JM Integrated Marketing
  • Home
  • Services
  • About Us
  • Our Work
  • JM Blog
  • Online Course
  • Hire Us

Blog

Affiliate Marketing for Small Business

9/9/2020

5 Comments

 
Picture
By: Johana M. Caba, M.A. 

Affiliate marketing is an arrangement between an online business and an external website or influencer in which the business pays commission to the website or influencer for website traffic or sales.  We see many influencers, bloggers and other content creators that use affiliate marketing as a way to make money from their content. There are many arrangements that businesses can do. Some of the most popular affiliate programs that I've seen include ShareaSale and Amazon Affiliates. But can a small business have an affiliate program? The answer is yes, but it depends.
As a small business, you might have a brick-and-mortar store or be a completely online business. There are many things small businesses can do through social media marketing in order to increase traffic to their websites. Some small businesses only use social media to post while others incorporate social media ads into their online marketing strategy. Others might use influencers to promote their products by either offering their services for free or gifting their products to influencers for good reviews and shoutouts. With affiliate marketing, small businesses can do a partnership with influencers and other online content creators instead. 
​
On one hand, it might be more beneficial to continue offering free services to influencers if you can afford it. For example, a hair salon or nail salon can continue offering free services to influencers that promote the businesses through their social media. On the other hand, other small businesses might not be able to continue thriving by offering free products. In this case, I think it would be better for them to implement an affiliate program where a portion of the sale goes to the person or website promoting the products or services. Essentially, affiliate marketing is a way of outsourcing for the small business because it allows the small business to use marketing expertise within their niche without needing to spend a lot of their resources on marketing. This is also a performance-based program which means that your small business is only paying for results, not spending extra money on direct advertising.  Overall, utilizing this form of marketing allows you to reach a larger audience by using experienced sales people. It also promotes higher website traffic and conversion rates because of those sales people which can guide customers to your website in a more organic way than by using typical ads. 
If you are a small business owner and you would like to begin an affiliate program for your online business, take a look at the following tips and resources.
  1. Affiliate Marketing Program Guides: There are a lot of guides that you can find online to help you create the perfect program. If you are still not sure if affiliate marketing is for you, take a look at this article from AWIN explaining the benefits for small businesses. Some guides that I found include this one about the building blocks of your own program from AWIN and this one from Post Affiliate Pro.
  2. Reasons for a Small Business Affiliate Program: There are a lot of reasons for an affiliate marketing program for your small online business. Take a look at these lists of reasons from Keap and from Business News Daily.  Hopefully these help convince you to begin your own program for the benefit of your online business. 
5 Comments
Alice link
9/10/2020 01:26:29 am

I'm not a business owner however being a blogger, I know quite a lot of fellow bloggers use affiliate links from brands they work with. I've actually never really looked into it properly, but it could definitely be a great way for me to help to support smaller businesses! I think this would be a really useful post for anyone looking to expand their audience.

Alice x

Reply
Johana
9/10/2020 08:40:21 am

Thank you for reading!

Reply
Nancy link
9/11/2020 08:41:46 pm

The whole idea of affiliate marketing sounds so interesting. It kind of feels like a play on salesperson/contractor. I like that both sides can benefit from it too! Thanks for sharing this knowledge!

Nancy ✨ <a href="https://exquisitely.me">exquisitely.me</a>

Reply
Suresh Allu link
9/26/2020 08:18:18 am

Definitive guide for small business owners how to get started with affiliate marketing.
Explanation given by you is great and easily understandable, good read Johana😍😍

Reply
Nina the Nomad link
3/25/2021 03:28:37 am

Very creative postt

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Content Marketing
    Graphic Design
    Marketing Communications
    Public Relations
    Social Media Marketing
    Social Media Tips

    RSS Feed

    Disclaimer: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, Adobe Affiliate Program, and in the Canva Affiliate Program, these are affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com, Canva.com and affiliated sites.

    Picture
    Get the Free Guide

    Privacy Policy
    Affiliate Disclosure
    Terms and Conditions
    ​

    ©️ Johana M. Caba,
    Marlene I. Urena and
    JM Integrated Marketing. 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Johana M. Caba, Marlene I. Urena and/or JM Integrated Marketing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

    Try Canva Pro Today

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Services
  • About Us
  • Our Work
  • JM Blog
  • Online Course
  • Hire Us