Affiliate Marketing In Today’s Landscape
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way for businesses to get their products in front of more consumers and for creators to make money promoting them. When you have Affiliates on your side, all of your efforts in marketing and sales are multiplied only by the number of active Affiliates you have.
Some things to keep in mind about affiliate marketing:
- Over 80% of brands have affiliate programs.
- Nearly 65% of affiliate marketers generate traffic from blogging.
- Affiliate marketing is responsible for 16% of global e-commerce sales.
It’s not just the sales that are increasing; the overall spend on affiliate marketing is expected to rise to 6.8 billion or more.
Affiliate marketing gives you the ability not only to reach everyday consumers but to leverage influencers and creators in your business space.
Let’s dig into ways you can use affiliate marketing to improve your eCommerce sales.
Partner with a reputable affiliate marketing platform
While creating an affiliate marketing program might be something you could do on your own, the reality is that most businesses don’t have the time or the resources to do it effectively. An overwhelming 95% of companies use an affiliate marketing platform. Not only is it easy to set up, but Affiliates that want to work with you are already on the platform. These platforms lead you through the process and launch your affiliate program quickly and effectively.
Connect with your affiliates
Creating an affiliate program could be as easy as just setting it up, forgetting about it, and hoping the sales come in. However, you’ll want to communicate regularly with your affiliates to have an effective affiliate marketing program. It’s important because you want to give your Affiliates some direction regarding things to promote, future events or sales, or even give them bonuses within your program when they hit specific sales targets. Your Affiliates need to be aware of what’s happening to promote you and your products effectively.
Focus on seasonal events
Seasonal events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are most companies’ biggest sales days all year. These seasonal events are also something that your affiliates can take to the next level. Ensure that you’re providing them with all the information for your company’s sales and discounts over those critical retail days; make sure they have promotional materials, including images and featured products.
Text and Banner ads for affiliates
Repetition is critical with text and banner ads, and anywhere marketers can get their logo and their creatives seen is a win. Most of your Affiliates will have a platform they’re using to share information. As we said above, most of them use their blog or website, and there’s plenty of room to include your banner or text links within their content. Free advertising for your brand is another bonus of having an affiliate marketing program.
Don’t shy away from coupon sites
Even if your business does not regularly run promotions and you do not typically have coupons available to your consumers, coupon sites are great for bringing traffic to your site. And often, the owners of these coupon sites don’t worry about having a coupon for your site or not. They want to offer the selection to their users, so one more brand on their site makes them look even more credible.
And Obviously… Strategy
And, of course, there is a solid strategy behind every good affiliate program. So make sure you’re taking time to brainstorm ideas with your team, and understand and align your affiliate marketing efforts with industry programs, seasonal events, upcoming Niche events, and anything else relevant to your particular industry.
