Affiliate Marketing is a method of solving marketing problems by utilizing marketers who promotes products and services of companies.
The essence of affiliate marketing is the promotion of goods, brands and views. The implementation of the sale of goods and services by intermediaries and for a commission paid to the intermediary by the customer. Affiliate marketing is one of part of digital marketing.
Affiliate marketing goal for the customer – attracting a large number of performers who provide information and intermediary services to promote the brands. Selling goods or services to a customer through an intermediary is not a mandatory goal of affiliate marketing. For the frequent, essence of the relationship between the customer and the contractor, it is only the provision of information intermediary services to attract potential customers, inform them, and draw customer marketing attention into orbit.
The customer can attract both individual referrals, and form entire agent networks. From them, with its own functions and solvable information and intermediary tasks. Affiliate marketing is widespread on the Internet. However, in the provision of marketing services, this type of relationship between the customer and the contractor is common in b2b, the corporate sector of the economy.
How to Start with Affiliate Marketing
First the publisher needs to be aware of affiliate marketing which he can learn through Affiliate Marketing Courses. It starts with the choice of the right affiliate network for both publishers and advertisers. Questions that advertising companies have to answer for themselves in the first step are: What do I want to advertise / sell? Which publishers make sense to me? What results should they deliver? On this basis, suitable affiliate networks can be defined that match the products and services.
Other aspects that advertisers should research are fees that may be incurred. For example, for setting up a partner program with an affiliate network. Tip: Feel free to ask business partners if they have had any experience. What are typical conversion rates and What are the earnings opportunities? What are the requirements for publishers to advertise products in such case. These questions, like high-quality reporting and tracking, should be the focus when choosing an affiliate network.
Where is affiliate marketing used?
Almost everywhere, starting from the simplest thing, a star writes in his “Instagram” that he cuts his hair in a certain salon, and dresses in such and such a boutique — to complex referral systems (large sites like “AliExpress”).
In online sales. The simplest example is cashback services, which are partners of online stores and transfer customers a refund of a certain amount.
In the information business. Often, the creators of the product attract bloggers, opinion leaders, owners of promoted resources and offer them to host their affiliate link. Of course, not just like that – for a certain percentage, bonus, gift, etc. The format of video blogs is now especially popular, where you can make a visual overview of any product.
In the B2B segment. Let’s say there are two businesses – a car wash and a sale of auto parts. If they decide to partner, everyone will be well. A car wash will offer a spare parts store to its customers, and the latter will give washing customers coupons. Ingenious!
One of the “problems” that B2B companies have to take into account in affiliate marketing is also an opportunity:
Yes, before a transaction occurs, it often has to go through a long, consulting-intensive decision-making process. An advertising medium on a publisher website will hardly trigger a purchase decision. But: The affiliate marketing component ” lead generation ” offers a lot of potential to start this sales talk. Obtaining customer data by registering for a newsletter or filling out a form are promising options. To start a conversation with potential customers – and then continue to design and monitor the B2B sales call in the classic manner.
B2B Challenges
For this to work, the focus must be on choosing the right publisher. In the B2B area, the product or service must fit into the environment or vice versa the environment to the product. The challenge for advertisers here is to first find the right affiliate network that can serve the relevant industry with suitable websites. If the possibilities are essentially limited to lead generation, it is all the more important that they are of high quality. And they are only if the publisher guarantees a target-group-specific reach – the right “fit” becomes a decisive success factor.
In general, more publishers are applying for partner programs for lead generation because it is easier to achieve the target. B2B advertisers should therefore analyze exactly how promising the quality of the leads of individual applicants is.
However, there are interesting options for B2B providers, particularly in the area of lead generation. At the same time selecting suitable publisher partners, in order to open up new target groups. In addition to the high-quality leads that have to be supplied by the website operator. The value of the content provided also plays an important role in the success. Anyone who can provide content in consultation with the publisher. Anyone who offers added value and credibly conveys their own expertise.
The remuneration for the marketing services provided between the customer and the contractor. It usually involves a cost-per-action (CPA) model – payment for the action of a client engaged by an agent.
Sale of goods. In this case, the agent is paid a fee on the basis of “Cost Per Sale”. Cost per sale (CPS). CPA Cost Per Action where user is paid per action.
Conclusion: is B2B affiliate marketing worth it?
B2B affiliate marketing is still in its infancy. There are more hurdles than in the B2C area that you can’t imagine. Overall, affiliate marketing is great for businesses who want to scale up leads and sales quickly.