In fact, huge brands such as Nike and Adidas work with a lot of affiliates to increase product sales. All brands can take advantage of Affiliate Marketing, however, not all techniques are applicable to all.
With Affiliate Marketing, brands can work with influential websites or bloggers based on the targeted niche.
If you want to influence the buying decisions of your desired audience, it is best to work with the website or bloggers they visit and trust.
When choosing an affiliate consider checking the following:
For a brand that sells athleisure clothes, it is rational to work with sports-related websites or sports bloggers such as Bleacher Report.
Who wouldn’t want a great deal?
Brands can regularly add coupons and discounts as a marketing strategy to boost sales and increase customer loyalty.
According to Bigcommerce, 90% of consumers use coupons and digital coupon redemptions is to surpass $90 billion by 2022.
While discounts are attractive to shoppers, digital coupons can also be a successful means of growing the social media following and email marketing list or encouraging mobile website usage.
There are many coupon and deal websites – Amazon Coupon, Offers.com, etc., that allow you to post your offer to drive website traffic and increase conversions.
Coupons work best in markets that are highly competitive such as food, beauty, travel, or gadgets.
Sure, Affiliate Marketing works but a brand can’t completely rely on the affiliates and sit back to watch sales come in. It’s the brand’s job to make sure that the landing page is easy to natigate.
If you want to generate more sales, you should deliver a good customer experience, and for this, you need to optimize your product and checkout page and make sure that:
Another strategy to increase sales conversions is to work with reliable product review websites and blogs.
Here is a checklist of what can be included on the content:
Email Marketing is an effective way of maintaining direct communication with the target niche. Brands can create a series of newsletters educating about the features and benefits of the product and ask affiliates to send it to their subscribers. Make sure it isn’t overly promotional and affiliate links are mentioned multiple times. At the end of the series, make sure to mention sales pitch, offers, and deals.
Have you ever used Affiliate Marketing before? Which of the abovementioned strategies do you find to be the most effective?
References:
https://shanebarker.com/blog/affiliate-marketing-strategies/
It is not a secret that the Kardashian Family are intrigue magnets but are experts in turning it as an advantage. As social media prowesses, they really know the in’s and out’s, thus, have maintained their leading spot as social media marketers.
Below is an example of Kim Kardashian advertising Skims Loungewear on her Instagram stories. She is filming herself while talking about the benefits of her products, just as how she would recommend it to a friend. But no doubt, this is just part of an ad campaign.
The IG story makes it more relatable as it looks raw and authentic, rather than a promotional post.
Also, each of the members have different personalities, styles and interests that makes them appeal to all demographics.
Due to the current worldwide lockdown, brands need a new video marketing strategy and according to Hubspot, the more simple and raw the video is, the more authentic the content appears.
There’s no such thing as bad publicity and the family has been a proof of this. Every controversy that the family faces, they turn it as a leverage and wouldn’t let it be the downfall of their brand. What is even more interesting is that they are fully aware of and profiting from that fact they attract those that do not even like their family. They are the best example that a brand doesn’t to be loved by many to get the necessary exposure.
Regardless of what their critics say, the Kardashian family has managed to stay relevant and keep their brand highly profitable in a volatile industry.
Another good example is Elon Musk. He’s been bashed as SpaceX Rocket has released roughly 440 tons of jet fuel, which has a high carbon content, meaning it releases a lot of carbon dioxide into the air when burned.
However, the negative comments thrown at him and his project doesn’t seem to damage sales of his car business – Tesla. In fact, Tesla delivered 499,550 vehicles in 2020 and delivered nearly 185,000 vehicles just in Q1 of 2021.
Kylie Jenner, one of the sisters, has over 224 million followers on Instagram and utilizes it by regularly engaging with her followers. She once created a Q&A session on her Instagram to give a glimpse into her world.
Brands should utilize social media to connect and reach out with the audience. Also, this is a way to humanize the brand and provide a consistent stream of content that will strengthen the friend-like dialog with the audience. In return, it will increase trust and loyalty, which your customers will appreciate and reciprocate.
