Affiliate marketing is popular nowadays. It is a new marketing method by brands to invite people to sell products for them. People get a commission based on the products they sell.
 
It is a win-win marketing strategy. Brands increase brand awareness through the affiliate program, and people earn money by joining the program.
 
As an affiliate marketer, there are steps that you shall take orderly, to achieve a successful affiliate program. 
 
Normally, affiliate marketing is a good fit for bloggers. Bloggers provide good content to gain audiences. When they have a solid audience group, they can sell certain products to the audience. It is how affiliate marketing is efficient. It is easier to sell products that suit a targeted audience in a niche market.
 
A blog is the best platform to get started. It is easy to build a website on a third-party platform providing this service, like WordPress. You can also start on social media platforms. However, selling on social media may require your investment.
 
After choosing the platform, you need to pick the right niche market for your affiliate business. You shall consider the market that you are most interested in. Only in this way, you will be willing to put effort into the program in the long term.
 
There are many niche markets that you can choose to start. And you may need professional help on it. Choosing a professional organization to help you get started is a good idea.
 
After choosing the right market, the next step is to showcase and sell products on your website. You can build a website that is only for sales. Or you can build a website with good content and occasionally sell goods.
 
Till now, the affiliate program is ready. If you don’t already have a large audience group, you need to use the right strategy to promote your program. There are two types of promotion: organic and paid promotions.
 
For organic promotion, SEO (search engine optimization) is important. Many affiliate marketers write blogs to increase product exposure. Usually, the SEO process will take some time. It’s a gradual process just like operating social media. Social media is another organic promotion to increase product exposure. There are many functions of social media, like groups filled with people of similar interests, where you can find targeted customers in high concentration.
 
Paid promotions could be bulk emails, SMS messages, and advertisements. Email promotion can be sent regularly to build brand awareness and customer loyalty. You can cooperate with professional providers to obtain good promotion effects. SMS campaign is another good promotion strategy that can reach customer close enough with a high open-rate.
 
What are the benefits of an SMS campaign to your affiliate program?

1.It is cost-effective.

Many individuals participate in an affiliate program. As an individual, there is not much budget to expand the business. We need to spend wisely. In the beginning, an SMS campaign is what individuals can afford. It could be a proper promotion strategy.

2.It can reach many people closely.

Compared to an email campaign, an SMS message can reach people at a close distance. People read SMS messages. Almost every single message of your SMS campaign will be opened and read.

3.It is easy to operate.

With the help of an SMS provider, you can easily edit and build an SMS campaign on your own. You can get started by entering the customers’ names and phone numbers. Your customer database will grow bigger with time. And each time you only need to input the message content for one time and send them all.

4.It is effective in the short and long run.

While some promotions may not be effective in the short run, an SMS campaign can show its effectiveness quickly. Due to its cheap cost, you will be able to send your SMS campaign to many people instantly. With a high open rate, some of the receivers might get interested in your product, and some of them may make the purchase. SMS messaging will be a good tool to interact and communicate with your customers in the long run. It can help you build good customer relationships.
 
In case SMS becomes a product, there are two kinds of affiliate programs.  

1.Affiliate partner program

This program calculates the commission based on every single SMS you sell. The commission rate is around 5%. 

2.Business affiliate program

You can integrate an SMS sending function into your software or platform in this program. And the commission is around 20% on some platforms.