Why Quality Is the Best Affiliate Marketing Policy
Affiliate marketing is among the most successful marketing models. It might not bring in as many direct sales as a well-designed paid traffic campaign, but it guarantees retailers turn a profit for every cent they spend.
Companies realize this and more and more join affiliate networks. 40% more merchants used affiliate marketing in 2017 than in 2012. What’s more, 80% of advertisers that earn over $200 million run affiliate marketing programs.
To put things in perspective, a few years ago HostGator, one of the leading website hosts, ran such a successful affiliate marketing campaign that now all hosting providers have lucrative deals.
Quite literally, this move changed the hosting industry, setting up new marketing standards and avenues for profit. Entire websites like hostingtribunal.com found the incentive to study the industry and provide detailed, objective feedback that rests on real-time data. Ultimately, through an in-depth HostGator review users are well-informed about whether this company is a worthy choice while hosting providers get a lot of feedback and can improve their services.
Working in an industry this big means great potential for profiting as an affiliate. And everybody wants in! Thousands of new affiliates join AM programs every day. You have to fight stiff competition to succeed.
Let’s talk about quality. With all the competition, link-spamming doesn’t cut it. Anyone can get a bunch of affiliate links and put them in a blog post. But what incentive do visitors have to click your links over anybody else’s?
You need to stand out and the way to do this is to have the best content. Not only do websites with good content get better search rankings but also more page views per visitor and more recurring visitors.
It all makes sense. If you came across a random affiliate link on the internet, you probably wouldn’t even consider buying. But what if the link was at the end of a comprehensive review explaining all the pros and cons of the product? That’s a different matter altogether.
Quality is also important for the affiliate’s relationship with the audience. Let’s say you find a web page crammed with dozens of affiliate links. You’d probably leave faster than you got there.
Now imagine listening to your favorite podcast and the host gives out a code for 10% off their favorite product. You’d at least be tempted to buy, right?
Statistics show affiliates who establish a connection with their audience have more success marketing products. Again, it all comes down to quality. You must put in a bit of yourself into the content. Most people can tell if you’re being genuine or just serving them an affiliate link to make a quick buck.
Don’t forget about leveraging social media. Link spamming doesn’t work here either. Your best bet is genuine, informative posts that allow to throw in the occasional affiliate link.
As for emails, avoiding sending affiliate links is best. It sounds counterintuitive, but hear us out. A lot of people won’t even join your email list without a promise that you won’t spam them with promotions. Instead, use emails to give updates about new content. Then let the content do all the talking and lead them to the affiliate links.
As you see, going for quality gives you the best possible chance at succeeding as an affiliate. Affiliate marketing is complicated and getting started is the most difficult part.
That’s why we have this useful infographic for you. It outlines all the basic facts about affiliate marketing. Familiarize yourself with it and you will be ready to go and explore the rest of the affiliate marketing world on your own.
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +401,714 people.
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