The family deeply understands their audience and created a diverse of products that will surely be patriotized by each audience group.
Khloe Kardashian, the 3rd sister, has reached out to the health conscious individuals through her weight loss journey. After the successful tv show – Revenge Body, she created a denim jeans line for curvy women.
Understanding the audience – their needs, lifestyle, and interests, is key to appeal to them.
Just like Starbucks, they know that not all their customers are coffee drinkers that’s why they launched Teavana to cater to tea drinkers as well.
Have this changed how you think of The Kardashian Family? Are their marketing strategies effective?
The online buying and selling environment is becoming more demanding. Customers now expect a much more personalized and tailored buying experience whenever they want. As a seller, it’s our obligation to give fast, seamless purchase experience. Who wouldn’t want to cut the chase and get straight to the checkout page, right?
The live conversations could be through a chatbot, but preferably, a human sales or customer service representative to build a good rapport and create authentic experience for customers.
Live chat and systemized chatbots makes the customers’ experience effortless by providing immediate answers to queries with real-time interactions. By ensuring customers are able to engage with the business in a manner that is convenient, it naturally follows that their overall experience will be better, because, in some cases, it is not just the products that leave a lasting impression.
Conversations can easily tell why a buyer came to the website, what are their biggest pain points, and which product features are most important to them. These chats and conversations are gold mine of customer information, and can help the business understand the audience better and start using their language in the messages.
It is no surprise that customers who can’t decide, don’t buy.
Conversational Marketing help consumers jump off that barrier by diving into a conversation. Chatbots do not ask buyers to wait for a callback, instead, it directly connects them with the sales team to provide best assistance and hopefully, secure a conversion.
Sellers can hit two birds with one stone with Conversational Marketing. Aside from knowing the root of the customers’ need, sellers can identify other opportunities, thus, can offer complementary and better solutions.
What do you think of Conversational Marketing? Do you agree that online customers are getting more and more impatient and requires immediate attention when buying?
Influencer Marketing is a strategy of partnering with influential people of a specific niche and getting their help to promote products and services on their platforms. This form of marketing is one of the quickest and most powerful ways to get brand exposure in a short amount of time.
There is no specific qualification in being an influencer. However, it’s fair to say that a minimum of 5,000 followers on at least 1 social platform should be met.
To measure whether the implemented Influencer Marketing Campaign has increased brand’s awareness, the following must be met:
Below is a common example of Influencer Marketing. Dunkin’ Donut have tapped the TiktTok star, Charli D’Amelio to promote their new line of drink. The influencer is paid to post engaging contents on her social platform about the brand.
Affiliate Marketing is a technique of promoting products on someone else’s website or social platform. When users see the ad, click and then purchase, the affiliate — the site that the ad appears on — receives a percentage of the sale.
Unlike Influencer Marketing, Affiliate Marketing relies on building partnerships with established blogs, websites, companies and publishers vs. influential people. The aim of this technique is to increase sales by offering the audience special offers, discounts and sales.
Below are some metrics to gauge the success of an Affiliate Marketing Campaign:
The following should be considered:
Launching any product soon? Is there an upcoming event? Crazy sale to look forward to? Then use Influencer Marketing. Influencers are a great medium since they are active on their social media and have a great influence towards the targeted niche. They have a good reputation towards their followers that could possibly give positive results to the brand.
On the other hand, if the goal is to get people to promote the quality and credibility of the product, then use Affiliate Marketing. Work with bloggers, companies and publishers to write reviews of the product.
For a company that sells bicycles, partner with health and fitness publishers that focus on triathlon, weight loss, healthy eating and more. This approach of speaking to specific customers with specific needs works because Affiliate Marketing is designed to generate leads and revenue.
When choosing between the two marketing strategies, the brand should consider who the audience is and where they spend the most time online. For example, if the product caters to millennials, then spend more time using Influencer Marketing.
The preferred approach should also depend on the budget. With larger budget, the brand can work with larger influencers who can give much exposure. Another option is to target micro-influencers who don’t have millions of followers but have thousands of highly engaged followers.
With Affiliate Marketing, the brand only pay after every conversion (e.g. purchase, sign-up, etc.).
