John has a new bag company and to maximize sales, he asked Thomas, Anna, and Angel if they would like to sell on his behalf and they agreed. For each bag they sold, they earned a percentage of the original price of the bag (commission).
That is affiliate marketing. But in layman’s terms; Affiliate marketing is when you agree with a person or company, to sell their products on their behalf, for a percentage of the original price of the product(commission).
Examples of affiliate marketing platforms are Amazon, JayVeeZoo, ClickBank, Rakuten, and so on. The major affiliate marketing platforms in Nigeria are 7DC, Learnoflix, Selar, Expertnaire, and Jumia.
Steps to Starting Affiliate Marketing:
1. Pick a Platform
Find out;
•Their terms and conditions
•If the cut they give affiliates is okay with you
•If they have training sessions for beginners in affiliate marketing
•If they offer quality information about products
•If they have pedigree so that you won’t be scammed
•If you have to pay. Some affiliate marketing programs are free while some are not. The paid ones ask you to pay to commit and probably give you access to training sessions, as a beginner.
2. Pick a Product
Pick a product you know you will be comfortable selling to people. For example, the product you want to sell is Flats.
3. Pick a Medium
Choose a medium or media where you will sell the product you picked, is it social media, blogs, or YouTube? You can pick more than one, but be most active on at least one.
We’ll pick Instagram and Facebook for your flats because they are more adapted for pictures.
4. Identify Your Target Audience
Identify the people who need the solution the product you are promoting provides. For your Flats, your target audience could be pregnant women.
5. Engage in Content Marketing
Content Marketing means setting a goal for the content you share online. Your goal is to sell and it will help you do that much faster and better, as a beginner in affiliate marketing.
6. Run Advertisements
Advertisements could either be paid or organic advertisements, which you don’t have to pay for. As a beginner in affiliate marketing, it is best to do organic first, because it puts more in the process of selling, which would set a template for selling to prospects you get with paid advertisement.
7. Turn Your Prospects into Customers
This is the point where you finally close your prospect. Although closing is a process that starts right from when your prospect gets into your funnel to when they buy your product. So, we’re selling flats, right? Right.
If a pregnant woman comes up with an objection, like she doesn’t have money for your flats, remind her of the pain of wearing other painful footwear and tell her about the benefits she and her baby would get. Help her visualize and feel the ease of wearing your flats.
8. Learn more, Rinse, Tweak, and Repeat
Go back to check the strategies you’ve used, tweak the strategies and repeat the process.
Final Thoughts
Affiliate marketing is one of the simplest ways to make money online today. You don’t need to be a course creator. All you have to do is to learn how to sell and sell.
You’re here because you are a beginner in affiliate marketing. You can learn all the skills you need to thrive in the affiliate marketing business, right now on 7DC.
Written by Rahmah Solves
Marketer Response 