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Affiliate Marketing Strategies to Increase Commissions in the Holiday Season

Updated on December 23, 2020

8 Min Read
affiliate marketing strategy

Want to learn affiliate marketing strategies to amp up your share of profits this holiday season? Read on.

We are in November already! It’s time to get in action!

Whether it is clothing brand for Christmas or a discounted watch on Black Friday, people love to buy stuff during the holiday season. Spending money on gifts for friends and family is a cultural norm in the United States and never has it been stronger than today. Although shopping had always been prevalent in the holiday season, one trend that has surfaced is that of online shopping.

In 2017 Holiday Season, retail e-commerce sales reached $106.14 billion. This year, the sales are projected to grow by 16.2 percent to a whopping $123.4 billion.

See: Top Affiliate Products to Sell in 2020

As an affiliate marketer, this is the time of the year you can greatly increase your commissions. To maximize your earnings, you need to have solid affiliate marketing strategies in place.

We at Cloudways have had immense experience of working with affiliate marketers and helping them achieve great profits. We have on-board a team of affiliate marketing managers who help our affiliates devise strategies and help them in every step of the way.

I won’t be elaborating on why it’s important to focus on high ticket clients, because that’s a whole different topic on it’s own. However, you can read more about it in our blog post on “why focus on high-ticket sales/clients

Here, we have outlined nine affiliate marketing strategies to help you enhance your earnings this holiday season:

Affiliate Marketing Strategy #1: Write About Hot Gift Items

As an affiliate marketer, blogging is your ultimate weapon. From Pat Flynn to Missy Ward, all affiliate marketers blog.

Surely, you need to tell people why you are promoting what you are promoting. Whether it is product’s features or service comparisons, you need to be good at using positive and powerful words.

In the holiday season, blogging becomes all the more critical. People tend to search for stuff to buy. They look for ideas. If you are not there, somebody else will be.

A great strategy is to find what people are looking for. One of the tools you can use for this is Serpstat. For instance, you can type ‘Christmas Gift’ in the query and get relevant ideas for organic and paid keywords. Some of the ideas to write about include ‘DIY Christmas Gifts’, ‘Top Christmas Gift for Men’, and ‘Homemade Ideas for Christmas Gifts’.

By knowing what people are searching for on Christmas, you have got one step ahead. Write on these hot topics so that you rank higher on search engines and bring traffic to your website.

Here’s an example:

Affiliate Marketing Strategy #2: Offer Special Promos or Coupons

Offering sale or discount is one of the key factors that impact a customer’s buying decision. This means that you need to attract people’s attention by providing special promos and coupons.

A good idea is be to ask your advertiser or merchant for deals, promos, coupons discounts or vanity coupon codes. You can then market these special deals and discounts exclusively to your traffic, subscribers, fans and followers.

Not every merchant will be able to provide you with this but you have got to be convincing. Tell them how they would be able to make profit and build a good brand image. Once you get these deals, make sure you post them on your Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. Also, do not forget your email subscribers (more on that later).

Affiliate Marketing Strategy #3: Optimize for Mobile Devices

According to Marketing Land, 33.1 percent of online sales in 2017 were made through mobile phones. These statistics indicate that sales via mobile devices will exceed 40 percent this year.

Since more and more people will be shopping through mobile phones, you as an affiliate marketer need to optimize your website for mobile devices.

Here are some tips to form an effective mobile strategy:

  • Make sure your affiliate website on mobile is fast. You can carry out a speed test with Google’s own application Test my Site.

  • Get crucial insights from Analytics. For instance, by learning the times your online visitors use their phones to come to your website, you can adjust your bids accordingly.
  • Make things simple for the buyers. Online users are impatient. Your forms and checkout process should be clear and concise. Make sure the user does not have to fill out too many fields before they can take an action.

Affiliate Marketing Strategy #4: Leverage Paid Search

According to Search Engine Land, 85% of the respondents of a survey used Google to find product ideas and information before making a purchase. This should not come as surprise as we all have, and are still using Google to search our queries. From new t-shirts to latest gadgets, people turn to Google for help with their product search.

This is the reason you should leverage paid search in the holiday season. Surely, many affiliate marketers like you will be planning to do the same, therefore, the competition will be quite high. Keep your bids higher for ‘holiday’ focused keywords. Also, when writing ad copy, ensure to add seasonal keywords such as ‘Christmas Gift Ideas’ or ‘Black Friday Deals’. For further in-depth strategies and tactics on maximizing your holiday campaigns, make sure to tune in to BFCM Prepathon. It’s an event tailored to provide you with the latest insights and offers to make this holiday season a resounding success!

Affiliate Marketing Strategy #5: Use Social Media Marketing Smartly

This one is a given. In a digitally driven world, you as an affiliate marketer cannot ignore social media.

Market your unique holiday offering with special discounts to Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Also, do not forget other holiday-specific platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and Buzzfeed.

When promoting on social media, make sure you are doing it in an organic, personal way. People can quickly detect a fake promotion. Also, never recommend any product or service you have not used. People trust you and they expect you to make an honest recommendation.

