646: Boosting Non-Profit Impact with Affiliate Marketing Tactics | Chandler Boyce

What are the strategies to effectively communicate your organization’s mission and engage with your target audience?

Join us on the latest Conquer Local Podcast as we chat with Chandler Boyce, Founder & CEO of The Business Co-op, a full-service agency specializing in developing custom-tailored marketing strategies for leaders.

With a focus on the non-profit sector, Chandler helps organizations effectively communicate their mission and engage with their target audience. He is also an affiliate marketer, utilizing his platform to recommend and endorse products and platforms that he believes in.

Tune in to learn more about Chandler’s passion for storytelling and how he has helped others drive success in both the agency and affiliate marketing landscape!

Conquer Local is presented by Vendasta. We have proudly served 5.5+ million local businesses through 60,000+ channel partners. Learn more about Vendasta and we can help your organization or learn more about Vendasta’s Affiliate Program and how our listeners (like yourself) are making up to $10,000 off referrals.

Are you an entrepreneur, salesperson, or marketer? Keep the learning going in the Conquer Local Academy.

Boosting Non-Profit Impact with Affiliate Marketing Tactics

Introduction

Jeff Tomlin: Welcome to the Conquer Local Podcast! Our show features successful sales leaders, marketers, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs who will inspire you with their success stories. Each episode is packed with practical strategies, as our guests share their secrets to achieving their dreams. Listen in to learn the highlights of their remarkable accomplishments and get tips to revamp, rework, and reimagine your business. Whether you’re a small business owner, marketer, or aspiring entrepreneur, the Conquer Local Podcast is your ultimate guide to dominating your local market. Tune in now to take your business to the next level!

I’m Jeff Tomlin and on this episode, we’re pleased to welcome Chandler Boyce.

Chandler is the Founder & CEO of The Business Co-op, a full-service agency that focuses on developing custom-tailored marketing strategies for leaders. He emphasizes the importance of understanding and utilizing the digital space for effective communication and outreach. He launched his agency in November of 2022 and has utilized Vendasta’s platform and partners to grow and scale his company to now serve over 50 clients. And he is also finding success as a new affiliate marketer. 

Get ready Conquerors for Chandler Boyce coming up next on this week’s episode of the Conquer Local Podcast.

Chandler Boyce discusses his niche in nonprofits and their unique challenges.

Jeff Tomlin: Chandler Boyce, welcome to the Conquer Local Podcast. Hey, thanks for taking a few minutes out of your busy day to join us here. How are you doing, man?

Chandler Boyce: Hey, absolutely. Thanks for having me. It’s an honour to be on. Look forward to the conversation. Doing well, just recovering from the overeating season of Thanksgiving, but other than that, it’s a great day here in Texas.

Jeff Tomlin: That requires a couple of days, doesn’t it? Hey.

Chandler Boyce: Yeah, a couple of days and a couple of laps around the old track.

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah, no kidding. Hey, let’s jump into it. You found a niche in working with nonprofits, and so as your agency, why don’t you talk a little bit about what brought you to that group of companies to focus on and what makes them unique and a great idea to work with?

Chandler Boyce: Yeah, I think for me, I realized that when it comes to the nonprofit church sector is that there seems to be, I don’t know if it’s a lack of knowledge, but a lack of even understanding or utilization to a lot of the tools, strategies, software, whatever it may be out there. I think sometimes when you look at nonprofits, we tend to think that budgets are tight. There’s limited resources, but in reality, that they have great missions and they have great things that they’re trying to do, and they need help, and they’re wanting to reach more people and they want to grow their mission in what they’re doing. So it’s definitely a niche that is underserved. But it’s needed and there are a lot of great organizations out there that are looking for help. They’re looking for the knowledge of the resources and the strategies to help move their mission forward.

Chandler Boyce Shares Strategies for Effective Nonprofit Storytelling and Communication.

Jeff Tomlin: Well, let’s talk about some of the strategies. In chatting with some of the guests that I’ve had on the Conquer Local Podcast, some of them have worked with nonprofits, and one of the things that I took away from my discussions was really important for those organizations to communicate a vision and their mission and to connect with people out there in their audience where that mission that they have really resonates with them. And so maybe talk a little bit about some of the effective strategies that you’ve got for helping organizations communicate their mission to the audience that you’re trying to target.

