Now that you have started with your eCommerce venture, it’s about time you advertise it. And what better than the trending Affiliate marketing program to increase site traffic, raise brand awareness, and reach a huge target audience with great conversions too. What is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is a strategic marketing practice where you promote your products on the sites of other brands, businesses, or bloggers. In return, these affiliates are rewarded with a commission whenever a visitor sent by them to an online retailer makes a purchase. Typically, it’s done for a sale. But sometimes affiliates are also rewarded for leads, the free-trial user clicks to a website landing page, or getting downloads for an app. Affiliate programs are often free to join, so no need for high startup costs. How affiliate marketing program works Affiliate marketing involves endorsing a product or service by sharing it on a blog, social media sites, podcasts, or website. The affiliate receives a commission from the retailer each time a customer purchases through the unique link associated with the affiliate’s recommendation. How does it work? You exhibit an ad or a link for eCommerce Store X on your website, blog, social networking platforms, other web portals or alternative search engines. A shopper clicks your unique link. He purchases Store X. The affiliate network records this transaction. The purchase is confirmed by Store X. You are rewarded with a commission. (Commission rates can vary from 5% up to even 50% depending on the company and the offer). Types of affiliate marketing Unattached In ‘unattached affiliate marketing’ you have no authority in the niche of the product you’re advertising. There is no connection between the affiliate and the customer. Mostly you just need to run a pay-per-click advertising campaign with your affiliate link and when people search queries, click it and buy the product, you earn a commission. Related In ‘Related affiliate marketing’ you promote products or services you don’t use, but you are related to your niche audience, whether it’s through blogging, YouTube, TikTok, popular search engines or another channel. It’s done by influencers with millions of followers who are trusted sources for recommending products, whether or not they have used them before. Involved Involved affiliate marketing refers to only promoting and recommending products and services you’ve used before and truly believe in. This type of marketing is an honest and genuine way to become a trusted source, where the affiliate influencers promote products and services that followers may need, instead of paying to get clicks on a banner ad. Benefits of the eCommerce affiliate program and how can it boost your sales? Affiliate marketing increases the eCommerce stores’ reach faster and more consistently to the largest possible audience on the Internet and the eCommerce business only pay affiliates after the purchase takes place. Strong ROI Research shows consumers generally spend more when following an affiliate’s or social media marketer’s recommendation for a purchase rather than buying an item of their own choice. Consumers spend more when following an affiliate’s or social media marketer’s recommendation for a purchase Superior social proof Social proof is the psychological and social practice that people will follow the actions of others while believing that the crowd is making the right choice. For example, if a shopper wants to buy a new fridge, he will first check online reviews from Amazon users, look up trustworthy fridge review sites, and then finalise the purchase decision from the experiences of other creative commons. Enhance reliability Almost 69% of online shoppers require product reviews from eCommerce sites before buying a product or service. When affiliates and popular influencers recommend your brand, it increases your credibility, brand equity and brand recognition almost instantaneously. Use images, icons, or text to publicise where your brand has been used and reviewed across the Internet. Create brand ambassadors Your affiliates can quickly become your brand ambassadors and begin telling others about your brand organically about how much they loved using your products. When trustworthy influencers post photos, blogs, or feature your products in their videos, as high as 82 % of viewers are likely to follow the recommendation of these content marketer’s, email marketer’s and social media marketers. Create user content When a group of people love your brand and want everyone else to know about it—especially on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, the product photos, videos, and reviews, it can generate higher revenue for your eCommerce business organically. Encourage user-generated content on your eCommerce site, feature that content everywhere, and use it as a marketing tool. Benefits for the Affiliate marketer Easy to execute All you need to do is handle the digital marketing strategy side of building and selling a product. No need to worry about the harder tasks, like developing, supporting, or executing the offer. Low risk As there’s no cost to join affiliate programs, you can start making money without any prior investment. An affiliate marketer can generate good income through a commission by just investing prior time in creating traffic sources. Easy to scale growth Successful affiliate marketing campaign offers the possibility to significantly scale your earnings without hiring extra help. You can keep introducing new products to your already huge current audience and continue to generate revenue. Affiliate marketing also has a few disadvantages and challenges in the journey to success. Affiliate marketing is not a rich quick scheme but requires time and patience to find your target audience and gain influence. It is commission-based, so you won’t get a weekly pay-check as an affiliate marketer. Affiliates have to obey the rules set by a company for their program. They have no control over the program for what you say and how you present the product or service. Whether you’re a freshly started eCommerce store or an established one, if you’re looking to test a new money-making trending marketing strategy, start your affiliate marketing business today. Earning more sales and increased brand awareness with affiliate marketing programs can be rewarding by adding a new revenue stream without taking on too much risk. All it will cost you is some amount of commission to continue to reap the rewards coming from your affiliate influencers and their huge committed followers. Keep reviewing your marketing schedule and be aware of where your affiliates are placing your eCommerce links and from where your sources of traffic are coming. For your affiliate marketing program’s success, it’s best to get personal. Ask your influencers to share their experience through their blogs, social media posts, Instagram Story, or YouTube videos on various Google searches and sit back and enjoy your massive site traffic and clicks. Sell products online – start an online store – free trial. Shopify. (n.d.). Retrieved May 25, 2022, from https://www.shopify.co.uk/online Hype Free Business Advice for entrepreneurs. Ecommerce CEO. (2022, April 27). Retrieved May 25, 2022, from https://www.ecommerceceo.com/ Get in touch: Name * Company * Phone Email * Subject Message *
