Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. We're back with another episode of The Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Today we're talking about affiliate links. What are your feelings on them?
Melanie
I'm not a big fan of affiliate links myself. I've got a few affiliate links through some of the suppliers that I have, but my audience don't really click on them much in fairness. I know they do-.
Esther
Do you click on other people's affiliate links or is it a real turn off for you?
Melanie
I know we hate saying this, but it depends. I do click on affiliate links, especially when I know that they're likely to benefit me. So it's like downloads, okay? Downloads is essentially an affiliate link, because... But then you've got, I'd like to get a good price for a new service or product or something like that. And maybe some provider is offering a discount. But that's quite explicit. They're explaining it quite explicitly. But no, generally I don't click on affiliate links.
Esther
Okay, so let's backtrack a little bit. For those that don't know what affiliate marketing is, it is when a provider gives you a special link that will generate you an income if people click that link and purchase their product or service.
Melanie
Okay, that's the percentage of the sale, isn't it? Or maybe even a fixed amount.
Esther
Yeah, again, the word. It depends on who it is and what it's with. Obviously, Melanie and I have been talking now for three years about our love for Agorapulse, and we are ambassadors of Agorapulse and we have affiliate links for Agorapulse. It has generated me a little bit of income based on one or two of my clients or people that follow me generating it or clicking on it. But that's not always the case because, well, for me, I'm always wary about clicking on affiliate links because you wonder from time to time if the person actually believes in the product.
Melanie
Yeah, especially influencers.
Esther
Yeah, definitely. You're looking at all these people and it says on their thing paid ad or paid sponsorship, or you're going through someone's website and the link has to say that the links may be affiliate or are affiliate links and that they can generate money through them. So you do wonder if they really do believe in the product or service that they are promoting, or if it's just another way of them to generate income?
Melanie
I guess the sum of it is down to the way that people portray themselves normally. There's a couple of people I follow on TikTok. I'm not going to give any names right now. They're really very humorous, quite very funny, interesting, humorous people. I know that it's all well planned and well thought out, but I feel like I understand what their brand is. Then they do these paid partnerships with stuff and I'm like, this is so unbelievable.
Esther
Yeah, especially if it has something that has nothing to do with their product-
Melanie
Not directly.
Esther
about what they're saying.
Melanie
Yeah, I can see that it's probably their audience. It would be something I would be interested in or something I'd want to buy. But this guy is a jerk and he's hilarious.
Esther
He really shouldn't, yeah.
Melanie
I find him amusing. I actually look for him if he doesn't show up on my For You page and that stuff. Then he does something… Meh.
Esther
Yeah and you know that it's scripted or you know that. It's -
Melanie
It's been approved anyway.
Esther
-put on... It's forced sometimes.
Melanie
Because they've only got so many minutes. They've agreed to do it in a certain time period and for certainly a certain amount of time. But I'm digressing here. But it really is something that not all of your audience is going to like and appreciate. And it can even turn off some people if they feel that they're getting too many of these paid partnerships.
Esther
Yeah. Now you made a really valid point there where It should align-.
Melanie
I do that.
Esther
I know from time to time you do. But the affiliate that you go with should really align with your values, with your services, what you provide. If you are a small business and you are sharing out affiliate links and you're telling people that they are affiliate links because that's what you should do, they should be things that you truly believe in or that you have indeed used. Like I said, Melanie and I have affiliate links for Agorapulse. And you guys know, if you've listened to any of our episodes, we mention them quite a bit. You know that we've used them, you know that we like them, you know that we find their service and their product good value and good quality. I shared out one recently for AtomaCon, which is a conference in Newcastle, England, that Melanie and I attended in June 2023. I was very clear in my message that, yes, this is an affiliate link because it is something that I really believe other small business owners should go to. Again, got a couple of clicks through that and got a nice little amount of money back from it. It's one of those things, I think if you're clear enough in your message, if you are are very, not O-T-T about, yes, I am going also, or yes, I definitely use this and I love it to bits, then people are more likely to believe you. Plus, we've been sharing videos and photos of our time in AtomaCon, not videos of me, obviously. But our audience know that we were there. They know that we bought our ticket before we even left. Adding in all those elements gives you that, as you said, element of credibility, believability. So when we have-.
Melanie
Excuse me.
