Ways an Affiliate Marketing Program Benefits Your Brand

by Kanika Ahuja Digital Marketer

Have you heard that having an affiliate marketing program benefits brands and merchants and you are considering the possibility of starting your own? Congratulations on thinking things through and not rushing on unknown paths without doing your research!

Before making any decision, check out our post on what affiliate marketing is and how it works! It should help you understand that, as a merchant, affiliate marketing is probably the least dangerous path you could take, the one most likely to bring you closer to your goals.

No less than 81% of merchants and 84% of publishers have already started on this path. Spending in this sector is expected to grow by minimum 10% annually and reach $8.2 billion by 2022. Moreover, 61.8% of all internets advertising revenue is associated with pay-per-action remuneration models characteristic to affiliate marketing.

Of course, just because affiliate marketing worked for others, it does not mean it will work for you as well, do it? Perhaps, but an affiliate marketing program could benefit your brand in several ways. We will review the most important of them in the following lines.

Top Affiliate Program Benefits for Merchants-

1. Increased Brand Exposure and Awareness:

How popular is your brand among consumers at the moment? Imagine how popular it can become if hundreds of publishers, be they bloggers, social media influencers, cash back platforms, or shopping engines, start spreading the word about it and endorsing your products or services!

One of the main affiliate marketing program benefits is the possibility to have hundreds of publishers promoting you through whatever means they wish (content, videos, social media, coupons, paid search ads, etc.). Of course, you can rule out any practices that you consider harmful or inappropriate through your program’s terms and conditions. Know more at https://www.digitaltechnology.institute/

Even if your affiliates’ marketing efforts do not pay out immediately, your brand and products and services will still get seen by thousands, if not millions of internet users. Your message will get imprinted in their subconscious and influence their buying decision when the time comes.

2. Increased Traffic and More Links to Your Merchant Website:

No matter if you reward clicks, subscriptions, sales, or other actions, in order to generate them, your affiliates will have to link to your merchant website and drive traffic to it. Those links and additional traffic will support your own search engine optimization efforts and help consolidate your position in SERPs.

It goes without saying that the improved search engine ranking will result in even more traffic and, hopefully, even more links. Your affiliate marketing program will contribute to a chain of positive reactions that can only benefit your business and your brand.

3. More Leads and Sales:

Assuming that your website is properly optimized and able to convert visitors into paying customers, the additional traffic brought about by your affiliates will convert into leads, sales, and, ultimately, profits.

On average, affiliate marketing programs generate between 15 and 30% of a merchant’s total leads and sales. Calculate what that would mean for your business and your brand and you will begin to see why more and more merchants resort to affiliate marketing.

4. Better Brand Reputation:

In order to drive the actions you reward, your affiliates will basically recommend your brand and products or services. Whether they do that through ads, banners, blog posts, social media posts, video content, emails, or other means is less important than the message they send: your brand is worth considering and your products or services are worth paying for.

Be careful, though, because just as some affiliates could help you improve your reputation, others could negatively influence it. It is up to you to prevent that through a carefully formulated program agreement, professional affiliate program management, and close affiliate policing.

5. Low Initial Investment:

Believe it or not, it is possible to start an affiliate program with as little as a few hundred dollars. It all depends on the specifics of your business, your plans, and your available skills and resources. Our post on the costs of running an affiliate marketing program should help you estimate the expenses involved.

Your most important costs will refer to the affiliate marketing software you use, your affiliate program creative’s, and your program’s management. Some options are more expensive than others. However, when reviewing them, remember to see the big picture.

Your goal is not only to diminish immediate costs but also to ensure excellent, long-term results. In most cases, launching an affiliate marketing program will cost you less than implementing a traditional marketing campaign.

Just choose your affiliate tracking software carefully, focusing more on future needs and capabilities than on price. Also, do not neglect the importance of affiliate creative’s, as the performance of your program will depend on them.

Conclusion:

Finally, do not go cheap when it comes to affiliate program management either.

Instead of entrusting it to an employee or hire someone who may or may not know what they are doing, it is better to work with professionals. Most will accept a payment agreement that includes a performance-based component. This means that, if their service ends up costing you a small fortune, it will only be because it’s driving adequate performance and, therefore, is worth paying for.