The Ultimate Guide To Boosting Your Ecommerce Sales With Affiliate Marketing
You’ve poured a lot of effort and resources into marketing your eCommerce store. The brand has taken off, and you’re seeing sizable returns. You couldn’t be any happier. But let’s face it. All this direct marketing can only take you so far. There comes a time when the ROI flattens. As a forward-thinking ecommerce store owner, you need to increase your brand’s reach so that you get more traffic and more sales. So, how can you do this if your marketing returns are slowing down? The answer – affiliate marketing. We’re going to dive into the nitty-gritty of setting up an affiliate marketing program for your ecommerce store. We’ll show you how you can select the right partners to participate and how you can keep track of everything with ease. So, without further ado… Planning on opening an online store? Get the top converting Shopify theme here. What Is Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate marketing involves partnering with online influencers, brands and even your existing customers. They promote your products and then get a commission for every sale that they’re directly responsible for. In other words, they market your product, earn you money and get a cut.
Take this example, for instance. You’re a fashion brand, selling beauty products. You can partner with fashion influencers on social media to promote your product. They post a link on their socials leading back to your site. Potential customers buy makeup packages using the code provided by the influencer. When the sale is complete, you give the influencer an agreed-upon cut. Now, the affiliate doesn’t strictly have to be a well-known influencer. Sometimes, the most successful affiliate program for ecommerce site is filled with your existing customers. These individuals have used your product, and they swear by it. They’re the perfect people to spread the word about your brand. And while they love being associated with your brand, they’re even more motivated because they’re getting paid. From a simple input of time and resources, the marketing process snowballs because of your affiliates’ efforts. It’s no surprise that over 81 percent of brands are involved in this kind of marketing. And that, simply put, is what affiliate marketing for your eCommerce store is all about. How To Create An Affiliate Program For eCommerce Site
Several online store owners are hesitant about launching their affiliate program. They’re wondering if this type of marketing can really propel their brand to the next level. And they’re right to have concerns. After all, nothing in marketing is a surefire way to set your eCommerce store on a profitable path. However, keep in mind that affiliate marketing is responsible for 16 percent of online sales in the U.S. alone. That should give you plenty of confidence to greenlight your affiliate program. And the first step to do it is choosing a tool to manage your affiliates. ChooseAToolToManageYourProgram Running an affiliate program requires you to keep an eye on several things. You need to know who your affiliates are, which products they’re promoting, how much they’ve sold and how much commission is due each of them. Add this to your other equally important work of running your site. Furthermore, you’re still engaging in additional marketing efforts. It all boils down to the fact that you can’t optimally pull all this off. Therefore, you need to choose one of the several available online tools to manage your affiliate program for eCommerce site. If your eCommerce store is on Shopify, this process is a bit easier for you. The platform’s app store offers a varied collection of affiliate program management tools. Many of these tools are highly customizable, making it easy for you to make them part of your store. Additionally, you don’t have to be code whiz to get started. The majority of these tools have an intuitive interface, ensuring that you don’t have any significant problems when setting them up.
A handful of popular and effective tools include:
Refersion
Affiliatly
Enlistly
AffiliateWP
ShareASale FindTheRightAffiliatePartners The affiliate is the glue that holds this whole endeavor together. Therefore, you have to find the right partner to promote your brand and products. Whether it’s a website, an influencer or customer, you need to vet everyone who wants to be enlisted as an affiliate. If it’s a website, you need to find out if it has the domain authority to draw a consistent amount of traffic. The site should also have a connection to your industry. If you’re interested in working with an influencer, look for those who create content in your niche. Ideally, the influencer should fit in with your brand voice. Here’s how to find affiliates. Use Your Social Media Platforms Your audience interacts with your brand on your various social media channels. Reach out to them on these platforms. Outline the benefits of collaborating with you as an affiliate. This is especially effective when you’re searching for existing customers who are loyal to your brand. You can also reach out to influencers by tagging them in posts to catch their attention. If you can, send a direct message to them to see if they’d be willing to work with you. Take Advantage Of Your Email List Throughout your various marketing efforts, you have collected several leads. These are existing customers or individuals that showed interest in your products. You can send them emails, expressing interest in having them become affiliate marketers for your brand. Just as you did on your social media accounts, explain what you expect from them and the benefits they can get. You can add a link to a page on your site where they can register. Alternatively, you can add a registration form. A Google Doc or Sheet is ideal for this. Use Pop-ups, Banners And Widgets On Your Website
Why not kill two birds with one stone? When people visit your eCommerce store, you want them to buy products. While on there, why don’t you offer them an opportunity to make some money working as an affiliate to your brand? Use discreet banners and ads for advertising your affiliate marketing program. You can also take it up a notch and use pop-ups that catch the attention of site visitors. You can also set aside a dedicated page on your site. Here, interested parties can enter their info and ask to join the program. SetUpACommissionStructure
Affiliates will join your program if they believe they’re getting compensated fairly for marketing and selling your products. However, you need to make sure that you’re not offering too much. If your profit margins are small, you don’t want to knock them further down. You need to strike a balance between fairly compensating the affiliates and still raking in a handsome profit. A better strategy is to use affiliates to market and sell your more expensive products. These usually have a more significant profit margin. Consequently, you can afford to divide these gains with your partners. All in all, make sure you’re not hemorrhaging money in the name of running an affiliate program for eCommerce site. KeepTrackOfYourProgram’sSuccess You shouldn’t assume that the work is done once your affiliate marketing program is up and running. Keep a constant eye on the performance of the program. See how much the scheme has brought in. Which affiliates are the most effective? How big are the orders they generate? How many members have joined your program? How many have left?
All these are metrics that you should know. Good thing you integrated on to your eCommerce store a tool to track all these different parameters. It also helps to keep in touch with your partners. Send emails about new products you’re launching. You can also forward educational material about various marketing techniques and ethics. Regular communication also makes them feel valued. This fosters a deeper connection with your brand, breathing new life into their marketing efforts. Having high-converting product pages is crucial for affiliate marketing. This is because affiliates prefer to work with ecommerce stores with high-converting pages so that they get full returns on the leads they send. Download the top converting Shopify theme here.. MaintainYourOtherMarketingStrategies Despite the success of your affiliate program, don’t make it the be all end all of your marketing efforts. It’s just a small part of your broader brand promotion strategy. Keep all facets of your marketing motoring on towards success. That means; craft better content for your various social media profiles and your blog. Optimize all your content for search engines. Organic traffic is precious. You stand a higher chance of converting it to leads or sales. You should also invest in paid ads; you need to bring your brand before as many eyeballs as you can. Additionally, refine your email marketing efforts. Generally, don’t lose focus on your other marketing strategies. They’re just as crucial as your affiliate program for eCommerce site. Conclusion Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to expand the reach of your brand. Several brands are investing heavily in this marketing tactic. Your eCommerce store shouldn’t lag behind. The higher your page converts, the more money you and affiliates make. Get more conversions with the free top converting Shopify theme. Download Debutify today!