
The Truth About Affiliate Marketing
The vast majority of affiliates market other peoples’ products to you without YOU even realizing they’re doing it. They either look like normal ads or they appear to be someone else’s products, and you never think twice about it. In the few cases where you DO recognize that a product might be an affiliate promotion, it often seems to fit as a compliment to the core offering of the person or brand you’re following. And once again, you don’t think twice about it. We don’t remember these positive scenarios when we hear the term “affiliate marketing” because they don’t stir up any high-arousal emotions within us. They just come off as your typical, everyday, acceptable forms of marketing. And as a result they don’t register as something worth remembering. Which can be a good thing, and means you’re doing affiliate marketing right. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s back up first.Affiliate Marketing: Sales Reps You Don’t Hire
In a nutshell, an “affiliate” is essentially an external sales rep. If you were to become an affiliate for my product, I would typically pay you a fee for every product of mine that you sell to your (or any) customers. That’s it. Plain and simple. This engine can actually help you scale quite a bit. For example, if you’ve saturated another marketing channel (i.e. hit a brick wall) or you’ve reached a ceiling in the performance you’re able to derive from your internal digital marketing efforts. (Though a common mistake is starting to use affiliate marketing too early, and paying a fee higher than the cost to market to customers internally.) Ever go on your favorite blog and see a widget box showcasing a recommended product on Amazon? More than likely if you click the box, go to Amazon, and buy that product (or any other) – the owner of your favorite blog will get a cut of your purchase. That’s affiliate marketing. And that blog owner is an affiliate marketer. But many of us assume affiliate marketing only takes place on smaller websites pushing Amazon products, or Internet marketers pushing digital products for other Internet marketers. This is only a fraction of what affiliate marketing actually is.An Affiliate Marketing Use Case
Take the Southwest Airlines VISA Card.
Is Affiliate Marketing Technically Viral Marketing?
If we’re currently trying to find non-viral means to ignite virality, why are we talking about something that looks blatantly like viral marketing? (Note: We’re currently on #12 of our 16 Ways to Feed Your Viral Engine with Non-Viral Marketing Sources.) I’ve fielded this question before, and it’s a valid one. It usually goes something like:“Company A is asking company B to join their affiliate program, and then company B exposes company A to their customers for an incentive. Isn’t this just viral incentive marketing?”
Great question, and I’m glad you’re thinking about things in this way. But NO. This would not be viral incentive marketing. If it were, you could likely make the argument that all advertising is technically viral incentive marketing, which it isn’t.Affiliate Marketing and Virality
There is one, and only one, difference between affiliate marketing and viral incentive marketing:- The promoter of the product is NOT a user who signed up to derive core value, then recognized the viral value and began sending invites.
Engineering Virality Using Affiliations
Here’s an example of how one could use affiliate marketing to fuel their viral engine. Many great affiliate programs have “tiers” of affiliates. This means that if Company A starts an affiliate program, and Company B joins – Company B would get “Tier 1” incentives from promoting Company A directly to consumers. Additionally, if Company B recruits Company C as an affiliate of Company A as well, Company B would get “Tier 2” incentives for every sale that Company C makes for Company A. Of course, Company C would still get the same “Tier 1” incentives. With an affiliate marketing program structure like this, one could theoretically engineer many forms of viral marketing in addition to viral incentive marketing. I’ll leave the possibilities up to you!What’s Next
Not every form of marketing works with every type of product. That’s why it is so important to know what your options are and pick the ones that fit best with your business. Which brings us conveniently to our next non-viral marketing tactic – niche search.Are You a Candidate for Niche Search?
Virality is all about getting in front of the right people at the right time. While this might seem reliant on chance, you might be surprised how with the right optimization you can hijack people’s attention when you want, where you want. Learn how in our next chapter.
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