We’ve found that a lot of people are wondering what affiliate marketing is all about. So, this is the perfect opportunity to get your question answered!
What is affiliate marketing?
Pat Flynn has a great definition of it on Smart Passive Income:
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.
What he’s saying is that affiliate marketing involves a salesperson who works outside of your business. This salesperson never ‘carries’ your products themselves – instead, this person sends new customers to your business. Whenever these customers make a purchase from your business, the salesperson receives a certain percentage of your profits.
How to do affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is using done online. The marketer creates a landing page for the product your business wants to sell, and this page will have its own unique (‘special’) link to your business’ website. Whenever someone clicks this link, you will know that the customer came through the affiliate marketer. That way, when these customers make a purchase, you’ll know what sales the marketer will get a percentage of.
Let’s say you’re an affiliate marketer for Starbucks (for instance), and you want to sell coffee beans so you create a landing page about those coffee beans. Place the unique link on your website so your visitors know how to purchase the coffee beans. Then, whenever someone visits your website and clicks the unique link, they’ll be taken straight to Starbuck’s shop. And if they purchase coffee beans, you’ll get paid a percentage of that sale.
Another way to do affiliate marketing is through an email campaign where you send the unique link to people through an email. But make sure you’re not spamming people and that you have permission from people to use their email address for marketing!
Other ways to do affiliate marketing is through social media (encouraging your social media followers to click the unique link), and through print affiliate marketing (like handing out flyers with your unique link).
We hope you now know a lot more about what affiliate marketing is! If you have any questions or would like to know more, just write a comment below.
