With the affiliate marketing revolution going hyper-drive, there’s never been a better time to join the affiliate marketing world. But with so many programs, platforms, and tactics to keep track of, it can be a challenge to stand out and succeed. Fortunately, there are plenty of proven tips and tricks that can help you drive affiliate sales. Whether you’re just getting started or you’re looking to increase your earnings, we’ve compiled a list of 23 useful tips to help you grow your affiliate marketing business.
Create Great Content
One of the easiest ways to boost your affiliate sales is to create great content. If you’re someone who’s into writing, by all means, write articles and blog posts! You can also create videos, infographics, and other types of content that will help potential customers find you. You’ll likely notice that many successful affiliate marketers are into blogging and video creation. This is because blogging is an effective way of building authority, increasing traffic, and driving more leads to your business.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to create great affiliate marketing content, keep reading for some proven strategies and tips! We cover this topic in our post: How to Turn Your Content into a Successful Business.
Make Sure Your Site is Responsive
The days when internet browsing was done exclusively on desktop PCs are long gone. So ensure that your website is accessible and comfortably viewable across a range of devices, including smaller smartphones.
Test and Track Your Marketing Efforts
Before you get too far into your affiliate marketing journey, you should test different strategies, campaigns, and sales methods. While it may seem like a good idea to start with a massive, all-encompassing campaign, you need to use key performance indicators (also known as KPIs) to track your marketing performance. Focus on the numbers that matter, including:
- Click-Through Rate (CTR) – CTR is the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown.
- Conversion Rate – A conversion rate records the percentage of users who have completed the desired action.
- Total Income Rate Generated by Different Sources – use this metric to determine which of your platforms generate the most revenue (Facebook, YouTube, Website, etc.)
- Average time spent on a page – Use this KPI to determine which pages are valuable enough for readers and which ones should be reviewed.
Tracking your campaigns and sales will help you identify which marketing strategies are helping you drive sales and save you time in the future.
Examine Your Analytics Data
Google Analytics is an invaluable source of data on just about every conceivable aspect of your site, from your most popular pages to visitor demographics. To succeed in growing and expanding your business, you need to understand the importance of web analytics for your business. Analytics gives you access to rich data about your customers and your brand’s online presence. By making sense of this data, you can make more informed decisions and improve your marketing efforts.
We cover this topic extensively in our blog post: The Importance of Web Analytics for Your Business
Link to Conversion-Optimized Landing Pages
If you’re looking to boost your affiliate sales, you should always remember that the best way to do so is to convert more visitors into customers. One of the best ways to do this is by creating landing pages that cater to your specific audience. A landing page is a simple web page that’s designed with one purpose in mind: to convert visitors into sales. Landing pages are often used for email marketing campaigns, but you can also use them for affiliate marketing as well.
A landing page is often a simple web page that has a few key functions. It’s designed to capture the visitor’s attention and asks your visitor to take a specific action. (Such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading a free report, etc.) It has an incentive for your visitor to take this action (such as a bonus offer, a gift, or a discount)
Incorporate Video Marketing
Affiliate marketing is all about generating leads, so you should always remember to incorporate lead-generating strategies into your marketing efforts. One of the best ways to increase your lead generation is by incorporating video marketing strategies into your campaigns. If you don’t have the budget for expensive video production and editing, don’t worry! You can use video editing software like Invideo to create professional-quality videos.
Video is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your business and boost your lead generation. It can help you build your brand, increase your sales, and build your list of subscribers. There are countless benefits to incorporating video into your marketing strategy, so don’t miss out because you don’t have the budget for expensive video production!
We cover video marketing strategies in-depth in our blog post: Video Marketing: 8 Benefits of Video Marketing for Small Business
Create a List
Another proven tip to improve your affiliate sales is by creating a list. Whenever you’re conducting your marketing efforts, you should always keep in mind that your goal is to build a list of subscribers. One of the best ways to do this is by inviting people to sign up for your list.
Email marketing is a great, low-cost method to drive engagement and conversions. You can do this via email campaigns, and even a moderately successful email blast can result in a significant uptick in traffic. Just be careful not to bombard people with relentless emails about every single update in your business.
Create [Or Update] Your ‘Recommended Tools’ Webpage
One of the most important things you can do to boost your affiliate sales is by creating a ‘tools’ page. Your ‘tools’ page is your go-to tools and services listing to help your followers. Your ‘tools’ page can be a basic webpage that you update regularly. You want your ‘tools’ page to be easy to navigate and searchable, so make sure to include relevant keywords and make it easy to find. It’s also a great place to feature testimonials, guides, and other helpful information for your customers.