Keep in mind that both strategies can be switched as needed. Also, an A/B Test can be done to know which one will drive more sales.
Affiliate Marketing is a tactic where an affiliate promotes another company’s product and earns a commission from it. The sales are tracked via affiliate links from one website to another.
It cycles between seller / brand, affiliate / advertiser, and consumer
The seller does not necessarily to be actively involved in the marketing.
For example, the seller could be an ecommerce merchant that started selling running shoes and wants to reach running shoes enthusiasts. He will then look and work with affiliates that target the niche and be promoted on their media platforms.
The seller provides each affiliate with a unique link to track who influenced the consumer’s purchase.
Whenever someone clicks on the link, the cookie gets stored on the tracking platform.
The affiliates, either an individual or a company, advertises the seller’s product towards their audience. The end goal for them is to influence their followers to make a purchase or any other agreed conversion. Once a follower ends up buying, the affiliate receives a portion of the revenue.
Most brands choose affiliates that target a very specific audience and adheres to the audience’s interests.
The consumers are the receivers of the advertisements and goal converters.
Everytime a consumer buys, the seller and the affiliate share the profits.
Affiliate Marketing via reviews, blogs, social media, and other platforms is the new push towards less traditional marketing tactics that’s just waiting to be utilized.
Keywords and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) work together to make any SEO marketing campaign successful. Because keywords are the foundation of all other SEO efforts, each item should be highly relevant to the targeted audience and effectively organized for action.
As a marketer, you need to know how users search for your brand as well as your competitors. SEO keywords are the words and phrases inside the website that help it appear on search engines (e.g. Google) when someone searches related to it. This is a delicate process that involves both trial and error.
It is an ongoing and ever-evolving job. Old keywords need to be reevaluated periodically, and high-volume, competitive keywords (or “head” keywords, as opposed to long-tailed keywords) can often be usefully replaced or augmented with longer, more specific phrases to bring in the right visitors.
When done right, SEO keywords can help you rank, sell, and build brand awareness. Here are some strategies to find SEO keywords:
When in search for keywords, one of the logical first steps must be a manual Google search. Below are a few techniques to find relevant SEO keywords using this method:
Google’s Autocomplete has become a wealth of data for SEO because it predicts words and phrases that users are likely to continue entering.
Also known as “Position Zero”, appears at the top of the first search engine results page (SERP). It gives the marketer more information on what the users are specifically concerned about that topic.
The ‘People Also Ask’ is another great place to find SEO keywords.
Almost the same as Google’s Autocomplete, the ‘People Also Ask’ is a goldmine of long-tail keywords.
The related searches section at the bottom of the SERPs has related keywords users input into the search bar.
Aside from guidance on the best keywords, keyword research tools also give the following:
The Domain Overview shows insight into your competitors’ SEO, content marketing, and social media strategies. This allows you to see what’s working in your niche so you can adapt those strategies for your campaigns.
This feature helps you discover which competitors’ pages rank for particular organic keywords. It also shows which content performs well on social media.
The most useful. All you have to do is type in a seed keyword, and the tool provides a list of head and long-tail keyword suggestions.
Good implementation of SEO keywords – high-intent, low competition keywords, will make your site rank above your competitors.
Which strategy do you think is most effective?
Facebook is one of the most aggressive spaces to advertise. In order to find success in acquiring new leads, increasing brand awareness, or selling products, you have to stand out from the clutter. This can be done by using Carousel Ads or Collection Ads.
What’s the difference between the two?
Carousel Ads showcase up to 10 images or videos that users can swipe through on their device – mobile, desktop or tablet. Each of the 10 cards can have its own headline, description, link, and call to action button.
Users that browse through on Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger can see this ad format.
It is best to use to:
Collection Ads are only shown on mobile. A huge image or video is on top while multiple related products are shown below. Because of the Instant Experience feature, it makes it easier for customers to purchase.
It is available in 4 different templates:
Which one do you prefer for your business?
As an online advertiser, how would you know if your Facebook ads drive foot traffic to your brick and mortar store? How can you measure whether the number of in-stores sales occur as a result of your Facebook ad?
