Affiliate marketing is a means of marketing that can help you make your new business grow without having to spend hours and hours on advertising. If you are just starting out with your new online business, becoming more familiar with the term “affiliate marketing” is a great place to start when it comes to setting the right foundations for your business’s success. The benefits of an affiliate marketing program can be many for all of the participating parties. If you’re new to this type of online collaborations, you might need to get a better understanding of exactly how you can use affiliate marketing to your advantage. Here are some of the biggest benefits to help you decide on giving it a try.
What exactly is affiliate marketing?
At first glance, affiliate marketing is a form of marketing that helps someone who is selling a product to increase their sales by having other people to promote it for them. This type of marketing relies heavily on the audience the promoter has. It’s also important how active they are online and if they will be able to attract the target audience of the company they are working with. There are many different ways for someone to promote a product or a service online through an affiliate partner. The many social media platforms, blogs, and websites make it a lot easier to come in contact with potential customers in a matter of minutes. As rewards for helping the company promote the product, the promoter will receive a commission every time someone clicks on the shared link or makes a purchase through the company’s website. This is both beneficial for the company and also the influencer as they can both make an income from this collaboration.
Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
1. They are easy to set up
Affiliate marketing campaigns require little to no effort from your side when it comes to setting them up. The toughest thing you will have to do is decide which products or services you wish to promote and also which influencers you will want to work with. It’s worth noting however that working with influencers isn’t the only way to integrate affiliate marketing into your business’ strategy. However, it is one of the easiest, most social and hands-free (from your business’ standpoint) example of affiliate marketing which is why we will focus on it the most. This type of marketing is so easy because you will not have to put a lot of effort into creating any type of content in order to promote your brand. The promoter you will be working with will have to create any content of their liking in order to promote your products or services on their pages. For example, influencers such as Cooking With Mima and Zach King will be open for cooperation with your business if both sides align when it comes to terms, expectations, and compensation. Once the initial negotiation is done, the influencer will overtake most of the affiliate marketing duties and communicate positive messages about your brand, products and other elements per your agreement. You can always set up some guidelines when it comes to where they will be promoting your products. For example, you can ask them to create a post on their social media pages or simply make a “Story” which will last for 24h. Depending on the type of content they upload, it will be easier for you to arrange a fitting form of payment.
2. They revolve around the mutual gain
Affiliate marketing partnerships are some of the most successful deals when it comes to promoting your products and services online. Depending on the industry you operate in, you can also find influencers who will be willing to work with you in exchange for either monetary compensation or discounts/freebies with your brand’s name on it. · Only work with well-known and verified influencers In order to make sure that you can make the most out of this collaboration, you should always pick promoters who have made a name for themselves online and have worked with other brands in the past. Affiliate marketers such as John Chow and Neil Patel have made a name for themselves by working with increasingly more valuable brands over the years. Collaborating with individuals such as these will help you attract more people your way since you will be certain that the person you are collaborating with has experience in the field of affiliate marketing. You can easily find many “verified” influencers on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. This can be done by checking their follower count and also the little blue verification mark next to their usernames. · Collaborate with people who work in your field When picking a promoter for your products and services you should always make sure that the person you pick has knowledge in the field. You can easily see that by a simple scroll through their feed. This will allow you to know exactly how they will be advertising the products and how successful their promotional posts are with their audience. · Make sure you use verified payment methods Another thing you need to take into consideration is the platform you will use for your payment system. PayPal is a safe and trusted payment platform which will help you make sure that you won’t come across any issues in regards to paying up the commissions.
3. You can get more traffic on your website
One of the reasons why working with other brands and influencers through affiliate marketing is great is because it can bring a lot of traffic to your website. This is especially true for mobile users, which according to 99 Firms bring more than 50% of affiliate marketing related traffic to a brand’s website. While not all of them are going to be new customers, they can still enjoy the written content you produce or follow your social media pages in order to receive updates on discounts and new products. The increase of traffic on your website is considered a big benefit as it will first of all help it rank higher on the various search engines. On top of that, it will help you gain higher revenue thanks to the number of times the ads on your website will be viewed on a daily basis.
