If you’ve been blogging for any amount of time, you’ve likely heard of bundle sales. Maybe you’ve even purchased or contributed to a bundle. But what happens when it is time to promote a bundle sale? Where do you start? How can you make it successful?
Being a contributor or an affiliate for a bundle sale is a GREAT way to bring in some serious income. Each year when I’m creating my promotion and editorial calendar, I always aim to participate in 3-4 bundle sales each year. Yes, there are MANY more out there that I could get involved in, but with the amount of time and promotion that goes into promoting a bundle sale effectively, I choose to limit the number that I participate in. Not to mention the fact that overdoing it on bundle sale promotions is a great way to chase off your readers.
As a homeschool blogger, my favorite {and most successful} bundles to promote are:
- Build Your Bundle Homeschool Sale
- Ultimate Bundles {Home of the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle, Genius Bloggers Toolkit, Ultimate Parenting Super Bundle, Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle, and more!}
I’ve been actively participating in and promoting bundle sales for quite a few years now and I’ve learned a thing or two along the way. Specifically, I’ve learned how to most effectively promote the sale {and earn THOUSANDS of dollars in one week} without annoying my readers to the point of unsubscribing from my email list and unfollowing me on social media. So, how do I do it? I’m happy to share my top tips with you!
10 Ways to Promote a Bundle Sale {and NOT annoy your readers}:
Plan for the Bundle Sale ahead of time!
Effectively promoting a bundle sale requires A LOT of work. And, the best way to maximize your results is by having a clear strategy. A strategy that covers every aspect of your bundle sale promotions: blog posts, banner placements, email marketing, giveaways/incentives, social media, budget for promotional costs, etc.
I recommend beginning to plan your bundle promotion strategy a few weeks before the launch of the sale. Now, if you are down to the wire and the bundle sale starts TOMORROW and you haven’t planned a single thing, don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’re too late and you should just sit this one out.
A few years ago, I was in this very same position. The Build Your Bundle sale was starting that day and I had done NOTHING to prepare, I seriously considered just sitting it out…actually, the first day of the sale, I determined that was what I was going to do. But, the next day I decided to write a post and put up a few banners, and send a couple of emails. You know what? I had to extend my goal THREE times during that sale. So, all of that goes to say….planning ahead is the BEST idea, but doing SOMETHING is better than nothing.
Set goals.
I always recommend setting a variety of goals. Have a goal for a number of bundles to sell. Have a commission total goal. Have a cookie goal. Have a conversion goal. But, for each of these goals, have a goal that you feel is slightly out of reach but could be attainable and then have a “super crazy” goal that you can’t even imagine hitting.
You just might be surprised how close to that “super crazy” goal you come. There have been a few bundle sales that I’ve met the “super crazy” goal and had to set a new one mid-sale. Those are fun days!
Get to know {and NURTURE} your audience ahead of time!
I’ve said it a million times: my success in bundle sales has MORE to do with how I’ve nurtured my audience BEFORE the sale than it does with what I do during the sale. Creating an engaged audience is all about building relationships. You know your audience and your audience knows you. When you know your audience, you know if they respond better to “hard sell” or “soft sell” pitches. You know their needs. You know which products will resonate best with them.
When your audience knows you, they know that they can trust your product recommendations. They know your heart. They know that you are about more than making a sale. They know that when they wake up on the first day of the sale and their inbox is filled with emails from bloggers promoting the sale, and they see your name in that list, they know that whatever you have to say is worth their time…so they choose your email to read. You want to be successful in the bundle sale your promoting?
Take the time in the months leading up to the sale to nurture your readers. The results will speak for themselves.
Know the bundle sale.
Not all bundle sales are created equal…and not all bundle sales have the same rules. It is super important that you know the ins and outs of the sale. For instance, the Build Your Bundle sale offers “first click forever cookies”, which is totally different than Ultimate Bundles which uses a “last click” model. This totally changes the way I strategize for the sale. With Build Your Bundle, I focus more on filling my “cookie jar” early on where as with Ultimate Bundles, I focus on closing the sale.
Another point about knowing the sale: know what is and is not allowed in terms of offering incentives for your readers purchasing through your link. Is it allowed?
- What are the rules about offering giveaways?
- Can you purchase a bundle through your own affiliate link?
- Is there a presale promotion?
- Are there rules about what you can and can’t tell your readers?
These are all questions that you need answered in order to effectively strategize your promotion plans.
Write ONE blog post that is solely about the sale.
Only one. The rest of the week, publish evergreen posts that you can organically weave in a pitch for the bundle. These evergreen posts should be posts that you KNOW will be popular. Posts that will drive a TON of traffic back to your site. Some ideas include: freebies, giveaways, controversial topics, topics related to your top 10 posts, etc.
