9 Advanced Affiliate Marketing Strategies That Convert

Affiliate marketing has been a popular way to make money passively for a long time. It’s like being a superhero sidekick where you help promote someone else’s product, and in return, you get a commission for every sale made through a unique referral link.

Recently, it has gained even more attention as a cost-effective and low-risk approach to promoting products or services online. Expert Market reports that the average marketing cost for small to midsize businesses should range between 10-20% of their revenue.

These costs can be significantly lower if businesses integrate affiliate marketing into their overall marketing strategy.

Advanced Strategies for Affiliate Marketing

According to Russel Brunson, Co-Founder of ClickFunnels, being an affiliate marketer is very cost-effective. You don’t have to invest much in an affiliate program to gain a lot. However, you need a strong affiliate marketing strategy to reach your full sales potential.

Ready to kickstart your affiliate marketing journey? Try these nine advanced strategies and increase your conversions in 2023 and beyond.

1.   Build Relationships

Succeeding in affiliate marketing needs strong relationships with your partners and customers. You can create tailored campaigns that speak directly to your target audience by building trust and understanding their needs.

As the famous marketer Diane Sanfilippo once said, “The money is in the list, but the relationship is in the tribe.” When you have a positive relationship with an affiliate, they are more likely to recommend the products or services to others, leading to increased sales and commissions.

Building relationships with other affiliates can also be beneficial, as it can lead to joint marketing efforts and sharing of resources and strategies.

2.   Consider Influencer Marketing

Creating partnerships with influencers in your industry is a perfect way to expand your reach and tap into new audiences. Influencers have built-in audiences that trust and follow their recommendations, making it easy to drive sales through their channels.

According to the Influencer Marketing Hub, influencer marketing is still lucrative in 2023, with Facebook being influencers’ most preferred social media platform. If well implemented in your affiliate marketing strategy, influencer marketing campaigns can generate up to 10x the ROI of traditional digital marketing.

3.   Use Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing ranks among the most cost-effective affiliate marketing channels available. As per the email marketing statistics for 2023, the average expected ROI is $40 for every $1 you spend on email marketing.

It allows you to develop targeted campaigns that speak directly to your audience by building a list of email subscribers. You can promote special deals and discounts to these email lists and incentivize subscribers to purchase through the affiliate’s link.

4.   Content Marketing

Content marketing is essential to any affiliate marketing strategy. One way to leverage it is to create in-depth reviews or tutorials about the products you’re promoting. This effectively showcases the product’s value and may increase readers’ likelihood of clicking on your affiliate link and purchasing.

In short, by providing valuable content that educates and entertains your audience, you’ll be able to “butter them up” and make them more likely to trust your recommendations and click on your affiliate links.

5.   Increase Social Media Presence

Building a strong presence on social media allows you to reach new audiences and connect with customers in a more personal way. Top affiliate marketers like Pat Flynn have been relying on this strategy to create more connections and increase their reach.

On 20 Sep 2022, Pat Flynn organized a 1-hour affiliate marketing workshop on YouTube to show his audience how to master affiliate marketing. This is just among the few ways he has managed to build an online presence and reach new audiences.

Pat is also the creator of the business website Smart Passive Income (SIP), which helps bloggers grow their audiences and monetize their work utilizing innovative techniques.

6.   Take Advantage of Referral Marketing

Referral marketing drive sales by leveraging the power of word-of-mouth. It is a marketing strategy that you can use to encourage existing customers to refer new customers to your business. As an affiliate marketer, you can use referral marketing by:

• Offering a referral program: Offer a commission or a reward to customers who refer new customers to your affiliate program.
• Creating referral links: Create unique links for each customer to track their referrals and ensure they receive the proper commission or reward.
• Recognizing and rewarding top referrers: Show appreciation to your customers who refer the most business by offering special incentives or bonuses.

By incentivizing customers to refer their friends and family, you can tap into the power of social proof and increase conversions. According to a study by Nielson, 92% of consumers are more likely to trust recommendations from friends and family than any other form of advertising.

7.   Use SEO to Drive Traffic

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to any affiliate marketing strategy. Optimizing your website for search engines increases your visibility, drives more traffic, and ultimately boosts your sales.

Use SEO as an affiliate marketing strategy by conducting keyword research to identify key terms and phrases people search for in relation to your niche or product. You can then optimize your website’s content and meta tags to include those keywords.

You’ll increase the likelihood of your site ranking well in search results for those terms and make it easier to drive your affiliate marketing campaign. As the famous SEO expert, Neil Patel said, “SEO is not about tricking Google. It’s about partnering with Google to provide the best search results for Google’s users.”

8.   Leverage Paid Advertising

Paid advertising involves another powerful tool for driving sales through affiliate marketing. One way to use paid advertising as an affiliate marketing strategy is to set up campaigns on platforms such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads.

These platforms allow you to create ads targeting specific audiences based on keywords, demographics, and interests. As an affiliate marketer, you can use these ads to promote products or services by including your unique affiliate link in the ad.

You earn a commission when a user clicks on the ad and makes a purchase. Track the performance of your campaigns and optimize them accordingly to get the best ROI.

9.   Retargeting

Retargeting is a powerful way to increase conversions by reaching out to people who have already visited your site. It involves showing ads to people interested in your products and increasing the likelihood of a sale.

As an affiliate marketing strategy, you can use retargeting to re-engage users who have shown interest in a product or service and encourage them to purchase. Here are key ways you can leverage it in your affiliate marketing strategy:

• Use the data collected to create targeted ads shown to those who have previously interacted with your site or mobile app.
• Use affiliate links in the retargeting ads to direct users to the advertised product or service.
• Track the performance of your retargeting campaign and adjust your strategy accordingly to optimize results.

Final Thoughts

These top 9 affiliate marketing strategies can help you convert and increase your revenue in 2023 and beyond. To learn more about affiliate marketing, consider attending global affiliate marketing events such as International Conference on Affiliate Marketing and Management (ICAMM), hosted by the International Research Conference.

They host several similar conferences yearly to gather scholarly information about affiliate marketing. Interested authors can research and submit a paper for consideration for the conference. This year’s event is January 30-31, 2023, in New York.