Do Startups Need Affiliate Marketing?

E-commerce has seen rapid growth over the years, and so has the affiliate space. In fact, affiliate marketing has nowadays been incorporated into the top Fortune 500 companies’ marketing strategy. Examples of top Fortune 500 companies include Target, Apple and Macy’s. This, however, does not lock out affiliate marketing for startups; in fact, it is highly recommended that they too adopt this.

Affiliate marketing, also called performance marketing, is based on revenue sharing. When your startup has a product or service, they can offer promoters financial motivations through what is called an affiliate program. The marketer will then recommend your goods and services to prospective customers. On generating a sale, the promoters earn a commission in return.

There are many myths surrounding performance marketing, for instance, people have for long believed it is a scam, and that it often offers low-value sales and traffic. The fact is that these programs if done right can provide high value, equal to those running the program. Furthermore, the programs provide businesses with an opportunity to expand their reach to new clients quickly through partnerships.

Unlike the yesteryears when technological innovation was wanting, today's affiliate marketing has improved and matured. Talk of promoters using social media marketing and self-publishing tools, together with the likes of Big Data to reach a global population.

Why Startups Need to Consider Joining an Affiliate Marketing Program

1. It’s purely performance-based

One of the top benefits of using an affiliate program is that the commission that you pay is only paid once the desired action has been achieved. Marketers are motivated to drive the conversion that your e-commerce is looking for. This, therefore, eliminates the chances of a marketer driving in traffic that has little or no value to your enterprise. In the end, the startup gets what they pay for.

2. Validation of the third party

There is the benefit of having your brand reputation enhanced when a startup partners with reputable website or bloggers, as they will support your products and services which then solidifies client trust in your brand. Research shows that clients have more confidence in the third party’s opinions over a product than even the product creators. So, when you partner with them, you rest assured that your product’s reputation will be improved.

3. Affiliate marketing programs are cost-effective

Startups only pay commissions when the conversion has occurred as covered earlier on. This, therefore, makes affiliate marketing cost effective to your business. The startup does not throw away a dime on unworthy placements but instead spends on the profit-proven ones.

4. Impressive traffic

If you have depended on other marketing efforts to push your brand, it is time you focused on recruiting affiliate marketers as they will enable your e-commerce shop scale traffic rapidly. The higher the number of websites that link to your site, the more opportunities your store has to convert users into clients. Also, search engines rank your page high due to the sites linking back to your e-commerce shop.

Conclusion

The advantages of investing in affiliate marketing programs cannot be understated. It will see your startup expand fast without risking your investment. Therefore, startups need to work closely with affiliate marketers.