When it comes to running a business, marketing is one of the most important elements that you need to pay attention to. There are a number of methods available to help you expand the reach of your business, including social media marketing and content marketing (podcasts, videos and blogs) to get your product or service in front of the right people.

Of course, once you create this content, you also need to make sure your target audience is seeing it, and one of the best ways to boost traffic and promote your business is through affiliate marketing. Ascertaining a strategy and sticking to it is key in drawing an audience to your content and encouraging them to convert into paying customers.

So, read on to find out more about creating an affiliate marketing strategy and the things you need to know when it comes to advertising your business.

Knowing your product

The first step to ensuring that you create a successful strategy is to solidify your understanding of your own product. If you don’t know your product inside and out, then how can you expect to demonstrate it to someone else? Get to know your product and make sure you are certain of all its features and benefits. Part of this is establishing what sort of audience would use your product, how it would be used and in what context. You need to have a clear picture of how the item or service would be beneficial to the daily lives of a broad demographic of people.

Once you have a clear vision of your product and who you will need to market it to, you can start to plan out your objectives. You want these to be ambitious but achievable. It also helps to make very specific goals that you can quantify so that it’s easy to see when they have been met. These goals might include getting a specific number of visitors to your site each month or increasing your social media followers by a certain number. It could also be a specific amount of sales made to demonstrate that the business is growing.

Where to find affiliates

There are a few key channels that you can use to find affiliates, even if it’s something that you have never looked into before. This includes:

– Joining affiliate networks that are already established – they find suitable affiliates for businesses, which can be really useful if you’re new to this type of marketing.

– Joining groups and forums online where you can find affiliates in your specific market.

– Going to events to socialise and network with potential affiliates – building more personal relationships can help you to find affiliates who match your business and goals better.

– Use social media to connect with content creators – this is a great way to reach out to creators who have moderate or larger followings, especially if they have the demographic of followers you’re looking to attract yourself.

– Send products to bloggers or influencers – there’s no guarantee they’ll post about your product this way, but you could ask them to try it and, if they do like it, see if they’ll share a review or tag you in a post.

Choosing the right affiliates

Of course, finding affiliates is only half of the battle. The next step when it comes to building your strategy is to make sure you select the right people. You will need to look at your established demographic and target audience to establish who is the right person to act as your affiliate.

Look at the audiences and the reach of each affiliate you are considering to determine whether having them promote your product is the most beneficial option for you. You don’t want your product to be associated with influencers who have bad reputations, but you also don’t want to partner with an affiliate that simply doesn’t make sense for your brand. Look for people whose audiences are similar to your target market, and make sure they are respected and trusted by their followers.

Licensing/rules

Working with affiliates is usually a fairly simple process, however, there are some rules you need to follow. Mainly, you need to make sure that the affiliate declares any links to your business and states if they are receiving any monetary gain for the promotion.

If you want to avoid the hassle of searching for your own affiliates, make sure to get in touch with us at Adzooma by sending an email to help@adzooma.com. We can help you to set up and optimise your online advertising strategy.