Affiliate Programs: A Guide For eCommerce Brands

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ECommerce is evolving, hence to keep up with the trends and technologies, you need to be updated with the latest insights. As the business grows, we look into the marketing strategies that can help us expand our network further. Lately, Affiliate Programs have been emerging as a robust solution that creates both brand awareness and drives traffic to the business. 

What is Affiliate Marketing? 

It is the process of promoting other people’s products and services to earn revenue. The use of affiliates allows marketers to promote their brands online without spending a dime.

The concept of Affiliate Programs has been here for a long time and has evolved as per the trends; Amazon introduced it in 1996. Later on, companies such as eBay, Target, and Best buy opted for the affiliate program model as a part of their marketing process. Over the years, Affiliate programs witnessed tremendous growth and are accepted widely.

Affiliated marketing


Importance of Affiliate Marketing

An affiliate program is an invaluable tool that helps the business to reach a wider audience which results in additional traffic and extended sales channels. The programs are backed further by voucher codes, royalty discounts, or blogging, along with strong SEO knowledge and social circles. One of the key methods that are being prominently used for the smooth processing of affiliate programs is Email Marketing.

 How Affiliate programs have helped brands expand 

  • Statista forecasted that affiliate marketing spending is expected to touch $8.2 Billion in the USA, and the number is three-fold in the decade.
  • In the USA, 80% and 84% of brands and publishers, respectively, have turned to affiliate marketing. Moreover, 
  • 16% of all e-commerce market revenue is attributed to affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs provide the opportunity to achieve Gross Merchandise Value targets by helping the brand generate online leads or selling products online.  

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing for Business  

You are probably wondering why you should choose an affiliate program to generate revenue, as there are many marketing strategies. But what makes affiliate marketing so effective? And how can you use it to boost your business’s growth and expand your network?

Do you know a large affiliate program has over 100k+ affiliates, and several eCommerce brands have also started with their own affiliate programs? One of the famous affiliate programs is Amazon Associates. 

Let’s dive into the benefits of Affiliate programs.

 

Extensive Network

As we go by the agenda, Teamwork makes the dream work. The associates have their own target audience with whom they share the product or services, resulting in access to an Expanded network. 

Having an affiliate program can help you to elevate your brand by reaching out to potential consumers and making a greater impact, allowing you to gain the desired number of affiliates and business clients. In order to make sure the affiliate program is a success, you can hire an affiliate manager or an agency who will look after widening the bandwidth of the business and making sure the program is streamlined with prominent campaigns.

Trackable Data Insights 

Data is a primary tool. Affiliates have unique links, which are used to track the purchases made by the affiliate’s network. The affiliate dashboards allow tracking clicks, impressions, leads, and sales.  

Effective Return on Investment

Investing in starting an Affiliate program for the business is not a hefty amount of money. Affiliate program costs are low compared to other strategies such as advertising, ad spaces, and campaigns. They are more performance-driven, as the sole aim is to create awareness and drive sales. Hence, you’ll only offer a commission to the affiliate if they have provided you with a sale in terms of leads and purchases as per the program. You will not be spending money on assumptions or impressions.  

Feasible, Scalable, and Effective 

Affiliate Marketing Programs have been proven effective and fruitful for the brands. Affise stated that 94% of publishers are associated with multiple affiliate networks. Moreover, 80% of the brands run their own affiliate marketing programs. This offers high-level flexibility in terms of promotions, commission scale, as well as the offer you want to provide to the customers. Even the programs help you to optimise custom rates for each affiliate. They are cost-effective and offer a high Return on Investment, given you set the affiliate commission and complete a certain value of orders for the program to run successfully. 

Prominent Affiliate Programs

Affiliate Programs are being largely offered by giants like Amazon, Target, eBay, Meesho, Flipkart, and Walmart. They can help you gain an edge in this highly competitive landscape and further help you in developing key insights about how the business works. Take a look at some of the prominent affiliate programs mentioned below. 

Amazon Associates 

Being the first platform to have introduced the Affiliate Program in the USA in 1996, Amazon has come a long way with its venture. Amazon is an eCommerce giant and houses one of the largest affiliate program networks in the world. Amazon offers a plethora of products; these associates build easy links with the objective of directing traffic to their recommendations and getting a commission when the purchase is done. 

Target Partners Program 

Through the Partners Program, participating websites may significantly benefit from traffic that contributes to sales at Target.com by employing specifically monitored links that Impact Radius provides. When one of these visitors places a purchase, your website is listed as the referring source, and your Impact Radius partner account receives credit for the order’s commission. What’s more advantageous is that there is a 7-day cookie window that remains on the mobile or laptop, so the visitor is tracked, and if he places an order, it will be directed through your link. 

eBay Partner Network 

eBay’s marketing program allows you to share their product listing outside of eBay and helps diversify your streams of income. Once your affiliate application gets improved, eBay gives you access to create trackable network listings using their tools. Those links are then shared with the audience on numerous channels. If the transaction is successful, you’ll be rewarded with a commission or an incentive. 

Flipkart Affiliate Program

One of the prominent networks allows one to earn up to 12% commission on every sale made through the affiliate’s link. The program is free to join. The affiliates are provided with professional tools to make links. You will have a variety of choices available to you through the Affiliate Program, giving you several ways to connect your website to flipkart.com. To freshen up and add value to your website, add rich, customized content.

Final Thoughts

Running-a-successful-Affiliate-program


Running a successful Affiliate program

Running an affiliate program is a portion of the funnel; there are several strategies that need to be looked after, from creating relevant and engaging content to detailed email lists to closing up the deal. A separate, highly effective in-house team or an outsourced team can be appointed to look after marketing, sales, management, and overall strategy.  Before closing the article, I will further lay down the tips and tricks that need to be considered while starting your own affiliate marketing program. 

  • Thorough Competitor Research 
  • Objectives, Evaluation of Metrics, and KPIs. 
  • Customer Acquisition Strategies 
  • Strategized and Relevant Commission strategy. 

These tips will help you in getting the hang of the market and its requirements. By Competitor analysis, the team will be able to shape the strategies, content, and campaigns with more relevance.
Keeping the right balance between strategy and execution is crucial for customer retention. As a business owner, you are often inundated with so many tasks. If you need assistance with marketing strategies and promotional activities. Get in touch with us at info@paxcom.net  for more information.

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