In recent years, Facebook has launched a tracking tool, Facebook Offline Conversions, to gauge offline conversions influenced by exposure to Facebook ads.
Facebook Offline Conversions allows you to upload your sales data on Facebook and match the transactions that take place offline with people who have seen or clicked on your Facebook ads. If there is a match, Facebook attributes the sale to your Facebook ads.
According to Facebook “With offline conversion measurement on Facebook, you can track when transactions occur in your physical retail store and other offline channels (ex: orders made over the phone) after people see or engage with your Facebook ad.”
To measure how effective the campaign is in delivering conversions.
‘Offline events’ can be found in the Business Manager menu.
After you click ‘Upload Offline Events’, you’ll see a pop-up that’s very similar to uploading a data custom audience.
Upload your data.
You need to include event descriptors and identifiers such as:
This will help Facebook understand what action this person took offline.
Also, include specific information about the individual:
Once uploaded, you’ll see this screen:
Facebook shows how many records you uploaded, how many of them matched (a match rate 60% or higher is great), the date range, and date updated.
To check how these offline conversions attribute to Facebook campaigns in ads manager, select ‘Offline Conversions’ from columns.
Facebook will then report the number of offline conversions that they could match to specific campaigns, ad sets, and ads.
The Facebook Offline Conversion is a powerful tool to track and increase ROAS.
Now, it’s your turn. Start tracking and upload those data.
How to win back users that are close enough to converting and then suddenly leaves the website?
Retargeting is one of the best ways to close sales that didn’t happen and it is one of Facebook Advertisement’s foremost features. It allows advertisers to reconnect with users who are already familiar and interacted with the brand. This includes:
When planning a retargeting campaign, you should consider Facebook’s custom audiences. They offer some of the most diverse customization options to use.
Facebook’s custom audiences allow you to create lists of people who visited specific URLs.
For example, you can create a campaign that targets users who have browsed “bags” in your website within the last 60 days.
A good exclusion audience should be added to keep out people who have purchased or did not browse bags. This way, the advertising budget will be spent well on the intended audience.
If you’ve ever browsed Nike’s Facebook Page or website, most likely you will see it’s carousel ad on Facebook. The brand implements a good retargeting strategy based on what you have browsed on their website.
There are users who purchased from your website before, but for whatever reason, haven’t come back to buy again. Whether the overdue visit is a result of long sales cycles or plain forgetfulness, this audience can still be valuable to target.
Why target existing customers? To simply initiate repurchase. This group is familiar with the brand and have purchased that makes them easier to upsell and cross sell to.
One way to initiate repurchase is through Cross Selling, a sales technique used to get a customer to spend more by purchasing a product that’s related to what’s being bought already.
An example of this are airline companies that offer hotel accommodation once you’ve booked a flight.
As a brand, you know what items customers have purchased and from there, you can create a group and offer more items related to the previous purchase.
How many items do you have in your cart?
Ever wonder why users add to cart then leave?
“I want to price check first.”
“Will wait when it’s on sale.”
No matter what the reason is, abandoned cart shoppers are good to retarget.
An Abandoned Cart Campaign targets people who have left an item in their shopping cart. You can run this straight, merely reminding them to come back and make the purchase, or you can sweeten the deal by offering free shipping or a discount on the sale.
This type of strategy is usually being practiced by apparel stores.
People visit hundreds of websites every week, and for people who aren’t familiar with your brand, there’s a high chance that your site will get lost and forgotten in the mix. And to remind them of your existence and offers, retargeting is simply the way.
What retargeting effort do you think will work for you?
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is an advertising type in which businesses pay the platforms (e.g. Facebook, Google, etc.) every time the ad is clicked. It is one of the most effective ways for businesses to increase brand awareness, collect leads, and generate online sales.
Basically, it’s a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically.
According to Wordstream’s 2020 report, businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Google Ads.
Check out these 5 strategies to boost brand awareness through PPC Advertising.
Google’s study found that a full 89% of the traffic driven by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused. Visits to the advertiser’s site would not have occurred without the ad campaigns.
