In recent years, people have been discussing the importance of affiliate marketing. However, while affiliate marketing has been around for some time, it’s only become popularly known due to the advent of social media and social networks. Why is this?
A decade ago, marketing teams were praising the work of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and search engine marketing (SEM) schemes. Search engines were the largest trend and companies were attempting to find ways to rise above the competition, so they could be at the top of the list and able to be found by potential customers. While both can be beneficial to an overall marketing strategy, they sometimes don’t work as well as they should — the return on investment (ROI) they provide is not as great as is believed.
Affiliate marketing has stepped in, taking its place for many reasons, but one of the key characteristics is due to the exceptional ROI it offers. By using affiliates to promote your business, you pay only when sales conversions take place. While you can create a sound affiliate marketing program internally, your company can greatly benefit from utilizing a trusted platform.
At Refersion, our affiliate management software is an exceptional answer to all of your affiliate marketing questions and needs. We have created a system meant to handle every facet of your affiliate marketing journey, from finding affiliates to paying them for successful conversions, to tracking metrics surrounding sales and engagement. At our core, we work to make increasing site traffic and engagement easier than ever before.
What Refersion Stands For
We’re committed to providing you with reliable service that you can count on. We work to ensure that our site and all its connected services are up to par with the expectations your company hopes to achieve. When using our affiliate management software, you’re given the keys to an affiliate platform that streamlines and simplifies each of your interactions, all thanks to the following characteristics.
We aim to help you maintain affiliate relationships, thanks to this personalization. Through Refersion, your business receives a hub dedicated to your affiliates and all of their needs. You can post crafted promotional material intended to make their job easier and can create local chats where affiliates can discuss tips and tricks of the trade. Furthermore, on your end, you have the ability to closely track metrics, so you can identify weak and strong spots in your current affiliate strategy.
Dedicated Support System
We have on-hand support staff available to answer all of your affiliate marketing questions as they arise. Unsure of how one of the features on our website works? We can clarify it and offer some training so you can get mastery over the tool. Having trouble corralling your metrics and looking for an easier way to collect them? We can take a look at your current status and help you navigate all personalized information available to you.
Management Simplified
Managing your affiliates and your information should be straightforward — you shouldn’t feel as if finding your data and communicating with others is a waste of your personal time. Our segmented business profile allows you to access whatever it is you’re looking for with ease, allowing you to keep track of all of your affiliates, results, and analytic tools.
The Benefits of Refersion’s Affiliate Management Software
Maintain Your Affiliate Program
You should have some basic plans in place when creating your affiliate marketing strategy. We help by providing with the necessities right off the bat, allowing you to make progress from the start. We provide you with all of the tools to get your affiliate marketing program off the ground, from helping you customize your site to guiding you through the process of getting your first affiliates.
Keep Track of Your Affiliates
With Refersion, you can effectively convert more affiliate-recommended customers into sales. Our affiliate management software is designed to let you take care of your affiliates completely unhindered.
From messaging services to specialized platforms dedicated to your affiliates, you have the ability to communicate with your affiliates as you see fit, providing them with service and insight whenever needed.
Furthermore, our tracking tools make it easy for you to track the success of your affiliates as they promote your brand to their audiences. You can track the effectiveness of their campaigns, from the engagement their users are having to the rate of conversions brought forth from each posting.
Curate and Organize Affiliate Materials
Your affiliate can be a place designed to lift up your affiliates, making it easier for them to promote your brand every time they interact with their audience. Within this sphere, you can provide them with various marketing materials, from graphics to email templates, content ideas to conceptual copywriting.
As a company, you should show your affiliates how much they are cherished — they’re out working to bring new customers to your site. Consider making that process easier, giving them the materials they need to succeed.
Getting Your Affiliate Program Rolling
When it comes to establishing your affiliate marketing network, there are some right ways you can get off the ground. While we help make the onboarding process easy by providing a variety of materials and tools to make your job simpler, the following work must be properly understood and undertaken by you and your internal team. To make the most of the Refersion platform, consider taking the time to reflect on how you can achieve the following goals.
Finding the Right Affiliates
You could technically build your affiliate program out with just about anyone, but such decisions are unlikely to provide significant results. When establishing your affiliate network, there are some tips you can undertake to identify personalities who could become significant affiliates.
