Regardless of whether you haven't yet experienced its benefits, you've probably heard about affiliate marketing. 

This is due to the fact that this sector currently accounts for more than 15% of all e-commerce sales, placing it in parallel with email marketing and well ahead of both social commerce and digital ads as the primary drivers of e-commerce deals.

With the potential for affiliate marketing to drive e-commerce success, it's no wonder that businesses are increasingly investing in this channel to gain a competitive advantage.

So, what is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where businesses partner with affiliates (customers, creators, social media influencers, etc.) to promote their products or services. Affiliates receive a commission for each sale or conversion they generate for the business.

Affiliate marketing can be a win-win situation for both businesses and affiliates. Businesses can expand their reach and drive more sales without having to invest in additional marketing resources. Affiliates can earn a commission by promoting products they believe in.

How to get started with affiliate marketing?

You want to attract the right affiliates to become your brand’s advocates, so make sure to stand out from your competitors in the things you will offer them.

1. Identify and recruit the right affiliates

zIdentifying and recruiting the right affiliates is key to the success of your affiliate marketing program. Look for affiliates who have a relevant audience and are aligned with your brand values. This can be done manually by reaching out to potential affiliates directly, or by using an affiliate network or platform to find potential partners

2. Explain your brand’s values

Make sure your affiliates understand where your brand stands for in terms of values and visual guidelines for their content to stay on-message.

3. Set competitive commission rates

Offering competitive commission rates is essential to attracting and retaining affiliates. Research the commission rates offered by competitors in your industry and set rates that are attractive to potential affiliates.

4. Offer a post-click experience

Giving affiliates a link to share on their socials works but think of the right landing page your affiliates should send their followers to. Offer affiliates dedicated pages on your e-commerce store gathering their content and wishlist. These pages are called storefronts and are the trendiest right now for e-commerce brands.Squadded can offer each of your affiliates a storefront on your eCom.This way, they are happy they get exposure, their followers get inspired by tons of engaging content and you get a lot more traffic and sales from their social media followers. 

5. Track and measure your results

Tracking and measuring your results is essential to understanding the success of your affiliate marketing program.Use analytics tools to track clicks, conversions, and sales generated by your affiliates. All-in-one affiliate platform like Squadded will generate the affiliate links and enable you to monitor clicks, orders and sales. Use this data to optimize your program and improve your results over time.

Benefits Of Affiliate Marketing

An effective affiliate program can bring extraordinary levels of success to any business: not only providing the potential for increased sales, but also allowing for a greater level of collaboration and engagement in the digital world.

Even if the expansion of the affiliate marketing sector is already a positive sign of achievement, let's take a closer look at some of the main advantages if you are planning on taking this route!

Good Return On Investments

The affiliate can be your only source for creating marketing content and generating sales, so you don't need to spend tons on ads.

Additionally, since affiliate marketing is all about results. You never spend money on possible sales or views since you only have to compensate the affiliate once a sale is completed. Low initial costs and a good return on investment follow from this.

The ability to establish a reputation with creators as well as other industry influencers is yet another advantage of affiliate marketing. Nothing is more beneficial than hearing about your company from others online.

An Easy Way For Growth

In order to keep up with changing consumer preferences and differentiate their businesses from the competition, current e-commerce company owners are constantly striving to grow their customer base, increase revenue, and make continual changes.

An affiliate program can be beneficial when it comes to that. Through referral earnings, you can create a brand-new revenue stream that you can use to fund business growth.

Access to new markets

Affiliate marketing can also help you access new markets and expand your reach beyond your existing customer base. By partnering with affiliates who have a relevant audience in a different market, you can tap into new opportunities for growth.

Conclusion

In conclusion, affiliate marketing is a powerful tool for e-commerce success, and with the right strategy, it can bring significant benefits to both businesses and affiliates. By following the tips outlined in the article, you can create a successful affiliate program that drives more sales and expands your reach. And if you're looking for a unified social commerce platform to simplify the process, consider using Squadded. With its customized discounts, personalized UGC storefronts, and real-time reports, Squadded makes it easy to recruit affiliates from top creators and customers to grow your revenue.

Sign up for Squadded today and start driving more shoppers to your store!

‍