Affiliate marketing is all kinds of options for mutually beneficial collaborations with potential partners, with those who have your target audience, but at the same time you are not competitors.
Affiliate marketing is mutually beneficial, so it is important to remember when choosing a partner that you must have a related target audience. And what needs to be assessed is not gender and age, but motivation, needs and interests.
What to do? Mechanics
There are different mechanics for affiliate marketing, here are the most common and effective:
- discounts or certificates on each other’s products
- samples and free samples of partner products
- joint email newsletters, instant messenger messages
- carrying out joint events
- loyalty club
- any types of mutual PR
- creation of a joint product (for example: a marathon, course, book, etc.)
What should you not do?
The first misconception is to think that “it itself” will “reach the client”, “somehow”. If you have agreed to place your leaflets on your partner’s premises, then make sure that they are not just “collecting dust” in a pile in the corner of the hall. Otherwise, it’s just wasted “money down the drain” – it’s a shame. Be sure to discuss how the client should receive information about you. Ideally, personally hand over to the client a coupon, certificate or business card with a valuable and limited-time offer. At the same time, the administrator must explain WHAT this offer is and why it is worth taking advantage of it. For an administrator to actually do this, he needs to be taught and supervised.
The second mistake is to launch something and forget it forever. It is important that your partner’s offers change with changes in your promotions and offers. Think about how best to implement this. For example, you will change information on a website page, a link to which is placed on a business card (QR code). Or you are doing a redirect. Or your marketer will visit your partners once every 2 months/send them fresh layouts and proposals.
Another mistake is not monitoring agreements/not coordinating message texts. Your partner’s marketer is definitely not interested in your sales. Don’t get your hopes up. Therefore, give him the text you wrote, ask him to send you a test message before sending a letter or messenger message.
And another mistake is not to consider the effectiveness of events. Any marketing investment must pay off. We calculate potential conversion levels by stages, predict the result and compare it with investments.
How to make affiliate marketing effective? 10 useful tips
- Keep an eye on the price segment and the sensitivity of the audience to price – it is important that this sensitivity is of the same order.
- When choosing a partner, pay attention to how their loyalty program is structured. For example, if his clients are “hooked” on discounts, and you do not pamper yours, then this may be a problem – you will not be interested in his audience.
- Assess reputational risks. If your partner screws up, you will also bear the reputational costs. Be sure to check the position of the business – who they DO NOT work with, what they DO NOT do – and the operating principles.
- It is worth working only with 1 partner from one niche. This is not necessary, but rather a matter of ethics.
- Ensure maximum transparency of cooperation. It is better to choose systems with automatic reporting.
- Periodically return to discussing cooperation, update bonuses, promotions, privileges for clients, exchange ideas on how to revive cooperation, what new things to bring.
- Be sure to identify your partner. This could be a promotional code, a referral link, a flyer-coupon-code word, a special offer developed jointly, a question “how did you find out” when entering the funnel, etc. The more accurate the tool, the better. For example, a promotional code that customers enter on a website to receive a bonus is more reliable than the question “how did you know?”
- Consider efficiency, compare costs (cost of gifts, reduction in transaction profitability) with the cost of attracting customers through other channels. Maybe “affiliate” is too expensive for you?
- It is possible to have a “one-way” partnership – when you offer some bonuses to your partner’s clients, but there are no counter promotions on his part. This is beneficial for you if the partner has a good client base and reliable traffic. All that remains is to agree on this with your partner. Their loyalty programs are well suited, where some significant bonus will be provided for their clients from your company.
- If you have become such a “holder of a loyalty program with affiliate bonuses,” do not turn it into a catalog of useless coupons. Limit the number of offers and do not agree to uninteresting offers from the “3% discount” category.
Examples of effective collaborations
Example 1. Beauty salon and children’s playroom
The companies are geographically close, ideally door to door. They agree on cooperation. When going to the salon, mommy can leave her child in the playroom under supervision at a special price. Both companies promote each other by providing bonuses for the partner’s services. By the way, the perfect combination of services. Great business idea, take it.
Example 2. Honey producer with his own apiary and private tour guide
The guide adds a trip to the apiary to the route, and the honey producer makes an exciting excursion with tasting and the opportunity to buy products on the spot. The guide receives a percentage of sales. Tourists buy delicious natural honey as travel gifts. Everyone is happy.
Example 3. Women’s clothing showroom and stylist with escort service
If you have read the article to this point, you have probably already guessed what they will do. During shopping, the stylist brings the client to this showroom, where he has a personal discount. Of course, he receives a percentage of the client’s purchases. Everyone is happy again.
Such examples can be given endlessly. Turn on your imagination and analytical thinking. When choosing a partner, always take into account the audience – its motivation, needs, interests and habitat.
