Affiliate programs come in many shapes and sizes, and can be quite confusing to understand…
But it its simplest form, it just means another person (or business) selling or promoting someone else’s products to their own customers for financial gain, usually in the form of commissions.
And they can be a fantastic way for both parties to grow profitability quickly. The commissions an affiliate partner receives is pure profit on their bottom line. And the affiliate programs owner will gain business that they would never have been able to reach.
As an example, we have a really simple to understand affiliate program, which enables our affiliate partners to refer our photocopier solutions (new or refurbished) and our cloud telephone service to their customers and receive a third of the recurring profits. Safe in the knowledge that the customer will save money (against their existing costs) and be provided with world class service.
There is very little time commitment required by our affiliate partners. All we require is the initial introduction, and we do the rest. And when the client signs, our affiliate partner share in the recurring profits every month.
Starting or joining affiliate programs are a fantastic way to increase your income and build a bigger business fast. And there are so many reasons to join or create an affiliate program that you should just stop reading this and get to work on starting or joining one now. But, if you’re still not convinced, have a read of our 5 reasons here…
1. No Startup Costs – There is hardly any business that you can start doing that has no or very little start up costs. Joining an affiliate scheme usually won’t cost you anything and the right one, will start to return commissions (profit) to you within the first 3 months.
Likewise, starting your own affiliate program will cost you very little, depending on how complicated you try and make it. Our advice is, keep it simple for everyone and this will also keep any set-up and administrative costs low.
2. Affordable Marketing – Marketing isn’t cheap, right. And when you have a affiliate program you may need to create marketing materials for your affiliates, but this depends on the type of scheme you are running. Again, we find simplicity is best. And if you can operate a scheme where your affiliate partner refers you, and you complete the sales and sign up process. In most cases your existing marketing material will work, making marketing cost effective for both parties.
3. Increases your income streams – If you already sell products of your own as well as other people’s, then you know what it means to have multiple streams of income. Having many ways to bring money into your business or household keeps you from having financial problems, because you’re not reliant on just one source of income.
Our affiliate partners benefit from recurring payments that collate through the number of monthly colour pages printed and the number of registered telephone handsets within their active customers. As an example, if you refer to us 50 active business customers and they print 5,000 colour pages each (250K) month and each have 5 telephone handsets (250). We would give you £3,000 each month (£36,000 a year) as your share of the profit.
4. Higher profit margins for all – This works really well for both parties. The affiliate partner receives good commissions (pure profit). In our case, we give them a third of all recurring profits each month. And we receive extra business that we would never have received. So, sharing a third of our profits is a worth while cost of sale, as our affiliate partner becomes an integral part of our team.
5. Fantastic word of mouth marketing – Affiliate marketing is like word of mouth marketing on steroids. Once you have created a great group of affiliate partners and they start to see the financial rewards coming in, there will be no stopping the program. Word will get out and people will be knocking on your door wanting to become your next affiliate partner.
If you’ve got great products and great service, affiliate programs are not hard to start and is something that you should definitely consider doing.
And if you’ve got a strong existing customer base find an organisation who already has an affiliate program, which is a good fit for you and doesn’t conflict. But make sure whoever you choose provides a worth while level of financial incentives and fantastic products which are designed to help your customers in some way.