Affiliate marketing is responsible for an average of 15% of all digital marketing revenue. For e-commerce brands, affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach new audiences and increase online conversions. Since you don’t have to spend money on ad costs and you only have to pay affiliates once a purchase is made, affiliate marketing yields a higher ROI compared to other marketing channels.
But to gain new customers, you need to do more than just recruit affiliates and offer them high commissions. Below are eight ways to use affiliate marketing for getting new e-commerce customers.
1. Develop Strong Relationships With Your Affiliates
Communicating with affiliates is essential if you want them to continue driving new customers to your online store. Affiliates like to feel valued, so it’s essential to show them that they are appreciated.
Stay in touch with your affiliates, so they know about upcoming product launches or new promotions. Reward your high-performing affiliates with bonuses, incentives, or higher commissions. When you have strong relationships with your affiliates, they’ll be more willing to offer you better placements, resulting in more visibility for your brand.
Ask them for their feedback, too. They know their website and audiences best and can suggest ways to attract new customers and increase conversions.
2. Offer Coupons and Discounts
Everyone loves to save money, and most shoppers search for deals before making purchases online. By offering coupon codes and special discounts through your affiliate links, you can entice bargain hunters and customers on a budget to buy a product they wouldn’t have purchased otherwise.
3. Create Seasonal Promotions
Seasonality can have a big impact on driving new customers to your e-commerce store. The Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping period is a prime example of when consumerism is at an all-time high.
Seasonal promotions and limited-time offers invoke a sense of urgency with consumers since they don’t want to miss out on special sales. Holidays are excellent times to launch new products, release updated versions of your products, or bring back products that are only available for a limited time. You can even create your own promotion, such as an anniversary sale, to celebrate the day you launched your online store.
4. Optimize Your Product Pages
When a customer arrives on one of your product pages from an affiliate link, they should have a pleasant shopping experience. If the page takes a long time to load or the product description is unclear, you can lose customers.
Make sure your product pages load quickly, your product descriptions are accurate, and you showcase the product with high-quality imagery. Featuring customer reviews can also convince shoppers to purchase a product that they were otherwise on the fence about.
Considering that 45% of consumers use their phones to shop, your product pages should also be responsive and mobile-friendly.
5. Recruit Influencers Into Your Affiliate Program
People have grown skeptical of brands that indulge in a lot of self-promotion. Influencer marketing has become an effective way for brands to advertise their products without coming across as too sales-y. Consumers are more likely to purchase products that are endorsed by influencers because they feel like they are receiving recommendations from a trusted friend.
The best influencers know how to tell your brand’s story. They can boost brand awareness and increase online conversions by connecting with audiences you may not be able to reach yourself. And because they’ve already established trust with their followers, influencers are more easily able to convince them to buy a product.
6. Promote Products That Can Result in a High AOV
Average order value (AOV) is an e-commerce metric that measures the average amount of money customers spend on your online store. It is calculated by dividing your store revenue by the number of orders you receive. For example, if last month’s revenue for your store was $20,000 and you had 1,000 orders, your AOV would be $20.
Let your affiliates know which products contribute most to your AOV so they can promote those items. By prioritizing the products that are most likely to sell, your affiliates have a greater chance of driving new visitors to your website and converting them into customers.
To increase online conversions once a customer arrives at your site, you can also adopt the following strategies:
- Offer first-time discounts for new customers who subscribe to your email list.
- Offer free shipping when a customer spends a certain dollar amount.
- Offer volume discounts such as 10% off a purchase of $50, 20% off a purchase of $75, and 30% off a purchase of $100 or more.
7. Provide Attractive Creative Assets and Compelling Text to Your Affiliates
Strong branding is important when you’re trying to attract new customers. You want to leave a strong impression and show them who you are right away.
The graphics that you provide to your affiliates should have your brand’s logo and should feature a high-quality image of a product. Your call to action (CTA) should be clear and engaging. If customers can’t tell who or what is being advertised to them, or if they don’t understand what action they need to take, they won’t click on an affiliate link.
Utilizing strong graphics in tandem with compelling CTAs will make your brand more intriguing to new customers and can help increase click-through rates and conversions.
8. Run Display Ad and Retargeting Campaigns Concurrently With Your Affiliate Program
Running a display ad campaign that coincides with your affiliate marketing program can help support consumers’ buying decisions and drive new customers to your site.
Retargeting is also an effective method of boosting online conversions. According to TrueList, retargeting increases brand awareness while decreasing cart abandonment by 6.5%. Because retargeting helps consumers remember who you are, they are more likely to convert after being shown a retargeted ad.
Attract New Customers With the Right Affiliate Marketing Tools
There is a lot of competition amongst e-commerce brands. It can be difficult to attract customers to your online store. While focusing on affiliate marketing strategy and looking for ways to use affiliate marketing for new e-commerce customers can help, you also need to have the right tools in place. LeadDyno’s e-commerce affiliate software offers all the tools you need to effectively manage your affiliate marketing program.