4. They allow you to work with popular influencers
Probably one of the biggest benefits that affiliate marketing has to offer is helping you come in contact with and work with various famous online influencers. Networking is very important if you wish for your business to become well known and recognized online. Having your brand connected to a certain influencer will greatly benefit this cause. Influencers are people who have made a name for themselves by sharing pieces of their everyday lives online with their followers. In general, they are considered very trustworthy and their followers seem to go to great lengths to support them. As a result, when these people promote a brand on their social media pages, their followers are more likely to give these certain products and services a try. On top of that, since these influencers are so loved by their many followers, your brand will be considered more approachable and likeable by people online. This will help you gain a more loyal following that will interact with you and help your company grow. Online influencers are always looking for new brand deals and companies to work with. Even if your business is still small, you can always start by working with some smaller-scale influencers until you can catch the attention of some more famous ones. Smaller-scale influencers will also require less revenue for the promotion and can generally be more down to earth. These will be easier to work within the first steps your company takes into affiliate marketing waters.
5. You won’t have to hire extra employees
Affiliate marketing can solve one of the biggest issues any company owner can come across and that is the need to hire new employees. This can be especially troublesome if the business is new and the funds for the employees hired are limited. Working with online influencers and other businesses will help you market your brand without having to employ a designer, a writer or a marketer. Most online influencers are well trained in the field of promotions and will be able to create the right audiovisual content needed to promote your products and services effectively. According to Social Media Today, 67% of affiliate marketers prefer social media platforms to other forms of communication with their followers. Sometimes, all it takes is something as simple as a picture of them holding or using a certain product and that is enough for their followers to want to give them a try for themselves. Along with such posts, many social media pages such as Facebook and Instagram offer the “story” feature. This allows the user to post a video or a picture which will be visible for 24h after it is uploaded. These types of posts can be quick to make as the influencer will just have to say a few things and show the product in a series of small videos that really require no preparation. The only thing you might need to provide them within order to create the promotional posts successfully is an online proofreading and editing tool. This will help make sure that the written aspect of the content is ready to be shared and mistake-free. You can find plenty of online tools such as Grammarly and Hemmingway Editor which can help you get the editing and proofreading job done without a problem. If you aren`t a native speaker and need some extra proofreading or translation, choose one of the services at Pick Writers, a translation companies reviews website.
6. The campaigns are very easy to track
Affiliate marketing campaigns can be very easy to track and they can truly be effective. All you need to do is choose an affiliate marketing tracking tool that suits your business needs and set up the parameters you want to keep an eye out. Other marketing techniques such as SEO and PPC would require using complex services in order to make sure that you can track a certain aspect of the campaign. Affiliate marketing campaigns can showcase immediate results and all you have to do is click on the page of the influencer you are working with in order to check the engagement on your promotional post. For example, Tara Milk Tea is a travel blogger who frequently shares her experiences on Instagram as part of her PR campaign. Individuals such as Tara have a large following and frequently promote products which coincide with their main body of work – in this case, travelling and sharing travel-related photos with product placement. Influencers such as these can be tracked manually by simply visiting their pages and assessing their current success rate when it comes to your affiliate marketing agreement. Apart from the form of tracking, you should keep in mind that there are other factors you should keep in check in order to make sure that working with an influencer is beneficial to your brand. There are a few things you need to do and know in order to be able to track your campaign successfully. These are called KPIs or Key Performance Indicators and consist of the following variables: · Your conversion rate- which refers to the percentage of people that decide to make a purchase on your website after clicking on an affiliate link. · Your reversal rate- which refers to the percentage of people that cancel an order that has been placed through an affiliate link, after the order has gone through. · Your cost per click rate- which refers to the amount you pay for each time someone clicks on an affiliate link · Your number of sales and revenue- which refers to the amount of all the successfully completed orders and the total earned revenue. · Your traffic growth- which refers to the changes in traffic on your website after the beginning of the promotional deal. All of these variables will help you track affiliate marketing campaigns with more ease and allow you to know exactly what results you should expect from future collaborations. Creating the right affiliate marketing program for your business While there are many different ways for you to promote your products and services online, affiliate marketing programs can offer you a reliable way to expand your online reach and sales. The opportunity to work with influencers and other businesses in your niche will relieve you of most of the hard work and help bring intangible results. Would you consider giving affiliate marketing a try for yourself? Do you have any prior experience with affiliate marketing which you would be willing to share? Let us know in the comments below. BIO: At a relatively young age, Donald Fomby has already amassed impressive experience as a freelance writer. Donald studied Computer Science at Texas and is a loyal Aggies football fan to this day. In his spare time, Donald writes Sci-Fi short stories. He has a passion for technology, social media, and travel.
