Referral marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing. And, it is not going anywhere anytime soon. In our current digital age, referral marketing takes many forms and names. Some of the names used in digital marketing for referral marketing are:
- Affiliate marketing
- Referral marketing
- Word of mouth marketing
- Partner
- Advocate
- Ambassador
Whatever you call it, it is all the same. Word of mouth marketing. All these methods of word of mouth do the same thing. Which is to get you customers.
In this post, we are going to be focusing on affiliate marketing. Many businesses use affiliate marketing to generate traffic and sales. Affiliate marketing is a great and cheap marketing channel. It is cheap because you only pay affiliates for the successful sales and traffic they send you.
To create an affiliate program, you simply need a great affiliate marketing platform. Then, you will integrate the affiliate marketing platform with your website or e-store. Next, you will need to start recruiting affiliates to join your program. When you recruit affiliates, you will provide them with marketing materials they can use. They will use what you provide them to promote you. You can give them banners, links, coupons, and any other media you want them to use to promote you. When a potential customer clicks on this link or banner they will be redirected to your website. Also, a cookie will get stored on their computer. Now, when this customer successfully buys, you will reward the affiliate. It is that simple.
There are many businesses that have used various forms of word of mouth marketing to grow. For example, Amazon used and uses affiliate marketing to continue expanding their empire. Dropbox used referral marketing to get their customers to refer friends to use them. As you can see, whatever form of word of mouth marketing, it works. You can use word of mouth marketing to get more customers. It does not have just have to be affiliate marketing. Now, check out this checklist put together by OSI Affiliate Software on how you can start an affiliate program for your business.
How to Create a Referral Program and Grow Your eCommerce Business (Infographic)
Courtesy of: OSI Affiliate Software
