Understanding what is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing’s definition really changes from the application that you plan to use it for.
Here are the basic categories:
- As a Business Owner – Affiliate Marketing is a method of marketing whereby you connect to partners (to be expanded later) in order to drive visitors and hopefully sales on your website.
- As a Influencer or Partner – you most likely have quality amounts of followers or traffic already built up to your website, blog, Instagram, TikTok or other social media account or a HUGE email database. You are the ‘rain maker’ and can leverage this following via an Affiliate Program to drive sales for another company. Of which you will receive a % commission.
Simply put, this is a win-win situation.
For years advertising has been built upon paying a publication a set rate for advertising. However, major digital companies changed the game. Google and Facebook implements a CPC model. In the industry this is known as Cost Per Click. Of course this has seen a sea-change shift to a high % of marketing spend moving away from traditional media and across to the digital space.
However, Affiliate Marketing goes one step further and is already rocking industries, and becoming the great equaliser for SME’s and marketing divisions alike. Affiliate Marketing operates on a CPA model or expanded, Cost Per Acquisition.
Check out this digram to see the process in action and below you can view our workshop for SME’s we ran on June of 2020.
If you were able to view the above video on “Affiliate Marketing for SME’s”, you will now have a very clear idea on how you can get started setting up and implementing your own affiliate marketing program. However, this is a step-by-step, process outlined below from start to finish.
How to set up an
Affiliate Marketing program
Step 1: A company links with an Affiliate Platform provider. This is fast, inexpensive and easy. We have a full list of providers here or if you want to check out our MOST RECOMMENDED platform check out our deep-dive article HERE
Step 2: Set up the specifics of your program, including % of sales that you will give to your partners/ influencers. You may need to do some market research to see what others in the industry give
Step 3: Integrate your Affiliate Program to your website and create some captivating content that attracts influencers – This should be simple and fast to do however you can always outsource this work on gig-platforms like Fiverr
Step 4: Start reaching out to influencers and partners who you already have a relationship to see if they want to work with your program.
Another fantastic idea is to reach out to partners that your company works with. You have a range of stakeholders that already have a vested interest in your products or services, and they make amazing affiliates!
Step 5: Create tools such as images, banners, promotional discounts and other engaging content over time that your registered affiliates use. Remember, they are your sales force so you need to enable and incentivise them!
Over time its important to continually keep your Affiliate Program updated. Great communication and engagement are the keys to its success. So learn about your partners and see how else you can support them.
