This week we're going to dive into a plan and strategise how to best utilise Affiliate Marketing. Below are three tasks that should take you no longer than 30 minutes to an hour each to complete. Remember to work at your own pace there's no rush as long as we're always moving forward...

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TASK ONE - CHOOSE A ROUTE

Last week we explained the three different routes you could take to a successful Affiliate Marketing campaign, to remind you they were...

1. REWARD SCHEME - Using your own customers to refer you in exchange for some form of a discount or freebie.

2. COMMISSION AFFILIATES - Working with people or businesses to promote your products/services where they then get a commission rate for doing so, for example a coupon website or an influencer promotes your product with a code and receive a commission for each time that code is used.

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.

Your task is to choose which one of these you would like to execute first, think about which one may be most beneficial in your current circumstance, if you're just starting out and have very limited cashflow COMMISSION AFFILIATES may be best as you only need to pay out when you make the sales. If you have cash ready to invest and want to see a bigger boost in followers to convert into potential leads and customers maybe the PAID SHOUTOUTS (INFLUENCER MARKETING) will deliver that. Finally, if you have an already loyal customer base and run a program or service where your customers are willing to talk about you then a REWARD SCHEME could be ideal (again like using a commission affiliate partner if cashflow is low this way only costs you if you make a sale first).

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TASK TWO - DECIDE ON YOUR FEE/BUDGET

Once you have chosen your route, you need to decide how much budget you're willing to put into it. This isn't just about how much cash you're willing to throw at it. If you remember the general rule of thumb for your business marketing budget is 5% of your revenue however this changes usually due to which industry you are in. Here is what to bear in mind depending on your chosen route...

REWARD SCHEME - How do you see your company rewarding your customers? If, like us you have members, giving them a month free for bringing you new members then your cost is your time (plus any costs having that member may accrue such as bank charges and hosting fee's) however if you sell a product or have a shop you could look at giving your customers a % discount code for referring new customers or even look into a points scheme where if they bring enough new business to you they build up their points to spend them on a high ticket item. This could also work if you have lower cost products your customers might like to collect that you can send out to customers when they secure new referrals and sales.

COMMISSION AFFILIATES - When looking at a Commission Affiliate budget it's good to keep the 5% rule, mentioned earlier, in mind as it works very well when looking at how much to potentially pay out a partner. Something to bear in mind with this is the industry you are in and marketing budget standards for those industries, we've got a little information for you to take a look at...

Consumer Packaged Goods - 24%
Consumer Services - 15%
Tech, Software/Biotech - 15%
Communications/Media - 13%
Mining/Construction - 13%
Service Consulting - 12%
Education - 11%
Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals - 10%
Retail Wholesale - 10%
Banking/Finance/Insurance - 8%
Transportation - 8%
Manufacturing - 8%
Energy - 4%

Remember to leave some room for negotiations and if you're going to also promote this by offering a discount code or working with a coupon site you'll need to also remember the hit you'll be taking on your profit margin from the discount.

PAID SHOUTOUTS (INFLUENCER MARKETING) - This one has a few more variables. If you are just starting out we would always suggest working with influencers by sending them free products to promote, Now with the bigger influencers this doesn't work as the cash they receive is how they earn a living, but the smaller more local or niche influencers that are not full time yet will definitely promote your business in exchange for free products or services. When looking at actually exchanging payment for shoutouts, reviews and partnerships make sure you do your research, ask them for a media pack which will show their reach and impact of previous partnerships and campaigns.

Remember, if you're speaking to an influencer about a shoutout, how they do it and through which channels they do it is important. Do they have evergreen content? (This means their audience will come back to this post over and over again and is timeless) Content is more likely to be evergreen when it is something that is searched, such as Youtube videos or blog posts, however it can also be from appearing at the top of an account like if it is in the highlight reel of an Instagram page.

If it's your first time working with an influencer 'dip your toe in' to get some data, don't max out your whole budget on your first partnership because you're worried you may lose it, there are literally thousands of influencers out there that can help your brand if one doesn't work out there are 10 behind them willing to work with you.

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TASK THREE - FINDING YOUR AFFILIATES 

Your final task this week is to start looking at who you want to work with. We want you to make a list of 20 Potential partners you think would be best to kick this campaign off with. A few things to think about...

REWARD SCHEME - Of course with this you can easily roll it out to all customers and therefore don't need to find twenty partners however if you want to trial the scheme you could 'niche' it down by perhaps only offering it to your top twenty highest spending customers or maybe you only offer it to the customers in your email marketing database first. You could even look at mixing this route with ideas from the other two and offer the scheme to twenty of your most followed customers.

COMMISSION AFFILIATES - If you have a service customers will use over and over again like a membership or a product that customers will continue to re order like supplements, stationary, design work etc. look for people to partner with that will use your products and have them in their link or bio to continue to mention you, maybe these people already use products/services that you know yours are superior to. If you're looking to work with coupon sites make sure you look for reputable sites that people trust and will go back to. See what they offer in terms of promotion and the commission they expect then you can compare multiple partners.

PAID SHOUTOUTS & INFLUENCERS - Make sure your influencer is on the right channels although Instagram is the most popular platform if you offer a B2B product it may be worth speaking with someone influential on LinkedIn. If you have a product that is evergreen and you want a shoutout with more evergreen content then consider looking for influencers that are heavily involved with YouTube. If you're at a bit of a loss as to where to start buzzsumo.com is a good (but vague) app to check out.

Remember what we mentioned before about looking at influencers in your niche but also look a little outside the box for some influencers that may still have influence over your target audience without being necessarily involved in your industry directly. Also a big thing to remember here is that follower counts are not everything! If you see an influencer you feel perfectly fits your brand we cannot stress enough how important it may be to reach out to them even if they don't have many followers, look at the engagement in their posts (comments, likes) and even more importantly do they communicate well with their audience when asked questions. You'll find that these accounts will convert so much more for you even with a few hundred followers compared to an influencer that doesn't have these things but has thousands of followers. Also when you are looking at paid ads or influencer partners avoid influencers that are willing to promote anything. You will find that once they hit the first level of monetisation a lot of influencers begin to push any business willing to work with them dramatically reducing the value of their promotion.