Write Product Reviews
How important are product reviews to shoppers? Very important, as it turns out. The fact is, that 92% of consumers read online reviews before purchasing a product.
Your reviews can help generate traffic and increase your authority in the industry by providing value and expertise. They will also potentially increase your affiliate sales!
Most importantly, offer real value to readers and they’ll thank you by buying from your link.
And lastly, make sure to organize and format your review well — it’s the difference between a review no one will read and one that gets hundreds of shares.
Improve Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
One of the most important factors in content marketing is your search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
Improving your SEO will not only allow you to grow as a brand, but it also means that people will be able to find and engage with your content. The more engaged people become with the material on your website or blog, the higher chance you have of improving affiliate sales.
Here are some simple ways to improve your search engine optimization:
- Create high-quality content with keywords and Meta tags that relate to what you’re selling
- Conduct keyword research for long-tail phrases
- Use headings, bold text, and links to help break up lengthy pages
- Make sure there are links back to the original page and site
- Improve your page loading speed.
- Optimize your links.
- Optimize your site for mobile devices.
- Properly format your page.
- Encourage sharing on social media.
- Use keywords appropriately.
- Create clean, focused, and optimized URLs.
SEO is an ongoing “game” with plenty of aspects to maintain. That’s why learning SEO tips can help you set your business up for success. We cover this topic in our blog post: 7 Ways To Make SEO Writing Easier For You
Repurpose Your Existing Content
One of the best ways to increase your affiliate sales is by leveraging a tried-and-true strategy: repurposing content. Whether it’s an old blog post, eBook, video, or infographic, you can always find new audiences by finding new ways to engage them.
Here are some examples of how to repurpose your content:
- Turn blog posts into podcasts.
- When you’re running tests on your website, hang on to that data and turn it into a case study to share with your fans.
- Use blog content for video content.
- Create an eBook that combines the content from several blog posts
- Use testimonials for social media content.
- Update old blog posts with new information to adapt to evergreen content
- Use statistics and interesting facts for social media content.
While these formats may seem more like marketing than repurposing, they are still highly effective and will help you reach new potential customers.
Add Call-To-Actions (CTAs) to Your Long-Form Articles
When writing long-form articles, it is so important to include a good deal of call-to-actions. Call-to-actions (CTAs) encourage users to interact on your site.
Think about how you can use CTAs to move your readers around within the article. Consider adding a CTA at the end of each section, and then one or two more in-between sections as well. That way, every reader will be able to interact with your content through conversion points – no matter how much they read!
Find a Great Affiliate Network
For the best success, you have to find a great affiliate network. You want to find one that is trustworthy and has quality products. It should also be reputable in your niche and have a large number of affiliates in your field.
Take Full Advantage of the Merchant’s Marketing Resources
If you take a look at most merchants’ marketing resources, they offer a lot of great promotional tools at no extra cost. Why not take advantage of it? Merchants invest tons of money into their marketing efforts.
Through affiliates, they can get a wider reach and promote themselves even more. Most merchants offer banners, text links, example product copy, and articles that are perfect for linking to your site. In addition, many merchants will give you the option to create an email campaign to send out on their behalf to all of your subscribers.
This is an excellent way to increase the opportunity to convert. Make sure you’re taking full advantage of all the great marketing tools the merchant offers. It will help you increase your affiliate sales in no time!
Promote Brand Discounts
One of the best ways to increase your affiliate sales is to offer discounts, deals, or special offers on products or services. You can promote these offers through your blog or social media platforms.
Increase Your Presence on Quora
Quora is a great site to increase your presence in the social media realm, as it is designed to answer questions related to various topics. This site helps you establish yourself as an expert in your field. If you are a company or person who has specific knowledge in your field, this is a great way for people to know about you and want to buy from you.
Create a profile on Quora and identify yourself as the owner of your website or the person with the special knowledge that someone needs.
Add links back to your website or social media account so that those interested can find more information about you and what products you offer.
It may not directly lead to sales, but the effort will pay off with the authority you gain in the long run.
Repost Your Content on Medium and LinkedIn
One of the most beneficial strategies for affiliate marketers is to repost their content on Medium.com and LinkedIn. By reposting your content to these two sites, you’ll expose a different audience to your content. This will result in more traffic and exposure to your content which ultimately means more affiliate sales.
Additionally, you must make sure your posts are optimized for these platforms. You’ll want your post to be formatted as a long-form article due to its length limitations on Medium. And make sure you include keywords for maximum search engine optimization (SEO) purposes.
