Blog Post

The competitive landscape of the modern market is constantly changing. Big leaders can be swallowed up by scrappy start-ups at any moment, and customer loyalty can shift in the blink of an eye. Affiliate marketing provides a valuable bulwark against uncertainty, and keeps your business growing in change-heavy times.

Follow these ten pieces of advice to keep your business growing with affiliate marketing.

1. Know Thyself.

To compete and make progress in affiliate marketing, you must have a clearly defined consumer proposition and know how it fits into the competitive landscape. You may know your products really deliver what they promise, but they may also be cheaper than competitor offerings so you may want to consider promoting value ahead of anything else. Or maybe not. Suspend your biases and don’t assume you can win just by entering the marketplace. Take a step back and really weigh all of the dynamics. How can we engage more people?

2. Know Your Audience.

Define your ideal customer and focus on their wants, interests and buying behaviors. Don’t make assumptions—you may be surprised to learn how many doctors, lawyers, and chief executives are hardcore gamers or motorcycle enthusiasts, for instance. Get to know your audience!

3. Identify Advertisers.

Not all brands are the same. Some thrive on coupon code publishers. Some focus on more thought-provoking content. Take time to discover where your competitors and allies thrive. And look for under-exploited gaps

4. Identify Publishers.

It may sound counter-intuitive, but it’s true: Micro-influencers with less than 1,000 followers can be just as effective as a widely known media conglomerate with millions of visitors. It can be better to have 10 new customers from a small loyal audience, than having 10 repeat customers from a big publisher making their 4th purchase. Put a focus on finding publishers that help you attract new customers.

5. Know Your Metrics.

Get on top of the data. Your numbers are your pathway to better results. You need to know your seasonal and off-season numbers like AOV, ROAS, traffic, conversion rates, and forecasted revenue for specific publisher types to grow your program.

6. Hire an Affiliate Marketing Agency.

Get an A-team with access to critical data and deep publisher knowledge on your side. There are many affiliate marketing agencies to choose from. Gen3 provides a dedicated team of affiliate experts who constantly look at industry trends to elevate our clients from average to market-leading performance using best practices, superior data, publisher insights and a teamwork-based approach to success.

7. Find the Right Affiliate Marketing Manager.

Ensure that you are aligned with the person behind your affiliate program. If you’re looking for a specific personality type or someone who is in line with brand values, make sure you don’t settle for anything else. Ensure that the driver of the affiliate arm of your marketing strategy is just as excited to change the world as you are.

8. Define Golas.

Keep the end goal in mind. Then take actionable steps to move closer to the goal.

9. Be Realistic.

Dream big, but keep your feet on the ground. Are you going to make $1m your first year? Maybe. Perhaps five years is more realistic. It’s about sitting down with your affiliate manager and discussing what works and what doesn’t.

10. Have Fun.

Gen3 is here to make money for all parties involved. We ENJOY what we do for a living. We like getting to know people, making our team a tight-knit group that thrives in the team-based culture of our agency. We also love all of the collaboration we do with the people at the clients and publishers we work with. We like to have fun and know that enjoying our work is critical to our success.

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