So, you have a great product or service, now all you have to do is sell it! Of the many tried and tested channels to attract and convert customers, affiliate marketing has the potential to become the most cost-effective channel for producing the highest sales, audience growth and increasing your brand’s awareness.
In this blog post, we’ll introduce you to the concept of affiliate marketing, and discuss how your business will benefit from the right affiliate program.
Passive income, how does that sound?
What Is An Affiliate Program?
An affiliate program is an arrangement by which a retailer, or seller, pays commission to an external party for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.
It is all about revenue sharing. You can offer promoters a financial incentive through an affiliate program. So if you don’t have a product but believe you could generate sales, you can promote someone else’s products, which you feel there is a need and demand for. That way, you can earn an income from it as an affiliate marketer.
These types of programs are becoming increasingly popular as they offer businesses the opportunity to market their products and services in a cheap and overall passive manner. Affiliate marketing is also suitable for both big and small companies.
Low-Cost, Low-Risk
When it comes to an effective method of increasing brand awareness, affiliate marketing is one of the cheapest methods. It’s also low-risk, due to the fact that you are in control of the commission. So if you don’t like the agreement terms there are other affiliate marketers out there you could work with. It is completely performance-based. Almost the only thing you need to pay for are the results you see. This means your affiliates come with all the motivation that is needed to increase your sales. The more sites that link to your page, the more opportunities you’ll have to convert these leads into paid customers. Over time it will also add value to your site, improving your search engine ranking . And the great thing about this is, increased SEO is a bi-product of an affiliate network, so you don’t have to fund it!
With the right kind of affiliate program, you can really develop brand loyalty and the highest level of repeat purchases. There is no need to allocate expenses to attracting customers, developing budgets for marketing tests, or promotion campaigns, simply because affiliate marketers and publishers will do all of this for you.
This makes affiliate marketing one of the best options for startups, as well as growing businesses, who are looking to develop their audience, and increase traffic.
Pro Tip:
If you want to get the most out of your program make sure you are regularly updated by your affiliates. This will ensure you have control over how your product is marketed to suit your desired brand image. Choose responsible and reliable publishers to work with, in order to avoid any unnecessary complications.
Expanding Abroad
If you are planning to take your business abroad, affiliate marketers in your target locations are likely to know the market you are entering better than you do. They are therefore likely to target your audience in a more effective way . The more affiliates you have working for you, the more ads your customers will be exposed to, increasing your brand awareness. The best news is that most of these publishers will have an established visitor base which you can tap into. You’ll also have the opportunity to make deals with local influencers who will promote and recommend your products to their subscribers.
Warning!
Be aware of the fact that publishers will need approximately two or three months to test several business models and campaigns. This means that you’ll start seeing results only after that period is complete.
Easy Access
As an online form of marketing, affiliate marketing allows you to create a program and operate anywhere in the world. The process of affiliate marketing is inherently simple. The affiliate management company finds affiliates, and they push your product or service. There will be a program appropriate for you and your business whatever your product category may be.
For many businesses, an affiliate program might be a big step. However, we hope that this blog post will help those undecided to see the benefits that come with this type of networking. There are many affiliate programs available in this day and age, so it’s important to make yours stand out and catch the attention of professional affiliate marketers.
It’s a Partnership
You can be certain that affiliate marketers will do their best to sell your product, as they’ll directly benefit from this. You can think of these partners as an extension of your current marketing or sales team. They will promote and vouch for your product, further solidifying your brand image and the customers’ confidence in your product or service. This is partly because, in the research phase of purchase, customers are more likely to trust a third party’s opinion. In a way, affiliate marketing is a type of social proofing, because your marketers are endorsing your product.
Less In-House Tasks
When you become part of an affiliate program, most of the marketing will be done by the publishers. This enables your marketing department to focus on other tasks like PR, recruitment etc. You might not even need a whole department, just one staff member who will ensure your business is getting the best opportunities from the affiliate program.
Working with affiliates in new markets is an easy way to branch out into that market without the overhead cost of creating an entire marketing campaign. You are therefore avoiding the need to pour money into an unproven market for testing.
Affiliate programs are becoming increasingly more common business models, because of the many benefits they offer. This marketing method has a lot of potential to take your business to new heights. It is a low-risk investment to help expand your marketing efforts beyond a small business’ traditional reach. The key to a successful program is to find a loyal base of affiliates who are excited to work with you and your product.