Given this, businesses should bid on branded keywords to dominate the SERPs. Utilizing this strategy can help secure the top spots as well as the organic listings. Having a control on branded terms shows that the brand is a prominent figure in the business.
Precise audience targeting results to PPC effectiveness. This strategy is what enables advertisers to reach specific audiences on different sales funnels.
For Google Ads, audience targeting is essential for reaching the right users using a variety of effective modalities. For instance, targeting options such as:
These are only some of the many targeting options provided by Google, let alone those that can be employed on Facebook and other social platforms.
Advertisers can enhance the quality of the gathered leads by utilizing PPC segmentation strategies like adding negative keywords to filter out irrelevant searches, excluding specific web pages, and employing dayparting strategies to surface ads during particular times. These tactics can help in maximizing efforts while conserving PPC budgets.
When running PPC ads to generate brand awareness, appealing copy is vital as it will position the brand as an industry expert, the go-to brand for all things related to a given niche.
To achieve such a goal, advertisers must learn how to set apart from the competition in an extremely distilled manner, while leaving readers wanting to know more.
The following questions can guide in formulating ad copy that speaks to the brand’s expertise and authority:
Not only this will help develop brand awareness as a thought leader in the niche, but it will also aid in multiplying PPC conversions.
Long-tail keywords are highly specific, unique phrases that tend to have less keyword competition, and therefore a lower bidding cost. In the eCommerce industry, it is important to optimize campaigns for these types of queries.
For instance, businesses who sell casual shoes could take a head term like “Converse sneakers” to generate long-tail keywords such as “Black Converse casual sneakers”
There are free tools such as KeywordTool.io that helps uncover potential long-tail keywords. Moreover, advertisers can also obtain keyword data from Amazon, YouTube, Bing eBay, and other popular online destinations. Simply type in a head term like “Shoes,” and the tool will turn back a whole list of long-tail keyword suggestions.
A well-defined strategy can make PPC Advertisements drive brand awareness online. Unlike other forms of marketing, PPC can produce immediate results that generates brand recognition quickly to help increase website traffic, leads, and sales.
YouTube recently announced the launch of audio ads, a new type of audio-based ad unit to reach people who use the platform as a music and podcast player.
The new YouTube audio ads aim to target users who are listening and are not actively watching videos.
Audio ads aren’t new. They’ve been present on the radio for decades, but they are new to YouTube.
The YouTube audio ads are brand promotions delivered through voice while a static image or simple animation is displayed on the screen. It is designed for users that are glancing at the screen occasionally, or might be ignoring the visuals altogether.
Audio campaigns offer advertisers the same audience targeting options, bidding strategies and brand lift measurement capabilities as YouTube video campaigns.
It is made for podcast and music listeners that leave these streams in the background as they would do with a radio station, which means audio ads wouldn’t feel out of place.
Since ASMR is the second most popular YouTube query in the US (3.2M searches) and third most popular worldwide (13.9M searches), it is a good niche to target.
Video has been trending for the past 3 years. More and more people are using it either for entertainment or business purposes.
According to Cisco, video marketing is expected to make up about 82 percent of all consumer internet traffic by 2022. About 78 percent of people watch videos every week, and 55 percent watch every single day. Social video is shared 1,200 percent more than text and images combined, and 64 percent of consumers report buying something after watching a branded video from a company.
With this, marketers should step up the advertising game and dive into the video marketing space to learn more about the platform and how to maximize it.
Socialbaker’s Q3 2020 Trends Report revealed that Facebook Live was by far the most engaging format on the platform. However, the same report shows that live video is actually the least used content type. This is a huge, untapped opportunity for smart marketers as we head into 2021.
Due to the global pandemic, companies left with no choice but to maximize virtual meetings and events. These live videos opened an opportunity for companies to reach their audiences worldwide while still being authentic.
Benefit, a cosmetics manufacturer, hosts a weekly Facebook Live series called Tipsy Tricks. It is a great way for Benefit to showcase their products to increase exposure and sales. The fact that the hosts drinks a glass of wine while filming does a great job of making the brand relatable and giving it a more approachable look.