LinkedIn is a social networking site geared towards professionals and businesses around the world. As such, one of the best ways to optimize your post for LinkedIn is to add an infographic or video that highlights some valuable information about what you’re selling or promoting. This will help increase conversion rates from LinkedIn visitors who may not be ready to buy yet but are still interested in what you have to offer.
Offer your content in different languages
Offer your content in different languages! Not everyone is familiar with the English language, so it’s important to diversify your audience with other languages.
Start a Podcast
One of the best ways to stay relevant and fresh in a saturated market is to start a podcast. Podcasts can be created with little upfront costs and are relatively easy to produce. You can create a podcast on almost any topic, interview guests, and use your skills to generate leads for your business.
Podcasts are gaining popularity as over 60 million people listen each month. People love listening to podcasts while driving, working out, or taking care of the housework. If you’re not already considering starting a podcast for your business, here are some reasons why it might be worth your consideration.
- Podcasts demonstrate expertise – When you start a podcast, you immediately show that you know your industry inside and out; this helps build trust with potential customers.
- Podcast listeners are interested in what you have to say – The average listener tunes in for an hour at a time during their commute or workout which means they want to hear from the person who hosts the show!
- They make great lead magnets – Offering content through a podcast is an easy way to get people on your list and grow your audience organically! You can give listeners access to blog posts, training videos, or even direct links right within the show notes!
Cloak your affiliate links
Link cloaking is the process of encoding affiliate links to prevent direct access. This can be done by adding a string to your affiliate link that will modify it when clicked on, without changing how users see the URL in their browser. To include this functionality in your WordPress site, you’ll need an enterprising plugin like Affiliate Link Cloaker and/or Pretty Links Pro (affiliates). You should also disclose that these are paid advertisements so visitors know what they’re clicking into before proceeding.
Leverage the Power of Facebook Groups
If you are a social media user, Facebook Groups might be your greatest asset for increasing affiliate sales. Affiliate marketing is based on building and developing relationships. This is important as Facebook Group users are more likely to buy something or click on a link if it’s posted in the group.
There are several ways Facebook groups can assist you with building and developing relationships.
- Create a private Facebook Group – where you can interact with your community and connect with like-minded people. This group can be open for anyone to join or only available to be a particular segment.
- Join a pre-existing Facebook Group – engage with a preformed group within your niche.
- Join your affiliate programs Facebook Group – here you will learn new tips to help affiliates increase sales and be updated with the latest product/affiliate news.
When you post links to your affiliate offers in Facebook groups, make sure that they are relevant to the content of the group and follow any rules set out by administrators.
Refresh old content and fix broken links
The Internet is a fast-paced environment that can change on a dime. That being said, some of your old content may not be relevant anymore. To maintain relevance, it’s important to update your old content and fix broken links. You can also update the Meta description tags and keywords so that your site appears more prominently in search engine rankings.
Use paid advertising to increase your affiliate sales
Using paid traffic sources is another way to increase the influx of potential customers. You might not know this, but some affiliates can generate 100% or more of their affiliate commissions just from using paid advertising alone.
You can use online ads like Google Ads or Facebook Ads to drive traffic to your website. With these ads, you can target people who are actively interested in the topic related to your products (i.e., weight loss) so they are more likely to buy what you have for sale.
PPC (pay-per-click) advertising works well because it enables you to easily target people by location, demographics, interests, and more. Therefore, allowing you to pinpoint exactly who you want your ads displayed for. You will also spend less money on clicks that don’t convert into sales because PPC campaigns display only the most relevant prospects for your business.
If you want to experiment with PPC, Google Ads is a good place to start. Here’s your guide to Google Ads.
Facebook Ads – According to 95.8% of social media managers surveyed, Facebook ads have the best ROI of any social network.
Create consistent content
When it comes to affiliate marketing, consistency is key. Put out a steady stream of content that is valuable to your audience and you will see the results in terms of higher traffic and conversions.
Create comparison pages and listicles
One of the most successful content pieces in the affiliate space is comparison articles. They are a well-organized collection of notes on two or more products and they provide readers with what they need to make their own informed purchase decisions.
Listicles provide valuable information for less effort, which is why many people like them – they’re easy to navigate and have a simple format.
Adding links to conversion-optimized content will help increase your chances of making affiliate sales!
Bottom Line
Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate passive income. Successful affiliate marketers spend a lot of time researching and finding the right products, and then they find ways to promote those products. When it comes to affiliate marketing, you need to put your heart into it. You have to do research on your products, engage with customers, and form relationships with suppliers. What’s more, successful affiliate marketers often invest in training courses or attend conferences so they can learn from some of the best minds in the industry.
