Expand Your Brand’s Reach with Affiliate Marketing
What is affiliate marketing?
What should I look for in an affiliate?
What is an affiliate network?
Imagine there’s a small organic fertilizer company called Whoa Grow that wants more people to hear about their environmentally friendly garden products.
Whoa Grow doesn’t have the budget to run a lot of online advertisements. So instead, they decide to try and team up with a popular website that would be willing to feature and sell their products in exchange for a commission.
Whoa Grow has a few ideas for websites they could partner with. Let’s help them decide which ones would get their name and products in front of the right people.
Whoa Grow teaming up with a popular website to sell their products is an example of affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is the practice of paying a commission to online publishers (such as bloggers, e-magazines, and news sites) that promote or feature your product on their sites and networks.
Publishers only earn a commission when they drive sales of your products, so you only pay for affiliate marketing when it works.
Arranging for your products to be promoted on other sites typically allows you to reach more people, and hopefully generate more sales than if you relied solely on advertisements or your own site and store.
The success of your affiliate marketing depends on selecting and working with affiliates that are relevant to your brand and popular with your target audience.
It makes sense for Whoa Grow to choose Azalea Avenue as an affiliate because the blog is popular with home gardeners, the same people who are most likely to be interested in Whoa Grow products.
Thousands of gardeners will learn about Whoa Grow from Azalea Avenue. But affiliate marketing is more than just getting your name in front of the most eyes. It’s also about legitimizing your brand and product in a way normal ads don’t.
People who read Azalea Avenue likely trust its writers’ opinions. So, if those writers review and endorse Whoa Grow, it’s like a stamp of approval from an authority, which is far more likely to lead to sales than a regular ad.
LISTEN UP
There are 2 ways to seek out affiliates: finding them yourself and joining an established affiliate network.
If you choose to find affiliates on your own, start by thinking about the interests and online habits of your target audience.
Which sites do people in your target audience visit? Which writers and online personalities do they like and trust? What terms and phrases would you expect them to search for online?
Test out potential search terms and see what sites pop up. You can also use a tool like Google Trends to see the popularity of search terms, as well as which related terms people are searching for.
Once you identify a site that attracts your target audience, see if they’re already doing affiliate marketing with other businesses. You can do this by clicking around their site or by simply reaching out with an introductory email.
If the site already does affiliate marketing, jump right into talking about logistics and commission percentages. If they don’t do affiliate marketing, you can propose a new agreement and see if they’re interested.
You can also find affiliates by joining an affiliate network, which is a service that connects merchants with publishers that do affiliate marketing.
Services like Rakuten, ShareASale, and Commission Junction are good places to start, but there are many others. You pay a fee to join these networks, but it’s typically a faster, easier process than finding affiliates yourself.
Affiliate networks offer databases of relevant publishers and guidance on which ones will be good fits for your business. They also provide tools to create the custom tracking links you’ll need to monitor sales and commissions.
Affiliate networks also provide analytics and dashboards that track important metrics like affiliate sales. With these resources, affiliate networks can be a great option for new and small businesses trying to learn the ropes.
Whether you find an affiliate on your own or use an affiliate network, you’ll need to establish how sales and commissions will work.
There’s no right answer for how much of a commission an affiliate should receive, but generally you’ll have to offer a larger percentage of sales if you’re a new or lesser-known brand than you would if you’re established and well-known.
You want to incentivize your affiliates to sell as much as possible, so consider a scale that increases commission percentages as sales volumes increase.
Once you’ve chosen one or more publishers to partner with, the success of your affiliate marketing depends on building strong working relationships.
Like any relationship, communication is essential. Talk to your affiliates about the best ways to use and sell your products, answer any questions they may have, and provide them with resources they need, like images or product info.
Your goal shouldn’t be to get your products on as many sites as possible. It is better to work with a small number of high-quality partners that are popular with your target audience than to work with a lot of partners that are irrelevant to your target.
Finally, there are laws that may apply to endorsement or sponsorship campaigns, so it’s smart to consult with your legal department to make sure you have adequate disclosures about the sponsored nature of the content.
DO THIS NOW
Now that you’re thinking about affiliate marketing, let’s figure out whether you should find new affiliates yourself or use an established affiliate network.
If you’re participating in the course, go to the next section to access your self assessment.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Affiliate marketing is the practice of paying a commission to publishers that promote your product or service on their does and networks.
You should choose affiliates that are relevant to your brand and popular with your target audience.
Affiliate networks are paid services that connect merchants with publishers that do affiliate marketing.