Starting a business online with no prior experience or customer base can be quite difficult as a beginner. In this situation trying to build your customer base and brand value from scratch is a very time-consuming process. You can use the help of professionals in this phase to build up potential customers. Just like salespeople in the offline business model, affiliates promote and sell your product on the online platform. Even though these affiliates take a percentage of the sale price as commission it is worth the price to hire affiliates in your store.

Setting up an affiliate program on your dropshipping store opens the door for affiliates into your business. You can mention details like the commission percentage and other details that would attract talented affiliates to your store. The main focus while developing an affiliate program for your store as a beginner should be to build up your brand name and gain maximum sales rather than making huge profits. You can achieve this by providing higher commissions to your affiliates.

How to set up an affiliate program | 5 Easy steps

Setting up an affiliate program is quite easy the only information that is required beforehand is some competitive research and your affiliate program terms.

1. Research

This is the most important step in the whole process. Before implementing the whole program it is very important to understand the basics and the market trend of affiliate marketing. Understand how your competitors are pitching affiliates and what are their terms. Most importantly what is their commission rate. Note down all this information and plan your affiliate program accordingly and prepare a road map for it.

2. Setting down the terms and conditions of your affiliate program

It is important to set the terms and conditions of your affiliate program. You dot want to give full freedom that would lead to and disaster or cheating. Therefore always set the terms that your affiliates have to follow in order to continue or join the program.  You can also mention details like what are their duties and what are the accepted marketing techniques that your company agrees with. Also, mention the benefits that affiliates would receive by joining your program. For example, making multiple sales or bring new customers would receive an additional commission.

3. Deciding the payment method and terms

The next important step is to decide what payment method you should attach to your affiliate program. It is always recommended to choose a payment method that can be easily accessible by all your affiliates. Plus terms such as what is the minimum cash out limit and other similar condition that generally comes with the affiliate programming should be mentioned here. All the payment instructions should be stated clearly as it would skip the chaos in the later stage and make the whole experience well structured.

4. Creating your marketing materials

Building up your marketing material is an important step that gets generally skipped. But it is very important to build top quality marketing material. As it would ultimately lead customers into your store. Proper planning and experienced person should be contacted for developing such materials.  Marketing material generally includes banners, descriptions, and videos.

5. Tracking the affiliate program

The final and most important step is to track the whole process. You could do this with tracking software that is available online that you could embed into your affiliate program page. Also, this beneficial from an affiliate’s point of view as they can easily track their progress and keep a track of their work. Tracking software should be selected based on the features that they offer. For example, software should track details like clicks, conversion rates, views, conversion, a commission earned and all other important factors. These tracking software unique URL to page and add a special tracking pixel on the thank you page to track the conversions of every individual affiliate.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that if affiliate marketing is done properly with proper execution and planning, it can yield fruitful results has the potential to take the whole brand forward and increase its brand value. We hope our blog guide you with the basic of the affiliate marketing and you would apply this on your store for increasing your sale. It is advised to go through every individual topic in detail to understand in-depth and you don’t face any problems in the future.