Concept of Affiliate Marketing

The Concept of Affiliate Marketing 

Who doesn’t love online shopping? We all do, except some people who prefer visiting the real stores rather than the online ones. Buying stuff from home is the easiest way of shopping. Most people prefer it as they don’t have to go to the real stores and also because the products are available at discounted rates as the businesses also save the shop expenditure which results in decrease in the overall prices. But, is that all? Most people don’t know there’s a lot more going on in the background than we think. Here comes the concept of affiliate marketing that is one of the speediest money making techniques in the business world for a beginner.

Definition 

Affiliate marketing is a sort of business that enables one to earn money from generating sales for someone else. It involves a process by which experienced marketers promote the products and services for various businesses using a number of marketing techniques. 

Who is a merchant? 

A merchant is a person, who has the products to sell, where they want to sell their products by the help of third parties, they agree to share the revenue with them. This way they might not be earning the same profit as they would, had they sold the product by themselves but if we look from the wider angle, what use would the product be to them if it’s not sold at all? In the long run, by the help of affiliate marketing the increased sales render them supernormal profits despite sharing a certain rate with another person.

How does affiliate marketing make profits? 

Similarly, a person becomes affiliate marketer when he has no product to sell and no money to invest in raw materials and manufacturing of any product that they can sell, so what they do is they promote the business of others and for every article sold, they get a share from the profit earned by the business owner. The commission they earn is always predetermined for each product. They can sell as many products of as many sellers as they like provided the sellers are not competitors of each other. Nobody would want to do a business with an affiliate marketer who sells their opponent’s products. 

Essential requirement

The question is what is required by the affiliate marketers to ace in this field? Business sense is the most effective tool in affiliate marketing. One has to apply persuasive techniques to attract the potential consumers to the product so much so that they end up buying it and become regular customers. For a smart affiliate marketer it’s important to settle only for the quality products because what matters the most is that the customers should be satisfied with the product otherwise the sale generation for other products might also suffer because of one poor quality product. The more pleased customers one earns, the more successful will be their affiliate marketing journey.

Affiliate marketing is not just for individuals 

An affiliate marketer doesn’t necessarily have to be an individual. A company can also act as an affiliate marketer for another company. There are businesses that grow up as registered companies who don’t produce anything on their own but generate profits from selling the products of other companies. The best way to affiliate marketing is through websites. Search engine optimization (SEO) and other related techniques like quality content, promotion of products via social media and blogs etc. are aimed at attracting massive traffic to target the potential customers. The more reachable the product more will be the chances of its widespread demand.

Key Facts and Statistics

• According to a Forrester Consulting Study, the growth of affiliate marketing will rise by 10.01% every year, at least until 2020.
• By 2017, 81% brands have started using affiliate programs to increase exposure and sales dramatically.
• Affiliate marketing is now trumping email marketing gradually, in terms of brining visitors and customers to a store (be it an online store or a physical store).
• Only in the US, around 5.3 Billion dollars were spent in 2017, and it is predicted that the amount will rise to 6.8 Billion dollars in 2020.
• From June 2016 to June 2017, Jason Stone, an influencer and affiliate marketer, has earned 7 Million dollars as revenue from affiliate marketing.