Esther
Other people sharing, like if it was a guy sharing about skincare products for women, I'd be like, Really? I don't think you use those. Even if your wife does, it's not you that's using them and seeing the difference in your skin. It has to be something that brands aren't just going, Oh, they've got a large audience. Let's just jump on their audience. It has to be beneficial to everyone in my opinion.
Melanie
Yeah, no, I agree. And it is considered by many people as low cost and low risk and something that you can scale as well. So with this knowledge in mind, how does affiliate marketing work?
Esther
Well, you are given a link to the site, for example, in the case of, let's just say, AtomaCon, you're given the link to the site that people can go and buy their tickets. But at the end of that link is a little tail, a little tag that has your information so that the guys of AtomaCon know who it was that the person recommended the event to.
Melanie
So it's a tracking ID, basically.
Esther
It's the tracking ID that links to your account and they can go, Oh, yeah. So, Esther told these people and they bought through this link. That's wonderful. Thank you, Esther. Here's the money for your hard work or you're sharing with your audience. It's beneficial to the guys, like you said, because they get to a wider audience, because my audience have now seen about the event. And like I said, it's low risk. If nobody sells a ticket through the affiliate link, doesn't cost them anything. Or it costs them very little just to have the affiliate package in place because there is a cost to setting up an affiliate. There is a cost to have that easily.
Melanie
Yeah, they have a separate website, don't they? They have a separate website for that where they can add each person's. So if I joined the AtomaCon affiliate, it would be their website and Melanie. And that would be a way of identifying each person that's providing the affiliate. Or maybe not a person's name, but it may be a business name just to help break it up as well.
Esther
Yeah, and it's definitely more helpful than someone going, Oh, well, I shared it with 20 people and five of them said they were going to go. So of those five, I should get a cutback. And you're going, Well, I don't know if those five signed up or maybe they signed up but went through a different link, somebody else's link, or they went back to it a few days later after they thought about it or after they'd seen more about the event in this case and said, Definitely, yeah, I'm going to sign up, but they go through the normal link. So all of these tracking devices help the organisers and the businesses. I can see exactly how many people are going through your link, staying on your link and buying through your link rather than going, Well, yes, but I saw it also in Melanie's, and I saw it also on somebody else's and somebody else's. And because all 10 of them had an affiliate link, I didn't want to give anybody preference over the other. So I just went through the home page and find them.
Melanie
And that's how they quickly find out who your ambassadors are and who are your influences for your product or your services. So this link takes your customer over to the separate website. For this example, we're saying, AtomaCon. They'll sign up, they'll get an email from AtomaCon, they're not from the separate website, introducing them to the event. That same email where they signed up will then go to a backend dashboard, and that will explain to people who signed up for it? And this is done every month. There's money set aside immediately for you as your kickback, I suppose. And that would then go to you at the end of the month. Or sometimes they say you need to make so much money before you get a payment. So maybe you need to have over 100 dollars or over 100 euro or something like that before you can get the money. And so you may end up waiting a couple of months for people to click and sign up.
Esther
Yeah, and some of them are quarterly.
Melanie
Some of them are quarterly, yeah.
Esther
They have their set cutoff points. They have their set cutoff dates. Sorry, and they automatically send out after that. Another way that an affiliate can be set up is if they give you a discount code.
Melanie
True.
Esther
That way then they also can see that they have input a certain code from a certain influencer or a certain, we're not saying that we're influencers by any means, but say the guys at AtomaCon said, use your name as say, put in the coupon code, Esther24, and you'll get a discount for 2024's AtomaCon, for example. The guys can clearly see where the person has come from, and then obviously if it's discounted ticket, then you get less of the affiliate because like we said at the start, it is based on percentages of what is sold. That's just very simple overview. Now, if you were to go and set up your own affiliate links, it's a very good idea to set some ground rules first as to what's the percentage? What are you wanting to give people as their kickback for promoting you or saying how great you are? What is in it? Essentially, what's in it for them? Because nobody does anything free these days. Why should they do it? More than just the kickback. Why is your event or your product or your service is so great that people will be promoting it? Are you going to provide your affiliates with images and text and like Melanie said, pre-approved information so that they can share it out? Or do you want to just let them go a little bit rogue and say things more from the heart. Because if you're also on social media seeing the same message from 20 different people, the exact same cutter, cookie cutter, if I could speak today, cookie cutter text, I'm tripping over myself, then you're probably less likely as a consumer to click on it because you know that it's a script. Because people are very astute these days.
