If you want to win at affiliate marketing, you have to work well with others.
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is the process of partnering with someone else to market your company’s products and services on their own blog or website, then paying them a prearranged commission when their efforts lead to a successful sale on your end.
For instance, a popular travel blogger might mention that he only uses a specific Capital One credit card to book his trips. Capital One provides him with a unique link to use when he talks about their card, and he earns a certain amount of money every time someone uses that link to open a new account.
Affiliate marketing works well in retail. A mommy blogger partners with a diaper delivery service, a website devoted to office organization partners with an office supply store, or a home chef partners with a company who makes kitchen utensils.
But how does it work for financial firms, where trust is the most essential element and the stakes are a lot higher than a file folder or a set of kitchen shears?
Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
Before we look at whether affiliate marketing is right for your financial firm, let’s talk a bit about the benefits.
Easier Customer Acquisition
Competition is high in the financial sector, and everyone is looking to get their piece of the proverbial pie. Customer acquisition is arguably the most difficult part of marketing for the fintech industry.
Affiliate marketing allows you to bring in more customers with less work. Your affiliate partners already have a large network and proven channels to draw clients to the businesses they work with. You just let them do what they do best.
A Wider Pool
With affiliate marketing, you’re not limited to just the clients you can market to; you’re now able to reach your affiliate’s audience, too. And it’s very possible they’re able to reach potential customers that your marketing efforts alone would never touch organically.
It also gets your firm’s name out there. The more often people see it, the likelier they are to trust your brand in the future, even if they’re not ready to do business right now.
And in the financial game, trust is everything.
Fast and Flexible Strategies
As a business marketer, you know what it feels like to pour a ton of time and money into a marketing campaign only to see it fail long after it’s way too late to change things. This doesn’t happen with affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing can be changed quickly. And because it’s easy to track, it’s easy to see which partnerships are working well and which aren’t delivering.
Low-Risk Approach
Unlike basically any other marketing tactic, affiliate marketing carries very little risk. Your affiliate partner only makes money on the deal after you and your new client have both signed on the dotted line.
And here’s a pro tip: You can further lessen your risk by only paying out for deeper-in-the-funnel actions. For instance, if your firm is advertising banking or brokerage accounts, consider only paying when an account is funded — not just when someone signs up.
Notice we said “very little” risk and not “absolutely zero risk”? That’s because there’s always the chance that an affiliate partner could misrepresent your business or cast it in a negative light based on their own tactics — so be sure to fully vet the people you choose to work with.
Is Affiliate Marketing Right For You?
There are some pretty big benefits to affiliate marketing. That’s why eight out of 10 brands run an affiliate marketing campaign.
But is it right for your fintech firm?
The answer largely revolves around what you have on offer.
If you sell financial products, it’s a go. Affiliate marketing works fantastically for products such as credit cards, checking and savings accounts, insurance, brokerage accounts, and more. These are all things that “average people” need and use on a daily basis, so another average person marketing it to them makes good sense.
It’s not such a given if you’re a business-to-business (B2B) company.
Business-to-consumer (B2C) companies can typically find myriad potential placements across dozens if not hundreds of websites. Think about the number of websites that might talk about, say, a basic savings or checking account.
But a relatively much smaller of sites cater to business owners and others making purchasing decisions on behalf of a company. And frankly, there’s a much higher bar to clear — it’s one thing to get a person to buy a $10 can opener on Amazon, and another to convince someone to sign up for a five-digit enterprise financial software subscription.
That’s not to say it can’t be done — some B2B affiliate programs can be quite beneficial for both sides. But it might be more difficult to find the perfect partner fit.
The Bottom Line
Affiliate marketing absolutely has its benefits, but it’s not right for every business.
Fortunately, there are plenty other ways to make your financial firm shine if you decide this particular strategy isn’t right for you!
Are you looking for a marketing partner who can take your business to the top? Mischa Communications is officially reporting for duty. How soon can we start?