To the layman, Affiliate Marketing is just another throw-away term that the business-savvy toss around. Stereotypes aside, affiliate marketing is SO much more than that. Gone are the heydays of traditional marketing, as legacy institutions (television, radio) lose their market presence as digital marketing takes over. Affiliate marketing is a crucial element among a litany of practices in the digital marketer’s arsenal. New virtual assistants should adopt affiliate marketing practices, capturing every profit-producing opportunity.
What is it?
Affiliate marketing involves an agreement for paying commission to external affiliates for directing website traffic or sales from its referrals. The advertiser is the organization sourcing for affiliates, the affiliates being the marketers that sign up for the program. Popular affiliate retail programs include Amazon Associates and Aliexpress Portals.
Every purchase or site-visit that was driven by the affiliate’s unique link will result in a percentage-based commission being paid by the advertiser to the affiliate. In the industry, these are called “conversions”. Currently, there are three predominant payment models: pay-per-click, pay-per-lead and pay-per-sale:
- Pay-per-click: Payment model based on the number of website visits driven by the affiliate link
- Pay-per-lead: Payment model based on the number of website visits, AND desired actions performed by visitors driven by the affiliate link. Desired actions include signing a contact form, signing up for an account etc.
- Pay-per-sale: Payment model based on the number of sales driven by the affiliate link.
Becoming an affiliate marketer entails two simple steps:
- The standard on-boarding process to become an affiliate includes registering with the platform of choice, identifying a niche that you are targeting. The vetting process is of utmost importance. It is important that you match the right products with the right people! With over 11,400 affiliate programs available in the USA alone, be wary of the affiliate programs that you sign up to.
- Once you are done, generate several affiliate links unique to yours truly, and you are all set!
Now that was not that intimidating, isn’t it?
Why Affiliate Marketing?
With over 80% of brands having some sort of affiliate program, advertisers clearly see huge potential in affiliate marketing for scaling their businesses. All companies have to do is to provide a unique affiliate link, and the paid commission is incentive enough for affiliates to do the marketing for them! Moreover, each conversion or bounce can easily be tracked via each unique link. Simply let the performance indicators update themselves accordingly, and refer to them when necessary! Its low upfront costs plus high returns on investment (ROI) are convincing reasons for advertisers tempted to make the switch!
But what is in it for affiliates? For starters, once the affiliate links are generated, the world is your oyster! From YouTube videos to guerrilla marketing tactics, there are a vast number of ways to relay website visits and sales to advertisers. This marketing freedom allows affiliates to pursue novel sales tactics to meaningful engage with one’s audience. Gear Patrol is seen as one such resounding success, driving a voluminous number of sales to via Amazon’s affiliate program.
Most importantly, any content that you have created to generate leads or sales is forever immortalized on the internet. Apart from the upfront cost of marketing the advertiser’s product or service, the sales that flow in are framed as investments, a continuous process beyond the initial campaign blitz. Technically, affiliate marketing is an infinitely scalable endeavour with no ceiling. Therefore, commissions are seen as passive income. For virtual assistants, affiliate marketing is a rewarding side-occupation that maintains the flow of secondary income. Think of it as a safe investment, with virtually zero risk on your principal!
That is where we come in!
Unlike traditional affiliate marketing protocols, our innovative affiliate framework deviates from the norm.
At HIPPO Business Services, we are excited to engage with our past clients in their respective industries, learning more about the ins and outs of each sector. By tapping into their industry knowhow, our virtual assistants are better equipped to meet the expectations of future clientele in similar industries. How do we do this? We embody this philosophy in the form of case-studies of our past clients, meticulously studying their craft.
At HIPPO, we believe it takes two hands to clap. Our Ambassador Program is a wonderful platform for both parties to collaborate and learn alongside one another. Unlike other affiliate programs, our team at HIPPO is do not see our ambassadors as a means to an end. We want this to be a rewarding experience for our ambassadors. They will always be seen as strategic equals who are just as involved in the process as we are. Your active participation is highly beneficial to our growth, and vice versa, where your success is our success.
Our Ambassador Program
- Bronze Ambassador: You are considered a Bronze Ambassador if we receive 1-5 industry referrals as a result of our collaborative case-study, paying a commission of $0.50 AUD/hour outsourced.
- Silver Ambassador: You are considered a Silver Ambassador if we receive 6-10 industry referrals as a result of our collaborative case-study, paying a commission of $0.75 AUD/hour outsourced.
- Gold Ambassador: You are considered a Gold Ambassador if we receive 11+ industry referrals as a result of our collaborative case-study, paying a commission of $1.00 AUD/hour.
Additional benefits include:
- Free use of a Virtual Assistant for 12 weeks.
- Weekly downstream payment for the lifetime of any clients that sign on to Hippo services as a direct result of the case study.
- The opportunity to establish a working relationship with our brain trust.
This is a profit-producing opportunity with zero material, upfront cost. The only barrier-to-entry to this prodigious program is a simple collaborative case study! This is the perfect gateway for you to venture into the fruitful world of affiliate marketing. If you have had a pleasant experience with HIPPO, and would like to formally sign up for our Ambassador’s Program, do not hesitate to contact us!
