How To Use Social Media To Promote Your Affiliate Program

Affiliate programs can help you grow your brand and increase sales. It’s a low-risk way to advertise your products and showcase them on sites all over the internet.

If you’ve created an affiliate program, you may be wondering how you can promote it. One way to do this is through social media.

Chances are, your target affiliates are right there on your favorite social media platforms. But how do you get noticed by the right people?

Read on because we’re about to answer this question.

In this guide, we’ll give you our top tips to help you harness the power of social media for your affiliate program.

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Interact and Connect on Social Media

Nobody likes it when brands keep promoting the same thing over and over. When you’re promoting your affiliate program on social media ensure you’re balancing that out with other content to avoid the dreaded unfollow.

For example, alongside promoting your affiliate program you can run competitions, share product reviews, promote your products, offer discounts, or post memes (if your market is millennials!) 

Posting about your affiliate program more than a couple of times a week would be overkill and potentially off putting as a potential affiliate. Of course, this depends on the channel – Constant Contact has suggestions for the numbers of posts (in general) for each channel suggesting that for Facebook posts 3-7 times per week, for Instagram posts they say one post a day, and up to 10 stories per day. We are inclined to agree.

As the name suggests, social media is a space to be social. Affiliates want to see returns, and they want to work with brands that are invested in their programs.

Your affiliates may want to correspond using direct messages, so make sure to keep an eye out for any requests. Try to answer any messages within one business day and reply to public comments.

Being interactive on social media will show your affiliates that you value them and your customers.

Know Your Target Audience

When you understand your audience, you can use social media more effectively. If you’re looking for blogs and websites to join your program, you’ll want to know they’re a good fit.

You can use social media to help you align with influencers and blogs who share a similar niche audience.

First, you’ll need to decide which platforms are most relevant to your demographic. There are different options to choose from, and some will be more useful than others.

For example, you may want to focus on branded video production and product reviews, making YouTube the perfect fit. Or you may decide to connect with folks under 35 on Instagram or people under 25 on TikTok.

Once you know where your market is, you can promote your affiliate program to the right people.

The best social media channels for your brand depend on where your ideal affiliates spend most of their time. If your product is very visually appealing, instagram might be a good option for you. If you have a SaaS product then Youtube might be a good option.

Repost Content From Your Affiliates and Followers

Engaging with and reposting social content from your affiliates is a great way to drive engagement in your affiliate program. 

Influencers, bloggers, and website owners want to make money from your affiliate program. But they also have their own business goals and will want to grow their followings.

If you’re tagged in a post that mentions your brand, you should consider sharing it.

Potential affiliates may notice you’re supporting your followers. If they’re trying to decide between multiple affiliate programs, this could be a factor in their decision-making process.

Resharing will encourage other followers to plug your brand on their own feeds. Every time you get a shoutout, it can help increase brand awareness.

When you reshare a post, make sure you credit the original profile. You may also want to message them to ask for permission.

Create an Informative Landing Page For Your Social Media Users

You should create a landing page before using social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram to grow your affiliate program.

Social media is a fast-moving environment, and people expect the information they want right now. There’s no point in sending traffic to your website if there’s no immediate call to action.

You should design your landing page with new affiliates in mind. It should be professional, clear, and informative.

You can use a landing page builder to help achieve your goal. With these tools, you won’t need experience as a web designer to create a page that ticks all the boxes.

Your landing page may include a sign-up form and a list of frequently asked questions. For example, you may want to provide information about the commission rate, payment methods, timelines, and the approval process.

Don’t forget to use consistent branding. For example, your landing page and social media profiles should have the same logo and image style.

Use this as an opportunity to show potential clients what your brand is all about. What makes it unique? For example, are your goods in high-demand, eco-friendly, or made in the USA?

Here is an example of an affiliate landing page by PostScanMail

Run Paid Ads

Paid ads are a great way to get the word out about your affiliate program. The social media channels you choose will depend on where your affiliates spend their time online.

Ask Happy Customers to Spread the Word

Word of mouth is a smart way to grow your affiliate program. You can ask happy customers to help spread the word on social media or share with their friends. It is a great way to boost sales, and you can incentivize your customers with bonuses for sharing.

Trust is a great way to sell products. Brands who offer referral programs often see great results because the people who are sharing know the people they are sharing with personally, which makes the brand feel more trustworthy and then it’s more likely a customer will make a purchase.

Anton Zelenin Affiliate Marketing Manager at Tapfiliate

You can also approach influencers to try your products in exchange for a review. Remember, the influencers you choose should be relevant to your brand. For transparency, you should always ask them to disclose your partnership.

