In its simplest form, affiliate marketing is a form of online marketing based on performance where an advertiser rewards affiliates (e.g blog or news site) for sales or traffic they drive from online referrals.

According to recent data released by the IAB, in 2016 advertisers spent £1.578 billion on online performance marketing, generating £19.4bn worth of sales and amassing an average £12.30 return on investment for every pound spent. With an overall growth of 12% this is certainly a channel advertisers shouldn’t be ignoring.

The industry of affiliate, or performance, marketing is continually evolving and has different benefits according to the sector or business you operate within.  If you are currently looking to expand your marketing strategies to include new or varied affiliate practices, here are just some of the different ways in which performance marketing can benefit companies within different sectors.

Travel

As such a hugely competitive industry, travel companies are constantly under pressure to offer the very best deals to customers, who have the option to search hundreds of different websites at their fingertips.

Modern technology also means that travellers have more control and power over future purchasing behaviour than ever previously possible. Online holiday reviews on the likes of Tripadvisor, as well as social media forums and comments, mean that more and more people are now turning to the internet in order to find destination guides and the best hotels to stay in before booking.

As holidays are typically one of the most expensive purchases made each year, online discounts for specific hotels, flight routes and times of year can work wonders for generating sales with new and returning customers. For those advertisers who don’t have the option to offer discount specific codes, there is the option for reward schemes or promotional messaging. This effectively means that, in return for a substantial purchase, customers can receive a gift card for a corresponding retailer or service to use for a future trip, helping to build up a relationship and trust in the brand long-term.

Hospitality & leisure

Similarly to travel, those working within the hospitality and leisure sectors can also utilise modern technology and affiliate practices in order to improve marketing efforts.

One of the biggest problems the hospitality sector faces is the abandonment of baskets on hotel websites, but modern tools and companies specialising in retargeting have developed to recapture these consumers.  These companies track information on site in order to tackle the issue of basket abandonment with onsite overlays, email retargeting and text message remarketing techniques.

Fashion & beauty

Often popular in the online fashion and beauty sector are discount vouchers, which allow customers, at the point of purchase, to see the total price of their baskets reduced by a certain amount, typically 10-15%. Vouchers and codes are often given a tight timeframe, with homepage countdowns and targeted email newsletter campaigns, and are normally applied site-wide, in order to encourage an increased level of spending. Affiliates in the incentive space have the benefit of extremely large and devoted audiences at their fingertips, giving brands a far greater reach, with a discount only working to further encourage consumer purchases.

Grocery

Whilst in the past, the supermarkets people frequented tended to be either the nearest to them, or the one which offered them the best in-store deals, it is now a lot harder for grocery providers to keep a loyal customer base. One must also bear in mind just how prevalent online grocery shopping has become amongst UK households who don’t have the time to get to their local supermarket once a week, and instead rely on sourcing their food for the week at the touch of a button.

Ensuring email newsletters are targeted to audiences in a way that will encourage a high open rate is crucial to ensuring brand awareness and loyalty amongst grocery brands. Using power words like ‘Free’, ‘Discount’ and ‘Limited Offer’ and keeping the subject line as short and sweet as possible can all help with regards to this.

Implementing a wide and varied use of voucher codes that aim to boost a customer's online spend also work very well for brands in the grocery sector. By implementing a “spend £X and receive X% off your next shop” incentive, companies could be ensuring a higher spend. Incentives for returning customers are also widely used amongst grocery brands to encourage customers to return regularly for their online shop.

 

By Sophie Parry-Billings, senior marketing manager at affilinet

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