Your business’s overall success can be dependent on having an effective affiliate marketing program. That being said, 63% of businesses still believe that their biggest challenge is generating leads and traffic to their website.

To combat that alarming stat though, 70% of all companies are committed to increasing their lead generation budget to expose their brand and products to find new sources of traffic. One great method for growing your companies’ popularity for lead generation is affiliate marketing.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing involves an affiliate/influencer signing up to an affiliate program offered by a retailer to promote and sell their products for a commission. The affiliate promotes the services or products of the brand by using their own unique link. This link then sends traffic to the brand’s website. If the person then makes a purchase using this link, the affiliate is paid a percentage of the sale. From a business perspective, it’s a great way to expand your marketing to reach hundreds of thousands of new potential customers. It’s also an incredibly low-risk way to promote your brand and generate leads, as you only have to pay out when a sale is made.

Growing in popularity

In the current world where businesses use different marketing strategies and channels. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming for businesses to try and embrace a whole new way of marketing. But there are many reasons why affiliate marketing is a method that is growing in popularity with brands looking to grow.

You can handpick your affiliate partners

As a retailer, you can pick the partners that you work with. Affiliates can apply to join your affiliate program, providing you with the opportunity to assess their suitability to work with your business. This allows you to handpick the people you work with. It also allows you to choose who you believe will be the best ambassadors for your brand. This is great for brands who want to market to a particular audience. As you can pick affiliates with a following which is made up of your target audience. This makes it much more likely to be able to generate sales.

Targeted traffic

A dart board with a dart hitting the bullseye

All traffic is not created equal. For example, if you are selling beauty products, it is a waste of time advertising these products to people who are looking to buy car products. By working with your affiliate marketers who understand your field of industry, you will receive targeted sales from an audience who are looking directly for your products. Therefore, making it easier for you to maintain a relationship with your new customers moving forward.

Only pay for sales and performance

A sales and Performance image featuring statistics

Traditional pay-per-click marketing means that you will pay for each lead that is generated. But those leads need to be converted into paying customers, and there is no guarantee that this will happen. When using affiliate marketing, you will only pay-out when a sale is made. Meaning you save money while also offering the flexibility to pay your affiliate marketers for influencing a sale. If you are using affiliate marketers and they have an ineffective campaign that doesn’t generate sales, this will not affect your budget. If you have a poor PPC campaign, on the other hand, you will still be paying even if you are generating low-quality leads and not making any sales. Affiliate marketing is, therefore, and incredibly cost-effective way to market your products and your brand.

Low-risk affiliate marketing

Paying for performance rather than for clicks means that affiliate marketing is an extremely low-risk method of marketing. You will not be wasting any of your marketing budget on creating leads that need nurturing and budging into a purchase. Instead, you will create a direct customer base that you can then build up a relationship with and upsell to further down the line.

Limited affiliate marketing start-up costs

Starting an affiliate program will require some time and money invested in it. But this is minimal compared to paying advertisement fees and hiring a team of staff. If you work with a marketing company like Castle, their own affiliate marketing service can take care of all this for you. We manage your whole affiliate marketing programme, saving you the hassle.

Growing your brand awareness

A lightbulb

Consumers often prefer to buy from retailers that they are familiar with or have bought from before. They will often buy something from a familiar brand that they trust even if it costs more than the item does at a different label that they haven’t heard of. Affiliate marketing allows for small and large companies alike to grow their brand awareness by increasing exposure to consumers. Sometimes they may not have previously heard of.  By working with a select group of affiliates, you can gain exposure to new audiences for your products. You can also create awareness that has the potential to extend beyond a single-product promotion.

Also, if a person sees an influencer they like promoting your brand, they are more likely to trust your products/services. This can help you to increase brand awareness and generate more sales than if you simply advertised your brand alone.

Affiliate Marketing Increases SEO

SEO is often a subject that is close to the online retailer’s hearts. Affiliate marketing is a great way to aid your SEO through the numerous backlinks to your site from your affiliate’s social media pages, blogs, and websites. This is even more effective if you work with higher-ranking affiliates whose audience will share their posts about your products, services, and brand.

Detailed data and statistics

A person reading over statistics on a piece of paper

An experienced marketing company and an affiliate marketing programme will allow you to gain access to a detailed list of data and statistics about your sales reports. They will monitor your data and make tweaks based on your statistics to ensure you are getting the most for your money. They will then send detailed reports on performance and sales. You will be advised on what kind of affiliates you should be working with to maximise your profits. You can use the reports to effectively strategize and make marketing decisions elsewhere in your business.

Access to foreign markets

Using trusted affiliate marketing networks can provide you with the opportunity to market your products worldwide. Affiliate marketing is a cost-effective and efficient way to tap into the global marketplace. If your professional affiliates are based internationally, they can use their knowledge of their local markets to market your products strategically in other countries. This strategy is also a very low-risk method of finding out if your brand will be successful in other countries.

Cost established upfront

Depending on your environment you may not see how much each lead will cost you as a result of PPC advertising. This is therefore different when using affiliate marketing you will know your set upfront cost. For each product that you sell, you can decide the commission price, so you know exactly how much each sale will cost upfront.

Leveraging different skill sets

Having the ability to choose from a large pool of affiliates means that you find the perfect skillset. This is something that you need for selling your products and services. This raises the chances of increasing your sales of products. This is important as each seller has their own set of skills to attract different audiences.

You are in control of incentives

Establishing the costs of commission upfront means that you are in control of your incentives. This also creates an opportunity for you to offer rewards. You can also offer incentives as you see fit to help motivate your affiliates and encourage them to sell more.

How can Castle help with your affiliate marketing?

With more and more people looking to enter the world of business, affiliates programs are in high demand. This has helped to create a large pool of affiliates who business can work with. This allows you to find the perfect partner for you to generate the most leads and sales.

Marketing is a tough aspect of most businesses, yet it is extremely crucial for success. Affiliate marketing offers a flexible approach to marketing, is cost-effective, and has a positive impact on your business. Here at Castle, we can offer an affiliate marketing service for your business. We can give you the opportunity to access millions of clients. You will only have to pay a commission on sales rather than spending money in the hope of sales. Castle has years of experience. Our expert affiliate marketing team works with businesses and affiliate marketers with a combined reach of over 150 million searches annually.

We can manage your affiliate marketing programme for you. We can set you up on global affiliate platforms, connecting and conversing with affiliates on your behalf, and handpicking the perfect affiliates for your business to ensure you get maximum sales. To find out more about Castle’s affiliate marketing services, visit our website or contact us on 0330 107 5344 or info@castle.co.uk.