Affiliate marketing involves partnering with loyal consumers to promote your product and then rewarding them for their efforts on a commission basis. This is an effective strategy that brands employ to improve sales.  Quite often, it’s better used in tandem or coupled with other marketing outreach strategies and overarching campaigns. 

Affiliate marketing usually involves a partnership between a business and a content creator (or affiliate) to help bring attention to, and in turn promote the sale of, products or services where the retailer agrees to pay a commission to the affiliate marketer for every sale they drive. 

1. LOW START UP FEES

An affiliate program does not require that you have an advertising team for ad visuals or that you purchase ad space. Rather, you have the option to depend entirely on your affiliates to come up with content that organically markets your products and services. 

Once a company is comfortable working with an affiliate and has built a good relationship, they can let go of the reins and trust them to generate high-quality content that organically markets their products and services.

2. MINIMAL COSTS

Since most of your marketing activities are done by affiliates, they’ll also bear the chunk of the cost attached. And since it’s a commission-based program, it means that you’ll only pay affiliates from sales they bring in. 

This marketing model makes costs easy to manage and does not interrupt your cash flow. That’s a major departure from other marketing models, such as PPC or paid media strategy, that require you to pay for every click leading to your website. Affiliate marketing, however, ensures that your monthly content marketing cost is directly associated with sales generated. 

3. LOW RISK

Low cost means low risk. Since the cost of your affiliate marketing program is directly correlated with sales generated, you don't have to stress out about losing money on your investment, which is perfect for businesses on a tight budget.

4. TARGETED TRAFFIC

Another key point is that the affiliates you partner with are ultimately handpicked by you, ensuring the traffic coming to your site is from individuals who find your product or service useful. 

This is important because your audience of ideal affiliates, content creators and passionate consumers who resonate with your brand, will most likely have their own audience which overlaps with your target consumer.

5. FLEXIBILITY

You can easily make your affiliate program smaller or bigger at little or no cost. It also offers you a great way to scale up your business without breaking the bank. 

You can also choose to scale the compensation of your affiliate marketing program to match the growth of your business. This is worth considering because the larger reach an influencer has, the more authority (and sales) they can direct to a site through an affiliate partnership. 

As with anything, the more competitive your affiliate program is in its compensation, the more high-quality affiliate partnerships it will attract.

6. ROI

Having the keys to product innovation and effective management skills doesn’t guarantee a high ROI; you’ll also need to get your marketing right. 

Affiliate marketing has been proven to have a much higher return on investment than most other marketing strategies. One major reason for this is because your target audience will hear of your product or service from affiliates that are naturally positioned within their spheres of influence. 

In short, you’re channeling your marketing efforts through affiliate partnerships who have direct access and influence over a highly targeted and receptive audience that you both share.