The convergence of social media and affiliate marketing is a winning combination for both social media influencers and affiliate marketers. Social media can be used for much more than just engagement, and smart affiliate marketers have jumped on the bandwagon. Whether you’re running an online store or a small to mid-size business, attracting new customers while retaining old ones is an uphill task. In the highly competitive field of affiliate marketing, formulating a successful social media strategy is a sure shot way to boost revenue by selling products.

Social Media Influencer Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the best and easiest strategies implemented by companies to drive online sales and gain monetary benefits from their website content. Social media influencers largely impact consumer buying patterns and provide interested buyers with information on where to purchase products. But how do companies utilize social media to generate revenue?

How Companies Leverage Social Media for Revenue Generation

Thanks to the ever-changing digital landscape, social media has become a mass platform for affiliate marketers to advertise their products since the last few years. By taking advantage of quality content produced by social influencers and trusted by customers, companies use affiliate links to market their products.

However, businesses can also utilize other activities to generate income that are not necessarily ads. They try to market their content without affecting the user experience or brand loyalty. With social media leading the affiliate marketing race, numerous platforms are monetizing their content. Currently, Facebook is dominating the domain, closely followed by Twitter. Many social media users have cited Instagram and Pinterest as the driving force behind their decision to purchase a product, solely because it appeared in their newsfeed.

Advantages of Using Affiliate Marketing

Thanks to the multiple free and affordable affiliate marketing tools available online, businesses and marketers are raking in hefty profits. Social media influencers and companies claim up to 30 percent commission on sales from sharing affiliate links. Here are some of the other benefits that businesses can avail besides increasing their website’s earning potential.

  • Profitability: Businesses that invest funds in affiliate marketing have an added advantage of increased visibility and social media presence. Even if a potential buyer does not purchase a product, the website still gets impressions and reaches its targeted customers.
  • Using merchant websites for business promotion: Companies can attract niche customers by promoting their products on websites with related content. This helps to build brand relationships as well as get additional recommendations on the website.
  • Data analysis: Affiliate marketing tools such as email marketing software, keyword research tools and webmaster tools help social media influencers monitor the performance of their affiliate links. They can easily view website visitors, the number of clicks and online sales to determine what content strategy works best for them.

 Boost affiliate marketing with social media | iTMunch

Ways to Boost Affiliate Marketing Using Social Media

It is important for companies and influencers to understand that while being the easiest way to get maximum social media exposure, affiliate marketing may not be suited for every business. Hence, they must identify their tactics and calculate the revenue generated after deducting the commissions paid. Influencers and marketers can also sign up for a trusted affiliate marketing software such as Amazon Associates to increase earning potential and become a trusted authority for Google’s search engine results.

Since social media is one of the biggest contributors that helps track and influence consumer purchase trends, companies prefer Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram to advertise their products. By hiring the right kind of affiliate marketers for their business, companies can effectively use influencer marketing to reach their sales goals.

There are various ways to promote content on social media sites such as creating YouTube videos, using colourful banners and creating direct links. Affiliate redirect links are also a great tool to use for email marketing to reach the desired consumer base of the relevant products.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Courses Online That You Should Know About

The best place to start for promoting affiliate marketing links is producing high-quality content that is engaging and shareable. In order to create compelling content, businesses compile blog posts, Facebook posts, infographics and email newsletters for reaching their target customer base. They also link images of the product being promoted so as to attracts clicks, especially for high quality offers that can rake in good commissions. Social media is also used to increase email lists to generate traffic to the company or social media influencer’s website.

Leveraging social media to drive online sales helps businesses and influencers increase their traffic sources, revenue, and credibility. Choosing the right digital channels for your content is imperative; while Facebook has the largest overall audience, Twitter boasts the best information network and LinkedIn is more business-centric. Using these platforms to gradually generate a quality following is the ultimate aim of influencer marketing.

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