Affiliate Marketing & its Latest Trends to Apply in your Business

Affiliate marketing is considered one of the best performance-based marketing in today’s world. In this marketing, a business offers rewards to the affiliate(person bringing or recommending your brand) whenever visitors arrive on the website with the help of that same affiliate’s marketing efforts.

A person who promotes any brand’s product is known to be as an affiliate and the practice of promoting products through different channels is called marketing. When a visitor clicks or visits that same channel and reaches to the company’s website, the affiliate earns a commission from the company.

The marketing methods that affiliate marketing includes are:

  • Organic Search Engine Optimisation: SEO
  • Paid Search Engine Marketing: PPC(Pay Per Click)
  • Email Marketing
  • Content Marketing
affiliate-marketing-trends

Affiliate marketing drives significant sales and revenue to the business. Actually, it is beneficial for both i.e., the business and the affiliate marketer. In fact:

  • At present, 84% of the publisher and 81% of companies support affiliate marketing and this statistic will continue to grow as affiliate marketing is increasing every year consistently. (Source: WebMarketSupport)
  • The spendings on affiliate marketing have increased by 10.1%. And, with all calculations, it will reach till $6.8 Billion by 2020. (Source: MediaKix)
  • 38% of marketers consider affiliate marketing as the best customer attracting methods. (Source: WebMarketSupport)

Want to know why and how? Let’s check out the latest trends of affiliate marketing that you can apply to your business.

Well Balanced Affiliate Reporting & Attributes

Most of the affiliate campaigns work on last-click attribution. In this, the affiliate marketer gets the final click before the sale receives complete credit for the conversion. But now it is actually changing. 

With the help of latest attribution models and analytics feature provided by affiliate platforms, you can now easily track every affiliate marketer’s tactics working together. It even allows you to take a complete check on marketing funnel and cross channels.

Test & Optimise Conversion rates Regularly

Let’s imagine you are promoting a product through an affiliate link on your promotion page. If you receive 5000 visits per month on a 2% conversion rate, you will be having 100 referrals.

However, your target is to get 200 referrals. In this case, you have two options, either to concentrate on attracting 5000 more visitors or you can increase the conversion rate by 4%. Whichever of the options seem good for your business?

Rather than consuming time in blogging and guest posting for building your website’s domain authority and generating organic traffic, it will be a good option to increase the rate of conversion by 2%

strategies for conversion rate

For increasing the conversion rate, you can optimise your website’s landing page, test Call-To-Action buttons and can optimise various strategies for conversion rate. After optimising and testing your website, you will be getting improved results in less period of time and efforts.

The Change In GDPR

GDPR(General Data Protection Regulation) was effected on the 25th of May, 2018 and brought a new set of regulations that strictly governs the organisation’s usage of personal data across the European Countries.

Now, because this GDPR new regulation, the affiliates who are not located in Europian Union are also forced to retrieve user’s data via opt-in consent.

So, it’s better to follow FTC guidelines as per new GDPR regulation and openly disclose that you are receiving commissions for practising affiliate marketing with the name of organisations.

Affiliate Marketing Now Getting Smarter

Organisations or merchants are receiving a huge amount of profits with the help of their affiliate marketers. And most of the companies are now depending on their affiliate partners.

Well, this can be a great moment for all the affiliate marketers to understand their importance as this can lead them to get good deals and higher commissions.

It does not matter whether there are commission structures like CPA, CPL or CPC, there are many affiliate programs. That can make you earn a good amount of commission.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is like a huge playground where you can practice your marketing skills in different patterns. However, the only aim of every marketer is to earn a higher commission. And to earn it, you will have to follow the latest trends in digital marketing.

So, with these above-mentioned affiliate marketing trends, you can update your knowledge and can apply on your further marketing plan.

And, if you are still left behind somewhere, feel free to contact us.

Things To Remember While Marketing Through Social Media Services

It’s true that without marketing it becomes very hard for every entrepreneur to sell their products. It does not matter whether your business is small or big, digital marketing services like social media play a major role in every business aspect. 

Have you ever thought about why marketing is so important for every service and product-based company? It is because whenever your business comes up with any new innovation, your customers are completely unaware of your latest version. 

However, with the help of marketing tactics, you can spread awareness and people will come to know how your upcoming service or product will help them in improving their lives. 

social media

Usually, people connect their problems with the solutions that are available in the market. Because in today’s modern world, marketing strategies are completely different. Earlier, entrepreneurs used tactics like newspapers, pamphlets, etc for publication. But, these practices are not as effective as they used to be.

Nowadays marketing practices are implemented in accordance with the Inbound methodology which is far more effective. With the help of digital marketing, you can reach out to the audience that is living far away from your location. 

The only thing required is the internet and at present, 70% of the world population spends most of their time surfing on the internet. More than half of those are always active on social media platforms.

Why social media will make you a marketing rockstar?

Well, social media is an integral part of digital marketing services especially in the awareness phase of customer’s lifecycle. 

Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc are widely used all around the world. Which is why marketing through social media platforms has become a trend. 

These social platforms are completely free as they allow the audience to stay connected with the world.

Let’s go further and check out how to make your business popular on social media?

Choose social media platforms according to your business

It is necessary to choose the right social platform for your business before you get started with social media marketing. Not every social network will allow you to reach your goals. On every platform, you will find different kinds of audiences which are why choosing the right one is so important. 

Here we have some of the most popular social media platforms to check out.

3_Choose social media platforms according to your business
  • Facebook

Facebook is the most popular and the biggest social platform with a huge user base of more than 2 billion. It is known to be the largest social network all around the world. Facebook has great marketing potential as it is accessed by every person who carries a smart device. 

If your business is on a startup stage and if you have a certain budget for marketing then Facebook is the best social platform to choose for marketing. Facebook can be a perfect choice if your business foundation is based on B2C (Business to Consumer).

  • Instagram

Instagram is one of the most successful social platforms that follow the visual approach. According to the survey, it is been found that 60% of the audience are engaged through appealing aesthetics. This social platform is completely free to use for marketing. Free marketing involves organic marketing and it’s all about getting your customers to reach your content naturally.

Instagram can be your social network marketing platform if your ads are more visual-centric. Usually, people are more attracted to pictures and videos instead of reading long content. So, keeping these advantages in mind Instagram can help to build your brand name organically.

Twitter

Many of you may have gotten confused that “How Twitter can be used as a social marketing platform?”. To be very honest, it is the best social marketing platform for posting short and simple ads. 

With the character limit of 280, you can directly provide the information that your audience requires. Twitter can easily raise awareness of your latest ones.

On Twitter, you will find the audience who likes to stay updated 24/7. This can be a better place for your ads to reach the right audience organically. 

  • LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world’s biggest career platform with a user count of more than 600 Million. With this social platform, you can directly reach your ideal customers through posting Dynamic Ads, Sponsored InMails, and LinkedIn Advertising. 

You can even promote your brand name by creating your brand page using a LinkedIn business account. You can achieve high-quality leads as more than 400 Million users remain active through a day. It is a great social platform for B2B marketing.

Scheduled Posting For Consistent Results

It is a universal fact that quality always overcomes quantity. While posting on social media regularly, you will have to be careful that your content’s quality should remain consistent. 

Most of the time it happens that when the quantity increases, quality decreases automatically. So, make sure your content stays informative for your audience even if you increase your content quantity.

4_Scheduled Posting For Consistent Results-1

For every audience, content quality is:

  • Content that connects with the audience problems
  • Provide a solution
  • It should be entertaining

Visual Impression

People are more attracted to pictures, videos and various types of visuals. These pictorial elements help them to understand things in a crystal clear manner. You can put your marketing efforts by publishing more and more visuals in your ads. 

Rather than reading, your audience can define their requirements through pictures and videos. Also, they will easily understand the usage of your products and services.

Conclusion

Social media marketing has a huge potential in building your brand name bigger in the market. Being popular on social platforms will not only allow you to increase your sales ratio but will automatically build your strong customer base. Though, marketing through social media can be free as well as paid depending on the platform you choose. 

For example, you can only perform paid marketing on Facebook but on other social platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc are completely free. 

However, marketing through social media services does not uplift your business instantly. It requires time and a handful of marketing strategies to make your business popular on social media. But the long term benefits of steady social media engagements are immense. 

Still finding yourself confused with social marketing platforms, consider connecting us @QLTech and clear out your doubts.

Effective Pinterest Marketing Plan to drive traffic to your Content

As you are aware that social marketing has become the most crucial part of every business to attract and engage customers. Which social platforms do you use for your business? Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or maybe LinkedIn may have brought you some lucrative benefits. 

In case your business is more picturesque than the Pinterest platform will add spice to your business’s social marketing.

If you’re still not convinced then here are some key Pinterest Marketing statistics.

  • Pinterest has 291 million active users every month.
  • 47% for millennials make the purchase on Pinterest.
  • There are more than 1.5 millions of business accounts on Pinterest and 75% of pins are saved from these business accounts.
  • 60% of marketers believe that their leads and traffic increased by 28% through their Pinterest business account.

If your business’s social marketing is lacking behind in engaging your audience? Well, no worries as we are going to cover all the aspects to amplify your Pinterest social media marketing. 

1) Let’s Start With Your Brand’s Pinterest Business Account

Now, the best part of Pinterest is that you can easily convert your personal account into a business account. 

Well, creating a new Pinterest business account is quite a simple step. The integral section is your business bio that should be filled by appropriate keywords for your brand appearance.

pinterest marketing

Let’s go further and take a look at how you can get started with the Pinterest business profile?

Profile Customisation

What is a profile? A profile is a brief description of a person or an organisation that clearly portrays their characteristics to the viewers. A profile plays an important role as its a face through which a person or a business is known for publicly. 

The best thing is that Pinterest is the only social platform in history that reached 10 million potential users rapidly in 2012. Any guess why? 

