The emerging number of eCommerce businesses in the market has obviously led to an increase in the competition too. Every eCommerce business out there is trying out new marketing methods to achieve the desired success. Marketing and eCommerce go hand in hand, so it is absolutely necessary to have a good marketing strategy in place. Now, there are many ways of marketing for eCommerce business but there is one proven method i.e eCommerce affiliate marketing.
If you have never heard of digital affiliate marketing, then this blog is for you. Of course, we will be able to provide only some of the basics here but you can talk to a Magento development company for more information.
Let’s get started with the basics of eCommerce affiliate marketing and then slowly move forward.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a web-based business strategy that will help you market to the right audience with guaranteed success. It is a win-win situation for both parties as an affiliate will also earn commission on every sale done. It is one such marketing tactic where you pay after the sale is completed.
Generally, the best affiliates will have the following:
- A reliable website that generates traffic
- Updated content
- A significant influence on their audience
- Valuable content on their platform
☛ Some Proven Stats about eCommerce Affiliate Marketing
The stats that we have mentioned below will explain why eCommerce platforms are having their own eCommerce affiliate programs in place.
- 81% of brands are currently using affiliate online marketing.
- About 15% of the total digital media industry’s revenue is earned from affiliate marketing.
- Around 38% of marketers consider eCommerce affiliate marketing one of the top methods of customer acquisition.
- Amazon’s revenue crossed $100B in 2015. Affiliate marketing is responsible for about $10B of the total sales.
Why Affiliate Marketing?
An affiliate marketing plan will not only help you reach your target audience faster but also create a loyal customer base.
The best part is you pay the affiliates only after the sales start. Apart from the increased brand awareness, some other benefits of affiliate eCommerce marketing are:
☛ Great ROI
eCommerce affiliate marketing spending is approximately 16% of all online orders. A study shows that a consumer is more likely to purchase an item if it is recommended by an affiliate. Recent statistics also show that market affiliate program customers will spend more as compared to an average customer.
☛ Advanced Social Proof
Social proof is when people will follow the advice of others if they believe that the crowd is making the right decision. For instance, if someone is planning to buy a new phone they will look up for reviews on reliable sites like Amazon.
The number of positive reviews is directly proportional to higher chances of purchase. By adding your products in affiliate marketplace sites to review, your business will be found organically. Thus, social proof definitely holds significant value.
☛ Improved Credibility
Around 69% of online shoppers look for more product reviews from eCommerce websites. When influencers suggest your brand, your credibility is improved instantly.
Once they promote you, make sure that you share the required information with your customers.
☛ Create Your Own Brand Ambassadors
Although an eCommerce affiliate marketing strategy will tell people about your brand, organic promotion is always required. Whenever a customer tells others about your brand, that is when it is organic promotion.
Your affiliates will become your brand ambassadors quickly. When a reliable influencer will post about your brand, they are basically approving your brand. Approximately 82% of customers say that there is a high possibility of them following a recommendation by an influencer.
Top Ways An Affiliate Marketing Strategy will Grow Your Business
☛ Grow Your Sales Team Indirectly
If you are a single person running a business or a start-up, then affiliate marketing platforms are for you. eCommerce affiliate marketing will immediately expand your indirect sales team.
This sales team will include experts from your industry as well as outsiders. Affiliates know how to get high-quality traffic for your website.
A highly qualified indirect sales team will save all the time and effort that you put into creating traditional ads and tracking their progress.
☛ Increased Customer Loyalty
Loyal customers are said to spend around 67% more on your brand as compared to new customers.
The target affiliate program will give you the benefits of choosing trusted and expert affiliates. When an influencer or a celebrity promotes your brand, they are basically bringing their audience to you.
For instance, the watch brand Daniel Wellington has its own loyal customers. But now that stars like Ayushmann Khurrana are promoting it, his fans will choose the brand too.
☛ Better Budgeting
In the case of eCommerce affiliate marketing, you don’t really have to spend huge money on ads hoping that it is visible to the right audience. If your marketing budget is not that huge then affiliate marketing will enable you to plan precisely for all your marketing campaigns.
Most of the affiliate marketing commissions are decided on the basis of the percentage of the product’s total sale value. You have the option to set your commission range from anywhere between 3-10%. Just make sure that you are providing competitive commission rates and choosing the best affiliate tracking software to manage your program.
☛ An abundance of User-Generated Content
There will be so many times when you just couldn’t think of something to promote your product. An obvious way in which affiliate marketing will improve your eCommerce business is with user-generated content.
When your followers or customers will snap photos of your products or leave reviews, you can use that content for marketing. It is always better to have someone else compliment your products rather than you doing it yourself.
☛ Tailored Target Audience
When you go for paid ads, you decide a target audience that will see your ad. You can finalize your target audience on the basis of income, geographical location or hobbies, etc.
But how will you know if your target audience is actually watching those ads? In the case of affiliate marketing, you get a lot more control over where and who watches your brand advertisements.
You can personally select the websites and influencers that will promote your business. Thus, you can take complete control of your brand’s promotions with affiliate marketing.
What Is The Best Affiliate Marketing Program?
Some of the best affiliate marketing programs are listed below:
- CJ by Conversant – It will provide real-time monitoring that is concentrated on high-quality websites.
- Impact Radius – It is a SaaS resource that is completely transparent. Impact Radius is focused on real-time reporting, marketing attribution, and campaign building.
- ShareASale – It has a power rank system to track the most popular vendors.
- Amazon Associates – This is a highly recognized brand in terms of customer loyalty.
- Rakuten Marketing – You get amazing deep linking tools. On-demand training tools are also available.
Conclusion
It’s safe to say that you know the basics of eCommerce affiliate marketing and how it all works. Affiliate marketing is the most proven way to achieve success with your marketing campaign.
In this blog, we have discussed all the reasons to use affiliate marketing as well as the ways in which affiliate marketing can boost your business. The only catch in the case of affiliate marketing is finding the right influencers and deciding on the commission rates.
If you are new to the whole eCommerce business genre, then the WooCommerce development company that you hired can always help you out. There are chances that your technology partner might even know some influencers. So, its time to get going on that affiliate marketing campaign for your product and achieve all the success!
Are you interested in knowing more about affiliate marketing? Or do you want to get your own eCommerce website? No matter what your requirement is, our experts are here to help! Provide us a brief description of your requirements on [email protected]!
