Affiliate Marketing – Sales Funnel

 

1 INTRODUCTION
2 AFFILIATE MARKETING 101
2.1 AFFILIATE MARKETERS
2.1.1 HOW TO EARN IN AFFILIATE MARKETING PROGRAMS
2.1.2 AFFILIATE MARKETING IN FINLAND
3 DISCUSSION
REFERENCES

 

1 INTRODUCTION

In this day and age, the internet plays a vital role in almost everything that affects our daily lives. It has become our source of news, network (social media), communication (email and chats), information (search engines) an ultimately our necessities. Our life has become more virtual than we think! Everything can be done anywhere with a simple click of a finger. It has made our “wants and needs” available “on demand.” We can basically get information, connect with people, and get stuff whenever we want it to.

This is also true when it comes to our work and how we earn either by employ-ment or business through online sales and digital marketing. In this essay, I will talk more about an existing trend in marketing which is affiliate marketing. This can be both a passive and lucrative way of income for anyone who has the ability to create a need for a certain product or service through influencing and generating a response to that need.

 

2 AFFILIATE MARKETING 101

BigCommerce.com says that “Affiliate marketing is the process by which an affiliate earns commission for marketing another person’s or company’s prod-ucts. The affiliate simply searches for a product they enjoy, then promotes that product and earns a piece of the profit from each sale they make. The sales are tracked via affiliate links from one website to another.” (https://www.bigcommerce.com) read on 14.11.2022

I think one important keyword here is that they search for a product that they “enjoy” or like to use. It is always best and it is recommended that the affiliate actually uses the product/service before they promote it. It gives more authenticity and validity when they start to market it. This is most effective when it is marketed either by incorporating photos or videos of the actual product in their posts and showing when and how it is being used. This kind of marketing simply connects the product or service of its use and value to the customers. It entices them more to see the need of having that product, increasing the chance of sales.

Another note that is worth mentioning is that, affiliate marketing has a specific niche depending on the product that the affiliate is promoting. It creates and connects to a “need-specific” or “interest-specific” audience. For instance, if the product that is being marketed by the affiliate is a certain kind of dog food for example, his or her audience or target market are people who have pets and are specific to dogs. Of course, if you don’t have a pet, you won’t even try to look at the product in the first place. Affiliate’s job is to create a need for that specific target audience to purchase the said item.He could also be a dog owner to start with, or knows someone to whom he or she can use the product and see its benefits that can be leveraged on when marketing the item. An ex-ample can be that the specific dog food improved the shine of the dog’s hair after continuous use. It can also be that the product when consumed by the dogs makes their excrement less foul smelling because the product contains a certain ingredient or some sort of food agent that makes their waste less smelly. The marketer can only know this if he or she is using it before it is even marketed. Again, it connects the product to the potential buyers since it has been proven and tested.

 

2.1 AFFILIATE MARKETERS

BigCommerce.com also mentioned that in 2009, Pat Fynn, a renowned affiliate marketer, “categorized affiliate marketing into three types – unattached, related and involved – to help differentiate between affiliate marketers who are closely tied to a product versus those who are not. ” (Flynn, https://www.bigcommerce.com) read on 23.11.2022

From the word itself, being an ‘unattached’ affiliate marketer does not require any connection or expertise on the said product. There is a lack of product use on the marketer’s side. These marketers solely rely on the customer’s clicks on the affiliate link and get a commission when the customer purchases. The marketer does not invest in the product more so use it but just sells it.

A ‘related’ marketer concentrates on the niche of a specific product that they are marketing. It does not mean that this type of marketer uses the exact product that he or she is marketing but has a following (either on his/her blog, web-site, social media, etc.) of the possible customers who might buy the said product because this marketer is known for this niche. For example, the marketer is known for music and has a niche following of let us say Musicians and music lovers alike, this marketer may promote a specific musical instrument regard-less of the brand since the following is there and it creates a potential sales conversion . However,a danger here is when the marketer promotes a low-quality product that may affect the trust and confidence of the followers given that this marketer promoted this product which is below par than the competition. It will affect the marketer’s credibility in the long run.

The third type of affiliate marketer is the ‘involved.’ This is probably the best type of marketer and may prove beneficial in terms of conversions while maintaining the trust and confidence of the market. As previously mentioned in the beginning of this essay, it is best and recommended that the affiliate marketer actually uses the product and can make statements out of his or her experience while using the product Proving the results to the would be target users. Alt-hough this might include a lot of work, time, and effort, this would reflect that Authenticity and connect the users or buyers to the product because the marketer actually used the product and has provided a proof and result of its use.

