What if we told you of an approach to strengthen your business marketing, widen your reach, and unlock infinite leads? This approach is affordable and ensures long-term success. It’s called B2B affiliate marketing.
This explainer guide walks you through B2B affiliate marketing and demonstrates how it can help your business grow.
Does B2B Affiliate Marketing Work?
Yes. Affiliate marketing is effective for business-to-business(B2B) marketing. In fact, 84% of publishers and 81% of marketers rely on affiliate marketing to boost their sales.
The one thing you require is working with the right channels. Besides, affiliate marketing is all about trusting your industry’s content creators to persuade your prospects.
These content creators command an audience that trusts in them. Hence, whenever they promote a product, the audience listens and is more willing to take action.
If you want your B2B affiliate marketing strategy to work, choose the right creators depending on their audience. Ensure this audience contains your target market.
How Do I Find B2B Affiliate Partners
Businesses may find it hard to find B2B affiliate partners, considering the large number of programs in existence today. Such partners are even more difficult to locate when a business is in the blockchain sector.
One of the first steps to finding the right B2B affiliate partners is checking out your competitors’ partners and asking whether they would love to market your products, too. It is also possible to land great partners by reverse engineering other affiliate programs. This is where a business studies its industry rivals’, establishes affiliates, and draws best practices for creating and owning an in-house affiliate program.
Other methods include searching on Google or web directories, reaching out to B2B influencers, as well as finding recommendations on consultancy networks.
Bitmedia is a prominent crypto ad network for the blockchain industry that provides customized marketing solutions for Web3 games, gambling platforms, exchanges, crypto wallet solutions, and so on. If you are looking for help regarding affiliate marketing, the marketing agency is also a wonderful place to start looking.
Our Top 10 Tips for Starting a B2B Affiliate Program
Even if the idea seems simple, crafting a winning affiliate program depends on several strategic decisions. We prepared these ten tips for building the ultimate B2B affiliate marketing plan.
- Understand the Role Affiliates Play in the Buyer’s Journey
Affiliate marketing relies on a third party to generate traffic. For this reason, this type of marketing demands a more nuanced approach when mapping the buyer journey.
The buyer journey or the Customer Journey Map (CJM) demonstrates how potential buyers interact with your brand before taking action. Mapping the buyer journey involves unveiling all customer touchpoints across any channels, including:
- Mobile apps
- Websites
- Streaming sites
- Social media
- Physical stores
- Call centers
If you have appropriately mapped your customer journey, understanding the role of affiliates will be a walk in the park. At this point, it becomes easier to choose the right affiliate partners,
- Establish Strategic Affiliate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Every B2B marketing strategy should be data-driven and measurable. There is no exception when it comes to B2B affiliate programs.
Focus on the following Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) when setting targets for your affiliate leads and sales:
- Total target revenue per quarter or per year.
- Amount of qualified leads you want from your affiliates per year or per quarter.
- Conversion rate (percentage of leads that purchase once they click an affiliate’s link).
- Amount of unique sales from each affiliate link.
- Identify Potential B2B Affiliates’ Sources
A successful B2B affiliate marketing program will depend on how best you can pick appropriate affiliate partners. It is always advisable to create a preference list and reach out to the affiliates.
Moreover, ensure your preference list contains B2B influencers who your target audience already trusts. It will also be a plus to have influencers who are already familiar with your product. This will make it easier for them to persuade prospects.
Segmenting your sources is also an industry best practice to help deliver personalized messages to your target audience. By segmenting, you can also tailor warm leads that redirect to specific landing pages.
- Consider Existing Customers When Selecting Affiliates
One of the worst mistakes you could make with B2B affiliate marketing is failing to onboard existing customers.
Even if an affiliate needs not to regularly use your product, other B2B buyers must trust and respect their content. As such, it’s crucial to consider existing customers as part of your affiliate program.
It’s easier for a customer who has used the product to authentically share its benefits and how it can benefit other businesses.
- Determine Competitive Commission Rates for Affiliates
Since your B2B affiliate program is a long-term sales prospect, it is crucial to set up acceptable commissions. If the commission is favorable to both you and your affiliates, the partners will remain motivated. For instance, some businesses reward affiliates with a flat payout whenever they bring in a qualified lead. When the lead makes a purchase, the affiliate receives a larger commission or percentage of the sale. Bonus commissions are also valuable compensations for affiliates who bring a particular amount of qualified leads + sales throughout a specified amount of time.
- Define Commission Regulations Thoughtfully
Take time to understand your product about affiliate marketing. This process will come in handy when drawing commission rules for compensating your affiliates. Some of the factors you need to consider when defining commission regulations include:
- How long is an affiliate eligible for commission after a click?
- When an affiliate partner brings in a qualified lead, will they earn a commission automatically, or will they have to wait until the lead makes a purchase?
- What are the commission rules in case the customer returns the product or cancels a service?
- If your business is a subscription service, will affiliates earn commissions whenever their customers renew their subscriptions?
- Establish Your Own Affiliate Network
Utilizing an existing affiliate network is the best idea when starting. It will save you time, effort, and perhaps even finances. However, any long-term prospects may require building your own affiliate network and eliminating the middleman. Recruiting your affiliates will also give you more control and save you money in the long run. Having your affiliate network will have the following pros:
- You don’t have to pay extra fees to existing networks
- You will gain control of the process and have direct access to your data
- It will be easier to forge authentic relationships
- You will be able to optimize your affiliate network, personalize campaigns, and create targeted strategies across all segments.
- Select Appropriate Affiliate Software
When conducting B2B affiliate marketing, you have to choose the right automation software. This will help automate your process and monitor key metrics in real-time. The software also gives you a clear picture of the affiliates responsible for a lead or sale, thereby enabling you to effectively process payouts and strengthen your relationship with partners.
- Provide Education to Affiliates on Your B2B Sales Cycle
Many B2B marketers make the mistake of not properly educating or training their affiliates on their brands and products. Once you recruit your partners, provide them with adequate guidelines about your product. Clearly communicate the terms and conditions for promoting the product and the rules for earning a commission.
If the partners are satisfied with your terms, this is the point that you should bring each of them to sign an agreement with your business. Regularly check out how they are doing, and whenever there are updates to your product, remember to notify the affiliates.
- Improve Your Program Based on Analytical Insights
Marketing cannot be effective without reliable data for tracking progress. With the right metrics, affiliate marketers can gauge feedback and make adjustments based on their findings. These metrics are also valuable when comparing the program’s performance against the KPIs. In case you notice something is not right, adjust some of the components, including your affiliate partners, channels, or commission structures.
Read also: Maximizing Your Crypto Profits With Affiliate Marketing
Since you have tips for creating a winning B2B affiliate marketing program, it’s time to put the knowledge into action. Your first steps should be planning your entire program, defining your goals, and mapping your buyer journey. Now that you have these three steps covered, move to the next steps.
Craft a preference list of appropriate affiliate partners and choose those that meet your criteria. Use the plan in step 1 to build KPIs and communicate these clearly to your partners. Remember to educate your affiliates about your brand and also find effective software to track performance.
If you want a marketing agency to assist you, Bitmedia has established a reliable network of publishing partners, influencers, and B2B professionals. If you use Bitmedia, you are choosing hassle-free affiliate management, campaign creation, tracking, and pricing.
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