How Affiliate Management Can Help Increase Holiday Sales
Everyone needs help building up sales and getting new clients, especially this year when the world seems to have been running at half speed! The covid-19 pandemic may have affected the high streets, but online many businesses found they experienced a boom. Keeping that boom sustained as we head towards the light at the end of the tunnel is not easy, and especially when we are moving towards a holiday period.
Any holiday period spells a slow-down in business for a variety of markets, and there’s little that can be done about it. There is, however, one way of helping your business gain sales during the holidays, and that’s an affiliate management program. What are we talking about, and why should you consider it? Before we go on, have a look at the website of iAffiliate Management for an idea of who uses affiliate management, what for, and why – it’s an eye-opener in many ways!
Why Use Affiliates?
Many companies – from small start ups to major corporations – use affiliate marketing to boos their sales, and find it is particularly useful at times when business is traditionally slow. What is affiliate marketing, and how does it work?
Consider this scenario: you’re shopping for specific item in town – let’s say shoes – and you come across a shop that’s just opened up, or one you’ve never used before. You go in, look around, and find they have a great range of shoes at great prices, with really helpful staff who help you find exactly the shoes you want! You come away a satisfied customer. Next time you’re out with your friends, or at work or anywhere else you might strike up a conversation, you show them your new shoes and tell them how great this shop is. That is a simplified version of real-life affiliate marketing – word of mouth!
Let’s apply that to the digital world: you’re on a blog that you frequent, and you see an advert for a product you’ve been thinking about buying. You click the link, and it takes you through to the product page on the retailer’s website. You like it and buy it. The owner of the blog you were reading is an affiliate, and they get a commission because you clicked through from their blog! It’s simple, effective and for smaller, growing businesses is absolutely essential. But there’s a problem, so let’s have a look at it!
Who Uses Affiliate Management?
Put simply, any business that needs to boost its growth, get new leads, and make up sales in those traditional slow periods will benefit from an affiliate program, but why not run it in-house? Even the mainstream press are using affiliates.
Why use affiliate management?
Most smaller businesses have a member of the sales or marketing team who handles the affiliate side of things. Yet, they likely have other roles too. That’s not going to give the most efficient returns as affiliate management is a full time, ongoing and fluid part of the marketing routine. A well-run affiliate program will be able to respond quickly, to bring in new and relevant affiliates all the time, to create content and target the right leads. There’s a lot more to it than simply finding blogs that are suitable to your market sector.
Can you, as a smaller and growing business, afford the salary for an affiliate market manager? Or would that salary be better spent on an addition to your sales team or other area of the business that needs attention while you grow? For most of us the answer is the latter, which is why outsourcing your affiliate management to the likes of iAffiliate Management – as mentioned above – makes sense.
As experts in the field they will work with you to identify your ideal customers and bring onboard affiliates who are relevant to that market sector. They will produce content, keep everything up to date, respond quickly and – when leads are gathered – pass the contact on seamlessly and immediately to the right person on your team.
Rather than providing a service, think of the affiliate management company as part of your team. Get in touch now and have a chat, and you’ll soon reap the benefits of a professional affiliate management program.