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Boost Your eCommerce Strategy with Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has been growing in popularity over the past few years. For 20% of marketers, affiliate marketing is now their most important stream of revenue.

So if you’ve got no idea what affiliate marketing is, it’s time to brush up on your knowledge, as you’re sure to be missing out on valuable additional sales!

What is affiliate marketing?

An affiliate is an individual or company that markets products or services of another party. They are paid a commission for each sale they make, a percentage of sales, a flat fee, or both.

Affiliate marketing refers to an affiliate or third party promoting a merchant’s products or services for commission rates that serve as additional revenue.

Online retail might come to mind when you think of ecommerce affiliate marketing and, as expected, several ecommerce stores and tools utilize this strategy.

Here’s how affiliate marketing works in ecommerce.

1. Content creators provide affiliate links: When you’re an affiliate marketer, you need to create good content and place a few links to your merchant site in relevant places.
2. Customers click the links: If a customer clicks on an ad from your website, the affiliate link you placed in the content tracks the click for any sort of social proof.
3. The affiliate marketer is credited and receives payouts: When someone who is an affiliate marketer refers a customer to a merchant, and that customer makes a purchase, an affiliate marketer receives payouts from that merchant.

Affiliates get varying affiliate commissions based on how much business they send your way and what you have agreed upon in the contract. There are a number of different ways to structure these commissions, but here are a few of the most commonly used ones:

• Pay-per-click (PPC): Merchants pay their affiliates a small commission every time someone clicks on an affiliate’s link.
• Pay-per-lead (PPL): Affiliate marketers get paid based on how many leads they send to a merchant.
• Pay-per-sale (PPS): This commission structure rewards affiliates for each sale they drive to a merchant’s website.

The following tips will help you make the most out of your affiliate marketing campaign strategy to generate sales and establish credibility for your ecommerce business.

1. Choose the right affiliate partners

Don’t allow just anyone to become your affiliate partner: Doing this may dilute your brand message and strength if the person doesn’t align correctly. To choose the right affiliates, you first need to understand your customers and their profiles, and you need to make sure that the potential affiliate relates and has access to this audience.

2. Optimize your landing page to increase conversions

Conversions will be higher if visitors find what they want on your site and can efficiently complete their desired action. A landing page that stands out from your competitors will help you convert visitors into customers and get more money in your pocket.

Luckily, there are lots of tools, just like Unbounce, that allow you to build high-converting landing pages.

3. Perfect your affiliate landing page

Your affiliate landing page is the place where people will end up if they’re looking to become one of your affiliate partners.

Website visitors will form an opinion of your landing page within half a second, so there is no room for error. Ensure the page is eye-catching, loads quickly, contains all the relevant information they need, and makes it easy to sign up.

4. Use influencers as your affiliates

Make sure to use influencers in your niche as your unlimited affiliates. These have established themselves as thought leaders and opinion leaders in your industry. Influencers are your best chance at reaching a maximum number of people.

5. Offer a discount deal

Discount deals are good business practices for ecommerce affiliate programs. They’re a great way to build long-term business goals with customers who will continue buying your products or services. Offering discounts also increases the chances of a visitor converting into a customer.

6. Have a clear call to action

If you want to generate leads, you must provide potential affiliates with actionable items they can take away from your content. A call to action, such as “click here to share,” “learn more,” or “visit our website” helps consumers realize what you are expecting from them.

Affiliate marketing could be your answer if you’re looking for an easy and rewarding way to passively make more sales and drive more traffic for your ecommerce business.

Consider some of the tips we mentioned as you build your affiliate marketing campaigns to get the most bang for your buck.