Affiliate Marketing - LHM
Affiliate Marketing
Five Ways ecommerce
Brands Can Leverage Affiliate Marketing
Co-founder of BrandChamp and ambassador marketing expert helping
brands build passionate communities that drive lasting growth.
If you’re not
leveraging affiliate marketing to increase sales and boost brand awareness,
you’re missing out on sales and new customers. This is particularly true for
eCommerce operations without brick-and-mortar locations to attract foot
traffic.
Did you know that more
than 80% of brands use affiliate marketing to capture their customers’
attention, engage with them, and generate more sales?
Keep reading to learn
how you can leverage affiliate marketing to drive brand awareness today.
What Is Affiliate
Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is
a process in which an affiliate earns a commission for marketing a company’s
products. The affiliate simply finds a product they enjoy and then shares that
product with their network of friends, family members, and social media followers.
As the affiliate’s network purchases the product, they earn a commission of the
profit. Sales are tracked via affiliate links from one website to the
next.
Once an affiliate
reaches a minimum payment threshold, a brand will often send payment via PayPal,
bank transfer, or check. It’s a straightforward way for the affiliate to earn
some extra cash while the brand receives awareness and new customers.
For affiliates to be
paid, they must make ‘qualified sales.’ This usually means the customers they
brought in:
- Clicked on
an affiliate link
- Put the
product in their shopping cart after following the link
- Completed
the purchase and receives the goods
- Does not
return the product
Benefits of Affiliate
Marketing
The benefits of
affiliate marketing stretch beyond driving brand growth, increasing brand
awareness, and improving sales. They include:
- Low start-up and maintenance costs: The best part about affiliate marketing programs is you
don’t need a ton of capital or a huge marketing team to manage them. Instead,
you depend on affiliates to create marketing content. After you find and
vet affiliates, there’s little effort required to market your products.
What’s more, since affiliate marketing is commission-based, you only pay
your affiliates for the sales they bring in.
- Targeted traffic: Since
you handpick your affiliates, you can ensure the traffic they drive to
your site is from people who will find your product or service useful.
- Flexibility: You
can easily scale your affiliate program or make it smaller with little to
no cost.
- High return on investment: Affiliate marketing programs have a much higher ROI than most other marketing strategies. This is
largely because your target audience hears about your brand from people
who are already in their sphere of influence. Affiliate marketing channels
your marketing efforts through affiliates’ direct access to their highly
targeted audience.
5 Ways to Leverage
Affiliate Marketing
So, how can you get
started leveraging affiliate marketing today? Let’s find out.
#1. Brand Ambassador
Programs
All brand ambassador
programs are different. But, some are aligned with affiliate marketing
strategies, particularly those brand ambassadors who get a percentage of each
sale they make. What is a brand ambassador program? Brand ambassadors represent
and advertise a certain company and work to integrate the company’s products
into their community.
For example, Red Bull’s brand ambassadors are college students who work to make Red Bull products part of
their campus lifestyle. Brand ambassador programs drive brand awareness, create authentic connections between the
brand and consumer and increase brand trust. Brand ambassadors are experts on
the brand’s product offerings, mission, and core values and are able to talk
in-depth about the brand without a script.
If you don’t have a brand ambassador program, or you’re feeling
overwhelmed trying to manage yours, BrandChamp is here for you. Request a demo or check out our free resources, including eBooks, case studies, and webinars to learn more!
#2. Harness the
Power of Micro-Influencers
From the Kardashians to the D’Amelios, we all know about
big-time influencers who rule social media — and charge millions of dollars for
one post! But, there’s a hidden power that lies within micro-influencers. These
influencers have a smaller, more powerful following. Typically, micro-influencers
have between 10K and 100K followers, allowing them to engage a lot more with
their followers than big-time influencers with millions of followers. Although
micro-influencers won’t get as many eyes on your products as major influencers,
the eyes they do get are more likely to click through the links and make
purchases. In fact, studies have found that the more followers an influencer has, the
less engagement they get; and influencers with a mere 1,000 followers had up to
85% engagement!
The power of the
micro-influencer lies in their authentic relationships with their followers.
These influencers can effectively get their audiences to trust the brands they
promote and convince them to give their products or services a try.
#3. Generate User
Content
User-generated content is another secret weapon of affiliate marketing,
especially when you consider the fact that 92% of consumers look at people they know for referrals above any other
sources. The truth is that when people love your products, they want to share
them with everyone else they know — in real life and on social media!
Get started with
user-generated content by informing customers about your affiliate marketing
program. Let them know that they can make some extra cash by getting their
friends and followers to try your products. User-generated product photos,
videos, and reviews are all ways to grow your eCommerce business organically.
Of course, you also have to capitalize on this user-generated content and post
it on your company website and social media platforms for ultimate exposure and
to make the most of the marketing power. Content generated by customers is more
authentic, cost-effective, and maximizes your return on investment (which is
often $0 with user-generated content!).
#4. Blogging
Blogging is another
effective affiliate marketing method for brands — whether you start your own
blog or find established bloggers who will place your affiliate links and
products throughout their blog. Starting your own blog establishes expertise
and positions you as a thought leader in your industry.
This type of affiliate marketing works best with niche
businesses. For example, The Points Guy is
a go-to source for travel hacks and deals. Sprinkled throughout TPG blogs are
links to book said deals, sign up for credit cards to get points, and so forth.
These affiliate links help travelers looking to save some money and provide
companies with extra traffic, sales, and new customers.
Get started by adding
links to your blog posts, banners, video clips, and pop-up ads. Use social
media and email to share your links. Most importantly, focus on sharing
affiliate links that are the most useful and that provide true value to your
customers. Don’t only go for the sale; provide value first and foremost.
#5. Social Media
You can use social
media to leverage just about any marketing strategy, including affiliate
marketing. Sharing affiliate links on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok,
etc., is ideal for affiliates with large followings. Ways of sharing affiliate
links on social media include:
- Facebook
ads
- Personal
pages
- Groups
- Promotional
posts
- YouTube
videos
Of course, it’s
important to find the platforms that work best for you. Focus on where your
target audience is, rather than casting a wide net on every social network.
Research and find out where your target audience spends the most time, whether
it’s LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest, etc., and then
develop your affiliate marketing strategy. Some of these sites have their own
affiliate marketing programs and protocols set up, so make sure you are in
compliance with all regulations.
In Closing
Affiliate marketing is
a powerful marketing strategy that all brands should use to harness the power
of word-of-mouth and influencers. Affiliate marketing offers many channels, so
you can choose the one that resonates the most with your target audience.
Whatever affiliate marketing method you decide to go with, make sure the
products your affiliates are sharing are relevant content that resonates with
your target audience.
How BrandChamp Can
Help
To take your eCommerce brand’s affiliate marketing to the next
level, get in touch with BrandChamp today! Our brand ambassador management software is the leading solution for ambassador
marketing. We help brands build thriving ambassador communities that increase
sales, brand awareness, and engagement on social media. Reach out for a free demo.
Contact us :
📞7721076356
📧lifehappymedia@gmail.com
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