Why You Need to Try Affiliate Marketing
If you really want to build the value of your company (and I mean, who doesn’t?) and connect with your audience on a deeper level, it may be time for you to think about affiliate marketing. There are in’s and out’s that you should know about, but for now let’s just stick to the basics. Welcome to your Affiliate Marketing 101 seminar.
Let’s first discuss what affiliate marketing is. If you have ever seen an Instagram post where a public figure says something like “I just love this new shirt from ______ Boutique. It is so soft and cute! #ad”, chances are you are looking at a post of an affiliate marketing campaign. The public figure is advertising that shirt for the company that it came from, ie. as an affiliate. (Affiliate marketing is most often done on social media or through blogs.)
Now, the reason that people get into affiliate marketing is because they can make bank doing it. Every time a fan clicks that link to find that shirt and purchase it, the public figure gets compensated. This is “cost-per-action” marketing. Think of it as being paid on commission, because that is essentially what it is — only it gets better…
4 Reasons Why You Need to Try Affiliate Marketing
You can make money in your sleep.
Ok, be real, who hasn’t dreamed about getting paid to do nothing? It’s that untouchable goal, right? Well, affiliate marketing is about the closest thing to it. Basically, if you write a blog post about a fabulous product that you tried and loved, and you included affiliate links in it, your work is done. Yes, there are details beyond this, but that is the basic gist.
The money doesn’t stop coming.
Not only are you making money for doing something that you already could have done/may have done even before you started affiliate marketing (i.e. a blog post or a social media post), you also have the potential to be earning money days, months, — even years down the line. You could make money on blog posts that you published last year! That’s how powerful this is.
So, while you are working on other aspects of your company and making money doing what you do best, you can also be making money while you do absolutely nothing. Sweet gig, right?
You get to practice your sales skills.
Sales can be a drag. Especially if you have to cold call people. Be real, no one enjoys doing that. Doing affiliate marketing, though, is a great way for you to practice persuading people and selling items to people. You can do it in your voice, in your own style, too. You don’t have to overdo it or make people feel uncomfortable. It offers that opportunity to be yourself.
Related posts: 10 Powerful Marketing Words and Phrases to Start Using, Using Social Media to Sell Your Products
You can be a resource to your audience.
Money is great and necessary, but being helpful to your audience is the most rewarding reason of all. Social media, and even blogging, creates a wonderful community of like-minded professionals. This community is the perfect environment for sharing ideas and products that work and are useful. As a business, you have the opportunity to share your expertise and experiences with others so that they don’t have to make the same mistakes over and over again. You can save them trouble and build your credibility as a business and industry leader. Win-win!
More on marketing: 10 Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Often Make, The Best Marketing Habits to Get Into
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make a passive income and to really be helpful to your audience. If you have questions about affiliate marketing or digital marketing in general, please reach out to us here.