Affiliate marketing is starting to become very important to a lot of businesses in different industries. This year is on pace to become an industry worth seven billion dollars in the United States alone. Perhaps people already know everything there is to know about this kind of marketing.
Maybe the people are just dipping their toes in the water and need something new to learn about AM. Either way, there is one question everyone wants to get answered: What lies ahead for this industry in 2020 and beyond.
Affiliate Marketing
With affiliate marketing or AM, firms known as advertisers rely heavily on their partners to help promote their products or services to their followers or potential customers in exchange for commissions on every website visitor, lead, or sale, that the partner attracts or drives.
Affiliates or publishers can be bloggers, brands, or social media influencers whose audience is that of the company’s target market. It provides brand access to a particular group of customers they think is will be interested in their products or services. Three players are crucial to making this work: the customer, the publisher (affiliate), and the advertisers.
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When consumers buy or avail of a product or service through a publisher’s affiliate link, the affiliate earns a certain percentage of the sale. It increases sales for the product or service and acts as the source of income for the publisher. It makes a winning strategy for the involved parties.
Consumers are made aware of the services and products they may not have purchased. Publishers earn money by influencing the sale of the product or promoting the brand by organically including them in relevant content. And the company that renders the service or sells the brand does more business.
How Did Affiliate Marketing Change Over The Years?
As the number of bloggers and blogs has grown, there has been a lot of demand for this kind of brand marketing. It is one of the best ways for blogs to earn money, and the most successful affiliates are selective about the product or services they promote. It helps build trust between business and their readers and followers, as well as establish authenticity.
Social media is also starting to grow in usage and importance, allowing publishers more ways to promote their services and products. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter are all popular platforms for promotions. Mobile AM is starting to be more important over the past couple of years. Last year, over 60% of people used their mobile phones to access the Internet.
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As this number continues to grow, publishers and brands focus more on mobile advertising and mobile content. In the past couple of years, we have seen a lot of improvement in tracking and analytics technology. Both technologies have made it a lot easier for firms, to analyze information about their strategies. Now, firms can study the metrics to know if their plans are working.
Interest in this industry has dramatically increased since 2013. A lot of companies used to be doubtful of it – skeptical that it could be pretty advantageous to their brand. Today, these companies are working very hard to include this strategy in their digital marketing plans. As of today, more or less 80% of brands participate in this kind of marketing to some degree.
Is There A Need For Affiliate Marketing?
The answer is a resounding yes! A lot of retailers do not have an in-house specialist to devote to analysis and AM. Some of these firms do not have the money to bring in a full-time worker to focus entirely on AM tasks. To grow sales and save on salaries, most of these companies relies on service providers to do the dirty work for them.
Hiring a professional allows people internal resources, as well as experts, to focus on more important things. But there is another vital benefit – professionals have tons of proven experience to succeed in the affiliate marketing world. Some agencies employ professionals who understand every aspect of the business.
They also work with people in different industries. In some cases, clients can hire agencies that already work with other businesses in their industry. With experience, they will be able to find clients the best publisher to partner with and develop the best plan for their business.
