5 Things you'll learn working in Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing shows no signs of slowing as we head into an exciting 2022. One of the things I've thought about as I've sat reflecting on the year that has been - is the 5 top things you can guarantee you'll get if you continue working with affiliates and publishers to promote your business.?

Next year I'll be publishing my thoughts more regularly each week right here on LinkedIN to help our community keep learning what's working and also ... what's not!?

For now though, I thought I'd take a moment and share with you my reflection from today about the year that's past and what I've learned about working in Affiliate Marketing ...?

1) You will keep learning.

Affiliate Marketing is constantly evolving, always changing and requires constant awareness of what's changed in the market.?Whether it's new offer types, networks opening or closing down , ad blocking affecting results or anything else, there is always something for Affiliates and Affiliate Marketers to learn.?If Affiliates aren't studying changes they make mistakes helps them to learn because everything they do is impacting their bottom line earnings. It should be one of your main goals to help Affiliates implement these learnings to promote your business?

2) You may fail. Epically.

You can't be afraid of failure in this industry. If you are - you'll never keep learning. The truth is you'll use these failures to propel your strategy forward - every time because that's what we do to grow our ideas to test our limits and to get the most out of this channel - every day.?

Affiliate Marketing is a form of marketing that requires Affiliates to adopt and adapt new strategies on the fly. Affiliates will often fail with some ideas but those failures can be used as an opportunity to learn together and grow as a team.?

Sometimes Affiliates may try something way out there, especially when they've had some success and sometimes it doesn't work for your business the way you think it might. This means it takes a little longer for results to come through than originally anticipated which could lead to Affiliates or Affiliate Marketers feeling less positive about what they're doing but?you have to just trust that it will work out in the end and give it the right amount of time to properly bed in!?

3) You will grow your revenue / sales.

Affiliate Marketing isn't just traffic generation, yes it's a great way to increase Revenue or Sales through your site but it also allows you as the Merchant to keep your other marketing costs down. Affiliates don't like paying for advertising and neither do Merchants - it can be a costly and expensive exercise that not all businesses have the budget to focus on.?Affiliate marketing allows you to access multivariate traffic sources in small increments at no upfront cost for those clicks or impressions.?This means you can spend more on those area's that actually convert and see an overall uplift in Revenue sooner than if you tested each source of traffic directly itself.?

4) You will learn to be agile.

If we look at the previous two points about failing epically and increasing revenue you'll understand that in this market - you really want to be able to respond to customer demand and be agile to pick up on opportunities your affiliates are bringing to the table.??Affiliates help you to be agile with your marketing, with your budget and with your focus.Embracing the feedback they give you and reviewing the results they deliver, can drive incremental growth in your marketing strategy when you are open to this kind of feedback and collaboration. We all know that Affiliates aren't going to sit around waiting for something to happen if they've already tried it out using their own money but they also can't properly scale without your support to capitalise on it.?

5) You will learn and understand the?true value?of relationships.

It's not easy running a successful Affiliate Program?- it takes a lot of time and understanding to build relationships with new partners and build trust. If it was everyone would be doing it! But I'm sure we'd also agree that if we didn't like what we did, why would we go to work each day or do something we love? For more than two decades I've been orchestrating the launch and scale of affiliate marketing programs around the globe and across a range of industries. In every situation the programs that drive growth and scale are the one's that invest in the long term relationship building with partners who go on to earn millions of dollars in revenue each year.?

For me - knowing you're helping others succeed is an essential ingredient in the success of an Affiliate Marketing program - because when people feel valued, they work better together to deliver KPI targets and goals.?Patience might be a virtue you have to invest in when starting an affiliate program from the ground up - and it can take about 6-9 months?to see ROI emerge but the point is - relationships do matter in this business and those that invest in this methodology reap the real rewards.?

Partners are not just traffic drivers, they are an extension of your business and you're in house marketing team. Treat them the same as you would your employees with dignity , respect and consideration and the numbers will always follow. Affiliates like to know their efforts are appreciated and that their opinions matter without embracing this - its going to be a hard road ahead!

What I think next year will bring...

As we focus on looking forward to the latest digital trends and affiliate marketing developments we'll be facing in 2022, why don't you also take a moment and reflect on the above and see what these points can help you do to improve your program performance in the months to come??

If you're feeling a bit stuck or you want to listen to what other's are seeing and doing to grow their affiliate programmes, come?join us (and 800+ or so other Digital Marketers and Publishers)?at our FREE AffiliateINSIDER Summit?and learn exactly how to?AMPLIFY your performance?and partnership growth. The Summit is taking place virtually over the course of 17-18 January 2022 and it is FREE to register and all of you are welcome.