Have you ever read an article that is entirely dedicated to reviewing a specific product or service? Perhaps this article was from a review site that has influenced your purchase decisions in the past. Or maybe you purchased a product that gave you a discount code for another brand? These are examples of affiliate marketing.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
It is the act of promoting other people’s products in return for a small commission for each sale. Merchants refer to brands that use this form of marketing. Merchants partner with affiliate marketers, which range from influencers, to other brands with a similar target audience, to review sites. These marketers advertise one or numerous affiliate products in an effort to draw in and persuade potential customers to purchase the brand’s goods.
Why Should You Be Using It?
Cross-Promotion with Brand Partnerships
Creating partnerships with other businesses is a fantastic approach to start using affiliate marketing. It helps you reach a larger audience by cross-promoting your good or service. It is important to partner up with brands that have a similar target audience. For example, if you are a brand that sells outdoor sportswear, it would be beneficial to partner with a brand that holds outdoor sports events. Moreover, when a consumer purchases tickets to an event, that consumer could receive a discount code for your brand, and vice versa. Both the affiliate and your brand benefit from increased brand awareness by reaching a greater target audience who have similar interests in both of your brands. Sometimes, these partnerships may not even require any financial incentive as the additional exposure is incentive enough.
Increased Trust in Your Brand with Influencers and Review Sites
According to a study done in 2021 by Stackla, 79 percent of people say that user-generated content highly impacts their purchasing decisions. As such, the use of affiliate marketing through influencers can greatly impact your brand’s sales volumes. The beauty, clothing, and tech industry are masters at this, with influencers making entire videos reviewing an affiliated beauty or clothing brand. Their audiences value their opinions, and are more likely to be influenced by these reviews than traditional ads. The use of review sites and blog posts as affiliates have similar benefits. For example, if your brand sells travel packages, you could use popular travel blogs to promote your services. They have established audience bases that trust their recommendations. Promoting your services there will inculcate that trust in your brand too.
Concluding
Ultimately, whether you can use affiliate marketing depends on whether you can afford to pay out the commissions. If your brand’s profit margins won’t easily support the proportion of commission to be paid, don’t sign up for an affiliate programme. Midsize to large businesses that gain from press attention and can pay the cost seem to be the ideal target market for affiliate marketing. Small businesses should assess their possibilities for marketing techniques and look at their books.
