One of the most popular promotion methods recently is affiliate programs. We’ll tell you what it is and how to choose the best affiliate marketing programs.
What is an affiliate program
Affiliate programs are a relatively new marketing tool. It is based on establishing cooperation with other partner companies. These companies promote the products of the organization that has established cooperation with them on the Internet. Partners receive money for good results in promotion. Everyone will be satisfied in this process: the company receives new clients and increases sales, partners receive money for their work. That is, this is a mutually beneficial cooperation, during which each party remains in the black and achieves its strategic objectives.
Who can become a participant in the affiliate program
3 parties can take part in the affiliate program:
1. A company that sells goods or services and invites its partners to promote them. It sets the terms of the affiliate program, makes bets, and gives partners all the tools they need for promotion. Her tasks also include monitoring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns organized by partners. She monitors their activities and sales, and also pays commissions for their work.
2. A company or individual who acts as a marketing partner of the company. Their tasks include promoting the goods and services of the manufacturing company. Most often, bloggers, web developers, and people active on social networks can become partners. To promote the goods and services of a partner company, they use all the resources they have: their audience, marketing techniques, traffic and other tools.
3. Consumers of goods and services of the manufacturing company. These are ordinary people who see recommendations for goods or services and become their end consumers.
Why are affiliate programs useful?
Affiliate programs perform 3 key functions:
- they attract new customers through third-party resources;
- as a result, sales volumes increase;
- help build effective and long-term relationships with partners.
Advantages of affiliate programs
Affiliate programs provide great business opportunities. This:
1. Expansion of the market industry. Platforms that host links to affiliate programs contain new audiences. With its help, you can find a new market segment and attract new customers. Partners can significantly expand a brand’s reach.
2. Increase in sales volume. Affiliate programs work in such a way that they help companies increase their customer base, thereby increasing sales.
3. Reduced costs for promotion campaigns and marketing, since partners take on most of the promotion of goods and services.
4. Establishing long-term relationships with partners, which contributes to the stability and well-being of the company.
5. Increasing brand awareness. Due to the fact that affiliate programs are hosted by many popular bloggers with a large audience, a large number of people learn about them.
6. Strengthening the positive reputation of the brand.
7. Exchange of experience. Partners, being in constant cooperation, share with each other marketing tools and resources that allow them to develop in business. This is a constant exchange of knowledge and skills that work to the advantage of each side of the partnership.
Steps towards partnership
To become a partner of a particular company, you need to go through several steps. Here they are:
1. Register in the affiliate program and read its terms and conditions.
2. Enter into an agreement with the company providing the affiliate program. Before this, a potential partner undergoes a check of his resources, on which he plans to post links to the affiliate program.
3. After signing the agreement, the partner receives a personal identifier and a link – using them the company will track the partner’s activity and actions.
4. Attract customers through links. There are many tools for promotion: a partner can write reviews of the goods or services provided, create advertising materials and links to attract traffic.
5. Analyze the results of cooperation. The company providing the affiliate program regularly uploads statistics on partner activity: link clicks, sales, leads, etc.
6. Providing rewards. Depending on the conditions on which the partners agreed to cooperate, he is paid money. This can be a percentage of sales or a fixed amount.
7. Develop an affiliate program. Partners work in tandem to develop the program: they make changes to it and constantly improve it.
How to choose the best affiliate marketing programs
When choosing a suitable affiliate program for yourself, you must be guided by personal interest: how interested you are in promoting the products or services of this company. You also need to look at the relevance of its products: how much the goods or services it offers are in demand and in demand among the audience. At the same time, at the start it is important to choose just one, and not several niches – this will be easier and more effective.