Creating an affiliate marketing for business is a growing trend for online retailers because it’s creating incentives for people with a strong social influence to introduce your brand to new audiences. This post breaks down the mechanics of building a strong affiliate program for your business, how to get affiliates signed up, and introduces one way you can accelerate your program’s growth.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing, from a business’s perspective, is when you let online content creators share in the success of any conversion(s) they drive on your website. If you sell shirts, for example, you might offer a 10% commission on sales that come through your website. An affiliate would create a custom link to your product(s) and share with their audience. The affiliate link (which we’ll explain below) records the sales made by users that come from that particular content creator. Once the sale goes through, the creator would get their 10% commission.
How Does an Affiliate Link Work?
Affiliate marketing links are any URL with a traceable tag associated with a particular affiliate. In simpler terms, that means it’s a link to your website that tracks whether or not an affiliate successfully drove a transaction on your website. An affiliate can choose to link to a particular product he or she is passionate about, your homepage, or any other section. It tracks the entire customer journey, so regardless of which page or product the user lands on, the link can record any and all purchases that take place as a result of that content creator’s effort.
How to Create an Affiliate Link?
If you’re a business, there are different ways to build your affiliate program. You’ll have the option to create one that’s unique to your website or join a larger network with existing affiliate marketers already signed up. We’ll discuss this more in the post and share the ways we have helped clients successfully join the world of affiliate marketing.
If you’re a content creator, we’ve built a Complete Guide to Monetizing Your Audience that we suggest viewing. It breaks down the different types of affiliate programs that exist, how to join, and how to create links to your favorite products to start generating revenue.
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How to Get Affiliates for Your Business
There are a few steps that attract dedicated affiliates for you business. The first, and single most important, however, is by having great products that inspire passion. Everything starts with effectively communicating the value of what your business does and why affiliates should be “shouting from the rooftops” to let their audience know about your company.
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Then you’ll want to make sure you give affiliates the resources they’ll need once you’ve effectively communicated your company’s value proposition.
How Much Should I Pay Affiliates?
One of the more obvious things you’ll want to provide affiliates is effective monetary incentive. There are different types of incentive offerings, such as paying either a percent of each transaction or a fixed cost for a successful sale.
There’s no cookie-cutter answer for creating the right incentive because the value of a sale will vary by product, business model, and industry. Our best advice would be to scan the market for what comparable companies to your own are offering and make sure to provide incentive that’s competitive with theirs.
Provide Content Support
Being a content creator doesn’t mean that someone in necessarily skilled at all kinds of creative materials. One way to make your affiliates’ lives easier is by offering banners, ad copy, talking points, or even video content that can help them effectively represent your company when they reach out to their audience.
Not sure where to start? Schedule time with us and we will help you create strong content
Create an Affiliate Marketing Program for Your Business with a Network
One final piece to consider is how to jumpstart affiliate marketing for business. A resource our team has employed in the past has been working with Shareasale – an affiliate marketing platform that’s got over 200,000 affiliates already in place. It also offers a step-by-step guide for installing the program to your website.
Get Support for Starting Your Affiliate Marketing Program
Because our team has worked with installing Shareasale before, we are able to provide clients with a 25% discount on the signup cost ($550 > $412.50) in addition to the technical support of implementing the program. You’ll be able to begin your affiliate program quickly and start accessing the large network and gaining new brand ambassadors.
