Affiliate marketing for e-commerce: No matter if you have a product to sell or a third-party product, your main goal should be to increase sales.
While there are many ways to increase your bottom line, some options can be expensive upfront and provide only short-term results. An eCommerce affiliate marketing program is a great way to increase lead volume and not put too much pressure on your budget or internal team.
Keep in mind that modern affiliate marketing is still a new concept, so eCommerce business owners should take it slowly. However, it is important to take into account many variables when developing eCommerce affiliate marketing. It can be difficult.
We’ll discuss the basics of affiliate marketing programs and the key stakeholders within the ecosystem.
What is an Affiliate Program?
Let’s first define what an affiliate program is before we move on. An affiliate program is a contract between a company and an advertiser that allows them to work with publishers (publishers) in order to generate leads, brand awareness or both.
The agreement includes all the information publishers need in order to receive a commission for each conversion or lead, including the location and device type.
The affiliate program provides all resources necessary to help advertisers provide their affiliates with the information they need.
Understanding the Affiliate Ecosystem
Although we’ve already covered the basics of affiliate programs, it is important to be familiar with the workings of the ecosystem to fully understand its benefits.
There are many parts to the affiliate ecosystem. The exact structure will vary depending on industry and advertiser programs. There are a few key stakeholders that are involved in most affiliate interactions.
These include advertisers, publishers, affiliate networks, consumers and publishers.
dvertisers
Advertisers are eCommerce businesses who need help marketing their products and services. These companies find affiliate marketing particularly useful because it is applicable to all industries, B2C and B2B.
Advertisers have full control over the affiliate program. They decide what constitutes a conversion, how big the payout will be and other important decisions. Remember that your competition is also looking to attract top affiliates within your industry so you need to make your program attractive enough to draw these people.
Consumers
The term “consumer” in the affiliate context is used to refer to the audience that advertisers wish to target. Advertisers will target specific segments rather than all consumers. However, these audiences can include business owners or similar individuals.
Publishers
Publishers are affiliates who focus on creating content and distributing it via a variety of channels. Publishers can choose to produce original content or focus on paid channels. Or they could do both. You may need to collaborate with certain types of affiliate publishers depending on your industry.
ffiliate networks
Sometimes, it is not enough to create an attractive affiliate program in order to attract the top publishers. Affiliate networks connect advertisers and the top publishers in their respective areas.
There are many affiliate networks that you can join, making it difficult to choose the right one. It is important to take the time and compare all of your options, so you can choose the best provider for your eCommerce needs.
14 Reasons to Start Your E-Commerce Affiliate Marketing Program
The best thing about an eCommerce partner program? You can create multiple schemes depending on your goals.
You can, for example, divide your programs into three categories: referral, advocate, and strategic. Referral partners are more direct and advocate partners can only endorse advertiser products and services when necessary. These strategic partners are often seen as dormant but work with advertisers to develop a long-term strategy that will achieve long-term goals.
Let’s look at 14 more reasons to create an ecommerce partner program.
1. Expand your reach with these tools
Affiliates can reach unique audiences even if they work in the same industry. You can increase your reach and reach potential customers by creating a partner program.
2. Marketing expenses can be reduced
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based strategy. This means that affiliates don’t need to pay a commission unless they generate valid conversions. Instead of spending money hoping it will turn out well, advertisers don’t have to pay commissions unless they receive something in return. This reduces marketing costs across the board.
3. Positions Companies for New Markets
It doesn’t necessarily mean that a business with a strong reputation has created a product for a new vertical. Affiliate marketing is a popular choice for many companies. Publishers are familiar with the audience being targeted. Advertisers are able to access new markets much more easily than if they had to learn the audience members completely.
4. Increased Number of Online Conversions
Websites, social media, and third-party platforms e-commerce can all help to generate leads for businesses. Affiliate marketers have the ability to be creative and use a wider variety of methods, increasing the number of conversions online for advertisers.
5. Enhanced Trust in Products/Services
Even though you may have highly engaging content, text and videos produced by advertisers don’t have as much power to persuade consumers. Third-party publishers, such as influencers, can increase trust in the products and services being promoted.
6. Cost-Effective
A program to create affiliate programs is cost-effective and requires minimal resources. However, you will need to do extensive research on the best programs, networks, and other elements. You may still need additional resources.
7. It doesn’t have to be a set salary
Affiliate marketers are paid on a commission basis. This means that you don’t need to include a salary in your marketing budget. You can coordinate with your existing marketing manager to manage the program, and collaborate with your network to optimize it.
8. Optimize Your Website’s SEO & Backlink Profile
Advertisers often rely heavily on a healthy mix of marketing that includes search engine optimization (SEO) and affiliate marketing. An affiliate program that drives large numbers of users to a page often results in a rise in quality and usability scores, as well as overall SEO rating.
9. Get the benefit of consumers’ trust in Influencers
Partnering with the right influencer will not only make your products and services more appealing, but it can also increase brand trust. Influencers build trust with their followers, so when they endorse a brand or product, people tend to be more loyal than buying.
10. As much or as little control as you like
When creating an affiliate program, one of the biggest challenges for businesses is trusting affiliates. Many business owners believe they must surrender all control over their marketing efforts. However, this is false.
Affiliate advertising can be flexible. Some businesses may rely entirely on their program, while others use it as part of a larger marketing strategy.
11. All Elements can be tracked and monitored
Your affiliate program, like other forms of online marketing allows you to track your marketing spending, understand how resources are distributed and see how much business you get in return. This information can be viewed at the publisher level. You can then identify your top publishers and build a strong relationship.
12. Affiliate programs have a higher ROI
Affiliate advertising is a relatively low-cost way to increase your ROI. Organic methods are only able to match it. Affiliates, however, can provide a way to increase your ROI and reduce the time it takes to implement your marketing strategy.
13. You Can Grow With Your Business
Your program can scale as much as you wish because there are many affiliates in many different industries. Once you have established a rhythm with your publishers and are seeing consistent results, it is time to start looking at ways to grow your internal team or diversify your products/services.
14. All types of products and services are compatible
Affiliate advertising, as we have already mentioned, is an excellent option for any type of product or service. It doesn’t matter if the product or service is physical, intangible, or a combination of both.
Are You Ready to Launch Your Ecommerce Affiliate Marketing Program Lemonads has the right people to help you.
It can take time to develop an affiliate program for e-commerce. It can be difficult to develop an e-commerce affiliate program. However, if your target audience is well researched, your prospects are trustworthy, and you partner with the right networks, your chances of success will increase exponentially.
Contact lemonads to learn more about lemonads or launch a new ecommerce affiliate program.
