How to attract customers to your business. Affiliate programs as a lead generation tool

Based on this, lead generation is the process of attracting and converting a company’s target audience into customers.

Lead Generation Methods

To drive potential consumers to a target website and convert them into customers, companies typically use the following methods:

• Targeting

  This advertising mechanism is set up in search engines and social networks.

  Main advantage: the ability to segment the audience (by age, gender, location, etc.) and avoid “shooting sparrows with a cannon.”

  Drawback: constantly rising cost per click and high competition for customers.

• Education

  This refers to companies that publish books, organize conferences, record webinars, offer training courses, etc. They promote their products/services within their info-products, increasing brand awareness.

  Advantage: the ability to warm up the audience and prepare it for the desired action, especially with feedback, which increases engagement.

  Drawback: time-consuming (preparing materials and hosting online events) and requires a high level of expertise from the speaker (the more recognized the personal brand, the easier and cheaper it is to attract an audience).

• Content Marketing

  This is the creation and distribution of valuable content in any format — audio, video, or text with visuals (infographics, images, photos). Nowadays, almost every company runs its own blog or podcast, and publishes guest articles for media or niche online publications.

  Advantages: the opportunity to appear in Google and Yandex search results from different information sources, thus occupying top positions for target queries.

  Drawbacks: time-consuming content creation and rewriting, plus the author must have expertise in the chosen field. The better the specialist, the higher the cost of their work.

• Referral / Affiliate Program

  The terms of such programs provide rewards (commissions from sales, bonuses, and other perks) to affiliates for bringing in new clients. The key rule: the main “trump card” of the project should not be the reward itself, but the quality of the company’s product that people will want to recommend to others. We’ll take a closer look at this method below.

How Referral / Affiliate Programs Work

From an everyday perspective, an affiliate program (also called a referral, bonus, or partner program) is a way to earn money by promoting someone else’s product. It always involves two parties — the company (the affiliate merchant) and the partner (affiliate, referrer, or publisher).

After registering and gaining access to an affiliate dashboard, the partner receives a personal referral link and ready-made marketing materials. To start collaborating, all they need to do is place a banner and link on their resource (e.g., website, forum, blog, or social media profile).

The main task of the partner is to direct traffic from potential clients to the company’s website and ideally encourage the visitor to take the desired action (register, watch a video, download something, or purchase a product). Once the sequence of actions is completed, the partner earns a commission for their work.

This model is increasingly used by game developers. For example, World of Warcraft players receive free game time, pets, and exclusive items for inviting friends who pay for a subscription. Wargaming pays website owners for attracting new players to World of Tanks or World of Warships. The more players a site owner brings, the higher their earnings.

Essentially, affiliate programs are based on the principles of classic network marketing. Simpler methods for attracting and retaining customers include cashback offers, promo codes, and various loyalty programs.

What Sets Affiliate Programs Apart from Other Lead Generation Methods

1. More Targeted Audience Influence

   The main goal of the company is to build a network of active entrepreneurs and advertisers who will search for leads. These people know their audience well, understand effective communication channels, and speak their subscribers’ language.

   A partner who loves the company’s product becomes a “brand advocate” — defending and promoting the company’s interests everywhere (from casual conversations to media publications and speeches at major conferences).

2. Positive Impact on SEO

   By publishing your ads in blogs, social media, and other online resources, partners organically improve your site’s reputation with search engines. The logic is simple: the more trusted external sources link to a website, the higher it ranks in search results. This kind of link building boosts your site’s position, which increases the flow of free targeted traffic.

3. Cost-Effectiveness

   Affiliate marketing is relatively budget-friendly. Since partners handle most of the marketing promotion, you save on hiring additional staff (e.g., marketers, targeting specialists, SMM managers, etc.). The most significant one-time expense is creating a marketing plan (the rules for calculating partner bonuses).

   The commission plan is a critical factor for potential partners deciding whether to collaborate. It must clearly convey the financial benefits of working with you. Learn more about payout rules in the article The Ideal Marketing Plan.

   Keep in mind that developing a compensation plan requires expertise and experience in building marketing plans for various industries. Work only with professionals who have practical MLM experience.

The FlawlessMLM team, drawing on extensive hands-on experience, can help integrate any type of affiliate program into your business processes. We’ll also assist with selecting and developing a marketing plan, minimizing risks, and optimizing it for your audience’s specific needs.

Contact our manager in the website chat (flawlessmlm.com) to learn more about solutions for your business.