Affiliate Marketing In 2021: Your Ultimate Guide To Get Started
In the META era and with Artificial Intelligence taking place, your online asset is your Inheritance for your children & your most valuable job, only if you do it right. With Affiliate Marketing, you can grow your online asset by promoting a product/service through a commission-based offering and have a piece of the e-commerce industry projected to grow to 5.4 trillion US dollars in 2022.
Have you ever wondered how freelancers earn so much money that allows them to travel, live in fancy houses, and drive the latest cars? How could someone without a “tangible job” secure a monthly income? If you look at it vice versa, those freelancers wonder why could someone settle down for a fixed, relatively low monthly salary while you can earn way more money or secure yourself by having a supplementary source of revenue?!
Answering this question will give you the definition of the $12 Billion Industry. In sum, affiliate Marketing enables business owners (advertisers) to pay for actual results to increase their e-commerce sales numbers. For growing the real ROI by offering publishers “affiliates” good incentives in the form of commission, based on clear KPIs that suit their industry. According to statistics, 80% of brands collaborate with Affiliate partners, as Affiliate Marketing values 15% of all digital ROI. On the flip side, the publishers or the affiliates rush to promote the products/services to the broad market. The most outstanding feature is choosing the products you like to motivate your customers to purchase something you are already familiar with. If you are still not convinced, data indicates that 40% of marketers worldwide are willing to learn Affiliate as a game-changer skill, and this number is growing over time.
The Perks of Being An Affiliate Marketer
- A Boss-Free Career
If you want to be your own boss, “the president of yourself,” while your workplace could be anywhere in the world, this is the perfect job for you. For a short time job, jumping on trends could give you the ability to earn sufficient money for an extended period, till the next trend. But, although it seems pretty cool, it requires commitment, obligation, and self-motivation to secure your income. And your guidance? It should be the whole internet with its accessible sources along with your own experience.
- Smart Passive Income that could build your Wealth
If the participants of the squid game knew about this industry and the amount of cash they can earn, they wouldn’t probably get slapped in the first place. Considering this Cash flow career as a long-term job could build your wealth depending on your performance as there is no limit for the amount of cash to earn when there are thousands of brands and offers to wait for you to promote their products/services for billions of people. In the e-commerce world, there is no such thing as an economic depression, as it’s one of the highest economic growth rates at the moment and is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2022.
- Flexibility
Let’s all admit that normal human beings think about quitting their jobs every Sunday morning in the MENA region and every Monday morning in Europe and the rest of the world. Flexibility could alter these facts. So if you’re a night person and no one understands, let them! Shine at night or whenever you want with the most flexible industry in the digital world.
- Cost-Friendly
As an entrepreneur, it’s normal to be concerned with the starting budget. The plus in Affiliate Marketing is its cost-convenient nature. You can build your online asset with organic reach or with a reasonably low-paid budget. Imagine investing in a promising property; instead of waiting to price it, you can establish your online business tower worth millions.
What are the Types of Affiliate Marketers?
You may have all the potential and the online assets to become an affiliate marketer, but you just don’t know it yet. Check out the most popular traffic sources in Affiliate Marketing.
Websites
1-Coupon WebSites
According to figures, 74% of customers follow the brands looking for coupons and 90% of shoppers used coupons in 2020, that’s why you will easily find websites only for this purpose in the first result pages when searching for the brand name, to fulfill the need of receiving extra motivation to make the purchase. In addition to reinforcing affiliates to promote products/services using personalized promo codes to their followers and target audience, coupons could be a great incentive to complete the purchase and spend more. Data shows that online coupon users spend 24% more than regular shoppers. You can establish your website by collaborating with brands to gather vouchers; by time, brands will offer you exclusive, customized promo codes to attract your followers; moreover, shoppers will visit your site looking for good deals.
2-Content WebSites
These are the sites that offer valuable content. By “value,” we mean the content that entertains and attracts the readers to continue reading and turn on the subscription alarm. These include the sites of magazines, newspapers, T.V channels, book clubs, etc. Mentioning these sites makes us think about ‘Native Ads’ automatically because consumers who purchase from affiliate links coming from these channels are highly interested due to the nature of its user-generated content. And sometimes the audience is not aware of the ad placement, it could be in front of their eyes, but they don’t know that it’s an ad. So before starting such a website, you have to remember that attracting users to follow your content website requires patience and plenty of quality work. Still, it’s paying off ideally as soon as you start registering in a robust affiliate program.
3-Comparison & Review WebSites
Deciding which product to buy could be puzzling; that’s why 93% of shoppers check online reviews before completing a purchase. And 93% of customers believe that online reviews impact their purchase decisions. So it’s no wonder that review sites take advantage of people who already spend hours comparing products and brands by exposing them to different products/services with high rates of positive reviews as customers tend to be influenced by them. To underline the importance of reviews, check (Shein) website; you will find thousands of people rushing to post reviews about products they have brought from the website. By digging deeper, you will understand their behavior since the website motivates the users by giving them points whenever they post positive or negative reviews.
4-Installment Programs “Buy Now Pay Later” Websites
These sites help customers get what they need right away, offering discounts and hot offers on selected items, allowing them to have it all (reasonable price with fair installment payment plans). Joining affiliate programs entitles you to partner up with brands to highlight their offers on your website. Using CPS, you will get paid whenever a customer makes a purchase. Considering that the number of people using these programs is growing year after year, the industry’s value is expected to reach $181 billion by 2022 after $100 billion hits in retail purchases in 2021. The numbers confirm that BNPL is not a one-time thing; it’s becoming a buying habit for more than 71% of shoppers around the globe after the pandemic.