Aside from influencers, you can also partner with other websites in your niche. For example, this review of Credit Saint is published on the website of a popular financial advice site. The niche makes sense for the target audience of the company and they get better exposure through the review.

Check Out the Competition

When you post on social media, it’s there for the whole world to see. If you’re new to the affiliate networking game, you can take advantage of this transparency.

With a quick search, you can check out what your competitors are doing.

How are other successful companies in your industry promoting their affiliate programs?

Are they featuring top-earning affiliates? You can shorten the gap between you and your stiffest competition by using Tapfiliate to create affiliate tiers and give bonuses to high-performing partners.

Alternatively, your competitors may be sharing articles, videos, and customer photos. They may even be commenting on their favorite profiles with an offer to join their affiliate program.

Don’t forget, unsolicited messages may not attract the best affiliates. If you want to reach out to potential partners, personalize your comments so they don’t look like spam.

Once you’ve done a competitor analysis, you can use your findings to create your own social media goals. All goals should be actionable with realistic deadlines.

Experiment

Once you’ve looked at your competition, the temptation might be to copy their social strategy. This can be risky. What works for one brand on social media might not work for you. This is where experimentation comes in. Try out different types of posts to see which creates more engagement.

Choose the Right Partners

Your reputation is important, and you’ll want affiliates who share the same values as your brand. If an affiliate promotes your products in a way that doesn’t fit your vision, it could be off-putting to customers.

Before you start approaching new partners, think about what you’re selling and how you want it presented.

For example, you’ll want to steer clear of affiliates who try to trick customers into clicking links, and you may prefer not to have your products listed on adult or gambling websites.

If you want to keep your network small, you can target affiliates who meet certain criteria. For example, you may want them to have a minimum number of Instagram followers.

How can social media help with all of this? During the application process, you can ask for details of their social media profiles.

You can take a few minutes to learn about their business before accepting them into your program. Their social media profiles will usually tell you everything you need to know.

Do they share the same values? Or do they have extreme views that may not align with your brand?

For more tips, you can check out this guide on how to find key influencers to promote your brand.

Don’t be Afraid to Use Mixed Media

You can make the most of your business profiles with a range of mixed media. Most platforms give you different content options, including graphics, text, and video. Why choose just one?

You’ll keep your content fresh when you alternate your media types. To make it easier, try to stick to a schedule. For example, you can post a video review from one of your affiliates every Monday, a fun meme on Wednesdays, and a special offer on Fridays.

Most of your social media accounts can be linked seamlessly together. For example, you can automatically share your Instagram posts on Facebook and your Facebook posts on Twitter.

If you create a video on YouTube, share it on Facebook. If you are sharing the same content across different social media channels, make sure the message is still relevant.

When you run experiments using different media, you can use the results to decide what works and what doesn’t. Take advantage of the reporting functions to determine which post types have the highest conversions.

Make sure all of your content is professional, free from errors, and on-brand. Quality affiliates are looking for credible brands with good reputations.

Remember to choose your hashtags wisely, as they can increase your reach.

Invest in Post Boosts

If you’re serious about growing your affiliate program, you may benefit from a post boost.

You’ve worked hard for your money, and you don’t want to waste it. But when you choose carefully targeted campaigns, it could help you grow your affiliate program.

Most social media networks have options for paid advertising. For example, you can use Facebook ads to target custom audiences. If it’s a competitive or general niche, be prepared to pay a little more.

Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, make sure you choose the right audience. If your target audience is American men interested in marketing, don’t spend money on ads targeting females in Indonesia.

When targeting potential affiliates via paid advertising, you can direct them straight to your landing page.

You should always monitor your advertising and make changes as required. If you’re time-poor, some brands hire social media managers and marketers to take care of this for them.

Promoting Your Affiliate Program on Social Media

Are you ready to promote your affiliate program and gain new clients? When used correctly, social media can be an important piece of the marketing mix.

In this article, we took you through the basics and gave you insider tips on how to target new affiliates.

We explained the importance of a quality landing page and why you should take the time to understand your target audience.

Then we gave you the benefits of interacting on social media and why reposting can help you grow your online presence.

By now, you should feel more confident experimenting with mixed media. And you should know how to check that affiliates match your vision for the brand.

Finally, if you need a boost, you can try paid advertising.

With these tips, you’ll be able to harness the power of social media to promote your affiliate program.

Tapfiliate offers turnkey affiliate tracking software. To learn more about it check out all of the features.

If you want more affiliate tips, check out the Tapfiliate blog.

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