If you’ve been marketing or selling online, you know how competitive it is these days. 

There are 1.82 billion websites. (Internet Live Stats) That’s a lot of websites to compete with for the attention of your target audience. 

More businesses are looking to the Internet to reach their audience and even sell their goods and services. There are currently 7.9 Million Online Retailers in the world and 2.1 Million of them are in the United States. 

How can you break through the noise to reach your potential customers?

You’ve created a professional website.

You have relevant social media accounts and post interesting news and tips.

You've tried PPC campaigns with dedicated landing pages.

Now what?

You can leverage the power of your customers and turn them into your salespeople.

How can you get your customers to spread the word about your business? 

Reward them for talking about the products or services they already use and love. Referrals are one of the most effective ways and finding new customers for your business.

People don’t always trust marketing or even celebrity  or influencer endorsements. But they will trust friends, family, or even other average people like themselves. 

That is why we talk often about the power of reviews and testimonials. But you can take that a step further by offering incentives to turn your customers into affiliates.

Affiliate marketing is a hot topic right now, and more businesses are looking into how they can leverage the power of affiliates and referrals to increase sales.

I’ll touch on the 3 main ways your business can turn customers into salespeople.

You’ve probably heard of the most successful companies using affiliate marketing for their business. 

Amazon Associates is a simple and effective program created by Amazon that allows any customer to become an affiliate and send potential customers to product pages on their website. In exchange, Amazon pays a tiny fraction of each sale that results from the sale made from that person. They provide simple tracking tools and easy to insert links and pictures for Associates (affiliates) to use on their personal websites, social media pages, blog, etc.

If you have great products with a simple sales funnel, affiliate marketing can take your business to a whole new level of success.

How do you get started with your own affiliate marketing program?

Software like TitanAffiliate is specifically designed to make managing an affiliate marketing business simple and effective.

TitanAffiliate does everything from manage product sales and customer service to provide each affiliate with their own personal replicated website and sale links. You can easily track and manage affiliates and commissions to your affiliates through the admin dashboard. 

The right software simplifies the running an affiliate business, and can make the difference between success and failure.

We have a lot of resources for businesses looking into starting an affiliate business, or that want to improve their affiliate experience. You can talk to us now by requesting a free consultation with our affiliate marketing professionals. Or get more detailed information in this free Guide to Affiliate and Referral Marketing. 

Not all businesses are structured properly to take advantage of an affiliate program. If you have a more complex sales funnel, sell services or high-priced items, a Referral Program might be a better choice for your business.

Companies like Uber, Dropbox, and many more have very successful referral programs that motivate customers to refer others to their business.

We’ve worked with many companies to develop software to manage their referrals program, from invite systems to loyalty reward programs.

Referred customers are more loyal and create huge value for your business. By giving your customers incentives to refer their friends and contacts to your business, you can really boost sales.

You can set up a referral program that is easy to manage by using the right referral software, such as automated codes, tracking, and landing pages. 

Learn more about how to get started with a rewards program. 

This option can be used in addition to the either of the first two options. 

An affiliate network is the intermediary between affiliates (sometimes called publishers) and businesses (also called merchants).

Some well-known Affiliate Networks include Clickbank, ShareASale, Amazon, and CJ Associates.

Affiliates sign up, choose the products they want to promote, and post the links or banners on their websites, blogs, or social media to drive traffic to that product. As a business, you can list your products through these networks and the network takes a percentage of the sale. 

For example, Amazon charges a listing fee and also takes 6% – 25% of the sale. (For books, they take 30 – 70%). Note: This program is different form their affiliate program Amazon Associates.

Wondering if your business can benefit from affiliates or a referral program? We’ve worked with many new and established affiliate businesses over the years, and we’re looking forward to talking with you!