So, you’ve launched an affiliate marketing program and things are going fairly well. You’ve chosen a few channels where you think potential customers will engage and initial results are looking good.
But you want to do more, to find different channels that can help boost conversion rates. Have you considered podcast affiliate marketing? How does it work and how can it help you increase your revenue?
What is affiliate marketing?
Put simply, affiliate marketing is when a brand partners with an independent entity which could be anyone from a smaller company, to an influencer, to an individual. The affiliate partner creates content that promotes the brand and receives a commission when they produce results. Those results are most often sales but can also include clicks to the brand’s site, signups to free trials, or anything that boosts the brand.
The content the partner produces can take various forms, including blogs, websites, social media pages and posts, and… well, any channel where an affiliate partner feels that people might engage with the content and be encouraged to buy from the brand. By using special codes or dedicated links, the brand can monitor performance so that its analytics show how each partner and/or campaign has performed.
What is a podcast?
A podcast is an audio program, episodic in nature, that can be streamed or downloaded from the internet. Podcasts tend to focus on a general area and can cover any relevant subjects. For example, a podcast covering the call center industry might have an episode on call queue solutions.
Although podcasts come in a series of episodes, most of those episodes are standalone and listeners do not need to listen in sequence. When you consider that there are more than 460 million podcast listeners, you can see there is a huge potential audience for your brand.
How to do podcast affiliate marketing
In some cases, you may decide to partner with an existing podcast that fits with your vision and is related to the products or services you offer. In others, a podcast maker may decide to create a series that fits with your brand.
Relevance
If you’re going to partner with a podcast, the first thing to do is to ensure that the podcast is relevant to your business. If your company offers a range of business communication solutions such as a virtual phone number, then you want the podcast to cover those sorts of subjects. Also, if a podcaster is creating content relevant to your brand, then it means that their listeners are probably potential customers.
Reach
The whole point of any form of affiliate marketing is to boost your conversion rates and spread brand awareness. That means you want the podcaster to already have a significant audience. Of course, the podcaster wants any audience to grow, but there is little point in partnering with a podcast that has an audience of only 100 people.
Customizable links
Because podcasts tend to be audio only, it’s a very different proposition to sharing links in written content where people just have to click on a link. Although links can be placed on the page/site hosting the podcast, you want to create short customized links that are easy to say and also easy for listeners to note. As with other shared links, you can also vary where any link takes them; to a specific landing page or your general site.
Have a look at who are micro influencers, how they work and why they are important for a brand’s marketing strategy
Create good content
You want to be sure that any affiliated podcast is creating good content. After all, if they’re promoting your brand, then you want the content to be of a high standard. As with blogs, having guests on podcasts can be very useful. For example, one of your management team could appear to discuss your SaaS management platform. Sharing related material can not only boost the number of listeners, it can have a knock-on effect in bringing you, new customers.
Advertise
While the whole purpose of affiliate marketing is to find new audiences through your partners, it can benefit both parties if you give a little helping hand. If you’re going to adopt a podcast affiliate marketing strategy, then you want that podcast’s popularity to grow. Share the details of any podcast across all your platforms, including any social media pages, your website, and even as a side note in any marketing emails.
Monitor
You would want to know how effective any marketing tactic is and it’s no different with podcast affiliate marketing. Analytics such as how many listeners each episode has, if the podcast drove any listeners to your landing pages and/or site, and percentage of those visitors converted to actual paying customers are some of the important stats to follow. Keeping a close eye on your analytics is integral to success.
Expand
If you’re going to follow a podcast affiliate marketing strategy, then there is nothing to say you can’t have multiple podcast partners. This can be especially true if you’re an international or global brand. What may be a popular podcast in the US may not be as popular in Europe. Look at popular podcasts in your sector, and then rank them according to relevance and reach. Having several podcast partners means your reach is extended even more.
Create
There are also no rules to say that any podcaster you partner with has to be an existing one. If you’re using an influencer marketing platform, then look at the analytics for any influencers you use. You can then consider approaching a particularly well-performing influence and suggest they start a podcast. You can offer some help in the initial stages or even consider it being your very own podcast.
The takeaway
The keyword in any affiliate marketing strategy is opportunity. You are looking to build your brand awareness by reaching out to potential customers who may not be aware of your brand or who have not interacted with you before. However, as with any marketing tactic, you want to be sure that you choose wisely.
Ensuring that a podcast is relevant to your business and has a significant audience is the foundation of a successful affiliate marketing strategy. You should also be keeping a close eye on related analytics, especially the number of conversions/sales that can be directly linked to the podcast.
Want to build a influencer marketing program for your store? With GoAffPro, you can easily set up a program for your store. Check out our app: GoAffPro
Leave a Reply