An Intro to Affiliate Marketing

I’ll be honest. I didn’t know what to expect when I was tasked to write about Affiliate Marketing. Like many people, I assumed it was just a glorified version of Influencer Marketing. But then I saw the work our Content Delivery team was putting in, and the impressive results they were starting to produce for our clients. I quickly realized that Affiliate Marketing and Influencer Marketing are nothing alike. OK, they’re in the same family of Partner Marketing, but you get the point.

Simply put, where Influencer Marketing promotes awareness of a brand or product, Affiliate Marketing is all about selling those products. And because it’s a commission-based process, you only pay after the Affiliate sells. This can produce incredible ROI for clients when done correctly. The key is finding the right partner for your brand because, just like everything else in advertising, the message and audience matter.

An Affiliate can be a person like a blogger or influencer or an entity like a coupon site or news source. The commission rate is based on the Affiliate’s marketing strategy and corresponding place in the marketing funnel. For example, coupon sites like Ebates live at the bottom of the funnel in the Conversion section, whereas content sites and bloggers in the Awareness section are given a higher payout rate for their ongoing content. When an Affiliate is brought on board, they receive a personalized link coded to track traffic and sales. Affiliates can promote the link in emails, social media, on their website – pretty much wherever they think will get the most traffic.

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? We think so, too. Our team, led by Eddie Woods, has a wealth of experience working with Affiliate Partners including CNN, Time and HGTV. We’ll manage relationships, recruit new partners and provide detailed analysis of sales and progress. Give us a shout, and see how Ramey and Affiliate Marketing can help your brand achieve more.

 

Sam Potesky/Sr. Copywriter