What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a kind of marketing whereby the owner of a business, also known as the ‘merchant’ allows ‘affiliates’ to promote his/her products. On the basis of the customers brought in by their promotion, they are rewarded (paid) by the merchant.
The affiliates, most of the times, use the same kind of strategies as used by the companies, such as
SEO, e-mail marketing and PPC. However, there are times they use some unconventional ideas as well.
Affiliate Marketing is highly beneficial, but brands often do not explore the possibilities offered by it. They rely more on the other traditional forms of marketing. It is, in fact, not only beneficial for the brand but also for the affiliates, who can earn a handsome amount of money out of it.
So, let us know more about the benefits of affiliate marketing!
When you have a start-up and not a lot of money to invest in marketing, affiliate marketing is your best option. All the other forms of online marketing such as
social media marketing and PPC cost you quite a lot, which you might not be able to afford, as you are just starting out. On the other hand, to start affiliate marketing, all one has to do is to have their own website and buy an affiliate solution. That’s it! You do not have to pay anything anymore till your affiliates start bringing you more sales.
- Pay only when you see the results
Unlike other forms of marketing, here you only pay when you see the results; when you are sure that the affiliates are contributing towards the sale of your products. In marketing, the ROI matters the most. What’s the point of promoting something when you are not getting any return out of it? Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing, which means that the affiliates can only make money if they are guaranteeing a return to your investment. If they cannot do that, you owe them nothing. So, in a way, there is no risk associated with affiliate marketing.
- You can track the results
Like most other forms of online marketing, you can track the results here. You can actually check which customer has come to your site from which affiliated partner of yours. So you know which affiliates are proving the most beneficial for you. Also, you can see which marketing strategy of yours is working the best on which affiliated website. This would give you a sense of what works and what doesn’t and you can invest your money accordingly.
- You get much more exposure
Exposure is one of the basic requirements of any company. The more exposure it gets, the better it is for you. With affiliate marketing, you can target a lot of sites which you wouldn’t have been able to do so easily otherwise. As your affiliates promote your products on various platforms, you can attract a lot more traffic than usual. It also allows you to connect with the right kind of audience, who are your potential customers and build a brand name for yourself.
- Inbound links always work
Inbound links can play a big role in improving your search engine rankings. For instance, if someone visits one of your affiliate websites, and clicks on the link to your website there, you would instantly get one more visitor to your site. This would gradually increase the amount of traffic coming to your site and since these affiliate websites would also belong to the same field as you do, the kind of traffic that you would get from there would be genuinely interested in your products and services.
- You can do without sales staff
With an affiliate marketing program, you can actually do without employing a lot of sales staff. The required marketing for your company can be done by your affiliates, which would also bring in the kind of visitors you want. Also, you don’t need to pay them in the beginning. You can pay them once they bring you the desired results. So, in a way, this kind of marketing helps you in saving a lot of money, as you do not really need a huge sales team working for you. This is particularly advantageous if you are a start-up and you do not want to invest a big amount of money in the very beginning.
- The affiliates know how to create the right ads
An affiliate marketing program can prove extremely profitable for you, as your affiliates know how to create ads that would attract the kind of visitors they have. They would take your product and make an ad that would actually bring you more sales. These are targeted ads and they target the audience who can become your clients in future.
Conclusion
Affiliate marketing is one of the most advantageous forms of marketing and if done the right way, it can bring you great profits. From creating ads for your products to providing the links to your website, the affiliates use numerous marketing strategies to generate the results that you would need. It is a hassle-free marketing tactic and goes a long way in making your business a success.
