How To Launch An Affiliate Marketing Program For Your E-commerce Store
One of the ways people make money online is through affiliate marketing. Likewise, as an e-commerce business owner, one of the ways you can sell more products or get more people to pay for your services, gain more brand recognition, and increase your website traffic is through affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is simply a system where people get a commision for bringing in other people to buy from you or pay for your services. Other people market your products and they direct traffic to your site for people to buy and they receive their commission.
Credit: Giphy
According to A Better Lemonade Stand, Affiliate Marketing is “a partnership between a publisher who produces content and a retailer who has an affiliate program hosted by an affiliate tracking platform.”
Typically, affiliate marketers are given the different codes that help business owners or companies track the efforts of these affiliate marketers and reward them accordingly.
Research shows that “81% of brands and 84% of publishers leverage affiliate marketing.”
Affiliate marketing is an affordable way to drive quality traffic and sales to your e-commerce website.
How do you then set up an affiliate marketing system that would effectively work for your e-commerce business?
First, you need to create a solid affiliate marketing strategy that should include:
- Your goals: Have solid and SMART goals for your affiliate marketing. State out your goals clearly so it would be easier to know when you achieve them or not.
- Your target audience: Who are your target audience? Identifying your target audience would help you know the right channels to target when considering platforms.
- Your content: What is your typical affiliate marketing content and how would you attract your target audience? You need to take care of the content that marketers would need to market your products or services. Content like social media graphics, guides, company information, etc.
- Your budget: How much commission are you willing to give marketers when they direct people to buy from you or pay for your services? Are you going to pay your affiliate marketers based on a percentage of sales or fixed commission?
- Reporting systems: You also need to set up monitoring systems that would help you know if the affiliate marketing system would work or not. You can build in tracking systems and plugin on your website that can help you monitor the traffic coming into your site.
After you have sorted out the above, then you should pitch to potential affiliates who fit your affiliate marketing goals and strategy in general.
How do you then promote your affiliate marketing, so more people join? You can promote them using sponsored Ads, in-store banners, flyers, etc.
Another thing to remember is that you have to pass clear and straightforward information about your company to marketers so that they get to present your company to your target audience in the right way.
