Six immediate opportunities to activate sales from affiliate partners

Although affiliate marketing is a long game, there are several immediate opportunities available to you to activate sales from existing partnerships.

The affiliate marketing channel is one of the most cost-effective ways of generating revenue. When you come onboard with Silverbean, you’ll see results in the first 100 days. In fact, our average client revenue growth for the first quarter is 38%. How do we do it? It’s all about maximising your program. This could be anything from understanding profit margins to re-allocating budget, forming new partnerships and launching seasonal campaigns.

Although the affiliate channel should be one of your main drivers of revenue, with help from us you will see more than just sales. We work with you to understand the wider business objectives, long term goals and ongoing issues, so you’ll make the most out of this ever-growing channel.

We’ll let you into a few secrets about how we do it. Here are a few things to consider when maximising your affiliate partner program:

1. In-house or agency?

Take a step back and assess the success of your existing affiliate partner program. Is it growing year-on-year or have you noticed a stagnation? Are you consistently reaching new partners, or do you feel you’re relying on a few publishers every month? Do you know exactly where your money goes and what you get in return?

By opting for an agency, you’ll get access to expertise, tools and partnerships that will not only help to answer these questions, but also make sure you’re maximising every aspect of your program.

We’re a leading agency with over 17 years’ experience in launching, managing and growing affiliate programs. We run programs for over 40 retailers worldwide, including luxury clothing retailers and international sports brands.

Managing an affiliate program is anything but passive. The channel requires consistent nurturing and development in order to see continued growth. With a dedicated affiliate marketing agency, your program will get everything it needs to thrive.

2. Know your market

When’s the last time you researched your market? If your program has been running for quite some time, you may not have considered how your market is changing.

Knowing your marketing is an ongoing task, not just something to do ahead of launching your program. By keeping your eye on the ball, you’ll be able to maximise every opportunity when it comes along.

Look into what competitors are doing – are they offering voucher codes, if so, what promotions are they offering? If they are utilising cashback, what rate of cashback are they offering customers? Are your competitors using on-site overlays, if so, are they using them for data capture, or to convert customers?

Having a clear picture of what your competitors are currently offering will significantly affect your program. From here, you can find out what will make you stand out.

3. Know your profit margins

This may seem like common sense, but it’s amazing how many people don’t know their profit margins inside out. This knowledge is invaluable when running your affiliate channel, as it gives you the power to be agile when it comes to budget and resource allocation.

If you’re using an affiliate network, you can choose to split commission on a per-product or per-category basis. This is one of the most effective ways of maximising profit for affiliate marketing. For example, if you have a product with a higher profit margin, you can run higher commissions and stronger promotions specifically for these products. Alternatively, if you have a product with very low margins, you may wish to exclude these products from promotions or affiliate feeds, to ensure you do not pay commission to affiliates on these products.

Providing higher levels of commission to affiliates on certain products will incentivise partners as they stand to make a higher commission rate should they convert a sale.

4. Communicate

Even when your affiliate program is ticking along nicely, there’s no time to waste. You should ensure you:

• Continue to actively build new relationships with partners. This is an invaluable part of affiliate marketing; communication forms the foundation of an ever-growing program.
• Communicate with new and old affiliate partners regularly, to keep your brand at the forefront of their minds when it comes to launching new campaigns.

5. Be appealing

To be successful in the affiliate industry, your brand must be appealing to both the affiliates you’re working with and the customers you’re targeting. Gone are the days of picking and choosing affiliate partners – nowadays, they choose you.

Affiliate marketing is a competitive environment and, with the rise of content publishers and social media influencers, the power is very much in their hands when it comes to choosing brands to work with.

Give them the best possible reasons to want to work with you:

Do you offer competitive commission rates? Do you provide regular promotions and content? Can you provide free products to review?

Next, you must appeal to customers. Ask yourself why a customer would buy your products over a competitor. This reason could be product price, a free gift, specific delivery offerings, cashback, among others. If you can’t answer this question, you should work to create a stronger offering.

6. Be consistent

Consistency is key when running a successful affiliate partner program. This consistency comes in all shapes and sizes – from consistent messaging to customers to consistent communication with partners. It’s all part of your long-term affiliate strategy.

Be consistent in pushing out valuable content, with a consistent tone of voice offering promotions and reacting to the market. This goes for the technical side of your program too, such as testing affiliate links, producing seasonally appropriate creative and ensuring you can provide a feed to any affiliate who may require it.

If you’re ready to maximise your affiliate partner program, let us work our magic. At Silverbean, we develop long term affiliate strategies with the promise of delivering real results. In fact, our average revenue increase is 38% for clients in the first quarter. Get in touch to find out how we can transform your affiliate marketing strategy today.

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