How Can You Boost Your Sales with Affiliate Marketing
Have you ever read someone’s blog, seen a Facebook post, or watched a YouTube video that made you want to purchase the product they’re promoting?
As consumers, we tend to trust the words of other shoppers over ‘salesy’ corporate ads. According to a 2014 BrightLocal survey, 88% of consumers trust reviews written by product users as much as they trust recommendations from family and friends.
That’s why a whopping 81% of marketers are leveraging the power of affiliate marketing and user-generated content (UGC) to promote their products and drive sales.
Whether you run a fortune 500 company or a startup looking to scale its operations, affiliate marketing can help you increase sales and grow your business. Here’s how you can boost your sales with affiliate marketing.
1. Optimize Your Product Pages for Conversion
Many companies invest in affiliate marketing and expect their affiliates to drive sales on their own. While your affiliates can help drive traffic to your site, it’s your job to ensure potential customers complete the purchase once they land on your website.
That said, you’ll need to optimize your product pages for conversions. To do that, make sure:
- Your site loads fast
- Your display is impressive with high-quality photos and videos
- Your product description is compelling and on point
- Your site’s UI is friendly and easy to use
If your website and product pages are optimized for conversions, you’ll benefit from higher traffic and low bounce rates—the two critical elements for conversions.
2. Build a Robust Affiliate Network
Rather than tapping into existing affiliate networks, why not build your own network?
Devise a clear-cut strategy for attracting affiliates and show them the nitty-gritty of the business. Then provide them with all the relevant information, including tools to use and payment terms. You’ll also want to provide them with all the resources they need to get started, including this article, which is a complete beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing.
You should also encourage your affiliates to recruit sub-affiliates and provide incentives that will motivate them to do so. For example, you could offer them a fair percentage of the commission of the sales their sub-affiliates drive.
3. Use an Exit-Intent Pop-Up
An exit-intent pop up is a type of website overlay that pops up whenever the user attempts to leave the site.
With an exit-intent pop-up, the user’s mouse movements are tracked and when the cursor begins to navigate away from the main screen, a pop-up window appears. If done right, exit pop-ups can do wonders for your business.
Why?
By visiting your website, the visitor has already shown interest in your products or services. When they get to leave the page, the pop shows up with a recommendation related to what they were viewing—allowing them to explore more products on your website.
One company, Top 6 Digital, used OptinMonster to build a targeted exit-intent pop up for an affiliate link. At the end of the campaign period, their affiliate sales increased by 30%.
4. Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC) to Expand Reach
One of the best ways to make the most out of affiliate marketing is to promote and encourage user-generated content.
So what is it?
User-generated content is any content—videos, reviews, images, texts, etc.—created and published by users rather than brands. And it works because over 80% of consumers trust recommendations from other shoppers above all other forms of advertising.
Start by encouraging your affiliates to use user-generated content in all their promotions. Next, re-share their social posts on your company feed to further promote them. If your affiliates have a large following, your outreach will be huge and this will result in an increase in sales.
Got more tips on how to boost sales with affiliate marketing? Share with us in the comments section below.