It is because of the flexibility in Pinterest profile customisation. Still not clear then go further!
  • Boards Modification

First things first! The initial attraction can be your Pinterest board cover that should be visually brand-centric. Customised boards look more interactive and provide pinners something better to explore. 

Try using your brand logo colours, fonts, and icons. With these elements, your audience can easily recognise your brand on other social platforms also.

  • Board Titles Alteration

Now the board titles! Being a marketer, we are quite aware that keywords play a  huge role in marketing. Same you have to do here while customising your Pinterest board title name. 

For better marketing results, you have to make SEO-friendly board titles that include product or service name of your brand. However, make sure that it remains short so that you get enough area for the board’s description to stick keywords.

You can take inspiration from our Pinterest business account that will provide you with an exact image of creating board titles.

  • Image optimisation

Images are the core of every Pinterest business account. That is why quality images are very important to be shown to your audience. Also, add those images which are optimal in size.

Below mentioned is the recommended image dimensions for Pinterest:

  • 2:3 – 1:3.5 is the image aspect ratio.
  • 600 pixels is the minimum width of the expanded pins.

Make sure to add at least one optimised image that exactly tells your audience what your blog is about.

2) It’s All About Your Website 

Your business website is the primary foundation of your brand’s visibility on Search Engines. So, make sure to keep things easier for your website visitors. Optimise your website in such a way that your visitors can easily pin your content and increase its visibility. 

Check out various simple ways to customise your Pinterest share button.

Rich Pins

Rich Pins provide additional information to your audience about your business services or products and help them in their buying decisions. All you need to do is simply enable them by integrating them into your website.

There are four types of Rich Pins that are mentioned below:

  •  Recipe Pin: From the name, it’s quite understood that it is related to cooking. Yes, If your business is somewhat related to cooking recipes than Recipe Pins will provide information like cooking time, ingredients and serving sizes.’
  • Product Pin: It’s the best way to increase the shopping experience of your customers. Product Pin allows you to provide real-time information of the product like price, availability and a place to buy your product.
  • App Pin: It’s an essential pin for those business owners who have their own e-commerce or any other service app. App Pin will allow people to install your app directly from your Pinterest marketing page to their smartphones. However, there is only one drawback, for now, App Pin is only available on iOS
  • Article Pin: With the help of Article Pin, your audience can easily save those stories that matter to them. This pin shows information like author, story description and headline.

In case, your business is involved with eCommerce industry then you really need to know about “Shop The Look Pins”.

Shop The Look Pins

To upgrade the shopping experience, Shop The Look pins are the best for your Pinterest business account. It’s a buyable pin that allows you to integrate your eCommerce store with your brand’s Pinterest marketing page.

With this buyable pin, your customers can directly purchase your product from your Pinterest business page. All they have to do is click on “Add to bag” button and then check out on the same page. 

This makes shopping easier and comfortable as your audience won’t have to leave your Pinterest page for this whole process.

3) Stay Active

Regular pinning should be scheduled at the appropriate period of time depending on when your audience is most active on social media. For more context, you can simply add descriptions as well as the hashtags to your Pinterest board pins.

For scheduling pins, you can use the following tool:

Tailwind

It is one of the best post scheduling tools for multiple social media platforms. Basically, Tailwind is the tool that a marketer requires to drive sales, traffic, and leads from their Pinterest business account. However, for Pinterest Tailwind hold an immense number of benefits.

  • It takes a lot of time to develop a pure content. And, for marketing, you will require bundles of content. Well, Tailwind allows you to overcome this challenge by offering a feature through which you can schedule other Pinterest user’s post for the desired time period. 
  • Tailwind has its own analytics platform through which you can easily figure out your best performing content. Also, this way you can save your time because, with Tailwind analytics, you will know what type of content does your audience like.
  • Tailwind’s latest feature i.e., SmartLoop will allow you to automate your Pinterest marketing strategy. Through SmartLoop, you can automate pinning your content according to the season or any special event. It’s a unique feature that will make your Pinterest marketing easier.

There are many other essential features of Tailwind that you can explore here.

4) Work Analysis

After setting up your Pinterest business account, the only thing that is left is analysing your marketing tactics and optimising in accordance. Pinterest has its own analytic tool through which you can easily analyse your work. 

Pinterest’s analytics provides information regarding the best-performing pins as well as the unique post pinned from your brand’s website. Though, it’s up to you which analytics tool you want to use, either Pinterest’s analytics or Tailwind Insights?

Conclusion

Well, now you are quite aware of the best Pinterest marketing practices to drive traffic to your content. Not only content, but Pinterest marketing is quite beneficial for your business as it can bring you a good number of leads. The more you get leads, the more can achieve sales and the more you can generate profit for your business.

Also, While marketing with Pinterest media, make sure to create a good combination of SEO tactics and Pinterest marketing strategies. Because this is how you will create effective content.

Therefore, if you need more information regarding Pinterest marketing then please feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help you out.