The Secret to Online Shop Sales Success: Affiliate Marketing

Let’s imagine for a minute that you have a thousand you’s running around. Like a little army of your clones, selling your product and telling the world about your biz. Sound like a Marvel movie? Well, it is, except it’s actually possible — with affiliate marketing.

What are affiliates?

If you’re totally new to affiliate marketing, the idea is pretty basic: Affiliates are individuals or brands who are connected to your own brand in some way, who benefit from promoting the products or services of your brand.

Just like some brands partner with influencers to sell their products, you can partner with affiliates (and even influencers!) whose audiences could benefit from your products. This usually works through some form of commission: For each sale an affiliate makes, they are paid a certain commission on the sale.

Some affiliate programs offer discounts on the brand’s products or cap a payout at a certain amount. But for the most part, we’re going to talk about affiliate programs that pay commission.

Why commissioned affiliates work

I know that, if you’re just starting out, it can be hard to believe that more people would be interested in selling your product or promoting your shop. After all, you’re one person and doing that take all your time.

But affiliate programs work. I have seen them work for other brands, and for my own online shop. Over at The Contract Shop®, for example, we have about 1,200 affiliates. About a third of those are active — meaning we have hundreds of affiliates who drive at least one sale per week. With an average order value of $346… well, I’ll let you do the math.

Basically, our awesome affiliates are driving a lot of revenue for The Contract Shop® and getting paid to do it! (We have paid out over $160,000 in affiliate commissions because we offer 20% commission for our affiliates.)

I’ll be honest with you. Affiliates are a huge part of the success we have seen over at The Contract Shop®, but I know it’s not just a fluke. I’ve seen it work for other digital product shops, too. You can TOTALLY see these kinds of results and drive more sales for your digital products or online shop by creating an affiliate program.

If you’re wondering what an affiliate program looks like, why you need one, and what you need to get started… watch this video (or keep reading).

Reason #1 Why Affiliate Programs Work: You’re only 1 person

Let’s be real: You’re only 1 person, and you only have 1 audience. Imagine the power of having 1,200 audiences, or 1,200 advocates who are ready and excited to talk about your product. That’s like multiplying you and your store and your audience by 1,200.

Can you imagine how many more sales you’d be getting? How many more eyeballs you’d have on your shop or products or brand?

Reason #2 Why Affiliate Programs Work: New audiences beget new audiences

You probably know how hard it can be to grow your reach and build an engaged audience. Eventually, your Insta followers know about your product, your email list knows you’re having sales. You need “fresh blood” in your audience to make a sale, and that’s how affiliates can help.

You can tap into an entirely new fanbase or customer base than you’d be able to do on your own — and faster. Your affiliates have already done the leg work on the audience, and you’ve done the leg work on the offer. Now when your offer enters that ecosystem, you’ll have an audience that’s already engaged and fresh to your offer.

Reason #3 Why Affiliate Programs Work: No upfront cost

Let’s talk about the other ways you’ve heard of or tried to grow your audience. Podcasts, speaking opportunities… maybe even Facebook ads.

If you tried to do the same thing with Facebook ads that you can with affiliates, you wouldn’t be likely to see the same results. Why? Because, with an affiliate, you can see exactly who is doing what, how they’re promoting it, and who has success. 

With Facebook ads, you pay upfront with no guarantee of work. With affiliates, you’re paying them after they make a sale. And with digital products or passive products, you’re guaranteed to make money on that sale (as long as you’re not giving, like, 100% commission).

I did this with The Contract Shop®  — I started with affiliates instead of Facebook ads and I know that it’s part of the reason we were able to succeed.

Reason #4 Why Affiliate Affiliate Programs Work: Automation

My favorite part about affiliates, aside from seeing all the awesome people who share our products? An affiliate program can be automated. Instead of trying to build individual relationships with a few people to get on their podcasts, or maintain a Facebook ads strategy, you can set your affiliates up for success automatically.

Of course, it’s not as easy as just getting affiliates on board; it’s about making sure they have what they need to go out and sell without you from Day 1 on. Our recruiting page at The Contract Shop®, for example, tells people why to join, approximately what commission they can expect, when we pay, and how to easily get signed up.

After they sign up, they get an onboarding sequence that shows them what to promote and how, and even offers a few swipe copy assets. We also give them a few tips to maximize sales, like telling them to focus on selling ONE product that aligns with their audience, rather than just sending people to our main shop.

Affiliates are just one part of a strong sales system

I know that I’ve hyped up affiliate marketing pretty good here. And that’s because it works. But it only works if you have a product that already sells, and you have other sales strategies working in tandem with it. Our sales over at The Contract Shop® don’t just rely on our affiliates. Instead, they also rely on strong value-based content, promotions and sales, social media, and SEO.

If you’re hoping to scale your digital products or boost the success of your online shop, affiliate marketing is just one part of a strong sales system. There are about 7 other sales strategies I’d recommend for your shop… all of which I dive into and teach you how to do in my Simple Sustained Shop Sales program.

If you want in-depth access to my sales secrets, so you can have that kind of success for your online shop, check out Simple Sustained Shop Sales today.