Over the past few years, affiliate has become an increasingly popular marketing strategy with many marketers who may have once viewed it as a “nontraditional” marketing channel (at least when compared to other paid channels like Search and Social). In fact, there isn’t even an absolute consensus on what marketers call the channel. Some refer to the channel as “Affiliate”, others as “Commerce” and still others as “Brand Partnerships”.
Naming conventions aside, there has also been an influx of what many of these marketers might refer to as “non-traditional” publisher partners, who are stepping into affiliate – taking best practices from traditional publishers – and of course developing some new best practices themselves to generate as much income as possible. But no matter what type of publisher partner you think you are, here are some quick tips to keep in mind as you become a revenue generating affiliate publisher.
1. Know your audience
There’s nothing more important to your success as an affiliate publisher than knowing who your target audience – and the brands you work with – are. Brands come to you because they offer something unique that no other publisher can offer or deliver like you. Use this to your advantage and incorporate brands and products that you know your established audience is already interested in. Once you get to grips with the makeup of your audience and their demographics (think: age group, gender ratio, household income etc …) and what they see, what they click most often etc, you can offer them more relevant brands and customized products.
2. Communication is key
There is a lot to be said about establishing direct communication with your brand partners. This is the best way for both of you to nurture a growing mutual partnership that generates mutual income. Adequate lines of communication also provide the opportunity to talk about offers or new products that are available to you in return for letting them know of new promotions that you are working on for your audience, where they can be recorded or featured.
3. Be proactive
Don’t wait for the most relevant brands, products and offers to come to you! Instead, take action and seek out them to create targeted, more meaningful partnerships. Many of the top performing partners (traditional and non-traditional) create interesting opportunities on their websites and apps and proactively promote brands.
4. Negotiate (and renegotiate) commissions
Many brands set “base” commission rates to get partnerships started quickly. If you see this partnership doing reasonably well (or even better than expected!) And generating solid revenue, ask to negotiate your commission rates. Most brands are very excited to reward high performing partners with better commission rates to make the partnership strong. Also, where it makes sense, you can set up ways to collect bonus payments when you meet certain sales goals that the brand wants to achieve.
Keep these 4 tips in mind: knowing your audience, keeping lines of communication open with your brand partners, being proactive, and negotiating (and renegotiating) commission rates will all help you ensure you’re in demand and make money online making as a publisher in the affiliate channel.