Melanie
Especially these days.
Esther
Yeah, because it's easy to go in and search for different wordings and different things and see that, like I said, 20, 30 people have the exact same thing. They might have different audiences. You might only see one person's pop up in your feed. But if it's the same text, if you're scrolling through the videos on popular video platforms, you'll probably see the same ones promoted two or three or four times in the space of the R that you think you're scrolling, that it's actually two R's. So that to me just puts me right off. Again, it's a very personal thing whether you click on an affiliate link or not.
Melanie
Can I ask you something actually? When do you think it is ready to add affiliate links as a form of marketing for your business? I mean, I suppose you do need a bit of a presence first, don't you? You need a bit of an online presence before you consider them?
Esther
Well, yeah, you'd need some an audience beforehand. But I think you also need not a high ticket item, but something that's certainly not selling at 10 dollars or 10 pounds.
Melanie
You're so great at unknowing segues.
Esther
Yeah, I'm so oblivious to these things. I think if you have, say, over 50 quids worth, 50 bucks worth of a product, then you could start thinking of affiliate because people don't want less than a fiver for their hard work and effort of sharing out your stuff. Let's go back to the example of AtomaCon. The ticket was 180, I think. So you're going to want... That's a good price to get a percentage back from. Whether it's 10%, say, almost 20 quid or 40%, you're not going to, well, guide this guy's eyes out either. I think it's common between 10 and 20 % for an affiliate. So if you're only going for 50 quid, it's not really worth the person's effort either. What do you think, Melanie?
Melanie
Well, the segue I was trying to mention there was that you went off on one.
Esther
Yeah, sorry.
Melanie
There's three particular types that you may want to consider, okay? There's high paying, low volume, which is what you're talking about.
Esther
Okay. Yeah.
Melanie
Yeah. So there's going to be fewer buyers, but it's going to be a good return for you. Then there's low paying, high volume. Small games, I don't know, marketplace, anything you've bought and then you're reselling, that would be low paying, high volume, that thing. Then high paying, high volume. This would be professional services or expensive equipment or stuff like that that you're potentially trying to do affiliate marketing on. So you've got to work out which of these three is going to suit, first of all, your customer, then your brand, because obviously if you're trying to sell something really high paying, high volume, and you're really not recognised as that, it's not going to work. So there is a fair bit of work that needs to go in before you need to look at affiliate programmes. But I don't think there's really any bad time to start them. As long as you explain to people what's in it for them.
Esther
Yeah, now I do think, because you mentioned high paying, low volume, low paying, high volume, but there wasn't a low paying, low volume in there. So you wouldn't want to have one for yourself or be connected to one that has a very low uptake that people will less likely to.
Melanie
Exactly it's not beneficial to either of you then.
Esther
Be doing it. Yeah, and you're only going to get a small percentage back. That's like you said, not beneficial to either party. So if you're going to start being an affiliate or having an affiliate link, do your research, number one. Are your customers the type of people who would click on an affiliate link? Are your customers the type of people who would want to have an affiliate link that they can share with their audience? And, Melanie and I are talking about our audience as our business audience in the case of the AtomaCon ones, but we also have personal audiences on our personal pages and on our personal profiles who also could benefit from more personalised services. So say you were setting up, I don't know, a party business, and for every person that you refer to this party business that hires the person to throw their party for them, you get a percentage of the sale.
Melanie
Yeah, I've heard that before.
Esther
Everyone likes a party. That's more of a personal thing than a business thing. So I would share that to my personal audience. If you're having a business event, share it to the business audience. So there are pros and cons to having an affiliate link. There's pros and cons to being an affiliate. It's just at the end of the day, it depends on your audience, what you're selling, how you're selling it, and goes back to your market research and it goes back to your customer journey and everything else that we have spent so many hours each episode. Well, not hours each episode, but you know what I mean. Talking about and the number of hours that we've spent over the last 180 odd episodes explaining to you about what you need to do. So do your research, see if it's the right fit for you. See, even test it. There's nothing to stop you testing and trialling any of the things that we've mentioned today about affiliates.
Melanie
I wonder how many times we said affiliates.
Esther
We should get paid for every time we mention it. On that note, guys, that's for today. We'll be back next week with more Monday Morning Marketing. Until then, bye-bye.
Melanie
Bye, guys. Oh, and if anybody wants to make us an affiliate, yeah, let us know.
Esther
Yeah.