Affiliate Marketing Strategy #6: Focus on Categories of Products You Are Interested In

It’s not ‘one-size-fits-all’ when it comes to choosing the right product category. Different people, depending on their interests and needs, tend to buy different products. Some of the top categories include technology, home accessories, clothing, kids’ products, gift items, etc. The key is to know what you want to promote. It’s all about personal passion. Learn your buyers’ personas and spending habits and find the relevant online merchant.

Affiliate Marketing Strategy #7: Be Active on all Online Fronts

If you have been in online marketing for some time, you must have realized that humans are great at procrastinating. The interesting thing is that people make last-minute purchases online. 42 percent of the sales a week before Christmas happen through online channels.

These are the people who have waited for too long and are now looking for a quick solution. If your ad or offer is the first thing they see, they will more likely buy via your affiliate link. From email marketing to paid campaigns, you can use different channels to make that happen. Make sure you stay alert at all times.

Affiliate Marketing Strategy #8: Employ Email Marketing

In the holiday season, it is all the more important to remember your email contacts. Whether it is Santa sales or Black Friday, email them about the offer or discounts a week earlier. You can use an email marketing and automation platform, such as AWeber. Using the tool, you can also enhance your email list with opt-in plugins.

Develop a holiday-themed newsletter and make it engaging. Finally, use catchy and powerful subject line to increase open rates.

Affiliate Marketing Strategy #9: Run Contests

Running contests and giveaways can be a great promotion tactic for affiliate marketers. Not only will it help you attract visitors, it will also be great for your overall branding.

Woobox is one tool you can use to create contests, giveaways and other campaigns. From gamifying your contest to collecting entries, it is a one-stop solution.

You can hand out a $100 gift card or you can give away a grand prize. You can also involve your merchants to come off as more authentic.

Here’s an example of a contest on Facebook:

Source: Laptop Lifestyle Business Club

How Cloudways Can Help You Succeed in the Competitive Landscape

About Cloudways

Cloudways is one of the leading managed cloud hosting platforms in the world today. The platform employs industry-leading infrastructure and latest technologies to offer enhanced solutions. We help digital agencies, ecommerce stores, startups, freelancers, bloggers and developers thrive by handling their hosting hassles. Our cloud providers include DigitalOcean, Google Cloud Platform, Linode, Vultr and Amazon Web Services.

Cloudways Web Hosting Affiliate Program

Cloudways offers affiliate marketers a profitable web hosting affiliate program. With flexible commission structures, you can earn up to $6K a month with Cloudways.

Here are the three flexible affiliate commission structures in brief details:

Slab

Slab is a Cost-per-Acquisition or Cost-per-Action (CPA) based model. This means that the more an affiliate marketers’ referrals convert, the more they will be able to earn.

Here’s a breakdown of the Slab:

Hybrid

The hybrid structure is a recurring affiliate commission model. With this commission structure, an affiliate marketer can enhance their passive income. They get an upfront signup bonus of $30 and a recurring commission of 7% every month for every referral that continues to be a Cloudways’ customer.

Take a look at this chart for a better understanding.

Custom

This affiliate commission structure is specifically designed for high-performing affiliate marketers. After 80 referrals, an affiliate marketer can get a commission of up to $200 for every sale.

Now that you understand our commission structures, let us take a look at some ways we can help you succeed in the holiday season:

Holiday Creatives

We at Cloudways understand that you as an affiliate marketer have a lot on your plate. From providing you with creative banners to writing engaging ad copy, our team can help you with all kinds of creatives. The idea is to ensure that your campaigns run smoothly in the holiday season. All you have to do is place the banners and you will be ready to earn the affiliate commission.   

Holiday Promotions

As an affiliate marketer, you surely want to promote a unique offering in the holiday season. Whether you want to offer a holiday discount for your subscribers or offer special discounts through coupon codes, Cloudways can help you prepare all kinds of holiday promotions.

These holiday promotions are great conversion boosters. They help create a win-win situation.

Cookie Feature

The cookie feature is another valuable offering by Cloudways. Sometimes, what happens is that an online visitor sees your ad but does not convert right away.

We at Cloudways offer a 30-day cookie period. This means that the particular online visitor will be counted as your referral if he or she converts within 30 days of visiting your website. Awesome, right?

To Sum Up

The holiday season can be a goldmine for the prepared affiliate marketer. It is the time of the year when you can enhance your earnings big time!

It is very important that you implement comprehensive affiliate marketing strategies before the holiday season begins. This involves creative writing, social media marketing, email marketing, running contests and so on. You need to decide which strategies will work for you best and then proceed accordingly.

We at Cloudways aim to help affiliate marketers take maximum advantage of the holiday season. From providing holiday creatives to offering special deals and discounts for your targeted audience, we help affiliate marketers thrive in the holiday season. Our web hosting affiliate program will help you succeed this holiday season.

What do you think about these affiliate marketing strategies for the holiday season? Did we miss something? Do let us know your thoughts in the comments’ section below.

Share your opinion in the comment section. COMMENT NOW

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Usman Dar

Usman is a Digital Marketer at Cloudways- A Managed Cloud Hosting Platform, where he looks after affiliate partnerships and helps digital nomads in generating passive income. He is a foodie by heart, who loves to explore new eateries around his vicinity.

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