How do you typically find out the information about the latest releases, goods, and products? Maybe through the news feed? Or perhaps you are paying attention to TV or YouTube ads? Almost certainly the answer is no. Twenty fist century consumers believe in the power of word of mouth therefore the majority of their preferences and purchase choices are coming from their favorite bloggers/celebrities/influencers or even just friends’ recommendations. People tend to trust this kind of recommendation, and the logic here is quite simple, if such a famous person uses it, no doubt it’s a qualitative product. Public figures in their turn have also felt the use of such recommendations as far as those are one of the safest collaboration methods. Influencers are free to choose trustful and qualitative products and invite people to use them through their personalized links. And that is exactly what affiliate marketing is.
You may be wondering: is affiliate marketing worth it? Undoubtedly, the answer is yes. Let’s dig deeper into the topic, discover how it works, and highlight its main pros and cons’.
When a merchant want’s to reach out to wider audiences one of the most efficient ways is to hire an affiliate, not necessarily a super-famous person, but it may be some novice blogger, websites or email lists owner, YouTuber, Instagrammer, etc. Such person receives a special link, which they share with their network. When an interested audience follows the advertised link it is redirected to the products’ page and may start investigating and as a result – buying. Meanwhile, the affiliate usually receives some financial reward from sales, ad clicks, etc. Commission, paid to the marketer, is normally established through the contract and may reach up to 10% from each sale. There are several ways and collaboration schemes available in this sphere, so you are free to choose one, which is matching your preferences and budget.
Of course, nothing perfect exists in this world so let us consider factual advantages and disadvantages of the current marketing approach.
Among the pros, we have to emphasize the enormous creative potential of marketers, as far as they are usually free to find their own ways of information delivery. On the second place here – comparatively low-cost promotion and investment return are very high, due to the fact that advertising and creative responsibilities lay on affiliates’ shoulders. Therefore, your success equals their success.
Talking about cons it is important to mention the danger of frauds. At the very beginning of this promotion concept affiliate’s commission depended on the traffic and clicks rather than sales. Technology was fresh and barely tested which assured numerous frauds, from creative minds who used special software to generate fake clicks and traffic. Hence, nowadays business owners have to pay special attention to people they collaborate with and provide them with crystal clear requirements and contracts. Of course, we have to remember about the human factor and such silly but pricy mistakes as misspelling or wrong links.
In 2022, when digitalization has reached the highest level than ever before, affiliate marketing remains one of the most powerful and efficient tools. Since nowadays almost everyone prefers to shop, study, or work online this is a universal approach suitable for almost every kind of business providing any type of goods or services. The current advertising model is an absolute win-win situation for all three parties. The product owner receives new customers, the advertiser gets the money, consumers have desired product. What’s more affiliate marketing almost guarantees good quality. You may wonder why, and the answer is simple – reputation. Producers supply advertisers and users with good products as they want people to share the information about them, marketers chose qualitative products to promote, because if those aren’t, it damages their reputation. This marketing scheme assures mutual benefit so don’t hesitate anymore and consider using it in your business.
