Affiliate marketing is becoming an easy and powerful digital marketing strategy. For marketers and individuals, this tactic is considered a lucrative business. In fact, 84 percent of publishers and 81 percent of marketers leverage affiliate marketing’s efficiency in a digitally advanced world.
Before we give you some tips to excel in affiliate marketing, let’s break down what it is.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Simply put, affiliate marketing is the method of earning money by promoting someone else’s products online. Whether you, promote it on blogs, social media posts, or newsletters, the promotions you do drive traffic to the seller’s website or product pages and drive sales. That said, an excellent web design and awesome products are also crucial to make your prospects convert.
Affiliate marketing works between a merchant, advertiser, and the consumer. The merchant is the person selling the products. These are the sellers of the products and they usually join an affiliate network where they can offer their products for affiliate marketing. To do this, they provide an affiliate link to the advertiser.
The advertiser, which can be a marketer or anyone who promotes the merchant’s products then grabs the link and integrates it on their blogs, social media posts, or newsletters. These advertisers do everything to promote the products and encourage the prospects to buy. They must also adhere to the FTC guidelines such as disclosing that the promotion is incentivized.
The last stage of affiliate marketing is the buying process and it all boils down to the consumer. Once the consumer lands on the advertiser’s blogs or social media posts, clicks on the link, and purchases, a cookie will then be stored in the merchant’s system. This cookie will display where the purchase came from.
Last but not least is the fun part –the affiliate commission! The merchant then gives the money to the advertiser at the end of every payment cycle.
7 Steps for an Effective Affiliate Marketing Strategy
If you’re looking into leveraging affiliate marketing, then do these seven easy and effective strategies:
1. Choose your niche
The first step to succeeding in affiliate marketing is by choosing your niche. Selecting your niche means you’re knowledgeable about it and it becomes easier to promote the relevant products. Remember, you’re not only promoting one product but a myriad of products in the same niche. Plus, you know what audience you’re catering to.
2. Tap on various platforms
Never put all your eggs in one basket. When doing affiliate marketing, you want to tap into similar audiences on different platforms. Instagram, social media, email, or blogs, to name a few. Diversifying where you promote the products spells success for you and the merchant.
3. Take advantage of social proof
Social proof is crucial nowadays. In a study, 90 percent of respondents said online reviews influenced their buying decisions. Write reviews about products and promote it the best way you can.
4. Build an audience
Before you succeed in affiliate marketing, build an audience first. No one will read your blogs or social media posts if you don’t have a solid followership. It may take months or years, but this is crucial to have money coming in once you have a solid readership base.
5. Create quality blog content
Blogging is one of the easiest ways to start affiliate marketing. You can create a website and start writing how-to guides or listicles. Then you can start promoting the products. But your promotion doesn’t stop on your website alone. You have to continuously advertise your blogs on various channels as well. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, or even email, to name a few.
6. Tap influencers
It might be hard to tap macro-influencers, so approach micro-influencers instead. Influencers are excellent mediums that can promote products fast. However, to ensure you’re promoting to a quality audience, choose an influencer in the same niche with the same principles and values.
7. Video marketing
Did you know that 87 percent of marketers leverage the power of video marketing? It’s a fun strategy that can appeal to video addicts out there. Include the links on your videos and you’ll undeniably see a surge in commission.
Anthony Blair writes about digital marketing hacks, productivity, and the latest trends in technology. He is currently working with Nettonic, one of the leading web design bedford agencies based in Bedford, Bedfordshire.
