Have you heard of affiliate marketing?
Businesses and advertisers alike are now migrating to performance-driven platforms, allowing them to get a higher ROI.
The best affiliate marketing takes time and strategy to build. A solid foundation will make adding links and promoting products easier in the long run.
Creating content and targeting the right market is the first step. After that, you can decide which affiliate network and platform to use.
Use these six important qualities to help you get the most out of your work. Let’s take a look at how they can help your company.
What Exactly is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is selling for another company that provides you a commission based on the item sold.
In layman’s terms, when users click on a product that isn’t yours from a company you’ve partnered with, that company gives you a percentage.
There’s no limit on how many companies you can partner with or what you sell. The more you have and the more effective you are, the more you’ll make.
You don’t have to create any new content around this product because it’s from an established company that already has their branding language.
The best way to start affiliate marketing is to establish a large audience. The more people see your links, the more clicks you’ll get.
If you have a small audience, take some time and build it up before thinking about affiliate marketing.
How Can It Benefit You?
1. Choose the Best Affiliate Marketing Program
Choosing irrelevant affiliate marketing programs will get you nowhere. They should offer products that fit in with your company’s brand and mission, ones that you feel good about promoting.
The products that you promote should be researched thoroughly. Don’t sell a product you don’t believe in.
Doing so could hurt your credibility and cause your audience to lose trust in your business.
2. Be Subtle
Plastering ads and pop-ups all over your website will turn people away.
Nothing is worse than reading an article and getting bombarded by pop-ups and big ads in the middle of it. Be subtle about your ad placement and limit it to just a few.
Talk about products in your articles as examples and link them naturally. The best affiliate marketing occurs when your users don’t know your company is selling them something.
Link to where it makes sense. Writing an article and linking to an irrelevant product won’t generate sales.
3. Finding Affiliate Networks
You may already have a running platform like a company website, business page or blog. Pages that are already established and full of content can help you use the best affiliate marketing tactics.
Add links to pages that are already created. Start sharing things now that you’ve acquired an audience that trusts you.
Then choose an affiliate network. There are a ton of them out there, finding the right one can take some time.
The network should provide products that relevant to your readers.
A few of the best affiliate marketing networks include Amazon Associates, Google Adsense, Viglink, and ShareASale. All of these offer libraries of products you can take advantage of.
If you are a DIYer or a businessman, for instance, you can sell artist tools or books about best business practices.
Research the network and make sure it has the products you’d want to offer. If they aren’t relevant to you, find one that will provide better value.
4. Find Reputable Affiliate Programs
Finding the best affiliate marketing products also depends on the vendor. While researching, you’ll notice well-known networks and products.
If you come across one you’ve never heard of and they have no product reviews, stay away.
Once you do find a reputable vendor, you’ll need to submit an application to an affiliate marketing network to market their product. Once they’ve accepted your application, you can go to the merchant and license their product.
A lot of larger companies partner with networks to market their products. Find the reputable vendors partnered with those companies to keep your business’s reputation pristine.
5. Create Emotional Sales
Creating emotional attachments with your audience will help you land more sales. If they feel emotionally connected with your content, they will be more likely to buy from you.
The best affiliate marketing takes into consideration the audience’s pain points. What kind of company are you? What types of users listen to you? What kinds of products would help them be successful?
Understanding your audience has a conflict and providing them with a solution helps them become emotionally attached to your story. Provide them with your own story.
What does your brand say that makes you more than just a company but an individual with real-life struggles?
Convince your audience to listen to you and then provide them with valuable information. Give them tips or tricks of the trade or show how you’ve worked to overcome a specific problem.
In creating these stories, people will trust you and your company, and be more likely to make a purchase.
6. Promoting the Best Affiliate Marketing Links
You’ve found the best affiliate marketing network and product, you’ve determined your plan, now you have to figure out how to use it.
Where are you going to put the links? You have a variety of options. The best one, though, is blogging. Blogging allows you to make a lot of content and is the most natural place to add links to products.
You could also promote links on videos, graphics, your home webpage, or social media. Providing content that offers value, interest and engages your audience will keep them coming back, increasing your ROI.
Final Thoughts
To be a great affiliate marketer, you must use the tools you’re given and do your research before you start. Affiliate marketing can provide your company with additional income outside of the normal sales boost your bottom line.
It has to build on the services and products you already offer. With the right content and a great audience base, your affiliate marketing will be successful.
If you want to learn more about how to market your website better, check out our affiliate marketing guide.
We can’t wait to hear from you.