How to promote your wares using affiliate marketing

Any retailer with an ecommerce website can benefit from affiliate marketing, but what are the first steps you should take towards tapping this resource?

By George Currie at affiliate network Paid On Results

This guide hopes to outline the basics of what’s required by looking at the following:

•         What is affiliate marketing?
•         What affiliates should I choose?
•         Choosing the right affiliate network
•         Is your website ready for affiliate marketing?
•         Does affiliate marketing suit your business?
•         What are the costs?

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is essentially the process of utilising a third party (an affiliate partner) to promote you as a retailer. The affiliate partner will help to direct customers from their website to your own website by promoting your products in some way.

This could take the form of an endorsement, a write up or possibly promoting a discount code. If the potential customer likes what they see of your products or brand, then they’ll click through to your website.  If the shopper proceeds to make a purchase then the affiliate will be entitled to commission, usually a small percentage of the sale which you can agree on beforehand.

The affiliate effectively works as an online, commission only workforce looking to promote your products. A common affiliate marketing scenario is that you, as a retailer, offer a discount, let’s say 10% off certain products, which the affiliate in turn promotes via their site.

Savvy shoppers usually look to discount websites first before making a purchase to see if they can get any money off. By promoting your offer via a discount website, you can encourage custom which might not normally arrive at your site.

What kind of affiliates should I choose?

Behind the affiliate partner and the merchant’s website, there is a connecting affiliate network. The best affiliate networks provide you with the technology, data and trust required to engage with affiliates.  So you need to make sure that the network has a wide choice of affiliates ranging from the large cashback and voucher code sites to small review and content sites.

Choosing the right affiliate network

As previously mentioned the affiliate network plays an important role in the relationship between affiliates and merchants.  When shopping about for an affiliate network you’ll no doubt come across a variety of them ranging from small niche networks to large multinational ones.

The niche networks will be too limited and multinational ones will be too expensive. So how do you choose the right network for you?  Ask for a demo of their platform to see how intuitive their interface is and that it will provide all the information you need.

Another important point you may wish to address is the ease in which you can communicate with affiliates any new products, special offers, voucher codes and so on which they can then in turn relay to their audience. Answer these basic questions to your satisfaction and you won’t be far off the right network.

Is your website ready for affiliate marketing?  

You need to make sure that your website is user friendly. There’s nothing more off putting for potential shoppers than poor web design. If they’ve been enticed via an affiliate and your website isn’t up to scratch then they’ll simply look elsewhere.

The transition from seeing a product, liking it, and then purchasing it needs to be seamless, so make sure product descriptions are clear, images are appealing and ‘proceeding to checkout’ is straightforward.

Does affiliate marketing suit your business?

Affiliate marketing suits any business that provides ecommerce, and the benefits of it can be great, for both you as the retailer and for the consumer. Shoppers are becoming much more money savvy.

It’s increasingly common for shoppers to check out a potential purchase in store and then look online for any discounts, or for cheaper retailers before purchasing. If your competitors are part of an affiliate network then they could be one step ahead. It pays to be competitive and an online presence boosted by affiliate partnership is a huge part of that.

What are the costs?

Affiliate marketing offers a form of advertising which is not only cost effective but measureable.  Your two main costs are one, the previously agreed commission for sales and two, the monthly network fee which can vary dramatically between networks – so it’s best to shop around.

According to statistics from PricewaterhouseCoopers, affiliate marketing accounts for over £8billion worth of sales in the UK, so it contributes a huge amount to the retail sector and is something that all ecommerce merchants should look to get involved in.

For more information visit: www.paidonresults.com