General Recommendations Include Some of the Following:
Find influencers whose niche is similar to your own:
The people you bring on as affiliates should have a similar aesthetic and approach as your company. Their audience shouldn’t feel jolted by the brand they are supporting, and your customers shouldn’t feel estranged from the people you have promoting your business.
For example, it would be strange if James Charles became a promoter for Toyota or if Tom Brady started promoting L’Oréal mascara. Make sure you find people whose values align with that of your company — the content will feel more authentic that way.
Research their online presence when scouting them:
Even if a person’s values align with your company’s, their content and online presence might not fit with the narrative you’re attempting to present. While someone might have a glossy, clean-cut look on YouTube, it’s possible they might be more infantile and rude while on Twitter. While this might seem minimal, it’s better you assess the possibility for future confrontations or public relations issues — both should be avoided at all costs. Instead, reach out to people who present themselves in an authentic, personable manner across all platforms.
Look at the quality of their past and current content:
Similar to checking out someone’s online presence, it’s a smart idea to take the time to sift through their content. If their content from the past is not representative of what they’re currently making, that shouldn’t be the biggest sign, especially if they’ve matured over time. However, if their past work is problematic in any way, it’s best to consider moving by to consider another candidate.
See if they’ve done any past promotional work:
Along with inspecting their past digital personas, it’s smart to see if they’ve ever done any promotional work. You can see how well they’ve conducted past campaigns, and see how considerate they were when creating content for the brands they were promoting. While it might not be completely indicative of their work nowadays, it can give you a sense of how passionate they are about presenting other brands, and this can help protect you from possible misrepresentation.
Understanding Your Audience
When establishing your affiliate marketing program, you should first work to ensure that you understand your niche — the people who align with your brand’s messaging, themes, characteristics, and interests. Searching for affiliates should involve a similar process, seeking to find authentic affiliates whose content and style mirrors your own. Furthermore, determine what it is your audience wants to see:
- What are their primary interests?
- Why are they interested — or should they be interested — in your brand?
- What does your brand have to offer these people?
- How can your brand help these people achieve their goals?
- How can an affiliate clarify your services to them?
With this information in mind, you can identify your core audience. From this, you can work toward finding affiliates whose audiences overlap with your own. In this way, you can better create marketing materials that can target specific audiences, who should be more likely to engage with your promotional materials and visit your website.
Remaining in Touch
You should never leave your affiliates in the dark. Rather, you should take the time to regularly check in with them to ensure that things are going well. With the help of an integrated email system like Mailchimp, you can send emails to affiliates on a recurring basis to ensure that they are kept up to date with the happenings within your company, from new products being released to changes in branding and marketing that should be expected.
Moreover, you can schedule regular check-ins with your affiliates — something like collegiate office hours — where you can answer any and all questions. This is a great way to improve confidence in your affiliates, along with keeping them motivated. By setting aside time solely for them, you’re showing how dedicated you are to their well-being, giving them deserved attention.
Making On-Time Payments
One of the primary things you should do to keep your affiliates happy and performing at the top of their game is to pay them on time. As a business owner, one of the worst things you can do is either forget to pay someone or pay them later than expected. You never know the life a person leads, and they might require that paycheck to get by each week.
It’s important to regularly pay your affiliates on time to instill a sense of trust in and respect of your relationship. Not to mention, by paying them on time, you’re more likely to have them give positive reviews of your business to other influencers. Affiliate marketing is all about “word of mouth,” and the last thing you want is someone bad-mouthing your business.
Support Your Affiliates
You should be regularly motivating your affiliates to perform at their best. While ideas such as regular check-ins and helpful promotional materials can go a long way, there’s more you can do. Consider offering bonuses after a certain number of conversions. Even a simple personalized thank you note can go a long way. Your affiliates should regularly know that their business, and work in promoting your business, is appreciated.
The Bottom Line
When it comes to affiliate marketing, you can go it alone, but it makes finding and securing affiliates more difficult than it needs to be. Similarly, without the necessary tools, it can become difficult to both understand and evaluate how well your strategy is working at the moment.
At Refersion, our affiliate management software is designed to simplify the affiliate process for you. We provide you with the tools, analytics, management space, and customization to make your affiliate program as effective as possible. You shouldn’t have to worry about creating your program from the ground up — you should have a guide who can help you manage, track, and grow your affiliate strategy with ease.
