Are you looking at joining an affiliate network as a way to grow your business? If so, ShareASale is the best affiliate network for small businesses.
There are plenty of things you can do if you’re a small business owner looking to expand or bring in new customers.
You can place ads on Facebook and/or Instagram and/or wherever else your customer base is situated. You can work with influencers – bloggers, instagrammers, youtubers – to help spread the word. You can use Google AdWords to place targeted ads on Google or even go with a more traditional print, radio, or television ad. While all of these options are great and might eventually become a part of your advertising arsenal, they can all be pretty pricey.
My recommendation? Affiliate Marketing.
What is affiliate marketing?
If you’re looking for a way to get new customers to your small business without spending an arm and a leg, affiliate marketing may be a great fit for you. The upfront costs are minimal and you pay your affiliates a commission only after they sell products for you.
After establishing your affiliate program, people can join and promote your products via their own blogs, websites, or social media channels. Using special tracking links, the software automatically keeps track of where sales are coming from so that affiliates can be compensated the already agreed upon percentage.
You’re not out money or advertising costs upfront. If you find the right affiliate partners, they can really propel your business to new heights and all you’ll owe is a commission.
How does affiliate marketing work?
I started blogging in 2009 as a hobby but within two weeks I was trying to figure out how to make money blogging. That’s when I discovered affiliate marketing. I started partnering with brands that had products I thought would interest my readers. I would primarily write blog posts about the products I loved, as well as share them on my social channels. The revenue I made solely from affiliate marketing made it possible for me to quit my day job in 2013!
Thanks to various affiliate networks, which are basically large aggregators of advertisers (businesses) that provide all of the tools and technology necessary for running an affiliate program, finding brands to promote wasn’t difficult at all. In most instances, I had very little contact with the brand itself. I primarily just needed access to the tracking links, which I could embed on my website.
At a bare minimum, small businesses that choose to set up an affiliate program will need to provide a couple of tracking links. For instance, I’ve worked with some companies that only provide a link to their homepage. Others offer datafeeds of every product they sell. Some choose to offer coupons for their affiliates to promote. Some offer banner ads that can be placed on websites. Basically, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach and you can provide as many – or as few – resources you think would be ideal to promote your company.
Why your small business needs an affiliate program
An affiliate program may not be ideal for every small business, but if you sell products that can be shipped or offer a B2B service, then setting one up could be a great way to spread your reach. If you’re able to find the right affiliate partners that really believe in your brand and vision, the gains to your business can be huge as they’ll begin promoting your products to their networks. Individually, your business’ reach is only so big. With affiliates promoting your products, the sky is the limit.
The best affiliate network for small businesses
There are quite a few different affiliate networks out there, including CJ, Rakuten, and PepperJam, among many others. Over the years, I’ve joined and worked with all of them. Without hesitation, though, I recommend ShareASale as the best affiliate network for small businesses.
ShareASale is a Chicago-based company that has been in the game for a long time. Two of the reasons I recommend this network above all others as being ideal for small business owners who want to start an affiliate program is because 1. They’re affordable and 2. They are very blogger-friendly.
The low entry cost and being blogger-friendly are both important elements to consider when you’re evaluating affiliate networks. If you don’t yet have a huge advertising budget, the cost to join the network is probably super important to you. One way you can work with influencers is that you can offer them a flat free up-front, which can be pricey. If you’re able to get quality bloggers into your affiliate program, however, you won’t necessarily need to pay them anything up front as they’ll be able affiliate income. (Pro
Tip: If you want to work with bloggers and have them say nice things about you, it’s still nice to send them free product if you can swing it. It’s hard to recommend a product until you’ve tried it!
How much does it cost to list a business on ShareASale?
As a small business owner myself, I understand money is always tight. While ShareASale is the most affordable affiliate network for small businesses, it’s not without cost. Here’s the cost breakdown straight from them:
For full transparency, here is our total pricing.
This generally includes the network access fee ($550), deposit amount ($100 minimum), transaction fee (20% of commission), and the monthly minimums – which we do not want you to have to worry about!
Regarding the minimums, building an active Affiliate program takes time. We understand this, so we give you a grace period before any monthly minimums are introduced.
For the first 60 days, there are no minimums. After 60 days there is a $35 monthly minimum in transaction fees that you must pay to ShareASale. Ideally, you will be clearing this easily and not having to pay this fee, but if not you will want to be sure to reach out to our Client Services team to find ways in which we can help to optimize your program.
Getting started with ShareASale
Even if affiliate marketing is brand new to your business, ShareASale makes it easy to get started. They have an 8-part setup wizard that will walk you through everything you need to know and do to get started.
Step 1: Commissions:
http://blog.shareasale.com/2016/09/01/merchant-setup-wizard-walkthrough-part-1-commissions/
In this step, you will decide whether to offer your affiliates a flat fee payment (for instance, $5 per subscription box sold) or pay a percentage commission.
Step 2: Attract Affiliates:
http://blog.shareasale.com/2016/09/16/merchant-setup-wizard-walkthrough-part-2-attract-affiliates/
This step will walk you through adding your logo to your affiliate profile, writing your company bio, and how to use keywords to attract your ideal affiliates.
Step 3: Managing Affiliates:
http://blog.shareasale.com/2016/09/16/merchant-setup-wizard-walkthrough-part-3-managing-affiliates/
Believe it or not, once you reach step 3 you’re almost done with setting up your program! At this point in the process you’ll just decide a couple of things, like if you’d like to automatically approve affiliates once they apply.
Tip: There’s no perfect answer for whether you should automatically approve potential affiliates. For some small businesses, it makes more sense to auto approve to cut down on the time they’re putting into running their affiliate program. The risk with this is that you can’t control which outlets will promote you. Manually approving all applications can be time-consuming but will allow you greater control over your partners.
Step 4 & 5: Placing and Testing the Tracking Code:
This is the most techy part of the ShareASale setup wizard, as this is where you’ll need to install the tracking pixel so that your affiliates can receive credit for sales they send your way.
If it seems a little crazy to you, contact me and I can help set up your affiliate program!
Step 6: Setup Fee and Deposit:
I covered this above, but the main upfront cost is ShareASale’s one-time fee of $550 to list your small business on their platform.
Step 7 & 8: Customize your campaign and get activated:
Finally, you’re at the end! Steps 7 and 8 will walk you through uploading creative elements that your affiliates can use to promote your business, as well as setting up any special commission rules that allow you to reward affiliates for quick sales. (For instance, you could offer a bonus for their first 10 transactions.)
Once all of this is done, it’ll be time to activate your account!
You’re not alone!
Another reason that ShareASale is the best affiliate network for small businesses is that they care about your success. I know that sounds cheesy as all get out, but after 10 years in the affiliate marketing industry, I can unequivocally say that ShareASale does more to help their advertisers and publishers succeed than any other network. Their success team is in place to make sure you have a successful launch and they have ongoing learning opportunities via the ShareASale blog, regular webinars, and their annual conference, ThinkTank.
Grow your brand with less money upfront
Sometimes the small business owners I work with are wary of jumping right into working with influencers because it’s hard to measure success. With affiliate marketing, though, it’s easy to see if your affiliates are bringing in sales and they only get paid when you do.
If you’re at the point in your company’s trajectory where you’re ready to move forward with joining the affiliate landscape, then I wholeheartedly recommend ShareASale as the best affiliate network for small businesses.
Click here to learn if the best affiliate network for small businesses, ShareASale, is right for your business.
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