Social Media
1- Influencers
Influencer marketing indeed helps businesses in customer acquisition, as statistics confirm that this industry will reach $13.8 billion by 2022. it’s no surprise to witness big brands collaborating with generation Z influencers when you know that 70% of teenagers nowadays trust social media bloggers more than celebrities. Social media now is more than lifestyle influencers. It’s a broad market with so much room to grow & to impose your content. So if you want to increase your income, start highlighting your unique content; by time will get flourished, as today’s generation has no excuses when it comes to generating social exposure when you have Instagram, Facebook & TikTok!
2- Social Media & Community Groups
Did you know that 60% of customers have been motivated by social media while purchasing and 86% of female shoppers use social media for shopping recommendations? Community groups use these numbers to promote brands on their platforms, persuading the members to purchase by giving them promo codes based on reviews. When we talk about groups, Facebook immediately pops into our minds. Although Facebook is home to more than 2.85 billion monthly active users, establishing your social media group could be challenging, especially when more than 1.4 billion users are already in all Facebook community groups. Creating a group requires commitment at the beginning till your group reaches the user-generated content stage when your admins are overwhelmed with the numbers of pending posts. In this stage, promoting affiliate links could boost your passive income like never before.
3- Pages and Niche Accounts
Followers call them professionals, obsess, and experts. You will find them on all the social media platforms giving up-to-date advice to people interested in a specific niche. For example, if you love cars, you will most probably follow the car lover account on Instagram and the cars channel on YouTube, even on Twitter; people follow the pages that fall into their interests and listen to them. Statistics show that 41% of Twitter users are most likely to purchase based on a Tweet, and 82% of consumers believe in social networks to Lead their purchasing choices.
Media Buyers
Those entrepreneurs map out, plan, invest and implement tailored strategies to hunt the right customer in the right digital place at the right time. Media buyers believe in products/services, use their own budget to maximize their profit.
Have a look at the top traffic sources for affiliate marketers:
- SEO with 69.22%
- Social Network with 67.32%
- Blogging 64.48%
Did you know that the annual worldwide digital Ad spend was 378$ Billion in 2020? Now can you imagine the amount of the profits and ROI for all the parties?
Tactics & Strategies That Will Help You To Become A Super Affiliate
Although the numbers of affiliates are getting higher, there is a high chance for you to cut through the vast market after conducting heavy research to scale up your revenue and maybe get rid of your routine job. If you’re willing, with the help of these tips, you can get started today.
- Niche Down to Scale Up
When we step outside of our culture, things get pretty puzzling. For example, you might have heard about the failure of the Iranian brand called TIZ while expanding their brand in GULF, as “Tiz” in the Arabic language means butt. That’s why localization & knowing the language/culture of your customers is critical in Marketing. An affiliate marketer should work with a familiar niche or deeply study the foreign market before launching any campaign to avoid any negative hustle to earn trust attention.
- Adjust Your Marketing Effort To Meet The Brands’ KPIs
80% of brands collaborate with affiliate partners working with a wide range of KPIs. You might achieve great results while working with (CPA) Cost Per Action, but not so great with (CPS) Cost Per Sale, that’s when you need to adjust your campaign, your content, or sometimes just the (CTA) “Call To Action” to direct the customers into your objective. It’s evident that significant industries rely heavily on affiliate programs such as electronics, fashion, grocery, sports & outdoors, health & wellness products, and home care products. In addition, there are a large number of underrated industries which also offer high incentives, and remember, the higher the price of the product, the greater the outcome.
Some of these industries are:
- Real Estate using CPL (Cost Per Lead)
- Gaming Sector using CPI (Cost Per Installing)
- SAAS Software using CPA (Cost Per Action)
- Automotive industry using CPL (Cost Per Lead)
- Follow The Customer’s Online Journey
Where awareness ends, affiliate begins. It means that understanding, analyzing, and breaking down the funnel that the customer goes through while purchasing online could open up doors of ROI for the affiliate, as identifying the path enables you to hunt your niche even better than the brand itself. The skilled affiliate marketer will know where to find their niche and develop powerful, engaging tools to motivate the customers to purchase. And most important feature about this great industry is empowering you to surround your target with multiple options within the same category because you’re not a regular marketer that promotes one specific brand; you’re an affiliate with creative powers.
- Keep Yourself “Up to date.”
Like the real estate industry, the companies sometimes, in certain seasons, offer extra incentives for the affiliate. So keep yourself “Up to date” by signing up in compelling affiliate networks and following big brands’ affiliate programs to never miss a great deal! If you seek the best product/service offerings to promote and want to join the most trusted affiliate network that collaborates with hundreds of brands in the MENA region. Sign up now to AFFSQUARE, and one of our affiliate managers will give you a call to explain our credible and reliable AFF-Solutions that will secure your profits.
- Prepare Yourself For The Trends
The future of tech transforms the shape of affiliate marketing every day; that’s why you need to prepare your online asset to cope with any changes. For instance, when they switched from third-party cookies, it impacted the whole targeting strategy. Besides the seasonal and special days such as Cyber Monday & Black Friday that will become even more precious for the affiliates, especially after Black Friday spending in 2020 reached $9.03 billion & Cyber Monday’s online sales reached $10.8 billion, while the annual worldwide digital Ad hit 378$ Billion in 2020.
The Next in Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is your profitable destination in the era of digitalization as it’s transforming the whole business model, impacting many industries & creating valuable opportunities for Affiliate Marketers in most of its aspects. That’s why in AFFSQUARE, we believe that the upcoming years will witness 25% to 40% growth in Affiliate programs revenue, while the ads spending is projected to grow over 15% while the value of the Affiliate industry will reach $18 billion globally.
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