Include a blurb and/or banner ad promoting the bundle at the top of your top 25 blog posts!
If you really want to do this the easy way, use a plug-in to add the blurb/banner to the top of EACH post on your site. Just remember to remove them when the sale is over.
Use a site-wide pop-up. Yes, I know. Pop-ups ARE annoying. However, as much as you and I want to complain that they are annoying, they are ALWAYS the highest converting opt-in across the board. They simply work. They work even better when you are creating eye-catching and outside-the-box content for your pop-up. Stock photos with some compelling text are great to use here. Consider using A/B testing to see which pop-ups perform best.
Think outside the box on social media!
You need to know each platform well. Study the trends. What is working on Facebook this week? What are the best times to post? What size images work best? Some of my best tips for social media include: On Facebook, keep your engagement super high during bundle week, and make bundle-specific posts sparingly. Your goal should be to get people to your site. Once they get there, your pop-up and content will sell the bundle for you!
Things like memes, Facebook parties, conversation starters, and live video work well! On both Facebook and Instagram using personal stories and photos that you can tie into the bundle has worked well for me. For Pinterest, I recommend beginning to circulate your old popular posts a week or so ahead of the bundle, so that they will be primed when you add in your bundle blurbs/banners at the launch of the sale.
Your email list is your greatest asset in a bundle sale {well, for any sale really}.
I always see greater than 80% of my bundle sales come directly from my emails. My subscribers are my people. I’ve built the relationships with them which makes selling bundles to them easy. But, there are a few key elements to my email marketing strategy for bundle sales. I send out an email every day of a bundle sale and 2 on the final day. Normally, I send out 4-5 emails/week, so sending 7 during a bundle sale isn’t such a drastic change.
I ONLY do one hard sell email, and that is on the final day of the sale. Yet, the other emails are my typical emails, full of encouragement, personal stories, and value with bundle links strategically sprinkled throughout. I ALWAYS offer an “opt-out of further emails about the XYZ bundle” option in each email during this week. This is an absolute must. It definitely keeps people from unsubscribing and/or reporting your emails as spam or abuse.
People get incredibly tired of receiving dozens and dozens of emails from bloggers promoting the sale each day. Give them a way out that doesn’t involve unsubscribing. Enticing subject lines are key….but don’t be click bait. Deliver on whatever you say. Your subscribers are your VIPs, treat them as such. Then, in the final hours of the sale, send a last chance email that is full of urgency.
Use tracking links.
You need to be able to track your efforts to determine which links perform the best. After the sale is over, you want to know which of your banner ads produced the most conversions. Which emails resulted in the most sales? Did your pop-up convert well? If you use the advanced tracking links that will be offered by the bundle affiliate platform, you can adequately gauge your efforts which will help you plan your strategy for the next bundle sale.
I recommend tracking your sales and conversions daily, so that you can compare day 1 of this year’s sale to day 1 of next year’s sale and so on. One note to mention here: on a bundle sale, typically the first day and the last two days result in the highest number of sales. It’s normal to see a slump in sales during the middle of the sale. Don’t be discouraged when this happens!
…and one last bonus- Stay organized!
Let me help you with this one by providing a FREE Bundle Strategy Planning Pack. This planning pack has over a dozen pages that will help you plan your strategy and track your results. Pages include:
—blank calendar
—blog post planner
—email planner
—social media plans
—affiliate programs to join
—link tracking spreadsheet
—banner placement checklist
—goals tracker
—results tracker
—bundle to do list {presale, during sale, post sale}
—and much more!
Get yours NOW!!
This Post Has 3 Comments
I thought about writing to ask about the Cookies (though I do have a slight idea what you’re talking about there) I’m really more curious….. is there a post telling what the heck a Bundle is? Have I ever bought one? What is it? What is it about? Why would I want to put it on sale and who is going to buy it from me? How could this mystery item but SO much work? I’m missing some kind of fundamental foundation of information and don’t know where to find it! Thank you!
A bundle sale is a limited time sale {typically 7 days} where many awesome products are bundled together and sold at a highly discounted rate. These sales typically have a common theme – for example the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle deals with homemaking resources, the Build Your Bundle Homeschool Sale deals with homeschooling resources, etc. For more information on these particular sales, check out the links that I mentioned in the post. You don’t put it on sale, the creators of the bundle do. You would serve as an affiliate for the sale. If you have a product to contribute to the bundle, you would also be a contributor. Contributors typically receive a higher affiliate commission rate. As for who would by it from you- the answer is your readers. You would promote the sale on your blog, social media channels, and email list and if they click your affiliate link and purchase the bundle, you would receive a commission. As for your last question “How could this mystery item but SO much work?” I am not sure what you’re asking. If you have further questions, don’t hesitate to email me at heather@homeschoolblogging.com. Thanks!
Thank you for this information…very helpful!