Alex Micol, CEO + founder of Scalers.
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic started the trend of working from home, interest in affiliate marketing has skyrocketed. Affiliate marketing is when a company pays you a commission to generate online sales for them, which you can do anywhere and at the hours that work best for you and your client. It really is a rewarding career as long as you take the right steps to make it work.
Based on my experience, here are a few tips that can help you succeed as an affiliate marketer, whether you’re just starting out or have decided to commit to this new career for the long haul.
Contents
1. Stick to one strategy.
If you want to become a successful affiliate marketer, stick with it until you get the hang of it. Don’t try to learn affiliate marketing while gaining another skill at the same time. It’s fine if you already have a job and study affiliate marketing in your spare time, but don’t try to learn while also trying to become an influencer or start a dropshipping business.
You have limited time and energy each day, so focus on one main thing at a time whenever possible. If you practice too many new areas at once, one is higher probability that you will succeed in neither.
2. Choose a vertical.
As with your strategy, you may initially be tempted to tackle every product, customer, or target market that comes your way. But in the long run, this is a terrible idea. Instead, pick an industry, whether it’s finance, consumer goods, fitness, home improvement, or literally anything else that you think would be a good fit for you.
Choosing an industry builds your expertise and saves you time and money because becoming a subject matter expert allows you to use your knowledge of the industry across multiple products. For example, if you decide to sell fitness supplements, you will learn how to find customers and set up successful advertising campaigns in no time. But if you were to move into selling in another industry, say plumbing supplies, you would have to start all over again! This would take a lot of time and effort and would ultimately hurt your business in the industries you are already familiar with.
3. Find products to sell.
Once you’ve defined your strategy and selected an industry, it’s time to find products to sell. Here you can work directly with brands or sign up for an affiliate network.
It is important to remember here that not all products are created equal. Some products may look good at first glance, but for some reason you cannot sell them profitably. Fine! Sometimes you just need to cut your losses and find a new product. But if you put in the work, you’re significantly more likely to find the right fit in the end.
When selecting products to sell, quality and commission rate are two factors to consider.
• Quality: Is this a quality product? Is the brand well established? Does it have approvals? Do they give me enough marketing material to be successful?
• Commission rate: Does the product have a good cost-to-consumer ratio? For example, if a bag of coffee costs the consumer $20, but you only earn $3 in commission, that’s a terrible ratio. But if the customer pays $20 and you earn $20, that opportunity looks a lot better. Now you may be feeling a little skeptical: why would a brand pay affiliate marketers 100% of the sales price? Well, many brands look at lifetime customer value – they sell the first product to a customer at a loss, because once they find the customer, they know they can keep and upsell them, earning future sales that create a positive impact . ROI despite the apparently high commission.
4. Create your campaign.
Being successful as an affiliate marketer requires more than just a single ad: you need to think in terms of creating a campaign.
I recommend starting with three to five different ad ideas. Try to make them as different as possible while still hitting the customer’s key marketing points. Then look at each ad idea and ask yourself if you would check it out. What about your parents, your neighbor, etc.?
By creating ads that appeal to a wide audience, you can put a few bucks behind each of them and let the algorithm go to work testing them. When an ad starts to take off, you put a lot of money into it.
Conclusion
If you have the drive to succeed and the willingness to try new things, you should consider affiliate marketing. It’s easy to get started as anyone can start with just a few hours a week while working a full time job with minimal risk. Once you find your groove, you can turn it from a side hustle into a successful career.
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Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.