Chandler Boyce: Absolutely. Yeah, and I would say when it comes to the nonprofit sector, they deal with getting over some of the same things that even businesses do, which is we all tend to be a little bit of narcissists. We are all a little bit, especially those that are driven, you’re type A, you’re leading something, you’re pushing something, you want people to know what we’re doing, what we’re about, and how awesome we are, and how great we are, and why you should help us. When in reality, it’s about telling effective stories, engaging stories, inspiring stories, fun stories, and then inviting people to join that story. So really for me, and this is nothing new under the sun, nothing I’m saying that you haven’t heard, or most people that listening haven’t heard this, but it’s really about, “Okay, who are we talking to?” Whether that’s someone that you’re serving or maybe it’s someone as a nonprofit. You’re trying to raise money, you’re trying to get people to partner with you through resources. In reality, “It’s okay, who are we talking to?” Then what are the pain and the problems that we are solving? So telling stories around that, “Hey, this is the issues, these are the problems that are out there. This is what people are dealing with, and then this is how we solve this.” We come alongside people and we help them figure out life. We help them create better relationships, create better marriages, and create better financial situations. Whatever they may be doing, whatever their mission is really, it’s less about the organization or the company, and it’s more about, man, the stories that are out there, the stories of pain, the stories of what your organization has seen through serving and helping people or helping other organizations or groups of people. So when you come at it, not about, “Hey, look at us and how awesome we are,” but you come about it in a way of saying, “Hey, this is what people are dealing with. This is what they’re struggling with. This is what they need help with. Here’s a story, listen to this person and what they’ve gone through.” And then you say, “Hey if you want to be a part of this life change, if you want to be a part of making a difference in this world, your community, in this space, these people’s lives, it really makes a difference,” because then, you’re not talking at people. Now, it’s a conversation and you’re inviting people, “Hey, join this conversation. What are you seeing? What are you feeling?” When you start with empathy, and people relate to that, it speaks to their heart and not just about flashing lights of, “We’re the best company, we’re the best organization. You should listen to what we’re doing.”

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah, pulling people into the story. I love case study work. Do you have a specific example of an organization that you’ve worked with and that was particularly successful at communicating their vision? And how did that go?

Chandler Boyce: Yeah, I was trying to think of something specific. I would say this, I would say a lot of the clients that I work with, they all suffer from the same thing. They all tend to utilize their platforms, their stages, their social media more as announcements and updates and less about telling stories, sharing stories, and testimonies. And I think when I see these, my clients start switching from less announcements and more storytelling, it allows the good things that are happening within the organization, around the organization, it allows for other people and other things to really speak for their organization.So really, I really have to work hard with almost all my clients, and even with social media, I’m constantly telling people, “Listen, we’ve got to tell stories. You’ve got to share and produce content that is valuable in the sense of, are you helping people? Are you serving people? Are you educating people? What you’re saying and what you’re producing, does it actually better people’s lives?” And that’s just the one constant that I see time and time again when it comes to, whether that’s the website or social media, or the ads that they run, the language that they put out. They want to talk about their mission statement when in reality, most people don’t care about your mission statement. They care about how are you helping people. What are you doing to make this world better, to make people’s lives better? And so that’s the one thing that, I would say, even for myself, I have to constantly, “Hey, it’s not about me. It’s about the people I’m helping, the people I’m serving and the people that I want to help, and what is happening in their lives. How are we making their lives better?” Because when you do that, it’s less about you as the person in an organization, and again, it’s about those that you’re serving, those that you’re helping, those people groups, whatever it may be, it’s about them. And that’s what people really want to hear. They don’t need another slogan about, “We’re the best, whatever. We’re the number one organization, we’re the number…” It’s like, “No. If you’re the number one organization or you’re the best at what you do, you don’t have to tell people you’re the best.” LeBron James, he doesn’t go around telling everybody, “I’m the best basketball player,” because arguably, most people would agree at some level that he is one of the best basketball players, so if you are the best, you don’t have to tell people that.

Jeff Tomlin: 100 percent.

Chandler Boyce: You got to show people what you’re doing.

Various Approaches to Effective Nonprofit Advertising Strategies.

