Do you offer discounts to your customers? If you do, do you share those discounts with your affiliates? Do you have a solid, well-established strategy for discounts in affiliate marketing and across all your marketing channels? Your answers to these two questions greatly impact your affiliate program\u2019s performance and your overall business. But before we dive into details, allow me to clarify that:<\/p>\n
Offering discounts in affiliate marketing programs does not and should not mean focusing on or targeting coupon affiliates. It means leveraging more opportunities and not closing the door on potentially huge partnerships. In times when, according to stats,<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n it would be a pity not to try and reap at least some of the benefits.<\/p>\n Now that you understand the benefits of offering discounts, let\u2019s see what type of discounts you can offer and how they work:<\/p>\n As you can see, there are quite a few types of discounts available. All of them have their pros and cons. It\u2019s up to each business owner and marketing team to analyze, test, and decide what works best for their needs and how they should be implemented. An important factor in that decision should be the affiliate program.<\/p>\n Depending on the specific of your business, you may want to consider offering at least the following:<\/p>\n Now you have an idea of the discounts you can\/should offer. However, their final amount should be one that you can afford, one that allows you to be competitive yet remain profitable. Before you implement anything, do the math and see what your margins for each product\/category are and how various scenarios influence them. For example, when it comes to your affiliate program, those margins should cover both discounts and affiliate commissions.<\/p>\n While it helps to use your average discounts and commissions or marketing costs as a reference when planning campaigns, I recommend staying flexible and playing with margins as needed. Some affiliates don\u2019t promote discounts but need higher commissions. Others need exclusive discounts but will accept lower commissions. New customers are usually worth spending a bit more on when you have a decent return rate and high customer lifetime value. Some key affiliates will probably require that you exceed your margins but the partnership with them will help you establish your brand as a market leader and open the door to many more partnerships and opportunities.<\/p>\n No matter what discounts you offer, remember to maintain a cohesive, unified strategy across your different marketing and communication channels. The buyer journey is never straight or streamlined and usually crosses several channels. Offering different discounts for different channels will only confuse shoppers, fragment their journey, and cannibalize your budget. Reinforcing the same discounts across various channels and sending coherent, cohesive marketing messages will ease things for everyone and help your branding efforts.<\/p>\n Leaving aside bogo and free gift offers, there are two major ways to implement discounts:<\/p>\n Consider combining these two methods. Use the price drop method for the public discount advertised on the website, and play with coupons for the rest of the discounts, including affiliate codes. This way, your public offer will be clear and easy to understand and promote (slashed prices, $ or % off discounts, etc.) and can easily work with any additional discounts you decide to offer without unnecessarily complicating the buyer journey and you and your affiliates\u2019 work.<\/p>\n Generally, the simpler and easier to implement, explain, and promote your discounts, the better. No one will bother to write (when promoting) and read (when shopping) endless terms and restrictions. Then, variety helps. Instead of keeping the same discount live for months in a row, plan weekly or bi-monthly campaigns. Change their name, test different discounts, and highlight different products.<\/p>\n Make sure to share the details with affiliates ahead of time and equip them with banners and everything else they may need to promote them.\u00a0Each new campaign is a great opportunity to engage more affiliates and activate existing ones. Send newsletters, upload\/update deals on the affiliate networks, or send individual emails, as needed. If you have self-managed accounts on employee benefits and loyalty platforms, update offer details so their members get access to your latest discounts.<\/p>\n Sometimes, no matter how much you try and how carefully you plan them things don\u2019t turn out how you hoped they would. Perhaps the discounts you implemented didn\u2019t work as planned, they weren\u2019t clearly explained, or conflicted with other website settings. It\u2019s not the end of the world. Just give yourself the chance to catch errors early and correct them. Collect feedback and continue to improve.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve implemented the chosen discounts, put yourself in the buyers\u2019 shoes and add products to cart, test discount codes to see if they work and stack up (or not) as intended. Always try to anticipate and avoid conflicts between different discounts and campaigns. The last thing you need is shoppers complaining to the affiliate who referred them about a discount code not working or higher discounts being available elsewhere.<\/p>\n Make sure your customer service representatives are always aware of your offers and collect feedback. Use the feedback you receive to improve your current and future campaigns.\u00a0Affiliates can be an excellent source of feedback as well. Express your interest, keep communication lines open, and act on feedback. And, most importantly, police affiliates! Offering discounts in affiliate programs is just one step to success. Knowing where and how affiliates promote those discounts is even more important.<\/p>\n While some affiliates may not even bother to promote discounts, others will resort to anything to make money. That includes advertising inflated discounts, promoting expired or unauthorized coupon codes, bidding on branded keywords, or forcing certain actions that will negatively impact shoppers\u2019 experience and harm your reputation.<\/p>\n To prevent and counteract such behavior, you need:<\/p>\n Some of the affiliates who resort to these actions are too small and unscrupulous to bother with. You can give them a chance to come around and remove them from your affiliate program if they don\u2019t. Others will be valuable and worth optimizing with. You can offer them their own coupon code in exchange for blocking user-submitted codes. Commission increases or flat fees could get you premium exposure in their newsletters, on their social media, or on different pages of their websites.<\/p>\n As explained above, there are numerous benefits to offering discounts in affiliate marketing programs. There are also a lot of aspects to keep in mind and things that could go wrong. Never rush things. Always try to see the big picture. Don\u2019t lose sight of your goals and objectives. Put yourself in your shoppers\u2019 and affiliates\u2019 shoes. It\u2019s OK to make mistakes as long as they don\u2019t get too costly and you learn from them. And it\u2019s OK to get help, especially when you\u2019re only beginning and unsure what would work best for your company and affiliate program.<\/p>\n What type of discounts do you offer\/recommend and what\u2019s your experience with the above? Do you need help planning and implementing discounts in your affiliate marketing programs? Are some of your affiliates acting up and praying on your good name and intentions? Get in touch and let us help<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
10 Benefits of Offering Discounts<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.amnavigator.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/benefits-300x199.jpg\")
Engage wider audiences<\/strong> \u2013 Deals shared through discount apps, on social media, in ads, videos, newsletters, or by word of mouth are a great way to attract and engage new audiences.<\/li>\nTypes of Discounts<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.amnavigator.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sale.jpg\"\/)
Buy 1 get 1 free (BOGO)<\/strong> \u2013 You can always customize it to buy 2 get 3, buy 3 get 4, etc.<\/li>\nGuide to Offering Discounts in Affiliate Marketing and Beyond<\/h2>\n
1. Decide on the Number and Type of Discounts to Offer<\/h3>\n
\n
2. Figure Out the Maximum Discount, Commission, and Cost Per Sale<\/h3>\n
Other Factors to Consider<\/h4>\n
\n
3. Choose Your Discount Implementation Method<\/h3>\n
\n
4. Plan and Announce Discounts in Affiliate Marketing Newsletters<\/h3>\n
5. Test, Optimize, and Police as Needed<\/h3>\n
The Bottom Line About Discounts in Affiliate Marketing Programs<\/h2>\n