An affiliate program is designed to bring you niche traffic and new customers. It means that you already have a strong network that can help you increase your sales. Seasonal trends, such as the winter holidays, offer a great opportunity to take things to a new level by giving your program a boost and to skyrocket affiliate sales.
The American researchers predict that by 2022 the affiliate marketing industry will exceed 8.2 billion dollars just in the USA. A well implemented affiliate marketing program typically accounts for 10% – 20% of online sales for most merchants. During holidays however, affiliate traffic can increase by up to 45% and improve conversion rates by 86%, with increases in revenue up to 126%. It is too good an opportunity to miss out on!
Successful promotions during holiday season frequently play a crucial role in fulfilling (and, why not, exceeding) sales objectives. Here are four of the most successful strategies to incentivize and reward your affiliates during this important time.
Preparing Affiliate Holidays Promotions
Incentivize sales and increase the conversion rate by creating exclusive promotions available to customers only through the affiliates and the affiliate links they use. Motivate affiliates by creating special commissions for them during holidays or by offering prizes based on their performance.
Here are 4 easy steps to follow on how to successfully sell through affiliates during holidays:
1. Create Appealing Affiliate Holidays Promotions
Seasonal promotions that your customers find attractive can help you accomplish your sales targets and set your affiliates up for success. One way to do that is to create a discount coupon for the products that you want to push in this period through affiliates.
Make sure to give the code a catchy name so that is easy to remember. You can always choose words related to the holiday that you are preparing it for, such as “XMAS2021” or “SNOW21”. Double check the campaign’s settings so that everything is functioning correctly, and the affiliates can use it smoothly and not loose momentum due to technical issues. Here’s what to look after: the coupon should be attributed to the affiliate channel, check the coupon’s validity, and decide if you want the code to be applied automatically or manual. Now all is set!
2. Prepare Marketing Materials with the Special Promotion
Another strategy to ensure your affiliates’ success is to provide them with dedicated banners, landing pages and social media photos to promote your products. Having marketing materials ready to go that are prepared with the current season and promotion in mind saves your affiliates time and allows them to focus on advertising your product. Furthermore, it ensures that their efforts are aligned with your overall brand and your own promotions.
Let them know where they can find them and how they can correctly create links with their affiliate ID embedded in order to properly promote the products and track sales back to them. You can even make the materials available to the affiliates prior to the holiday season so that there is time for grabbing links and setting the promotion on the affiliate website.
3. Notify the Affiliates in Advance
Announce your upcoming holiday promotion days or hours before the start date. Your affiliates will have more time to prepare and focus on providing great content as a result. You can reach them by email or make this information available through your affiliate dashboard (or better yet, both).
This way, they will not get frustrated and there will be more time to prepare everything carefully. Exclusive offers usually have a sense of emergency that drives the customer to buy and are a magical tool for converting affiliate audiences.
4. Incentivize the Affiliates for their Performance
Affiliates are still customers, and they like to be rewarded for their efforts and feel appreciated. With that in mind, you can do a few things to boost engagement and get your affiliates interested.
You can motivate affiliates by creating special commissions for them during holidays or by offering prizes based on performance. Or, you can even create a contest for them where you include all the special offers that they can promote, and you reward their performance. A great example is the “Winter Software LAND” from Avangate Affiliate Network, a holiday contest dedicated to affiliates. Check it out!
CONCLUSION
Seasonality is a great opportunity to increase your affiliate channel and maximize your revenue.
Boost your sales during holidays by creating special offers available only through the affiliate program. Help your affiliates make your offer more visible by providing them with dedicated visuals. Disclose the specifics regarding your seasonal sales ahead of time so that the publishers have time to set it up and are ready to sell when the promo starts.
Last, but not least, ALWAYS remember to monitor and analyze the results, during and after the holiday, so that you know what to improve next time.