Jeff Tomlin: Communicating the change that you’re making in the world, I like that. By the way, I wanted to ask you, I’ve seen a couple of different approaches with nonprofits in their advertising in particular, and one is, that you communicate a difficult situation and they tug at the heartstrings. So there’s that approach, and then there’s another approach where they show someone that has been part of, or in a particular situation, and it’s an uplifting story about positive change that was created. I was just curious if you’ve seen one approach more successful than the other in terms of approaches to the advertising.

Chandler Boyce: No, that’s good. So different people say different things, but there’s two different thoughts when it comes to communicating, messaging, and even getting people engaged, whether that’s trying to get people to give their time, you’re trying to get them to give their talents or their treasure or their money. Most people say there’s four to five different type of people who want to give. You have people that they give spontaneously. They see something like, “I’m just going to give.” Then you have people that want to give to building projects, so they want to give to something that they can see that is being built, or they want to give to something that helps children, families, people, people who are in need. I think in reality, the more people that you can speak to and the ways that you can communicate those things, I think it helps. Now, I don’t think you need to do every single type of person. I think you got to figure out, depending on your organization and what you do and who you serve, what kind of people are going to give to your organization. So if you serve people that are building water wells or providing children in third-world countries, food, you’ve got to figure out who are the people most likely to give to these things? And then, “Okay, what is the best way? How do they want to be communicated to?” And so you’re going to want to show, for instance, if it’s an organization that provides meals for children in education, you’re going to want to show that, okay, here’s where they are now. Here’s the problems, the issues, the desolation, the poverty that they live in, and here’s how you can help. Then here’s a story of someone, of a child who was in poverty, we helped them, and because of givers like you, we were able to take this kid and put them through school and college, and now they’re the mayor or the governors. I’ve heard many stories like that, but I think you have to figure out what does your mission, what does your organization serve, and then who’s most likely to connect with that need or with what you’re trying to raise or get people to serve and be a part of?

Delving into Affiliate Marketing to Provide Authenticity and Value.

Jeff Tomlin: Well, that’s a great takeaway. Just figure out your audience and figure out how they want to be communicated to. Great takeaway. Chandler, there’s another area that I wanted to touch on while I have some of your time on the podcast because you’ve got quite involved in affiliate marketing as well. I see more and more people dipping their toes into it and becoming more popular for a variety of reasons. I see a lot of software companies and SaaS companies, agencies taking advantage of affiliate marketing, and I see more people being successful with it. So maybe talk a little bit about how you got started with it, and if you have any tips for someone that’s starting out because I know that you’ve had success with it as well. Do you have any tips for people that are thinking about it?

Chandler Boyce: Yeah, let me say this, I would say I would not say that I am an expert affiliate marketer. I think I somewhat fell into it. I knew about it, and when I started my agency and started posting consistently and really have a passion to help people, whether they are a client or not, whether they pay me or not, and that’s a beautiful thing about social media, is that we can put out content, and that we can really help people. And so I started posting and I would post about something and people would download it. And then I started realizing a lot of, even the software that I’m using, that I believe in, that I really, I would recommend someone using, they have affiliate programs. So I started realizing like, “Oh, wow. If I can make some extra money off of talking about a software or a platform or whatever, and it helps people, I believe in it and I can make money, well, heck yeah. I’m already making content every day and I’m already talking about ways to increase your social media and SEO and ad strategies and all that stuff, why not put the software in there? And so really for me, with affiliates, I would start with… And this is my conviction, I think there are different ways to do it. And I know a lot of affiliates out there, they’ll go through and find every affiliate program they can and then just talk, make a post and whatever and who knows if they actually believe in it? You could probably make more money that way. But my integrity is, that I find platforms, and software, that I believe in, that I use, that I recommend, and a lot of them have been software that I would recommend even before I knew they had an affiliate program. So now I turn that around and, “Hey, I use this. You should too.” And if I make a little money off of it, great, why not? And I think it’s, if you’re someone who is in the content creation arena and you’re helping people, man, affiliate marketing’s a great way. And I mean, there’s people I know, again, I’m about a year into my own thing, so I’m definitely, things are just now getting rolling for me. But you can make a good amount of extra, or even full-time, living depending on how hard you want to go after. But for me, it’s doing the research. I want to make sure that if I’m putting my stamp and my approval on something and I’m saying, “Hey, you should use this,” I really mean it, because I believe that the people who are listening to me, they trust me and so I want to make sure that I keep my trust and that I build my authority, and I don’t want to recommend something that’s just, yeah, they pay me a little bit and great, boom, let’s do it. I’ll be honest, I’ve done that and I’ve had to backtrack and be like, “Actually, I don’t really recommend using that. I’d recommend using this and here’s why.” So I have to make sure that I really believe in a platform, whether that’s an AI platform, a SaaS platform, or anything that’s doing affiliate, I have to do my research first. But then from there, man, I keep a list of all my links that I have on a sheet. And that way I know when I’m having a conversation with a client or if I’m creating content that I can say, “Hey. Man, you need to check this out. This would really solve this problem. It’s really going to help you. It’s really going to be beneficial.” So I think if you’re anyone that’s producing consistent content, you are sending out emails, you’re adding value to people and your clients. I definitely would add affiliate marketing into your bag of tricks.

