Black Friday is round the corner: are you ready?
The biggest retail day of our calendar is just one week away: yes, it’s almost Black Friday! For affiliate marketers around the globe, this means a chance to make some seriously significant sales. But with so much competition from every retailer large and small, how can you stand out from the market noise?
We explore the Black Friday affiliate landscape and offer some key strategies for your success. Plus, make sure you stay until the end to get a free white paper packed with in-depth strategies to take any affiliate campaign from zero to hero.
How much do affiliate marketers earn on Black Friday?
Let’s just quickly understand the context we’re coming into here. We all know Black Friday is big, but did you realize that affiliate marketers specifically facilitate a whopping 7% of all sales in the United States? In fact, Black Friday has actually overtaken Cyber Monday as the most lucrative day for retailers. The size of the pie is enormous, and is growing roughly 7% year on year.
As for where those sales are happening, the vast majority – some 83% – come in B2C spaces. As usual, some of the biggest names in the affiliate industry are responsible for offer volume, including the Amazon Associate program, ShareASale, Awin, Rakuten and Clickbank (and to find out more about affiliate platforms and which ones would work for your business, do read our dedicated platform round-up).
How can affiliate marketers boost their sales this and every Black Friday?
We’ll look at three key strategies for you to stand out in a crowded Black Friday affiliate context: personalization, exclusivity, and authority.
Let’s cover each one in turn.
Personalization
All marketers have heard that personalization is key, but what does this really mean for affiliates? Firstly, it means careful targeting of those in your funnel: serving abandoned products to customers who left them at checkout, complementary products to those who made a particular purchase, and so on.
It also means personalization from your end. Anonymous brands do not stick in anyone’s head, especially when you’re talking about affiliate flows in which you’re promoting another’s product without a promise of exclusivity. You need to get people to know your brand, to trust your brand and to want to come back to your brand through your content. That means a specific tone of voice that fits the intersection between your brand and your audience, and often, for example, putting a named face behind your brand. Video content is a fantastic way to demonstrate the human side of your company, while also establishing your expertise and building rapport – don’t forget to make the most of interactions with customers in the comments.
Exclusivity
It’s Black Friday and people are looking to treat themselves and others. For many online shoppers, they either can’t find or don’t want to spend time trawling for the products they want in physical stores. There’s a big hook to grab here in making your customers feel they’re getting something very special – even if in reality there are other affiliates out there promoting the same product.
Building up specific email lists and offering VIP discounts, special previews, flash sales and so on are ways you can really jazz up a product for Black Friday. This way, you help to build up that sense of anticipation and the need for urgency to act now.
Authority
Last but certainly not least is authority. Even though it is Black Friday 2022 and, post-pandemic, even former sceptics are now quite used to buying online, it is still a leap of faith for a consumer to purchase something they’ve never seen.
This is why it’s so beneficial for you to work on affiliate niches in which you have an authority. You can then take advantage of the personalization aspect to leverage your authority, demonstrating it to your customers. If you’re working in areas where you’re less knowledgeable, it’s worth testing some of the products in your offers where you can and documenting your experience with them. That way, while you don’t have the authority of an industry expert, you do have the authority of a relatable who has used the product in the same genuine way your audience will.
Growing your Black Friday sales further
The tactics above are just three short introductions to how you can grow your Black Friday sales further – but we have a lot more for you. If you haven’t already downloaded your free Black Friday whitepaper, make sure you do now for six in-depth strategies to turbo-charge those sales.
Learn how to:
Find the most profitable niche for your affiliate marketing sales
Reduce the costs of your PPC campaigns
Avoid the traps that might end your revenue streams in an instant
and more
