A lot of businesses today are struggling to generate consistent revenue because inflation has eroded the value of the dollar, making everything considerably more expensive than in previous years. Couple that with a rapidly declining consumer confidence, rising advertising costs, and a noisier world than ever, and it becomes obvious that we’re facing a proverbial perfect storm for entrepreneurs.
That makes it harder and more expensive to acquire new clients today, and that puts a lot of entrepreneurs in a tough position.
But there is a virtually untapped marketing channel that few entrepreneurs have heard of and even fewer are using, and that channel is affiliate marketing. This has been a game changer in my business, and if you implement it properly, it can do the same for yours.
Let’s start with the basics. Affiliate marketing is essentially leveraging other people—entrepreneurs, influencers, marketers, and even friends, to promote your business in exchange for a commission on closed sales.
There is a cost in getting your system set up properly, and this part is critical because it’s easy to get it wrong. But once that’s in place, there’s very little cost in running your program because you only pay your affiliates after you’ve closed a sale from the leads they send you. There is tremendous upside, and very little downside.
This model is an incredibly effective way to generate more stable revenue and it makes a powerful addition to your existing marketing channels. In fact, it’s so powerful that it has surpassed all of the other marketing channels my company used to rely on. It was the key in taking my business from 8 million to well over 100 million in revenue within the span of 6 years.
Your affiliate program basically creates an army of people who have a vested interest in promoting your company because they will get paid for doing so.
But people are lazy, so you have to make it easy for them.
That means giving them access to the promotional materials they’ll need to be effective.
We’ve built a sizable department to manage our program, but you can start small.
Write some persuasive copy they can use in their social media, email, and website, build a few professional graphics and maybe a PDF brochure or two, and create a system for tracking affiliates. You’ll also need a way to track the leads they send you. There are a lot of ways to do that, and the exact approach depends on your unique circumstances.
Then start building and nurturing relationships with your affiliate partners. This is the hard part.
Not only do you need to get people on board in the first place, but you also need to nurture the relationships to ensure they stay active in promoting your company. And you need to have a vested interest in their success because if they aren’t making money, they won’t continue promoting your company.
The key here is to select the right affiliate partners. This isn’t a numbers game—it’s all about effectiveness. You’re looking for people who have an established audience that would have an interest in your product or service.
For my business, this is relatively easy because we provide business credit which is something that every entrepreneur needs. Virtually anyone connected to the entrepreneurial world is a potential affiliate partner; accountants, lawyers, consultants, and even entrepreneurs.
For your business, you’ll need to figure out who your prospects might trust when it comes to referring them to you for whatever you provide. So you’ll want to approach people who offer a product or service that compliments yours in some way. For example, if you run a title company, real estate agents, investors, and mortgage brokers could all be great affiliate partners. If you run an architectural firm, real estate developers, lawyers, and financial planners could all be great affiliate partners. And if you run a software development firm, consultants, sales trainers, and marketers could all be great affiliate partners.
If you get this right, you’ll build a stronger brand, lots of word of mouth marketing, and a far more stable and consistent revenue—all without the high upfront costs that typically come from executing a new marketing channel.
And that’s exactly what entrepreneurs need to survive, and even thrive in today’s economy.
So keep an eye out for my next article that will provide a complete blueprint to building your own highly effective affiliate marketing program from scratch.