Promote your business’s products and services with low effort and a limited budget.top
Affiliate marketing is a PERFORMANCE-BASED MARKETING STRATEGY where an individual or business (affiliate) receives a commission for promoting another merchant’s products or services.
The affiliate is responsible for driving traffic or sales through online referral links, and when a sale is made, they receive a percentage of the revenue, typically around 15%.
Affiliate marketing can be an excellent way for your business to grow its reach, increase brand awareness, and generate sales.
How Affiliate Marketing Works
If your business has an affiliate marketing program, you will give your affiliates a unique link that they can use to promote your products or services. This link is called an affiliate link.
When someone clicks on an affiliate link and makes a purchase, the affiliate earns a commission.
There are two main types of affiliate marketing links:
- Direct affiliate links: These links go directly to the product or service the affiliate promotes.
- Referral affiliate links: These links go to your business’s website. They have a tracking code that allows you to monitor the affiliate who made the referral.
Being an Affiliate Marketer vs. Running Your Affiliate Program
As an image consultant or personal stylist, there are two ways to get involved in affiliate marketing:
- Become an affiliate marketer and promote another business’s products or services. For example, you might endorse beauty products or a specific clothing brand.
- Create your affiliate marketing program and get other affiliates (content creators) to promote your image consultant services. For instance, you strategically arrange for social media influencers to endorse your services.
The Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
If you are not interested in becoming an affiliate marketer, setting up an affiliate program to promote your services may be a better option as it has several advantages:
- Low-cost marketing: You don’t have to pay for advertising upfront, only commissions on sales generated through your program.
- Increased brand awareness: When people see influencers promoting your products and services, they are more likely to become familiar with your services and consider hiring you.
- Improved conversion rates: When people click on an affiliate link, they are already interested in what’s being promoted, which makes them likelier to convert into a client.
“Affiliate marketing is a powerful tool that can help you achieve your financial goals.” – Mark Cuban.
How to Set Up Your Affiliate Marketing Program
Step 1: Decide Which Products to Include in Your Affiliate Program
When building an affiliate program, it’s essential to be selective and start by including just a few of your most popular products or services. This will help you better understand what your audience is responding to. It could be free consultation or an essential wardrobe update.
Step 2: Set Your Affiliate Pricing and Commission Rates
The ideal commission rate for an affiliate program should be reasonable, competitive, and able to make your company profitable. Generally, a 10-20% commission rate is accepted in many sectors, although you should offer higher rates for top-performing affiliates.
Consider your product or service sold, the market competition level, and specific affiliate program terms when determining the appropriate rate. Ultimately, the rate should benefit both you and the affiliate.
Step 3: Choose a Management Tool
An affiliate management program is a software system that automates and streamlines the process of tracking website referrals, commissions, payouts, and reports for an affiliate program. It saves you time and money and reduces errors.
Most importantly, affiliate management programs provide a centralized point for managing campaigns and other marketing decisions. Consequently, they are valuable tools to increase website traffic and attract new clients.
Impact.com, Rewardful, and UpPromote are popular software options you may wish to try.
Step 4: Create High-quality Supportive Marketing Materials
Of the many marketing channels available today, we recommend focusing on two strategies to help your affiliate marketers sell your digital products and grow your affiliate program: graphics for content channels and email marketing.
Graphics for Content Channels
The first strategy is to CREATE GRAPHICS that your affiliate marketers can use to promote your products on various content channels, such as social media and blogs. Your content should be high-quality, eye-catching, and relevant to your target audience.
Email Marketing
The second strategy is to use email marketing to directly reach your affiliate marketers. Send them regular updates about your products, new marketing campaigns, and other relevant information.
Email marketing is a great way to keep your affiliate marketers engaged and informed, and it can also help you drive traffic to your website and generate sales.
Step 5: Recruit Affiliate Marketers
You can hire potential affiliates through social media, email marketing, influencer agencies, and industry directories. Once you have recruited affiliate marketers, you must nurture and support them by PROVIDING REGULAR UPDATES, FEEDBACK, AND TRAINING.
“It’s the ultimate win-win situation. All affiliates get something from the arrangement, as does the company running the affiliate program, making it a mutually beneficial relationship.” — Russell Brunson.
Join the Empower Group
Although affiliate marketing takes time, investing in a strong affiliate program can be rewarding. With the right strategies and planning, affiliate marketing can be a lucrative tool for your styling business.
If you need help devising your affiliate program, why not join ByFerial’s Empower Group? You’ll learn how to accelerate your success as an image and color consultant with our exclusive weekly tier-based membership community.
Our experienced business professionals will guide you in building your brand, expanding your customer base, and adapting your business model. With our help, you can quickly take your career to the next level!