Among the three types, I believe that the ‘involved’ affiliate marketer would be the best option in terms of hitting all aspects including the niche, the followers and Converting marketing in to sales.

 

2.1.1 HOW TO EARN IN AFFILIATE MARKETING PROGRAMS

Amazon.com shares three basic steps in their affiliate marketing program. Number 1 is to Sign up, Number 2 is to Recommend and finally, Number 3 is Earn. (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/)

Amazon.com discusses their program as “Associates Program Standard Commission Income Statement – – for Qualifying purchases of products within product categories specified in Table 1 below (shows a table of the different product categories), the standard commission income accrued will be the corresponding fixed rate of Qualifying income specified in this table.” (https://affiliate-pro-gram.amazon.com), read on 23.11.2022

There is a wide range of products/categories which an affiliate marketer can recommend and these are some examples from Amazon:

Amazon Games – 20%
Luxury beauty, Luxury stores beauty, Amazon explore – 10%
Physical books, Kitchen, Automotive – 4.5%
Televisions, Digital video games – 2%

Mostly, these are products of Amazon. May these be the items mentioned above or any Amazon online or digital Subscriptions like Amazon Prime Video, Prime Video Channels, Amazon Music, and other products that Amazon sells which will get the affiliate marketer a certain percentage of earnings as com-missions.

On the other hand, there is also one thing that I saw that offers a fixed amount of earnings and these are Fine Art Products. “Standard commission income for all Qualifying purchases of products that are Categorized as fine art are limited to a maximum of $200 per product, regardless of the Qualifying revenues received from the sale of that product.” (https://affiliate-pro-gram.amazon.com), read on 21.11.2022

If we go back to the types of marketers, depending on the product, the affiliate marketer may choose what kind of marketer he or she will be if they choose to just promote a specific product even without using it, promote a product that they have a niche following already (not necessarily using or Purchasing the product themselves) or actually have the same product or service that they are marketing in order to be connected and involved in what they are actually rec-ommending.

 

2.1.2 AFFILIATE MARKETING IN FINLAND

I came across arcticwarriors.fi which sells pure and natural products from Lapland. They are offering an affiliate program on their website. They mentioned “In our affiliate program, we give you a percentage (12%) of sales in our web shop. This is done by giving you a special link or a coupon.” ( https://www.arcticwarriors.fi), read on 23 November 2022

Their main products are “superfoods” from herbs and berries. There is quite a variety from spruce sprouts, wild berries, wild lingonberry, roseroot, honey, nettle seeds, etc. They also offer merchandise like shirts and earrings and you can also order gift cards from their shop.

 

3 DISCUSSION

As a closing statement, affiliate marketing gives us a new playing field versus the traditional marketing ways. It also extends our reach globally because of the internet. It can level the competition given the opportunity and resources which are readily available out there within our reach. We are also offered different ways on how to market, making our options more versatile and our goal possible to achieve.

Although traditional marketing strategies and business models still work, affiliate marketing changes the landscape and can make an ordinary marketer become an extraordinary salesman. But with these great possibilities, there is also a need for us to learn and adapt to stay relevant and successful in sales and marketing.

We must be knowledgeable with the digital online world. To be more effective, we should be able to utilize the tools that are there for us to use and make us a successful marketer and salesman. These include but are not limited to understanding and learning how to create content to be posted (about the product) in blogs, websites, social media sites, video production, audio podcasting, and the likes. Thus, giving birth to our “online persona” either as an influencer, digital marketer, or content creator.

When the plateau is changing, we should learn how to change with it and adapt. We should be open to new learnings and new ways of making things work.

 

REFERENCES:

Affiliate Marketing 101: What it is and How to Get Started
Read on 14.11.2022

Pat Flynn
https://www.bigcommerce.com/articles/ecommerce/affiliate-marketing/

 

Amazon Associates: Amazon’s Affiliate Marketing Program
Read on 23.11.2022
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

 

Amazon Associates: Associates Program Standard Commission Income Statement
Read on 23/11/2022
https://affiliate-pro-gram.amazon.com/help/node/topic/GRXPHT8U84RAYDXZ/ref=amb_link_0SCmvU4qQnOltlh4q-t01g_4?pf_rd_p=52944aa9-5c7d- 441e- 8c97-2082bebdb7ed

 

Artic Warriors: Affiliate Area
Read on 21.11.2022
https://www.arcticwarriors.fi/en/affiliate-area/