Navigating Marketing Trends, and Chandler’s Recommends Neil Patel, Brock Johnson, and Sean Cannell.

Jeff Tomlin: Doing the breadths of things that you do, you’ve got an agency, you’re working with nonprofits, also working on the affiliate side of things. You’re all around general practitioner when it comes to marketing, staying up, on top of all of the things that are changing are really, really important. And sometimes, especially when you’re starting out, it could feel like you’re drinking from the fire hose. Where are you getting your news and your information right now and drop us a couple of recommendations for resources that people find particularly valuable and important?

Chandler Boyce: Yeah, I mean, that’s such a good question. I would say I still feel like I’m drinking from the fire hose. I feel like every day between Google and Meta, and especially now with AI, I don’t know if there’s anybody else there listening, but if you feel overwhelmed, I understand because I have to control my shiny syndrome trying to figure out, this is the next best AI. There’s already hundreds of thousands of people that are AI experts out there telling us what to do. And it’s just like, first off, AI hasn’t been out that long. Two, you just have to take it in short breath. So for me, I’m trying to think, right off the top, Neil Patel is a guy that I stay up with. His content, his website, his emails, I mean, he does one of the best jobs as far as digital marketers and adding value. I feel like all the content he puts out is amazing, and it’s a pretty wide range of things as far as SEO and Google and stuff. I would say Instagram, I’m a big fan of Brock Johnson. He’s great with the algorithms and Instagram. YouTube is going to be Sean Cannell, Think Media, Omar ElTakrori. Those guys are absolutely brilliant when it comes to creating YouTube, social media content, cameras, gear. I basically do whatever they tell me to do. If they tell me to do something, buy something, post something, I’m like, yes, sir, I’m not going to ask questions. And then as far as AI goes, there’s a couple of them. I know one’s called Futurepedia is a good one. They basically list out a bunch of AI software. It can still be overwhelming, but it’s a good place to go to see what’s out there. I’m trying to think. Man, I’m trying to think who else? What are the things? Those are the main ones that come off my… I know there’s a few more. There are a few other guys that are in my inbox. I mean, I think these days, the best place to learn and stay up to date is social media and email campaigns because no one can produce, you almost can’t produce written content, or almost evergreen content, fast enough because it’s changing so much. So really, social media and getting on the right email campaigns is about the only way to go, in my opinion.

Building Awareness, Effective Communication, Mentorship, and Consistency in Marketing.

Jeff Tomlin: It reminds me, what is the main metric that you track when you’re looking at success for the campaigns for your clients, the nonprofits that you’re working with, what are the most important indicators of success for campaigns that you run for them? Are you building awareness mostly, or is it in terms of donations? What’s the needle that you’re trying to move most of the time?

