WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?

Affiliate marketing is when an individual (the affiliate) suggests your brand to someone and when that person purchases your product or uses your service the affiliate receives some form of commission. Affiliate marketing has become extremely popular since the boom of social media influencers however it has been around in one form or another for quite some time.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

You can create an affiliate scheme in a few different ways depending on how you believe it to be most efficient for your business.

1. REWARD SCHEME - This is where your own customers receive something for referring other people to your products for example when you refer a business to join our members platform you get a month free!

2. COMMISSION AFFILIATES - This is where you work with people or businesses to promote your products/services and they get a commission rate for doing so, for example a coupon website or an influencer could promote your product with a code and receive a commission for each time that code is used (This is sometimes referenced as sponsorship. Look at any fitness model on instagram you'll see they probably have a link to a promo code for a protein or supplement sponsor in their bio). Running giveaways or competitions usually generate a good amount of exposure quickly which is beneficial for social media algorithms and will help both you and your affiliate partner.

3. PAID SHOUTOUTS (INFLUENCER MARKETING) - This is where you pay a business or influencer an agreed fee and they will promote your product/service through their social media channels or their website/blog. This is quite often done by a review or works really well when that person already has an interest in using your product/service. Again, running giveaways or competitions usually generate a good amount of exposure quickly which is beneficial for social media algorithms and will help both you and your affiliate partner.

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WHO SHOULD YOU LOOK AT?

1. For a REWARD SCHEME it's usually best to open it up to all of your customers, word of mouth and personal recommendations are still the number one way of new customers trusting your small business.

2. With COMMISSION AFFILIATES remember you want your affiliate partner to see a good financial gain from working with you on a commission basis so don't be worried to be 'picky' and choose a partner that will either work hard to promote your brand (like an influencer) or have a good track record and audience of doing so (like a coupon company).

3. Bigger isn't always better with PAID SHOUTS and INFLUENCERS. Don't blow all your money paying one influencer to promote your product/service and respect your brand positioning. Having a huge company or influencer with millions of followers that are also talking about other huge brands will just mean their followers are more likely to go to the brand they recognise.

Here's an example, we work with a drinks brand that, by chance, had a celebrity with millions of followers give us a free shoutout because they happened to come across our product which was nice and if you know any definitely get them involved if you can, but the conversion was minimal. Then we had a local influencer with just a couple thousand followers give us a shoutout for a free bottle of booze and we sold multiple bottles off the back of it. Look at your competitors that are maybe doing slightly better than you are for inspiration on who they may be using.

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WHEN IS A GOOD TIME TO USE AFFILIATES?

1. If you run a REWARD SCHEME it's a no brainer to have it constantly rolling at all times with just enough drive behind marketing it that your current customers want to invite their friends. When you have a product/service people are genuinely invested in they'll mention you anyway but not do the extra push to ensure their friends become a customer with a REWARD SCHEME everyone wins.

2. Product launches or new service announcements are a great time to work with COMMISSION AFFILIATE partners through social media channels to spread the news as wide as possible that you have something worth checking out immediately. Alternatively if you have a product/service that has been around for a while or maybe you're running the stock down, working with coupon sites with discounts can be a way of stretching the last legs of that product/service until it's out of stock or obsolete.

3. With PAID SHOUTOUTS and INFLUENCERS the best time to work with them is in a similar way to working with commission affiliate partners through social channels, look at spreading the word as far as possible for a new product or service announcement. Remember to also make sure it's in-fitting with what they're talking about at the time. If an influencer is pushing dry January you don't want to approach them to push your newly released beer or gin.

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WHERE SHOULD YOUR AFFILIATES COME FROM?

With a REWARD SCHEME it's simple your affiliates come from your current customer base.

For COMMISSION AFFILIATES you want to do your research into who will sell your products/services well enough to make their commission worth while. This could mean a 'sponsorship' deal with an individual, as mentioned before where it will stay in their bio and they regularly mention your business or a coupon company that specialises in your industry/niche.

With PAID SHOUTOUTS look at company's and INFLUENCERS who specialise in the same industry or niche as you do or where you can see them being influential in customers decision making in these areas. Sometimes the obvious choice may not always be the best. For example if you own a fashion brand the most logical partner may be a fashion blogger or influencer, however they talk about new clothes every single day and their followers can't buy everything, whereas if you were to approach someone else who wears similar fashions to your brand but might be an athlete, a gamer or even a mum blogger you might see stronger results because their followers are being influenced by one product in your industry/niche.

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WHY IS AFFILIATE MARKETING AFFECTIVE?

The affiliate marketing industry is currently worth over $12 billion, (£8.5 billion) and the spending from it is projected to grow by 10% within the next few years.

It currently accounts for over 15% of all digital media revenue and company's that have executed it well have shown affiliate marketing campaigns to grow revenue by an incredible 30%.

It is already overtaking Email Marketing as the largest source of online income for individuals and businesses alike so is a crucial element for your business to take advantage of digitally.