- This global crisis has forced
businesses around the world to tighten their belts. And the one area that's
really felt the squeeze is marketing budgets, which have been cut in almost
half over the past year. Kind of sucks. This has forced digital marketers to become extremely resourceful in order to achieve their goals. So what if I told you that
there is a time tested marketing strategy with almost zero startup costs that can deliver steady revenue
for almost any business? Well, in this video
I'm gonna introduce you to affiliate marketing and
all the ways it can be used by savvy marketers to
generate sales and sign-ups. To learn more check the
description below to download HubSpot's free ultimate
guide to affiliate marketing. And while you're down there, click the subscribe button and
ring the notifications bell while you're at it. HubSpot defines affiliate marketing as a performance-based marketing tactic in which an online retailer
rewards an affiliate with a commission for
each customer it refers. The affiliate will get paid
when their referral results in a transaction. Put even more simply, for people like me who are slow readers, you know what I'm saying? Affiliate marketers help
sell your product or service and receive a commission
on what they sell. There are some obvious
advantages to this arrangement. The first is relatively low cost of entry. With affiliate marketing there's
no need to spend a fortune on media buys or staffing
large marketing departments. At its bare minimum all you need to start an affiliate marketing
program is the ability to recruit affiliates, track performance, and make payments. And there are literally
hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions and
billions of affiliate marketing networks that provide these services. There are also niche affiliate
networks that specialize in specific industries like
health and wellness, or specific products like
software and digital goods. There's even one just for crypto trading, off to the moon we go,
you know what I'm saying? And there are networks that
specialize in promoting specific demographics like black owned businesses and other minority groups. Whatever network you choose
they'll match your brand with the right affiliates, provide the tools for
them to sell your product, and manage payments. The cost to you is usually
just a modest set up fee and a percentage of the transactions the network facilitates. Which brings us to the second advantage of affiliate marketing, low risk. Marketers spend billions
of dollars on campaigns without much of the way of guarantees that a particular program
will produce results. I did that once for Janva. Still in the red. Never gonna make it out frankly. Pray for me. With affiliate marketing
you only pay commission once a sale is made. The cost of creating content
and getting it to an audience is all bore by the affiliate. That's why most affiliates are
creators who already have an audience and are already looking
for a way to monetize it. Which leads to affiliate
marketing benefit number three, affiliate marketers can expose
your brand to a new audience that you aren't reaching
through your own channels. And the best affiliates
integrate your product in a way that is holistic with the
rest of their content. That's important because
92% of consumers trust an influencer more than an advertisement or traditional celebrity endorsement. So unlike Mint Mobile, the whole thing with like
Ryan Reynolds kind of worked, kind of didn't work. So the less that affiliate
marketing program feels like a sales pitch, the better it will usually perform. Now you might be asking
what's the difference between affiliate marketing and
influencer marketing? The answer is no one knows. Just kidding. It's easy to understand
why there's confusion between the two. After all affiliate marketers
are by definition influencers and plenty of influencers make money by joining affiliate marketing programs. But generally speaking influencer
campaigns are really good at achieving KPIs like
brand reach, awareness, and sentiment, but not
necessarily for driving sales. Plus a lot of influencer
marketing campaigns require the advertiser to pay a predetermined fee. This makes the risk of
influencers marketing higher than affiliate marketing. Finally, influencer marketing
generally requires you to pay a lot more attention to campaigns. In fact, 67% of marketers prefer
their influencer marketing to be campaign based
rather than always on. Affiliate marketing
programs on the other hand, tend to be long running
and low maintenance. One of the world's first
affiliate marketing programs succeeded by completely
automating the process. Amazon's associates program
in many ways invented modern affiliate marketing
when it launched in 1996, which also happens to be the year that the Nintendo 64 was released. Coincidence?
(gentle music) Yeah, probably. There had been online affiliate programs dating back to 1989, but they were executed
via traditional deals with specific partners. Jeff Bezos' idea was to allow anyone with a website to sell books, because that's all Amazon
sold in 1996, just books. Anyone could sign up and
get banners with custom URLs that let Amazon know where
a sale was coming from and pay that affiliate a commission. Today it's estimated that
1% of websites in the world are part of Amazon's associates network and they sell obviously
a lot more than books. But let's take a step back
and assume you're not going to invent a once in a
generation retail revolution and become the world's richest man, and try to battle the
other world's richest man, in a race to colonize Mars. I mean, you could do that. I just, I don't think
it's probably gonna happen for you unfortunately. Maybe you just think
affiliate marketing could be a smart way to increase your business. If you are uncertain, start by considering what
it is you're selling. Virtually any product
or service can be sold via affiliate marketing, but
some perform particularly well. Fashion is a major benefactor
of affiliate marketing, making up 25% of the total industry. But almost as popular are
things like financial products, travel, even dating. Don't ask me how I know that. Subscription boxes and
services are also popular with affiliates because they
create a recurring revenue stream that doesn't require a
constant influx of new sales. Business and marketing
services also do well with affiliate marketing. In fact, and here's a
little secret for you. HubSpot runs its own affiliate
marketing program that allows partners to earn commissions
with no signup fees or minimum sales requirements. So you might be asking, well, what doesn't work well with
affiliate marketing Jamal? Excellent question. Products and services
with longer sales funnels have a harder time attributing sales and therefore commissions to affiliates. Another thing to consider is the margin on the item you're selling. Affiliate commissions and
network fees can take anywhere from 10 to 50% of revenue
off the top of each sale. The higher the percentage you offer, the more incentivized affiliates will be to push your product over someone else's. So if you're in a high
volume, low margin business, the numbers might not
work out in your favor. But assuming yours is one of
the millions of businesses that can use affiliate marketing
to increase sales and profits there's no better time to
get started than right now. To learn more about growing your business through digital marketing, sign up and take the free
HubSpot academy course on digital marketing. And don't forget to
subscribe to this channel for even more ways to grow your business. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go invent time travel, beat Jeff at his own game in 1996. Maybe you won't see me anymore after this, you know what I'm saying? Maybe I'll, maybe Janva
will have blown up. Until then, I'll see you next time. (gentle music) And don't forget to (blabbering). And don't forget to subscribe. You know what, forget
subscribing, don't even subscribe. Don't, don't do it.