Chandler Boyce: I would say most of the time, the needle I’m trying to move is getting a good foundation and getting awareness, getting messaging dialled in, getting branding dialled in, and getting an omnichannel strategy together. Now, that’s different levels for different organizations depending on how much resources, how big of a team they have, and how many channels can they be effective. I think at some level, it’s good to focus on the channels and the areas in that you can be effective, instead of trying to splash all of them mediocre. But I think nowadays within the organizations, the ones that are reaching and communicating and engaging and growing are the ones that can do that effectively across as many platforms as possible. Because as much as we’re fighting for maybe competition or another organization or whatever, we’re really fighting for people’s attention. So we’re having to fight the noise and the constant communication people receiving every day. So making sure that when we do show up, we show up consistently. We show up constantly. We show up and we’re communicating effectively, and we’re not just boring posts and boring language that we’re creating emails and content that people are reading and watching and engaging and commenting and responding and clicking, and really making sure that we’re utilizing the content and the platforms that we have to move people to the next step. So for me, I’m really taking, most of my clients, we’re really just getting started. I have a few clients where we can get deep down in the weeds where we’re getting specific. We’re targeting specific people with specific content, and we’re segmenting content and segmenting ads. For the most part, I’m just trying to educate people and listen, you can do this digital marketing thing. It just takes some time. It takes a little bit of a process, then once you get going, and you know what you need to be doing, okay, then we can start adding on to the next layers.

Jeff Tomlin: Chandler, we’ve covered an awful lot of ground. If there’s one or two takeaways that you wanted to leave the audience with, what would they be?

Chandler Boyce: Man, that’s a good question. I would say, number one, get a mentor, especially if you are a startup or starting, whether you’re six months or a year. I think, if you would ask me, “Chandler, in your first year of starting and owning your own digital marketing agency, what would you tell someone that’s right behind you?” I would say get a mentor. Get someone, whether it’s a relationship, get a couple maybe. Find one that you pay that’s going to dive in with you and help you, but find some people that you can learn from and listen to and follow what they say. The other thing I would say is just be consistent. I would say the biggest thing that I challenge myself with, even with social media, is I’m going to be consistent. I’m going to try to post every day. I’m going to try to reach out every day. I’m going to try to communicate effectively every day and let people know that I want to help them, I want to serve them. If they pay me for that, great. If not, I’m going to keep adding value on every platform, every phone call, every sales call, and every social media post I can.

Jeff Tomlin: I would add, get a mentor no matter what stage you’re at, whether you’re starting out or whether you’re 30 years in because all of us could use mentors and guidance at any level.

Chandler Boyce: That’s true.

Jeff Tomlin: That’s for sure.

Chandler Boyce: That’s true. That’s good.

Connect with Chandler Boyce on Instagram

Jeff Tomlin: Chandler, if people want to continue the conversation and reach out to you, how do they reach you?

Chandler Boyce: Man, I’m an Instagram. That is my one platform I’ve committed to. I’m on a lot of platforms, but where I’m most active and engaged is on Instagram, so you can find me @chandlerdboyce. If you have questions about anything, if I can help you serve you, guide you in any direction, whatever, or if you just want to follow, I’ll follow you back on Instagram. That’s my go-to platform.

Jeff Tomlin: Chandler, it’s been a pleasure. I bid you a fantastic day and a great week ahead of you. Thanks for joining us in the Conquer Local podcast.

Chandler Boyce: You Too. Absolutely. Thank you, sir.

Conclusion

Jeff Tomlin: There you have it! A really great conversation. The first takeaway is that there is Effective Storytelling in the Non-Profit Sector: Chandler said that non-profits need to move away from self-promotion and instead focus on storytelling. I like how he said rather than showcasing the organization’s greatness, it’s more impactful to share the stories of individuals and testimonials. And by inviting people to be part of life-changing experiences, non-profits can build more meaningful connections and support.

The second takeaway is that Affiliate Marketing is a Passion-Driven Strategy for Chandler. His journey into affiliate marketing stems from a genuine passion for helping people. He advises content creators to only endorse products and platforms they truly believe in. That’s how you ensure authenticity and that’s how you build trust with the audience. This approach not only adds value to the audience but also creates a sustainable and ethical approach to affiliate marketing.

If you’ve enjoyed Chandler’s episode discussing Affiliate Marketing  keep the conversation going and revisit some of our older episodes from the archives: Check out  Episode 643: Transform your Agency with Proven PR Strategies with Catherine Bangel or Episode 619: Empowering Communities and Driving Economic Prosperity with Heather Thomson

Until next time, I’m Jeff Tomlin. Get out there and be awesome!