- This global crisis has forced businesses around the world
to tighten their belts.
And the one area that's really felt the squeeze
is marketing budgets,
which have been cut in almost half over the past year.
Kind of sucks.
This has forced digital marketers
to become extremely resourceful
in order to achieve their goals.
So what if I told you that there is a time tested marketing
strategy with almost zero startup costs
that can deliver steady revenue for almost any business?
Well, in this video I'm gonna introduce you
to affiliate marketing and all the ways it can be used
by savvy marketers to generate sales and sign-ups.
To learn more check the description below to download
HubSpot's free ultimate guide to affiliate marketing.
And while you're down there,
click the subscribe button and ring the notifications bell
while you're at it.
HubSpot defines affiliate marketing as
a performance-based marketing tactic
in which an online retailer rewards an affiliate
with a commission for each customer it refers.
The affiliate will get paid when their referral results
in a transaction.
Put even more simply,
for people like me who are slow readers,
you know what I'm saying?
Affiliate marketers help sell your product or service
and receive a commission on what they sell.
There are some obvious advantages to this arrangement.
The first is relatively low cost of entry.
With affiliate marketing there's no need to spend a fortune
on media buys or staffing large marketing departments.
At its bare minimum all you need to start
an affiliate marketing program is the ability
to recruit affiliates, track performance,
and make payments.
And there are literally hundreds, thousands,
maybe even millions and billions of affiliate marketing
networks that provide these services.
There are also niche affiliate networks that specialize in
specific industries like health and wellness,
or specific products like software and digital goods.
There's even one just for crypto trading,
off to the moon we go, you know what I'm saying?
And there are networks that specialize in promoting specific
demographics like black owned businesses
and other minority groups.
Whatever network you choose they'll match your brand
with the right affiliates,
provide the tools for them to sell your product,
and manage payments.
The cost to you is usually just a modest set up fee
and a percentage of the transactions
the network facilitates.
Which brings us to the second advantage
of affiliate marketing, low risk.
Marketers spend billions of dollars on campaigns
without much of the way of guarantees
that a particular program will produce results.
I did that once for Janva.
Still in the red.
Never gonna make it out frankly.
Pray for me.
With affiliate marketing you only pay commission
once a sale is made.
The cost of creating content and getting it to an audience
is all bore by the affiliate.
That's why most affiliates are creators who already have an
audience and are already looking for a way to monetize it.
Which leads to affiliate marketing benefit number three,
affiliate marketers can expose your brand to a new audience
that you aren't reaching through your own channels.
And the best affiliates integrate your product in a way
that is holistic with the rest of their content.
That's important because 92% of consumers trust
an influencer more than an advertisement
or traditional celebrity endorsement.
So unlike Mint Mobile,
the whole thing with like Ryan Reynolds kind of worked,
kind of didn't work.
So the less that affiliate marketing program
feels like a sales pitch,
the better it will usually perform.
Now you might be asking what's the difference between
affiliate marketing and influencer marketing?
The answer is no one knows.
Just kidding.
It's easy to understand why there's confusion
between the two.
After all affiliate marketers are by definition influencers
and plenty of influencers make money
by joining affiliate marketing programs.
But generally speaking influencer campaigns are really good
at achieving KPIs like brand reach, awareness,
and sentiment, but not necessarily for driving sales.
Plus a lot of influencer marketing campaigns require
the advertiser to pay a predetermined fee.
This makes the risk of influencers marketing higher
than affiliate marketing.
Finally, influencer marketing generally requires you to pay
a lot more attention to campaigns.
In fact, 67% of marketers prefer their influencer marketing
to be campaign based rather than always on.
Affiliate marketing programs on the other hand,
tend to be long running and low maintenance.
One of the world's first affiliate marketing programs
succeeded by completely automating the process.
Amazon's associates program in many ways invented
modern affiliate marketing when it launched in 1996,
which also happens to be the year
that the Nintendo 64 was released.
Coincidence? (gentle music)
Yeah, probably.
There had been online affiliate programs
dating back to 1989,
but they were executed via traditional deals
with specific partners.
Jeff Bezos' idea was to allow anyone
with a website to sell books,
because that's all Amazon sold in 1996, just books.
Anyone could sign up and get banners with custom URLs
that let Amazon know where a sale was coming from
and pay that affiliate a commission.
Today it's estimated that 1% of websites in the world
are part of Amazon's associates network
and they sell obviously a lot more than books.
But let's take a step back and assume you're not going to
invent a once in a generation retail revolution
and become the world's richest man,
and try to battle the other world's richest man,
in a race to colonize Mars.
I mean, you could do that.
I just, I don't think it's probably gonna happen
for you unfortunately.
Maybe you just think affiliate marketing could be
a smart way to increase your business.
If you are uncertain,
start by considering what it is you're selling.
Virtually any product or service can be sold
via affiliate marketing, but some perform particularly well.
Fashion is a major benefactor of affiliate marketing,
making up 25% of the total industry.
But almost as popular are things like financial products,
travel, even dating.
Don't ask me how I know that.
Subscription boxes and services are also popular
with affiliates because they create a recurring revenue
stream that doesn't require a constant influx of new sales.
Business and marketing services also do well
with affiliate marketing.
In fact, and here's a little secret for you.
HubSpot runs its own affiliate marketing program that allows
partners to earn commissions with no signup fees
or minimum sales requirements.
So you might be asking, well,
what doesn't work well with affiliate marketing Jamal?
Excellent question.
Products and services with longer sales funnels
have a harder time attributing sales
and therefore commissions to affiliates.
Another thing to consider is the margin
on the item you're selling.
Affiliate commissions and network fees can take anywhere
from 10 to 50% of revenue off the top of each sale.
The higher the percentage you offer,
the more incentivized affiliates will be
to push your product over someone else's.
So if you're in a high volume, low margin business,
the numbers might not work out in your favor.
But assuming yours is one of the millions of businesses that
can use affiliate marketing to increase sales and profits
there's no better time to get started than right now.
To learn more about growing your business
through digital marketing,
sign up and take the free HubSpot academy course
on digital marketing.
And don't forget to subscribe to this channel
for even more ways to grow your business.
Now if you'll excuse me,
I'm gonna go invent time travel,
beat Jeff at his own game in 1996.
Maybe you won't see me anymore after this,
you know what I'm saying?
Maybe I'll, maybe Janva will have blown up.
Until then, I'll see you next time.
(gentle music)
And don't forget to (blabbering).
And don't forget to subscribe.
You know what, forget subscribing, don't even subscribe.
Don't, don't do it.