If you’re looking to grow your business while also increasing profits, affiliate marketing is a useful advertising model. Affiliate marketing is a performance-based advertising method whereby a third-party publisher, otherwise known as an affiliate, promotes a business’s products or services and receives a commission per sale in return.
An affiliate generates sales by drawing on their networks and marketing knowledge to promote products and boost your recognition. The commission they earn incentivises third-party publishers to promote your business and drive sales.
If you’re interested in how affiliate marketing can help you, read on to determine the benefits of this advertising model on your business.
Brand awareness
Affiliate marketing increases the extent to which consumers can recognise and recall your brand. Third-party publishers allow you to gain access to particular demographics that match your company’s target audience or a segment of it.
Affiliates act as influencers – showcasing your products to their loyal followers who most likely have the same interest in your business’s product or services. This recognition helps expand your business reach and generates more potential leads. These new audiences can bring in new data that you can use to widen audience-related opportunities.
Another advantage of affiliate marketing is that it allows you to discover entirely new audiences. Affiliates can help you reach audiences that you find hard to connect with through traditional advertising methods.
Social proof
Businesses with positive reputations are more likely to attract consumers and charge higher prices for their services. Social proof in marketing refers to evidence that other people have purchased from your brand and found value in your products or services. In this case, the affiliate serves as social proof by promoting your brand and reputation among their followers.
For this reason, it is important to build relations with a reliable affiliate network that has a loyal and positive audience. Doing so ensures your brand becomes associated with a trustworthy individual – thereby serving to boost your company’s integrity too. Customers that stem from your affiliate network are likely to show the same level of loyalty to your brand over time, which contributes to the long-term growth and expansion of the business.
Improves conversion rates
Affiliate marketers have access to several sources of traffic within their online networks. Drawing on these connections allows you to boost company recognition which, in turn, leads to increased sales down the line.
Conversion rates are higher where the person or company promoting the products has a longstanding network built on trust. Their followers are more likely to trust them than a message they receive from indirect online advertising. This makes affiliate marketing an attractive option for start-ups that have yet to build a trustworthy reputation as they can benefit from the affiliate marketers’ already crafted connections.
A good conversion rate is between 0.5% and 1%. To achieve this and drive more traffic to your landing pages, affiliate marketers may:
- Offer coupons or deals to consumers
- Provide call-to-actions
- Provide social proof
- Include more click-through links
For advice on how you can increase conversion rates with your landing page content, read this blog.
Saves money
Affiliate marketing allows you to achieve better results while also cutting costs and risk – making it one of the most cost-effective advertising models. This is because you don’t have to spend money on an in-house sales team. Since affiliate marketers work on a commission basis, you don’t need to worry about adding them to your monthly or weekly payroll. All you need to ensure is that you have a product or service which allows for a sizeable commission.
We recommend using an affiliate programme for products with high margins to make the most out of this advertising model. This means you can generate sales without spending on a traditional advertising budget. The only costs you may need to consider include:
- Network fees
- Advertising costs
- Acquisition of affiliates
- Affiliate commissions
- Marketing resources
- Product development
Higher ROI
To guarantee a good return on investment (ROI), you must combine effective management and product innovation with adequate marketing techniques. Affiliate marketing allows you to achieve this as your target audience will hear about the company’s products or services from affiliates that are known and within their spheres of influence.
Affiliate marketers have direct influence and access over your target audience’s decisions and can make them more receptive to what you are offering. Higher recognition and interest lead to greater conversion rates and sales, thereby increasing your ROI.
These are just some reasons why you might consider affiliate marketing for your business. Adzooma is a marketing platform that helps you build campaigns and check your performance rating in real time. Contact Adzooma today for more advice and information on how to boost your online presence and increase sales.
