The past few years have witnessed a dramatic change in the ways businesses market their products and services. With digital media replacing print media, brands are now using social media to grow their online presence and digital community. Due to the increased competition, there is a growing demand for social media marketing tools and methods that can help businesses reach the maximum number of audiences. One such efficient and widely used method for growing business through social media is affiliate marketing. Popular among brands and marketers, affiliate marketing not only helps brands in growing business but also brings several opportunities for marketers, bloggers and influencers to generate passive income.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a unique type of performance-based digital marketing which is known for its effectiveness in boosting sales. With the help of affiliate marketing, brands and product developers can increase brand awareness, generate more leads and increase conversion rates. Affiliate marketing has proved to be very useful for businesses during the launch of a new product or service. Through affiliate marketing, businesses are able to set foot into a wider demographic and target audience within their niche as well as those beyond their reach.
Affiliate marketing creates a lucrative situation for both brands and marketers. It helps bloggers, influencers and marketers earn extra revenue by tying-up with several businesses and promoting their products and services. For example, Instagram influencers will use their Instagram pages to promote different businesses to their followers. As influencers or bloggers use their affiliate network to promote new products, they get an opportunity to earn a commission from concerned businesses for every item purchased by their followers. Apart from bloggers and influencers, today various businesses are also opting for affiliate marketing as an additional source of passive income.
Affiliate Marketing Programs
While affiliate marketing appears as a cakewalk to most new digital marketers, it is easier said than done. When done suitably, affiliate marketing can be turned into a sustainable business model. To be a successful affiliate marketer, you need to first build an engaged social media community, and then hunt for the relevant products to promote on your social media pages. Moreover, you also need to work tirelessly to establish your image and maintain your online reputation. Once you have gained the trust of the audience, you can start affiliate marketing by promoting products and services that your followers can rely on.
However, since social media is flooded with numerous affiliate marketers promoting different categories of products and services, to stand out in the competition, you can sign up for one or more affiliate marketing programs. These programs help marketers establish a firm affiliate marketing foundation. While there are a vast number of affiliate marketing programs available online, each program has its advantages and disadvantages. The right kind of affiliate marketing program will help you find products within your niche and will make it easy for you to take your income to the next level. To help you choose an ideal affiliate marketing program, here is a list of the top 10 affiliate marketing programs in social media tools that will make your affiliate marketing fruitful.
- Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the oldest known social media management tools. A user-friendly platform, Hootsuite helps users to plan their complete social content in a single collaborative calendar. It not only allows users to create unique and engaging content for different social media platforms, but also helps them automatically schedule all their social media posts. Hootsuite also offers an affiliate marketing program, using which marketers can start earning commission for every referral that upgrades to a paid Hootsuite Pro account. Additionally, marketers also get a commission when any of their referrals subscribes for Hootsuite account add-ons.
- Canva
A popular graphic design platform, Canva allows users to create unique social media graphics, posters, animations, presentations, graphs, charts and other visual content. It also offers an absolutely free to join affiliate marketing program, where marketers are not bound to any joining fees or minimum sales. Once you sign up for Canva’s affiliate marketing program, you can earn up to $36 for every new Canva Pro subscriber that uses your referral link for subscription. Additionally, Canva offers free access to all the tools its affiliates need to promote Canva Pro. As this platform uses a cookie-based affiliate tracking software, you can get the commission credited to your account within 30 days of the first click.
- SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a leading social media marketing tool which helps users in increasing brand awareness and traffic. The affiliate program by SocialPilot allows affiliates to earn a recurring commission of 30% for every SocialPilot subscription sale. This means, apart from the initial commission, affiliates also get a commission for every subscription renewal made by their referrals. SocialPilot affiliates also get several banners and links which they can readily use for promotion on website and social media. Using an affiliate tool, SocialPilot tracks every activity made by visitors who are re-directed through its affiliates and pays a commission for every new and recurring subscription.
- Commun.it
A comprehensive social media management tool, Commun.it helps users in managing their followers on social media. From tracking brand awareness to discovering new leads, scheduling posts, sharing quality content and checking progress reports, Commun.it has all the features that are a must for a successful social media marketing strategy. Commun.it also offers an easy affiliate marketing program, using which its affiliates get 30% of the revenue for every referral account that signs up using the affiliate link. Moreover, the affiliates also get a little commission for every free customer and are entitled to a lifetime commission for every subscription renewal.
- Sprout Social
An all-inclusive social media management platform, Sprout Social helps users in creating an engaging social media community. Sprout’s affiliate marketing program is specially designed for users who wish to share their affection for Sprout with other community members. To reward its loyal users, Sprout also offers a $50 credit for subscriptions made under its referral program. Sprout also provides its affiliates with a unique bit.ly link which they can share with their followers. With the help of cookies, Sprout rewards its affiliates when their referrals start a trial within 60 days of clicking the referral link.
- SEMrush
Another popular social media tool, SEMrush is known for its effectiveness in helping users manage and track all their social media profiles at one place. SEMrush also comes with an affiliate marketing program, known as BErush, which offers affiliates a recurring commission of 40% for every subscription sale. This platform offers promo materials in 5 languages, which include English, French, German, Russian and Spanish, using which affiliates can promote its services to a wider range of audience.
- ContentStudio
A powerful social media management tool, ContentStudio is a one-stop solution for publishers, start-ups, brands and agencies who wish to increase their social reach and share the best content. ContentStudio also has a unique partner program, under which its affiliates can earn a recurring commission of 30% for each new customer that subscribes using their referral link. With the help of Paddle, which is an enterprise platform for referral tracking, ContentStudio makes all the activities very smooth and transparent for all its affiliates. Moreover, once partnered up with ContentStudio, you can reap the benefits from its partner program throughout life.
- Crowdfire
One of the fastest evolving social media management tools, Crowdfire makes the process of handling several social media pages hassle-free. Once you join the affiliate program offered by Crowdfire, you are eligible to earn a 35% commission for all payments your referrals make towards the site. Once you refer a user, you can earn up to $420 from every single customer in one year. Moreover, this program does not restrict the number of earnings an affiliate can make. This increases your chances of earning maximum revenues under Crowdfire’s affiliate marketing program.
- Tailwind
An exceptional social media tool, Tailwind helps users grow their presence on Instagram and Pinterest. From recommending hashtags to the best time to post new content, Tailwind can take care of all your social media needs. Tailwind offers its affiliates 15% recurring commission for every new referral. Additionally, to help new affiliates grow their business through social media, Tailwind also offers a two-month free trial. Apart from providing all the resources needed to make the most out of its affiliate marketing program, Tailwind also places a 90-day cookie on all affiliate links.
- Social Searcher
A real-time social media monitoring tool, Social Searcher helps users quickly monitor, measure and track all public social mentions on different social media networks. Social Searcher also offers an amazing affiliate marketing program, under which all affiliates can earn 50% commission for first-month referral’s payment, followed by 10% commission for all the following monthly payments. Additionally, it uses 90 days browser cookies, using which it can track returning visitors from a referral link and ensures that its affiliates do not miss out any commission for late subscribers.
