Why Affiliate Marketing is Good for E-Commerce

Posted 09-07-2012 by Christina

Every website owner should be aware that in order to drive traffic to your site you need to invest in a good marketing strategy, otherwise you will drown in a sea of competition that is the digital world of e-commerce. If you own a relatively new website your traffic may not be astounding and so you will be testing the waters of marketing and dipping into various pools to identify where you will sink or swim. You may invest in PPC (Pay Per Click) advertisements to rank higher in Google immediately and become visible to audiences searching for relevant products to your site. The entire science behind PPC is for you to be audience specific by optimising the products you sell and advertising them in a way that is engaging - to encourage a click through to your site from your advert. However, the most appealing factors are that you only pay to advertise when someone clicks on your advert through to your site, and that you immediately appear at the top of Google if your adverts reach between positions 1 and 3.

The Appeal of PPC in Short:

Keyword specific marketing
Control over the devices and times that your Ads appear
You only pay when someone clicks through to your site from your Ad. Presenting your Ad in Google search results is free but you do have to bid for its advert position
Quick marketing method to appear at the top of Google

I’m a big fan of PPC as a starting platform for new websites but the one thing that it struggles to do is provide you with brand recognition. Yes you may be increasing your brand awareness by making your brand more visible within results but it doesn’t mean that you are seen to be a trusted brand. If you own an e-commerce site then you may be interested to know that in a recent survey organised by Drapers focused on how people research before they buy online, 46.55% of participants confirmed that they begin their research via their favourite retailer’s websites before making an online purchase. This is great if you are one of their trusted brands as you already have a loyal customer base, but if you don’t you could benefit from ‘Affiliate Marketing Services.’ E-Consultancy’s Chris Bishop blogged ‘47% of shoppers agreed that they are more likely to buy products if it appears on multiple sites,compared with only seeing the product on the retailer site itself’ following this week’s ‘Linkshare Affliates Symposium.’ This is because when your brand is seen on another trusted website it is deemed to be a reputable source and will encourage more traffic to your site. The key to ‘Affiliate Marketing’ again would be recognising who your target audience are and where else they may visit or shop online for example: If you are a fashion e-tailer you will want to be linked to similar websites as opposed to DIY sites that are irrelevant to your product offering and unlikely to convert in a click through to your site.

The Appeal of Affiliate Marketing in Short:

Increases Brand Awareness and presents you as a trusted site
Less risk and generates more ROI than traditional methods of marketing such as advertising in a publication or paying a substantial amount of money to advertise on social platforms such as MSN or Facebook
Is a cheaper method of reaching new audience demographics as a trial as you don’t pay the affiliate unless someone clicks through to your site from theirs and makes a purchase (usually a percentage of the sale)
If you have analytics you can identify which affiliates work best as you can view the sites that appear in your ‘referral traffic’ and compare the conversions that they provide for your site

Like any marketing a strategy is required before work commences. If you are unfamiliar with how to plan an Affiliate Marketing Strategy then you can take a look at our services help pages for further advice. Affiliate Marketing helps to build reassurance and although the digital world has evolved and worked hard to become more secure, there are those that have been victims of or are very aware of online fraud so you can help your site to promote itself as a little more friendly and a little less scary and unknown with a good strategy. To learn more about marketing methods and strategies that help to improve your fashion e-commerce, follow my blog.