When it comes to selling products and promoting your firm, affiliate marketing is an essential part of the sales process. As affiliate marketing efforts grow, people are discovering the areas that are having the biggest impact.
In a world that’s becoming ever more reliant on technology, one thing that’s inevitably making a difference is the software used.
Choosing the right software makes it much easier for firms to create great strategies that are customer-focused. This rings true for affiliate marketing too. From warehouse inventory control to helping your company save money, there’s a plethora of useful software out there, each with different ways of fitting your firm’s specific marketing needs.
Here’s how to choose the best affiliate software for your eCommerce company.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is promoting other people’s products or companies. This results in a win/win sales scenario. Those who promote the business get commission each time a sale is made from the thing they promote, while the company gets cheap and effective marketing for its products.
There are several ways to take part in affiliate marketing. Some of the most popular are writing blogs, using influencers, and optimizing YouTubers. This is a great way to discreetly advertise eCommerce services to potential customers in a unique and personable manner.
What’s more, there is no limit to the things that can be advertised through this type of marketing. It could be that an influencer uses Instagram to promote the latest pair of on-trend sneakers, or that a blogger creates an article and adds in links around the benefits of Shopify.
However it’s done, affiliate marketing is an excellent way to make a better connection between customer and product.
Source: Click Funnels
What Is Affiliate Marketing Software?
To make the job of an affiliate marketer easier, there is an abundance of software out there for every individual need. This can help firms keep an eye on how campaigns are going and monitor the success of links, or it can enable omnichannel marketing to be more creative. There’s a range of packages and functions out there, and most of them can be personalized for specific needs.
Ultimately, using software helps keep the costs of running an online business down and allows firms to analyze processes. It is also there to ensure that both your company and the marketer enjoy a smooth sales process from start to finish.
How To Find The Right Software
As there are so many options out there when it comes to finding the perfect software, it’s important to keep some key elements in mind. This will ensure you select the right fit to take you into the future. Here are a few things to look out for.
Select for Custom Registration
You should be the one who owns and controls your brand, not the affiliate marketer or company that owns the software. So, it’s important to pick a package that allows you to customize the registration process for your affiliates.
Doing this will ensure that you have power over who is receiving access to your features and set up. You also need to find something that lets you change access rights so you can, again, control who is accessing what.
Say, for example, an affiliate YouTuber is making a video about perpetual inventory. You want to make sure they can access information that will promote your firm, but you don’t want them to change the information so it no longer fits your brand voice.
Finding the software that does this will ensure you have the main say. It also means you will still have a good working relationship with everyone involved.
Source: Impact
Select for Ease of Use
There is no point in selecting software that’s hard to use. So, whatever package you choose, it needs to be easy for everyone to get to grips with. You also need to make sure it’s simple to set up in the first place, because the sooner you have the software ready to go, the sooner you can get on with the sales opportunities.
This means choosing software that uses built-in features that come with step-by-step instructions. As well as, of course, choosing something uncomplicated, easy to use, and functional.
If you want to build long-term affiliate relationships with clients, you need to make sure everyone involved can use the software, not just the tech wizards in the firm. Otherwise, when using complex software, you run the risk of deterring both affiliates and customers from choosing you.
Prioritize Security
Today, cyber thieves are everywhere. So, with any piece of tech, software, or device, you need to ensure it comes with some sort of security. This is vital to protect you, your affiliates, and your customers.
Because money is involved, you are leaving yourself even more vulnerable to attacks. Therefore, you need to triple-check that whatever software you use has the best security features out there.
When picking software, make sure it alerts you to, and blocks, suspicious activity. It should also encrypt important data. Security is a vital feature for any software. Whether you are optimizing enterprise marketing solutions or sending out a customer SMS, you need to be as protected as possible.
Source: Make A Website Hub
Look for Pay Out Systems
Having software that gives instant payouts is one of the best features you can have as a firm. It means people working with/for you on a non-permanent basis can log their work and instantly get paid for it.
Alternatively, they can also be instantly paid on the commission they make. Everything is worked out for you and there isn’t lots of faffing around with timesheets, spreadsheets, or invoices.
Before setting this software up, you should agree on pay and affiliate agreement terms. It may be the payment goes straight into a person’s bank once they have reached a certain number of sales, or you may decide the money comes out automatically on a certain date. It’s up to you how you set things up, but doing this will keep the rules clear from the start.
Make Sure It Fits With Mobile Devices
You would think that nowadays, every piece of software would fit with mobile devices, but they don’t. Sometimes, software creators make something that works perfectly well on a widescreen, but when it comes to squeezing things onto a tiny little one, half the information gets cut off. So, you need to choose software that keeps information clear no matter what device it’s used on.
This is especially important as affiliates may be using a mobile device to create work. Therefore, you need to ensure each piece of writing, video, or image works well from start to end. So, choose compatible software that adapts to all types of devices and media.
What’s more, you may want to check things from the back-end when you are out and about. Say, for example, an influencer is set to drop a scheduled video on inventory forecasting methods. Making sure your software is mobile compatible will mean you can easily assess how well the video is doing, no matter where you are.
Source: Neil Patel
Ensure It Can Handle Several Campaigns At Once
The more your company grows, the more campaigns you’ll be putting out there. Let’s say you’re an online plant-based superstore. You’re working on your new eCommerce curbside pick-up campaign with some trending vegan influencers. You are also promoting some healthy meals you offer on a fitness fanatic blog, amongst other campaigns.
You need software that can handle all of these different ventures with continuous integration, as well as something that will keep you organized with all the people you’re working with. Using the right software here will ensure you can track multiple successful efforts, as well as how much commission is owed to each party.
Keep Creativity Key
One of the biggest parts of affiliate marketing is the creative side that comes with it. It isn’t enough for people to overtly talk about your product – they need to sell it discreetly. The best way to do that is by being creative. Therefore, you need to make sure you’re equipping your marketers with the software to do this.
Another reason to get creative software is so people can do more than just write an article or two with the odd link thrown in here or there. You need to have software that gives things energy and allows you to add images, make an inviting feedback survey, or create alluring content. So, pick software that allows you to do these things.
Make Sure It’s SEO Friendly
Any marketer can tell you the importance of having good SEO. For some, SEO is the thing that makes a customer click on your firm in the first place. You need to use software that makes this job simple and helps you beat your SEO competition to climb up the search engine ranks.
This means selecting software that helps find the right keywords. Say your affiliate marketer creates a blog titled, “What Is Lead Time?” You want software that will suggest keywords and the best places to put them in the blog. This will ensure you are getting the best return possible from customers.
Source: Views Reviews
The Takeaway
With affiliate marketing becoming such a big part of companies’ lives, it’s important to get to grips with it the best you can. Making sure you have the right equipment to help with this makes life so much easier for everyone involved.
From considering your security needs to choosing something creative, think about the software you need. Then you can start shopping around to find the perfect software for you and your requirements.
