What if you could make money anytime–even when you are asleep?
The idea is fascinating. Fortunately, this is the case with affiliate marketing.
What is Affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing refers to publishers earning a commission for promoting a product made by another retailer using affiliate links. Affiliate marketers are paid for every sale they generate, but in some cases, they are paid for leads, click-throughs, and profile visits. The company tracks the sales coming from affiliates and pays them accordingly.
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to generate sales and online revenue, proving beneficial for both business and affiliate marketers.
Here, we will take you through a complete guide on how does affiliate marketing works and further how you can enhance affiliate sales.
Affiliate Offer
An affiliate offer is a public proposition from a seller to advertise a product or service in exchange for a commission. The seller publishes an offer with a unique link to the landing page where customers can purchase the product, which is taken by the affiliate to be promoted.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work
Affiliate marketing work by sharing responsibilities of product creation and marketing among different groups. It leverages the ability of the various individuals for proper marketing and commission payment. Three main groups are involved here.
1. Sellers
The sellers, e-commerce merchants, or solo entrepreneur the retailer with a product to sell, whether a physical item or an online brand. He doesn't have to be actively involved in the marketing campaign. Instead, hire advertisers or affiliates to market their product, get a new audience, and get paid.
2. Affiliates
The affiliate, also known as the advertiser, is a company/individual that markets the seller's product/brand to the audience appealingly. He persuades the customer and convinces him to make the purchase; if he succeeds, he receives a share of the revenue made.
Affiliates often choose targeted audiences to market the product adhering to the interested audience. It enables them to attract customers who are most likely to take action.
3. The Consumer
Customers or consumers are the ones that make sales possible by making the purchase. The affiliates market the product to consumers through various channels, e.g., social media, blogs, YouTube, etc. If the consumers deem the product beneficial and valuable, they can follow the affiliate link to visit the seller's website and purchase it, getting affiliates their payout.
Tips To Promote Your Affiliate Offers
Here are some practical ways to get people to join your affiliate program, enhancing product sales.
1. By Business Website
Image taken from Strikingly’s user’s site
Whenever someone sees your product, the first thing he does is visit your website. Ensure to add affiliate marketing programs in your website's top and bottom menus, as most people will look for them there.
Adding to menus is one of many ways. You can also promote your affiliate marketing program by using compelling images on your homepage or mentioning the affiliate programs in your top blog post to attract more audience.
2. By Emails and Newsletters
Today nearly everyone has an email address making email an essential marketing channel. You can promote your affiliate program through email in numerous ways, reaching existing and new prospects.
- Inform your newsletter subscribers about your affiliate marketing programs through a dedicated promotional email.
- You can invite your top customers with a personalized email, thanking them for being great customers and explaining your affiliate program as a passive income source.
- Promote your affiliate marketing programs in transactional or thank you emails.
- Include an affiliate marketing programs section in the regular newsletter.
3. On Social Media Channels
Image taken from strikingly Facebook page
Social media use has prevailed rapidly in recent years. Ensure to promote your affiliate marketing programs on various social media platforms, such as, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Create eye-catching and engaging posts that directly link to your affiliate marketing programs to catch the attention of potential affiliates.
Social media bio is a great place to land your affiliate marketing programs links, therefore ensure to put it there.
Video content grabs much attention, so create engaging Youtube videos about your affiliate marketing programs and cross-promote them on other social media to attract a broad audience.
4. Blogging
Blogging is one of the latest and most straightforward ways to promote your affiliate marketing programs. Blogging enhances your affiliate sales swiftly. Eighty-four (84%) of global Internet users visit web portals.
Choose a platform, like, Reddit or Medium, where you can promote your affiliate marketing programs considering their internal rules and algorithms or create your own affiliate site for promotion.
However, blogging in this competitive environment is challenging. Ensure consistency and bring forward well-thought and diversified content and promotional strategy. Add program links throughout your blog post where necessary.
