As we welcome the ride of UGC (User Generated Content) content creators and micro influences, one phrase has been trending across the web this summer: “What is affiliate marketing?”.

If you’ve heard this term, but never really understood what it means or how you can profit from it, we’re here to break it down for you!

Affiliate marketing is essentially a partnership between businesses and creators. This partnership allows creators to get paid by brands as they help them sell their products. In this blog, we’ll explore the world of affiliate marketing and discuss its benefits and how it can help you achieve your goals.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a strategy where businesses reward affiliates for driving traffic of sales to their website.

Imagine you run an Instagram account with 40k followers, you promote a product on this page and share a link (which is provided & monitored by the brand) to purchase this product through your bio. If people bag the specific item you promoted, through the link you provided, you’ll receive a small commission for securing a sale for your partnered brand!

Not only is this beneficial for small creators looking for a paycheck from their content but it benefits businesses in multiple ways too! If you’re a small business owner, this marketing strategy can increase traffic to your website, boost sales and build brand awareness - a pretty cool, cost-effective & low effort strategy to support your budding business if you ask us!

So, now that you know the basics of affiliate marketing, here’s what you need to know about who is involved and how you can get started.

Who’s involved?

As discussed, this strategy requires two main parties, the affiliate and the seller.

The seller is what it sounds like, this could be a solo business owner or a larger, more renowned company that provides products to the market on a large scale.

The affiliate can be an individual or company that promotes the seller’s products in an eye-catching and engaging manner. It’s their job to persuade the consumer that the product will benefit them and in turn, encourage them to buy!

If you are an influencer this is where to get to started on your affiliate marketing journey:

Identify suitable brands to work with.

Search the web for brands that align with your niche and personal values. This is super important. As an affiliate marketer, you want to genuinely enjoy the brand you are promoting. If you do, mostly your audience will too! This ensures the promotion will resonate with your audience and maintain authenticity across your page!

Join affiliate programmes

Browse affiliate networks. These are platforms that act as a middleman between affiliates and brands. This is a place where brands can upload their needs to these networks and affiliates can apply to work with them. Most affiliate networking programmes act as a “manager” for both affiliates and brands.

Reach out!

If you are completely comfortable with the brands you have identified and can not pay the fee to join affiliate programmes, reach out directly to brands. Present them a few pieces of viral content, explain why you would like to work with them as an affiliate and wait for a response!

If you are a business owner, here’s how to get started with Affiliate marketing:

Define your goals and objectives.

At the beginning of any great marketing strategy comes goals and objectives. Determine what you want to achieve with your affiliate marketing programme. This could be increasing sales, generating leave or building brand awareness.

Reach out to Affiliate marketing programmes or Marketing Agencies that can take the stress of affiliate management off your back

At Goho we provide marketing packages with integrated affiliate marketing services.

Hiring the right people to manage your affiliates is crucial in tracking basic elements of your strategy such as reporting, payments and processing. This option also takes away the need to regularly track the performance of your affiliates and optimisation of your strategy through data insights as you’ll have a team of pros to do it all for you!

Be prepared to provide complimentary products/services

If you’re at a stage in your business where you can’t afford to give away items/services to affiliates in exchange for promotion, affiliate marketing might not be the best route for you right now.

However, if you are willing to part with stock, you will need to provide your affiliates with the necessary tools to create high-quality content!

Overall, Affiliate marketing is a powerful tool that can help upcoming creators or small business owners, grow their brands, reach new audiences and achieve remarkable results.

Ready to harness the power of affiliate marketing? Contact us today to get started. Our dedicated team will help you craft a successful affiliate marketing strategy, manage your affiliates, and achieve your business objectives with ease!