With new brands launching every day, consumers are spoilt for choices. An average of 30,000 new products are launched every year, just in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry, according to a NielsenIQ report. Consumers of today have no dearth of options to choose from. Not just that, the modern consumers are also more experimental – they don’t shy away from trying new brands or switching to a new one. In this context, e-commerce brands need to consistently ensure that they stand out in the clutter and make their presence felt. This puts added pressure on the brands to make their marketing spends more efficient by choosing platforms that help them to get closer to their customers.
Affiliate platforms can play a key role in empowering e-commerce brands to build deep and impactful relationships with their consumers and broaden their network with key influencers. However, simply including affiliates in the marketing mix isn’t enough. Brands need to continually look at creative ways of ensuring the maximum returns of those affiliate spends.
1. Focus on innovative content placements
One sure-fire way of ensuring an always-on presence in front of consumers is by being a part of their research journey. Consumers spend a good chunk of their time researching products before placing their final order. Brands can opt for strategic content placements on a global network of publishers to grab maximum eyeballs.
SitePlug’s product, Site Discover, positions content strategically to prod users towards product purchase pages via banners, ‘buy-now’ widgets, coupons, email inserts, etc.
2. Invest in alternate search
Modern buyers’ journey is complex as is. An added complication for brands is consumers getting distracted by competitors at every step. While their brand promotion strategy does a brilliant job of creating awareness and driving purchase intent, it’s critical for brands to handhold their potential buyers till the very end of their journey. Alternate search is an innovative technology that enables brands to seamlessly guide their high intent potential consumers directly to product pages. Site Suggest’s algorithm identifies the user’s inputs, bypassing the search page to recommend only the brand’s link, thereby simplifying a complex journey.
3. Focus on transparency
To make affiliate marketing successful, it is necessary to focus on the highest levels of transparency at all times. Marketers and brands must attribute metrics, track ad spends and check the performance in tandem with their affiliate partners to ensure maximum efficiency. Once done, brands can experience long-lasting and lucrative affiliate associations, which will bring them excellent returns and a steady flow of customers.
E-commerce brands looking to drive exponential ROIs will need to re-look at the gaps in their existing marketing funnels and adopt innovative technologies that plug these gaps. From capturing high-intent buyers’ attention on affiliate sites through strategic content placements to hand-holding them from search to product pages, brands that integrate data-driven technologies in their buyer journey will achieve higher returns on their marketing spends.
