Why use Affiliate Marketing for your Startup? Boost Sales ๐
You have an early-stage startup, and you are looking for customers to try out your product. Like other startup entrepreneurs, you try your luck with your same-field “Good” friends. Maybe they can help you to find new customers. But they only explain how all startups fail. Thanks a lot! Here’s a way you will not have to convince your friends’ friends on LinkedIn to try out your product – Affiliate Marketing Startup
Letโs start with the basics. What is Affiliate Marketing for eCommerce stores?
Suppose I have an online store for orange toys โ I have little money to advertise the store, and my SEO efforts haven’t shown results yet. In short, no one knows me. And even though I’m really, really trying, no one buys even one orange balloon. This is exactly why affiliate marketing was invented. “Affiliates” are like your salespeople. They distribute your products in their digital sphere in exchange for a sales commission.
Affiliate marketing is responsible for 16% of global eCommerce sales.
What is Affiliate Marketing (In 3 Steps)
- Finding “Affiliates” who will distribute your product in their media (what does it mean “their media”: Websites, Blogs, Apps, Social Media, YouTube Channels, Links in podcast descriptions, and basically everywhere you can put a link in)
- Provide “Affiliates” with unique links to your website. Each Affiliate is provided with a different link so that you can later identify on Google Analytics exactly from which websites the customers came.
- Agree on a commission, usually between 10% and 30% of the sale. And whenever there is a sale that came from the unique link from the Affiliate’s site, the pre-agreed commission goes to the Affiliate.
7 Reasons Why Affiliate Marketing for Your Startup Boost Sales
- Test the Product
- SEO
- Generate Revenue Fast
- Word of Mouth
- Accurate calculation of Cost
- Freelance Salespeople
- Low entry and exit costs
1. Test the Product
Yeah, how weird. Sorry for talking about that our product must be good. What was I thinking?๐ค When using Affiliate Marketing for your startup, suddenly full of sales channels open up, and we can reach many potential customers. And if there are no sales or few sales relative to what we expected, it means there is a problem with our product. Something is not working, and we need to understand exactly what. Expert “Affiliates” have a lot of insights when it comes to products, and they will be happy to help upcoming startups. There are even those who, only after they subscribed and tried the product out themselves, will agree to promote the product.
2. SEO
If only we could bring Google Flowers & Chocolate and be done with it. Google’s search engine is the largest display window in the world, and everyone wants to appear on it. And not just to appear, on the first page, of course! So the question of what Google wants today is important as well as tricky (Because Google changes its mind every few months). But what is certain is that for now, Google still loves Backlinks, and if it notices that links from your site appear on other sites, it ranks your site higher on Google. When we use affiliate marketing, we share our site links on other sites, which gets us one step closer to the first page of Google search results.
For more on SaaS SEO Marketing Strategy click here
3. Generate Revenue Fast
When we use affiliate marketing, we can’t use the excuse that no one knows us. Good products are, in most cases, sold through affiliate marketing, primarily through expert “affiliates.” Affiliate marketing is an excellent sales channel for instant revenue when we need to Generate revenue fast and do not want to wait forever until all our marketing initiatives work.
4. Word of mouth
The dream of every startup company is to be talked about. Word of mouth, as they say. Without PR, without marketing, and without spending a single penny on advertising. Just for the fun of it. I really wish all readers that this would happen to them. That everyone will talk about their product just because they want to. So, If your startup is in the waiting phase for word of mouth to start kicking (long wait), I suggest you start with affiliate marketing. Although you pay the โaffiliatesโ a percentage of the sale, they still encourage dialogue about the product. And if the product is good, maybe the dream that everybody will talk about your product might come true.
If your startup is in the waiting phase for word of mouth to start kicking (long wait), I suggest you start with affiliate marketing.
5. Accurate calculation of Cost
Yes. Accurate calculation. Not pay per click, not pay per visit, and not pay per impression. You pay a commission! Fixed and pre-agreed percentage of the sale.
6. Freelance Salespeople
In Affiliate Marketing, the “Affiliates” are the company’s salespeople, but they are not the company employees. The Affiliates will sell the product as freelancers. There is no need to recruit, train and hire salespeople. The best affiliates are great salespeople.
7. Low entry and exit costs
Getting into a affiliate marketing program is pretty easy. One can easily connect to one of the leading affiliate marketing platforms or work directly with the most prominent affiliates. No entry fee, just subscription-based. If you are not satisfied, there is no commitment and no additional costs.
Updated:
12, 2023