The Q4 shopping spree is coming up! For you, as an e-commerce entrepreneur, this means that there are at least two significant sales peaks ahead. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are tremendous opportunities to let your sales go sky high! However, to make that possible, you have to unleash every sales and marketing channel. This, naturally, includes your affiliates. In fact, affiliate marketing can be a fantastic (and cost-effective too!) way to increase your sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This begs the question: How can you prepare your affiliate partners to help you sell more during these sales peaks? Let’s just dive in!
As we’re sure you know, traditionally, customers spend Black Friday and Cyber Monday in malls and large shopping centers. There, literally, every storefront has a big red sign shouting “SALE!”. Customers love them!
However, things are different now. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of Black Friday’s sales will happen online. In fact, e-commerce was on the rise long before coronavirus. As the U.S. Department of Commerce reported, in 2019 alone, consumers spent over 600 billion USD online with U.S. merchants, which is an almost 15% increase compared to 2018. The predictions for 2020 are also very optimistic, although they have been decreased due to the pandemic. As eMarketer.com informs us, experts anticipate a global 3.9 trillion USD in e-commerce sales this year. You have to admit; these numbers are impressive!
However, let’s think about Black Friday for a second:
- In 2019, there were over 93 million buyers shopping online who spent over 7.4 billion USD!
- About 40% of shoppers made online purchases on Black Friday in 2019.
- The average adult plans to spend 400 USD on Black Friday sales.
All these numbers tell one story–if you run an online store, you have to be a part of this shopping spree! And now, buckle up because you are about to find out what you can do to increase your sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
We have a list of five ideas that will help you make the most of Black Friday. With affiliate marketing, obviously!
For all the other marketing ideas that will help you make the most of the upcoming shopping spree, take a look at this Black Friday checklist created by SmartrMail.
Start as early as possible
Take a look at various stores and websites. Nowadays, companies don’t prepare for Black Friday! They are preparing for Black Weekend or, even better, Black November! Hundreds of sellers start their sales and special offers way before Black Friday. Do you know why? To build anticipation. They build up steam slowly until people are burning hot and ready to buy. It’s a very effective strategy that companies, influencers, and stores utilize not just on Black Friday but also all year round.
Focus on the most influential affiliates
Right now, it’s an excellent time to get in touch with your affiliates and help them prepare for Black Friday. Perhaps, you should offer something special to give them another reason to step up efforts? You can also ask them for ideas and suggestions regarding Black Friday sales. Make them feel like they are a part of one team working together to achieve a common goal.
Thanks to our analytics feature, you have all the relevant data in one place. You can easily check who has brought you the most sales or the largest number of clicks. Typically, these affiliates are your best bets when it comes to special promotions and sales campaigns. Always keep in mind that your efforts should be, above all, efficient. So work with efficient partners!
At this point, you should be in constant contact with your affiliates. This is where our marketing resources come into play. You can use them to share content with your publishers and engage them in your campaign. Available resources include:
- Posts on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook
- Banners
- Text messages, and many more
How to improve partner engagement?
While we are still at the partnership subject. Your affiliates like to feel well taken care of. You should show them that you value their efforts and are willing to reward them. We have two options for you here:
- Take a look at our Campaigns section. It can be a great way to reward your affiliates for their extra efforts! Whenever a partner submits their application or meets the campaign’s goal, you can approve the reward. For now, there are three campaign types:
- Submissions (e.g., write a blog post and earn 15 USD)
- Orders (e.g., refer 10 orders and earn 20 USD extra)
- Sales (e.g., generate 500 USD sales and earn an additional 30 USD)
- And more coming soon!
- Also, you can “upgrade” your affiliates’ profiles when they reach specific goals or meet your conditions. For instance, affiliate’s progress throughout the tiers can depend on either:
- Total referred orders value
- Total referred orders count
- Total customer spent (for customer accounts only)
- Monthly sales (partners are downgraded to level 1 each month)
See our Partner Tiers section and read more about this approach.
Pay commissions quickly
Affiliate marketing is based on partner-like cooperation. That’s why you should treat your affiliates exactly this way. Everyone wants to make more money on Black Friday. Make sure you can pay earned commissions in a quick and straightforward way.
Again, thanks to GrowthHero, you can easily manage your payments. Find out more about payments in this section. One of the best ways to pay your publishers is PayPal. All you have to have is a PayPal Business account. Next, our system, called PayPal Payouts, will allow you to create mass payments for your partners within a matter of seconds. The set-up process takes a few steps, and we are happy to guide you through it.
Share some valuable tips
Don’t assume that your affiliates can do it alone! Practical knowledge and advice are always valuable. After all, you share the same goal! You should help each other. Help them make the most of their affiliate links.
For instance, you could advise them to:
- See how other stores and influencers present their Black Friday offers. Of course, this is your job, but your affiliates can do that too. Who knows, maybe it will give them some great idea?
- Give their communities a reason to click THEIR affiliate links. Many influencers use extensive product reviews or free gifts to encourage people to buy via their link.
- Create some additional content (a series of blog posts, a gallery, some interviews, etc.) or a special section on their website.
- Mention their offers on their social media profiles and in their newsletters.
And finally, make sure that their affiliate link is 100% operational, and they know how to use it. No one wants a situation where the commission is not charged due to technical issues.
With GrowthHero – affiliate marketing app for Shopify, you have everything you need to manage affiliate marketing campaigns. Our solution offers many ways to motivate your partners to action. We recommend you to get acquainted with our Knowledge Base. Inside, you will find many great ideas to promote your offer and engage affiliates.
Now go! Black Friday is nearing!
