t know why. They’re so motivating. It’s great when you hit your sales goals. It’s great when you keep track of your sales. It’s great to look at your sales year over year, month over month. So setting sales goals is my jam. I love it and I set affiliate marketing goals. Absolutely.

Akua Konadu
So in terms of like especially with how much money you have you like that you’ve made How are you setting your goals now like what is a goal for example number that you try to reach every month?

Candice Coppola
I mean, minimum 15,000 a month.

Akua Konadu
Okay, better if it’s 20 but a race was 20. about that as you’re planning your 2024 year like a lot of us are in planning stages right now. How are you planning that, especially with like, do you plan on like Black Friday sales? Or is there each quarter that you’re focusing on something specific that you’re going to sell and weave in, like your affiliate marketing? Like, what does that strategy look like as you’re planning,

Candice Coppola
I do, I think about my year in advance, and I plug into it any product launches, I have any new ideas of things I might be launching. So that is all mapped out for me in a calendar. And then what I can do is I can build affiliate strategies around that. But also, as an affiliate marketer, you sometimes don’t have access to the full calendar, that the business of their launch strategy. So you have to get a little scrappy and think on your feet, and also be on your companies and be like, what’s coming up? What do you have going? How can I be involved? How can we connect? What should I be promoting? What should I be writing about? Give me a little advance notice. But I plan out my entire year, all my products, and we think about affiliate marketing. We also think about affiliate marketing seasonally, because my customers, they work in seasons, in the wedding industry, you have your high season where you’re producing events, and then you have your low season where you’re typically going back to your your desk and you’re working on your systems, you’re working on your business, I know to create content around productivity tools, when people are going to be most productive, which is in the fall the winter in the early spring. I know that summertime and early fall, they’re just flat out. That’s not the best time maybe for certain productivity tools, because they don’t have the time to implement it. So you can also think strategically about the yearly cycle of your customer in their business. Do they have slow seasons? Do they have high seasons? Do they have seasons where they’re working on certain things? And how can you then align your affiliate marketing strategies to those seasons and create content that is on on time and very trendy, I will say, if you’re going to and you are going to make blogging a priority, you want to be a month or two ahead. For me, I write a blog post it ranks immediately because I have a lot of capital, right, I’ve got a lot of SEO, if you’re just getting started, you’re going to want to be a month or two in advance of your seasons so that your blog post has time to rank so that Google can rank it. Yeah,

Akua Konadu
one thing too. I learned with blogging, though I’m not a big blogger. But one thing I did learn, especially as a storytelling strategist, I use a tool Uber suggests which has been so helpful. That’s the best tool ever. And when I used it, I typed in storytelling strategies, and I was able to see in the year the most times when people were googling it, which was between March and April. So then that’s what I knew, Okay, a month or two before, I need to have these blog posts come out. So then by that time, when people are searching for storytelling strategist, people are gonna see my blog, people are gonna be able to see my content and want to learn more about me. And I think that’s another strategy. That’s so so

Candice Coppola
good, I love Uber suggests the same thing. And you can also even overlay social media, and YouTube and Tiktok and Instagram searches during certain times of year as well. And they tend to follow the similar cycle. So if people are googling it, they’re probably also going to tick tock to search for it. They’re probably also looking for it on YouTube. Or if they’re Googling it, YouTube search engine results, and tick tock results are showing up in that search bar. So it’s just another little trick when you think about social media marketing to also be on trend with what Google, uh, when people are searching for things on Google. Well, SEO, you

Akua Konadu
know what I mean? I think again, tick tock, we already know that’s becoming a huge search, as well, being a competitor to Google, I mean, Instagram as well, keywords are becoming important. So even though yes, you’re focusing on blogging, but a lot of those skills, transcend to other areas of your business that will serve you very well. So I love that you shared that. And so the last question we always love to close out with is, what do you think is the biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail strategy,

Candice Coppola
and knowing your ideal clients, knowing who you serve, you have to know your customer. You have to know what scares them, what they want, what they desire, what their problems are, what they value, and you need a strategy. What I’ve showed you today is my strategy for affiliate marketing. And I treat affiliate marketing like I treat any other product in my business. I don’t leave it to chance. If I’m going to do a launch of a new course or my mastermind or something. I’m all in I’ve got graphic designer on things I’ve got copywriters on things I’m all hands on deck, and I applied the same energy I give my products to affiliate marketing. Oh, love

Akua Konadu
that keeping it simple. But again, bringing your customer to into your journey, right? Like I think again, as you’re leaning into affiliate marketing, I think it’s always great to just ask, right like, what are you guys looking for from me? What do you guys what what are you curious about what are areas in your business that you’re struggling with? And being able to utilize that to figure out the products that would that you love that you know, and the partnerships that you love to be able to serve them? So I think that’s key. That’s one of the main things I’m noticing too with a lot of the conversations on the podcast that truly is knowing your target audience and we talked about it at dinner the other night was, you know, that’s a key foundational thing. It’s I think Lenny said yesterday is an elementary thing, but it’s so so vital because something that we have to revisit because yes, that foundational piece doesn’t change, but you’ve changed. You’re not the same person that you were two days ago, you’re not gonna be the same person, five years from now, 10 years from now and like your needs, change your business needs change your customer changes. So it’s like, you always have to go back and revisit. It’s not fun sometimes. But if you want a sustainable business to where you’re, you’re here tomorrow, revisit those things and adjust and refine and using that data to keep pushing forward. So I have loved this conversation so much, Candace. I mean, everybody else find this valuable. This has been so helpful. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and if you are listening, thank you so much for tuning in. And until next time. That ends our episode of The Independent Business Podcast. Everything we’ve discussed today can be found at [email protected]. Head through our website to access for show notes, relevant links and all the resources that you need to level up. And if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss our future content. Drop us a review and leave our guests some love on social and thank you again for listening.