If you’re considering a career in affiliate marketing, it’s important to first understand everything affiliate marketing entails. In this guide, we’ll provide an overview of affiliate marketing and discuss the basics that you need to know in order to start working in the industry. We’ll also cover tips for succeeding at an affiliate marketing company. So if you’re curious about this exciting and growing field, keep reading!
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which an online merchant compensates affiliates for their promotional efforts. As an affiliate marketer, you ensure that affiliates are generating quality leads by promoting your products or services. Although the concept of affiliate marketing may seem simple enough at first glance, there are many nuances that can make it more complex.
Affiliate marketing is often misunderstood as being synonymous with spammy internet marketing tactics, such as pop-up ads and keyword stuffing. However, these are just some of the negative stereotypes associated with affiliate marketing – and they couldn’t be further from the truth! In reality, affiliate marketing is a well-established and legitimate field that has been around for decades. Additionally, affiliate marketing offers many benefits to both merchants and affiliates alike.
That said, let’s discuss what a career in affiliate marketing looks like!
Careers in affiliate marketing
There are numerous roles in affiliate marketing, such as affiliate managers, affiliate marketers, and account managers.
Affiliate Marketer
As an affiliate marketer, your main responsibility is to promote products or services offered by a merchant or brand via affiliates. This can involve helping to create content such as blog posts, videos, tutorials, or social media posts that feature product recommendations or promotions. You may also be tasked with managing relationships with affiliates – i.e., promoting their content and securing deals for them in exchange for commissions on sales they bring you.
Affiliate Manager
As an affiliate manager, you’ll oversee your team of affiliates. This can involve developing relationships with bloggers and influencers in your industry and helping them become successful. Additionally, you may be tasked with managing existing affiliate relationships by training them on the ins and outs of affiliate marketing, ensuring that commissions are tracked properly, or recruiting new affiliates to work with.
Account Manager
As an account manager, your primary responsibility is to serve as a liaison between clients (i.e. merchants or brands) and affiliate marketers while also managing accounts and providing feedback regarding performance. You may also be responsible for developing relationships with affiliates and negotiating short- or long-term deals to increase sales.
Day-to-day responsibilities
As an affiliate manager, your day-to-day tasks will vary depending on the size of your team and the nature of the company your work for. In general, some of the key duties you may be responsible for include the following:
1. Developing relationships with bloggers and influencers in your industry to promote products or services offered by a merchant or brand.
2. Negotiating short- and long-term deals with affiliates to increase sales. This may involve offering higher commissions or exclusive offers in exchange for more sales from existing affiliates.
3. Tracking commissions properly to ensure that all commissions are paid accurately to partners who bring in sales through their content or promotions. This can involve using tracking software such as Google Analytics, Afftrack, or other third-party tools to help you measure and calculate the success of affiliate campaigns.
4. Recruiting new affiliates – this may involve reaching out to bloggers and influencers who have a large social following or identifying new targets through networking events or personal relationships. As an affiliate marketer, it is important to keep up with current trends in your industry so that you can pitch relevant partnerships to potential affiliates.
Skills and qualifications
To succeed as an affiliate manager, you’ll need strong communication and negotiation skills, as well as the ability to multitask and manage multiple deadlines. Additionally, it’s important to stay up-to-date with current trends in your industry so that you can pitch successful partnerships to potential affiliates and ensure optimal results from existing ones. You may also need experience using affiliate marketing software to track commissions and performance metrics effectively.
With a combination of these skills and qualifications, plus a passion for building relationships with bloggers and influencers, you can succeed as an affiliate marketer. Whether you’re working at a smaller affiliate marketing company or managing a team of affiliates at a larger organization, the key is always to have your finger on the pulse of current trends in order to stay ahead of the competition and achieve optimal results.
Is a career in affiliate marketing right for you?
So, is a career in affiliate marketing right for you? That really depends on your interests, skills, and experience. If you have strong communication skills, enjoy working with others, and are committed to staying up-to-date on the latest trends in your industry, then you may be well suited for a role as an affiliate manager or other position within this exciting field.
Some of the most well-known and successful affiliate marketing companies include Amazon Associates, CJ Affiliate by Conversant, Rakuten Marketing, and ShareASale. If you’re interested in joining an affiliate marketing company, do some research online to find ones that seem like a good fit for what you have to offer based on your skills and experience.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to people in a similar role you’re interested in via LinkedIn to ask questions before applying for a role. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how other women in marketing will be more than happy to help!
