…Using Both Digital and Affiliate Marketing 
The Importance of a Digital Marketing Strategy
The value of digital marketing is the same for large corporations as it is for small businesses. Not only has it changed the way we communicate, both leisurely and professionally, but it has given businesses large and small an opportunity, a platform, if you will, to grow at rapid speed.
However you choose to define growth (i.e., CTA’s, conversion rates, traffic, ROI, sales, engagement, social media following, impressions, etc.), it’s imperative to have a strategy in place to achieve it. When done correctly, digital marketing is also the most cost-effective strategy available, coming at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing with the ability to return multiples of what a traditional campaign would convert.
The value of having an online presence in business is becoming undeniable, even necessary. Those without a well-thought-out digital strategy will inevitably fall to the wayside and suffer the consequences. In contrast, those who realize the importance of digital marketing and implement it effectively will reap the rewards.
Growing a business in today’s digital landscape requires a streamlined, efficient, and effective digital marketing strategy; without one, your business is simply being run blind. So, this article is here to guide you for those ready to take your business to new heights!
Affiliate Marketing and How it Works
In short, affiliate marketing, a subtype of performance marketing, can be thought of as a process or strategy whereby businesses collaborate/partner with other companies, influencers, ambassadors, or websites to promote their product or service.
While there are several ways in which an affiliate partnership can function, it typically involves a referral-based agreement whereby the affiliate promotes said product/service on a medium of their choice in exchange for a commission or percentage of sales. This partnership is intended to benefit both parties.
There are several types of affiliate marketing; however, we won’t detail this article. Instead, the following is a general overview of how a standard affiliate partnership works…
– Affiliate shares product/service link on agreed-upon medium (i.e., website, social media page, etc.)
– A lead clicks the affiliate link and ends up making a purchase
– A commission is paid to the affiliate
– The business receives a sale; both parties win
Of course, affiliate marketing can become much more complex than the partnership illustrated above. Nevertheless, that’s affiliate marketing in a nutshell!
Nine Ways to Boost Your Business
There are endless ways to boost your business regarding digital and affiliate marketing. While an effective digital strategy should involve a multifaceted, comprehensive approach that comprises several techniques, it can be challenging to know where to begin.
That’s why, in what follows, we’ll be sharing nine of the absolute best ways to boost your business using digital and affiliate marketing strategies.
The Following are Nine Ways to Boost Your Business Using Both Affiliate and Digital Marketing Strategies:
– Build and Nurture an Effective Email Marketing Strategy
– Run a Paid Social Media Advertising Campaign
– Create an Organic Content Strategy
– Optimize Website Content for SEO
– Publish Frequent Blog Content on Your Website
– Collaborate with Affiliates through Coupons, Discounts, & Promotions
– Link Build with both Inbound, Outbound, & Affiliate Links
– Offer Referral Programs
– Launch a Lead Magnet
Build and Nurture an Effective Email Marketing Strategy
Just as every business should have an effectively implemented digital marketing strategy, so should every business have a well-developed email marketing strategy to accompany it; In fact, it would be silly not to!
For those less aware of the value of email, implementing it for marketing and distribution purposes has proven to be an excellent tool for communicating with your target audience/email list. While it requires ongoing attention and monitoring, email marketing campaigns are primarily automated once you lay the groundwork.
The objective of implementing an email marketing strategy is multifaceted. Email marketing builds a more extensive base of desirable customers (i.e., email list), increases conversion rates, and boosts sales. If everything is executed accordingly, transition them into loyal, lifetime ambassadors of your brand.
The result? Debatably the most effective way to attract, acquire and convert desirable consumers to take action, whatever that action may be.
Run a Paid Social Media Advertising Campaign
In today’s digital ecosystem, most notably through Facebook and Google, paid advertisements can be essential for a business’s digital marketing strategy.
While traditional paid marketing tactics would typically involve expensive billboards, TV commercials, and tangible flyers, new-age digital ads involve web banners, social media ads, and search engine displays, among other types of paid media.
Although both traditional and digital marketing tactics are effective in their own right, the former is much more costly and much less return-heavy. Today, businesses can experience insurmountable ROI at only a portion of the investment compared to traditional paid marketing tactics; if executed properly, of course.
Create an Organic Content Strategy
The value of having an online presence is undeniable, even evident in today’s digital ecosystem. Those who don’t will inevitably suffer the consequences. Those who do, however, will be rewarded.
Growing your online business is primarily due to having an effective & streamlined digital marketing strategy.
A critical subset of a digital strategy?
Content Marketing.
Of course, content marketing involves a host of sub-strategies involving both organic and paid media; however, without an ongoing organic strategy, results from paid media are fleeting, if not downright ineffective.
Whether it’s shared on a website, social media page, or blog, among other avenues, organic content allows businesses to nurture customer relationships, build brand identity, and ultimately boost the business’s bottom line.
