The COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive surge in demand for various video conferencing tools worldwide. While thousands of companies shifted towards remote work, web and video conferencing software experienced a striking 500% rise in demand.
Virtual events are a huge opportunity generator, as they can be highly beneficial for the host. Great use of online meetings is affiliate marketing. Thanks to the possibility to host virtual meetings with pretty much anyone in this world with access to the Internet, affiliate marketing can take on a new dimension of success, profitability, and effectiveness.
In this article, we will introduce you to the tactic called affiliate marketing and show how you can benefit from combining it with online meetings. Whether you are a business manager, a marketer, or an online presenter, this list of tricks and hacks might come in handy. Let’s dive right in!
Webinar and affiliate marketing - a match made in heaven
It turns out that webinars and affiliate marketing actually go well together. When combined, a great number of results can be achieved. But let’s start with a definition.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a form of advertising focused on a commission-based agreement where referring sites receive a profit from sales or leads by merchants. The commission can be based on, for example, a percentage of the product sale price or a fixed amount for each sale. In this case, the merchant only pays when the referring site makes a sale or gets a lead. Sometimes, it's mistaken with referral marketing.
Affiliate marketing contributes to reaching new audiences and generating awareness, increasing reach in SERPs. Is it profitable? Until now, it has already been adopted by a whopping 81% of brands worldwide - and this number is expected to grow.
Support your online event with affiliates
Affiliate marketing isn’t just a stand-alone strategy. It can also help you boost interest and demand for your online events - this form of marketing is used by 84% of publishers to generate revenue. With the right partners, who attract similar target audiences to yours, you can expect a surge in demand and interest in your webinar, online conferences, and more. All you have to do is find the right sort of collaborators, and you will be on the right path to success in no time.
How can affiliates boost your webinars?
There are numerous ways to boost your online meetings and reaching out for help from affiliates is one of them. The benefits of engaging affiliates bring joy and happiness to any webinar host looking for improvements.
Expanded horizons and endless possibilities Thanks to the existing technology you can have affiliates from anywhere in the world. You aren’t limited to the ones from your city or country. Collaborating with affiliates from all around the world will give your company more credibility, as well as add to your brand recall, visibility, and awareness. Expanding your audience to an international size with guests (affiliates) from foreign countries, with different expertise, experiences and knowledge will make your webinars look professional and rich in high-quality content prepared with dedication.
Drive qualified leads to your company
There are plenty of benefits of affiliate marketing when it comes to advertising online events. A great and perhaps the best of them all is simply driving leads to your company. This happens when your affiliates who attract your ideal target audience refer your business to that audience, which generates conversions. With qualified leads, you are much more likely to achieve a high customer conversion rate. It could be purchasing a product, signing up to your email list, or sharing your website link on their social media profile, which can also be a part of a referral program. Whichever of these it is, leads are extremely important and should be taken into account when thinking about collaborating with affiliates.
Reach a precise target audience
Another great use of affiliates is the possibility to reach a precise target audience. With the right type of affiliates onboard, connecting with your ideal target audience won’t be an issue. For example, if you run a restaurant, try making a connection with another restaurant in the city. You can also use an online booking platform to streamline this process.
How does it work? Offer them a percentage from sales for every customer that visits your restaurant and uses a special discount code that you give to that restaurant. In the digital world, you can present it during a webinar, to make sure it will be used only by the participants.
Collaborate with influencers
Influencer marketing is highly profitable nowadays and one survey shows that 89% of respondents consider influencer marketing ROI as one of the largest compared to other marketing techniques. But what exactly is it?
Who is an influencer & who should you collaborate with?
Influencers are social personas who have the power and ability to affect purchasing decisions of their followers/subscribers, often with little effort. They are usually able to do this thanks to their authority, position, knowledge, or the type of bond they have with their audience.
Anyone can become an influencer, but the most popular ones are bloggers and vloggers, models and actors, fashion gurus, gamers and parenting influencers. When it comes to influencers’ effectiveness, 91% of marketers believe in influencers’ effectiveness as a marketing strategy. Based on that, you can consider giving it a try!