In 2021, most probably, huge numbers of live video coupled with real-time shopping on both Facebook and Instagram will be produced.
Another trend to expect in 2021 is the surge in video uploads to about 487 million – which is about 1.3 million videos uploaded a day, or 55,594 an hour. As a result, change in algorithm is surely to follow. Social media will optimize what videos will recommend.
Facebook’s algorithm uses signals like how many people react to, comment on or share posts to determine how high they appear in News Feed. Moreover, it highlights posts that are trending, sparks conversations and meaningful interactions between people.
On the other hand, Instagram uses the following signals to help determine how one’s feed is curated:
The goals of YouTube’s search and discovery system are twofold: to help viewers find the videos they want to watch, and to maximize long-term viewer engagement and satisfaction.
Video SEO may help a new video get discovered, but if it doesn’t get enough watch time in the first three to six weeks, then it won’t be discovered at a later date.
While Twitter scores each tweet using a relevance model. The model’s score predicts how interesting and engaging a Tweet would be specific to a user.
The current lockdown worldwide is affecting and still going to affect how videos will be produced in 2021. Below are the 3 key trends:
Video sequencing will play a big role in 2021.
Though video remarketing capabilities have long been available on Facebook and YouTube (Google) networks, LinkedIn finally joined and opened up to this functionality.
Video Remarketing works when someone watches a certain percentage of the video, they can be added into a specific advertising audience. This audience tactic allows marketers to create “video ad funnels” where users will be served up a series of videos as ads in a specific order. This can be an opportunity to create more story-based content then creating a clean consistent brand experience from video to video.
To reach the full effectiveness, marketers need to create a clean storyline between videos. The first video can end with a call to action such as, “…watch my next video on the top 3 solutions I’ve found”. Then the second video can start by picking up from the previous one, “Hey it’s me again! In my last video I talked about <issue> and in this one I’m going to share with you…”.
YouTube playlists will play an increasing role in video marketing in 2021.
Use keyword research to figure out what people are searching for on YouTube in your niche and create playlists on those topics. Then link to those playlist URLs from email newsletters and website articles.
A/B testing will become more widespread on YouTube.
Only a few video marketers know they can A/B split test video titles and thumbnails. Thumbnails are the make or break of the video as it is the first thing that catches potential viewers’ attention.
Focus will shift away from the YouTube search results to YouTube’s recommendation engine.
YouTube legend Evan Carmichael explained on my Marketing Speak podcast that most views on YouTube come from “suggested” (the recommendation engine), rather than from search. So the game to play is ranking not for search but ranking against other people’s videos as suggested videos.
Transcripts
Convert boring transcripts to an engaging long-form blog post. In other words, make the transcript look like an article, and spiff it up with stock photos, click-to-tweets, pull quotes, quote card images, etc. This works especially well with podcast show notes: the pages will rank much better than show notes that are short outlines.
Speaking of podcasts, many podcasters are moving to recording their interviews in video format instead of just audio.
Facebook now allows users to set up paid events with a live streaming aspect. With paid online events, users are able to create an event, charge people attending, promote it to the audience and customers, and host, all in one place. Guests will be able to watch the event through the Facebook event page on their phone, tablet or computer, or through the Facebook TV app.
Facebook will recognize the value in incorporating more advanced creative tools (lower thirds, multiple simultaneous guests, etc.) within their native platforms, probably buying out certain live video production startups while leaving others to wither away.
Video marketing will surely ramp up in year 2021, and for brands that doesn’t have plans on venturing in this medium, they’re missing out on a massive opportunity for their business.
Meta Title is the 50-60-character long title that helps potential visitors decide whether or not to click on the site. It must be clear and concise, with a focus on the page’s keywords. It is written in bold, the most evident part in a search result and therefore, a major part in the decision making process of the visitor.
According to Moz, title tags have “long been considered one of the most important on-page SEO elements”. Place the main keywords on the start of the meta title as it is more likely to rank for that keyword based query.
Moz provides this template:
Primary Keyword – Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
clarehormachuelos.com 