There’s never been a more abundant opportunity for businesses to grow than in today’s digital ecosystem with social media organically. A great place to start is by building out an organic content strategy.
Optimize Website Content for SEO
At its most basic, SEO is important because it makes your business visible to more eyes. SEO, for obvious reasons, is beneficial because it increases traffic and ultimately results in higher conversion rates, ROI, and more significant opportunities.
Aside from the ROI, optimizing for search also helps:
– Build brand awareness
– Gain new business prospects
– Improve authority in your respective industry
– Position your business as a leader in the space
While a comprehensive SEO strategy involves optimizing all content mediums, from blogs, organic media, and paid advertising, a solid base begins with optimizing your website; after all, it’s likely your website that hosts most of your business activity.
Optimizing your website content for SEO is necessary for any business that wants to grow its online presence. While it may first require in-depth research, keywords that are well understood, SEO requirements, and competition, it will inevitably pay off in the end.
Publish Frequent Blog Content on Your Website
Speaking of SEO, publishing frequent blog content on your website is a highly effective way to boost your website’s SEO score. It acts as a value-added proposition, providing your customers with informative content for free. It also improves search rankings, increases traffic, brand credibility, and industry authority, and ultimately boost your business’s bottom line.
However, publishing frequent blog content isn’t as simple as posting to your blog; there’s a lot that goes into it to ensure its effectiveness. While there are several factors to consider when publishing blog content, the following are some of the most important for SEO:
– Quality of written content
– Optimized title
– Readability
– Keyword use
– Metadata
– High-quality imagery
Publishing blog content is undoubtedly a timely endeavor. However, if executed properly, it’s been proven to be an extremely effective strategy.
Collaborate with Affiliates via Coupons, Discounts, & Promotions
As discussed in the preface, affiliate marketing is a highly effective marketing strategy when executed properly. One way to collaborate with affiliates is by providing them with a coupon to share on their social channels, distribute to their email list, and post in their flyers, newsletters, or articles.
Arguably the most effective strategy of those listed above? Email! Those who have signed up for a newsletter are eagerly awaiting deals that show up in their inbox. By providing your affiliate with a discount code to your website and asking them to distribute it to their loyal audience, both parties can benefit, and the partnership can live on.
Link Build with both Inbound, Outbound, & Affiliate Links
Link building has proven to be an extremely effective strategy for improving SEO scores. Often referred to as the internet currency, links show search engines that your page is worth visiting.
Search engines receive the signal and rank you accordingly by intelligently dispersing links throughout your website, blog, and affiliate pages.
Of course, there are several rules and guidelines to follow to ensure that the link strategy you are executing is efficient and effective; however, that requires its own article for explanation.
Nevertheless, link building increases relevancy, attracts quality traffic, and ultimately boosts your business’s success through impressions, clicks, conversions, and total sales.
Offer Referral Programs
In short, a referral program is a means of incentivizing your audience to spread the word and share your products/services with others. Like an affiliate partnership, referral programs reward those who participate, and in return, you’re able to boost your business through new lead generation, traffic, and sales.
Referral programs are simply a way to exploit brand ambassadors and loyal customers. However, not exploitation in the negative sense, word of mouth is an incredibly effective way to grow your business organically. By incentivizing such an action, you increase the probability of it occurring.
The end result rewards both parties involved!
Launch a Lead Magnet
Lead magnets are simply a free resource that you supply your potential leads in hopes that it will convert, or at the very least, attract them to impress upon your website and/or the product page.
While lead magnets can take many forms (i.e., infographics, white papers, article guides, ebooks, flyers), they typically all boast similar characteristics. These characteristics include but are certainly not limited to being free of charge, highly promotional, and highly valuable and informative.
Wrap Up
So, if you’re eager to boost your business and begin generating new leads, you’ll want to consider implementing a lead magnet into your marketing funnel.
If you’re a business looking to grow in today’s digital ecosystem, implementing an effective digital marketing strategy comprising all of the approaches discussed above is all but necessary.
While many tools, tactics, and strategies involve digital and affiliate marketing, the above are certainly the most common and effective.
Digital marketing channels used in combination with an effective marketing campaign are an excellent resource for your clients and the best marketing avenue for you.
Efficient and effective, a successful digital marketing profitable relationship between you and your clients.
Learn more about how digital marketing for product promotion can drive your business awareness, engagement, and leads.
To discover how to efficiently promote your own products, or anyone else’s, check out what OUR MENTORS, Igor Kheifets and John Thornhill, have to offer. That’s right! These are the same two mentors we started working with to build our own business and learn how to strategically market any product.
At Burstaedt Creative, we specialize in creating engaging copy and design for product promotion. Check out the promotional materials we can create for you.
For more information about copywriting, design, and product promotion services, contact us today.
This is a guest post from Kris Eichstaedt if you would like to be considered for a guest post please contact me.
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