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According to Shopify, affiliate marketing is “a reward-based system that encourages partners to promote your products in exchange for a commission”. It is a system that allows for external persons (not those within the company) to promote products or services of the company and get a percentage for every patronage that comes from them. This means that these partners who are referred to as “affiliate partners”, are usually given unique affiliate links. When a customer purchases the company’s products or uses their services through the link, the partner gets paid a percentage of the sales.

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In recent times, with the rise of online marketing and sales, affiliate marketing has been flourishing. It is an affordable way for companies to get their products in the faces of people in the funnels of these affiliate partners. A company wouldn’t need to pay a huge sum for one advert when they can get an affiliate partner with millions or thousands of followers or subscribers, and simply advertise through them. On the other hand, the affiliate partner gets passive income. Within the duration of the contract, the affiliate gets a commission from every sale. In this article, I explained the steps to creating an affiliate program that works. This will be an eye-opener for affiliate marketing beginners

Choose high-value products for promotion

As a business, it will do you better to choose products that have high value for promotion. This is for different reasons. First, a high-value product is more attractive in the market, and will most likely sell. Second, it is usually more expensive, hence, more profitable for you.

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For instance, it is more profitable to promote an item of #100,000 than one of #5,000, as the percentage in commission will make better sense. This is good for your business and the affiliates you plan to recruit.

Go for cash

This is straightforward. Some businesses will approach affiliates for promotion by offering free items from their store or shopping voucher. Inasmuch as this looks fair enough, it is important you go for cash; actually, pay a commission for each product sold. This is because it is more appealing to affiliates, and they are likely to take you more seriously, especially the really good ones that have traction and a huge fanbase already.

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Onboard your affiliates

Now you know what you want from your affiliate program and what you expect. That is why you need to set a standard before anything else. For this step, you will go ahead to onboard or recruit your affiliates. First, you will need to make an announcement about your affiliate program. You can use channels such as your social media pages, email marketing platforms and websites, to announce your affiliate program. Get as many affiliates as possible, who will reflect your brand and promote it exactly the way you want. You will then onboard them by putting them through the kind of content you expect. When you must have gotten your affiliates in place, you will put measures in place to manage them. Monitor the metrics, and track their sales and payouts. This will help you know which affiliate is performing well. You can make use of affiliate management apps like LeadDyno and UpPromote to monitor the metrics. Featured Image Source: The African Exponent

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This article was first published on 26th May 2022

chidiogo-akaelu

Chidiogo Shalom Akaelu holds a degree in English and Literary Studies, from the University of Nigeria. She is a freelance writer, editor and founder of Loana Press, a budding online publishing outlet.