Image taken from Strikingly
5. By Banner Ads
One of the important ways to increase your affiliate sales and promote your affiliate marketing program is by displaying banner ads.
In setting up a banner ads campaign, you need to decide the type of publishing and format because it will affect your overall promotional strategy. The simplest way to reach desired website or media audience is through an ad display network; basically, these networks are brokers who buy ad spaces and resell them to advertisers, e.g., the Google display network.
Create banner ads that hook potential customers and provoke clicks and purchases. Here are some ways to create appealing banner ads
- Include dynamic content, or rich media, to encourage viewers to interact with your ads.
- Use video content, which has a higher click-through rate compared to static banners.
- Optimize banner ads for mobile, as over half of worldwide internet traffic is mobile now.
- Ensure your banners are fresh and personalized by using data feeds.
6. Join Groups and Forums
Affiliates often seek out opportunities from dedicated social media groups and affiliate forums. Experienced marketers visit various groups to find niches or products to promote.
Post your affiliate program in groups, keeping in view their policies. However, building a presence and earning the audience's trust will be best before promoting your affiliate marketing programs.
7. Partner With Other Brands
Partnering with another business is highly beneficial to both sides; you help each other reach goals which could be challenging to achieve on your own. Reach out to other brands for your affiliate marketing programs promotion.
If you don't find partnerships in related industries, you can opt for relevant non-competing brands that can promote your affiliate marketing programs to their audience, increasing your reach.
8. Use Strategic SEO
Add SEO to your affiliate marketing promotion strategy to increase your affiliate sales. Most potential affiliates search for your program on Google, so ensure that it is Search Engine Optimized.
You can SEO your program by including specific brand-related keywords on the landing page so people can find it easily.
9. Directly Outreach Affiliates
Directly reaching out to handpicked affiliates is one effective way to promote your affiliate marketing programs.
Search for content creators, bloggers, Influencers, and industry experts who share your audience and are open to your affiliate marketing programs.
Identify the best candidates and personally contact them via the contact info.
Personalization is the key here, don't be generic. Make a sincere connection by recognizing their previous work and showing them befits of joining your affiliate marketing program.
Firstly, offer them a chance to try your product, if they are satisfied. Invite them to become your affiliate.
How To Join Strikingly Affiliate Program
strikingly, is one of the dynamic yet accessible website builders that enables you to build a well-functioning website free of cost without involving any professional programmer. Strikingly allows its users to become affiliates and earn a healthy passive income.
1. Head to strikingly's affiliate program section or click the “Affiliate button in the navigation menu (the yellow trophy icon).
2. Inspect and agree to our terms and conditions, then click "Get Your Affiliate Link."
Image taken from Strikingly
3. You'll receive an affiliate link! Share or publish your link however you'd like to start earning. You can start by posting on social media or sending email invitations.
Image taken from Strikingly
What do "Your Stats" mean on the Affiliate Dashboard?
- Affiliate Link Clicks: Number of unique visits to your affiliate link in the given time.
- Sign-ups Referred: Number of sign-ups from your link in the given period.
- Paid Users Referred: Number of referred users who have started paying for a Strikingly plan.
- Commissions Approved: Dollar amount that has been approved by Strikingly and waiting to be paid.
- Commissions Paid: Dollar amount successfully paid out to your PayPal account.
How can I get payouts from the Strikingly Affiliate program?
Strikingly pays commissions via PayPal. In the Affiliate Dashboard, click "Connect your PayPal account to receive payouts." Just enter your PayPal account email address -- that's it! You can also change it anytime.
Affiliate marketing can be seen as a win-win situation for everyone. Companies don’t have to pay any additional money for marketing and affiliates generate income without investing a dime of their earnings.
Lastly, you can use this blog as your ultimate guide on how to start affiliate marketing and earn a healthy passive income. Sign up for the Strikingly affiliate marketing program today, and earn money while you sleep!