Thinking about who you should collaborate with can be a challenging task. Let’s make it a bit easier with the following tips:
- First of all, do your research and make sure to choose someone with a good social reputation. You don’t want to collaborate with someone with a history of past scandals and dramas.
- Second of all, search within your target audience and industry topic. The influencer promoting your brand should be close to your ideal customers.
- Lastly, ensure the person/people you choose are authentic, knowledgeable, and passion-driven. Only this sort of influencer will make your efforts profitable.
How can you collaborate with influencers?
There are many ways in which you can start your collaboration. The easiest way is simply reaching out to the person via email and asking if they would be interested in promoting your brand for something in return. For example, let’s say you’re the owner of a webinar platform and you want a popular photographer who often runs various webinars to promote your business by using it. Offer them free access to all features of the platform and encourage them to use it during their next webinar. You can also create a social map with them. Starting a conversation is essentially key to finding new collaboration opportunities. Easy, right?
Benefits
Key benefits of influencer marketing include:
- enhancing brand awareness
- reaching a wider target audience
- creating partnerships
- driving conversions
- building trust and loyalty
- boosting webinar reach
How can attending virtual events help your affiliate marketing?
Attending online events comes with many pros, especially if you’re trying to grow your affiliate marketing. Here’s how:
Networking opportunities for affiliates
Attending various fairs and conferences definitely positively impacts the possibility to expand your connections with people from the same industry. After all, a lot of the time such conferences take place in cities and countries all over the world, often exposing you to totally new people you’ve never met before.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused many events to shift towards a digital form. Although at first, it may seem like lost opportunities, this doesn’t necessarily have to mean that. Virtual events have the same power of supporting your affiliate marketing, with quite a few additional bonuses. For example, a huge advantage is the saved time and costs in terms of attending real versus virtual events. What’s different in the case of online events is the way you make connections with potential affiliates. Plus - any file you share is sent via digital platforms, so there’s no way to accidentally lose a business card.
Online learning affiliate program
Since so many events are already taking place in the virtual world, you may as well also join this trend and launch an online learning affiliate program, which is all about incentivizing others to promote your service in exchange for a commission. Such programs usually allow for:
- a budget-friendly marketing strategy
- cost-effective brand exposure
- improved SEO
Thanks to the fact you only pay a commission when a purchase is made, you don’t have to worry about spending too much out of your marketing budget on a strategy that won’t bring any profits.
Affiliate & influencer collaboration ideas
Special offers - discounts and deals
Offering discounts and special deals not only to the influencers’ reach group, but also the influencer itself is a great way to encourage trial of your service and drive conversions. Try things like discount codes, limited-time offers, special exclusive deals and see results in the blink of an eye! You could offer your chosen influencer free access to your software if they invite to and attend 5 of your webinars in a row. Another great way is offering incentives during webinars to people who take part in surveys, polls and sign up to your email list. Make sure you let people know about it beforehand so that they are more willing to attend. Possibilities are endless!
Educational sessions and business workshops
Making your chosen influencer host an educational session, or hosting one yourself and having them participate in it, as well as promote the session online is another powerful way of trying success-bringing tactics.
In this case, make sure the event is free of charge, or that the influencers’ subscribers can attend the event for a lower price. Also, don’t forget to include CTA buttons and gather the attendees’ email addresses!
Product showcases
Product showcases work in a very similar way. There is one major difference, though. Instead of launching events on your own which many people would probably not have much time to attend, make your affiliate/influencer do the talking!
A powerful tool nowadays is Instagram and its ‘Stories’ feature. We see more and more influencers advertising various products there. Considering the fact that 81% of people use Instagram to search for products and services, and 500 million users watch Stories daily, this sort of advertising is definitely something you should think about implementing if you haven’t yet.
The magic of affiliate marketing and webinars is real
Now you know the true power of affiliate marketing and webinars, as well as all the perks of influencer marketing. This short guide aimed to show you the great benefits of having affiliates, showing you that affiliate marketing is legit, launching your own events, making connections, and taking advantage of the world shifting towards a more digital approach to events and marketing. If you’re interested in more articles like this, make sure you visit our blog.