Affiliate marketing is widely used by both fashion brands and retailers to drive website traffic and sales. The great thing about affiliate marketing is that, in contrast to many others forms of marketing such as pay per click and search engine marketing, it has a guaranteed return on investment after the initial set up costs.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a way of marketing using a 3rd party (or affiliate). It is almost like having your own personal sales team who can drive traffic and sales to your website using a variety of methods which can include content marketing or blogging, email marketing, price comparison, voucher code sites, pay per click and search marketing.
Each sale generated by an affiliate will be recorded using tracking code and the affiliate paid a pre-agreed fee which is usually a percentage of the sale.
How can affiliate marketing benefit fashion brands?
The key benefit to fashion brands is an increase in sales which for a well managed program could be up to 25% once the program has become established but affiliate marketing also helps to build brand awareness. An affiliate program allows a brand to reach out to a new audience using affiliates that have an established following that includes a brands target market.
For fashion brands affiliate marketing offers an interesting way of developing brand advocates and building their brand through fashion blogs and other fashion websites. It also allows a brand to work with a variety of publishers both small and large in a way that is mutually beneficial.
What are the costs?
The cost of an affiliate marketing program will depend on how you decide to set it up. There are a number of different affiliate marketing networks for which both costs and levels of support will vary. Most affiliate networks will charge a setup fee, a monthly fee and a percentage of around the commission being paid.
For fashion brands commission levels paid to affiliates will vary from around 4% to 12% depending on how well established and well known the brand is.
There is also the option to set up your own affiliate program, this is a lower cost option but will require more time on your part. There are a number of software or platforms that can be used to set up the tracking of an affiliate program.
How to run a successful affiliate marketing program?
Before setting up an affiliate program, you should have an e commerce website and some brand awareness. An attractive and professional looking website that has a good range of products and is easy to use will maximize the success of your affiliate program.
By choosing an affiliate program through a network, you will get the benefit of their experience and existing relationships with publishers. Whether or not you decide to go with an affiliate network though, you should be ready to dedicate some time to setting up, managing and promoting your affiliate program.
Weekly tasks will include building relationships with affiliates, validating sales commissions, updating banners and data feeds although there are companies that can provide an affiliate management service.
When setting up your affiliate program, it is important to think carefully about the package that you will offer for affiliates. It will need to be competitive with others in your niche.
The less brand awareness you already have, the greater the commission you may need to offer. Regular offers and discounts, longer cookie lengths, attractive and engaging banners and keeping in touch regularly with relevant information will make you program more attractive to publishers.
Look out for bloggers who already love your brand, even though they may have relatively low levels of traffic, they may be highly influential and it costs them nothing to sign up with an affiliate network. Don’t forget to find out who are the main players in your niche and reach out to them, they could include magazines, bloggers, shopping sites, outfit sharing and making sites.
Markham McGill
Hi. Does anyone have any insights on how to seek out and approach potential affiliates (ie, publishers)? We are instituting our own in-house affiliate program after looking at the larger companies and finding them too costly to crack into at this time.
What I am wondering is whether or not there is a kind of “affiliate depot” or sorts where website/blog publishers go to find brands to promote and vice versa? Obviously we want to find high-quality, relevant publishers to promote through.
Thanks!
Markham
Nicole Giordano
Hi Markham, rewardSTYLE is one, as is Sale Servant.
Ombre Digital
It seems like Affiliate Marketing is a big concern for many small brands, as its an extremely cost effective and easy way to build your brand’s recognition as well as sales. In general, if you are a smaller less well known brand, affiliate marketing is more about paying high commissions and providing extensive support to all your publishers ( as you will undoubtedly have less ). As you grow, it becomes more about supporting your larger publishers with unique creative and better commissions than smaller publishers. Of course, no matter what stage finding and training new affiliates is always key.
Souad
Hi
Thank you for the helpful artical.
But could please provide us with some examples of Affiliate Programs??
as a designer I would like to market my brand through a good affiliate program.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Thanks
Souad
paul
hi tanya. i am interested in setting up an affiliate marketing program. i desperately need a step by step detail on how i can set up my own working from home bisness as i have been searching for a job to know avail. thanks
UB
Hi,
When I try to click on the name, it takes me to name.com. Can you please share with me your contact details so I can get in touch with you.
Thanks!
Caroline Temple
As an in-house Affiliate Program Manager myself, I can attest to the fact that the more hard work you put into your program the better your results will be. It does take time, but keep with it – it’s almost impossible to not succeed! 🙂
An added bonus is you’ll become more familiar with your industry and learn how to effectively market to your audience.
UB
Hi,
I’d like to speak to you to get some of your thoughts on the affiliate network we are trying to setup for our brand. Please let us know if you’d be available for a call.
Would appreciate your help!
Thanks!
Caroline Temple
Hi UB!
If I’m not too late I can certainly share some thoughts or help you with the expectations of your affiliate network. 🙂 Not sure how to reach you – but if you click on my name – you’ll see my company’s website. That should be a good lead to find me. I’ll help where I can! 🙂
This article is right on for the expectations in running a successful program – particularly the last section. Of course, there’s more to it – but in the beginning these are the best points to start with – building relationships, providing as many resources as possible for your affiliates to promote your offer, and keeping on top of those payments!
Tanya
Hi Caroline
I would love to speak to you via phone or email (whichever is easier for you) about affiliate marketing. i am new to the game and am using Omnistar (as I found it was more cost effective than the others). Does it make it easier to set up with say shareasale or does it not matter?