Affiliate marketing is such a well-known concept that you are probably familiar with it, even if you have never used it yourself. However, you may not know that there are numerous affiliate marketing opportunities, including B2B (business-to-business) affiliate marketing.

What Is Business-to-Business Affiliate Marketing?

First of all, what exactly is B2B affiliate marketing? Most of you are familiar with B2C affiliate marketing simply because it’s everywhere: you pay an affiliate to promote your product to a customer. Think YouTube ads, sponsored Instagram posts, and websites with links in the sidebar. These are all B2C products. The consumer is the person who sees the ad and then buys the product.

In contrast, B2B affiliate marketing involves paying an affiliate to promote your product to other businesses. This is especially the case if you have a product that is primarily consumed by other businesses rather than customers.

For example, if you’re a wholesaler looking to sell your items to a company that will help resale them, you’ll need B2B affiliate marketing rather than B2C.

Reasons to Consider B2B Affiliate Marketing

The primary reason B2B affiliate marketing is a fantastic concept is that it works

According to a data analytics firm, affiliate programs might account for up to 30% of advertiser sales in 2022. The stronger your affiliate programs, the higher your sales, and with an impact on about 30% of your sales, investing in this sort of marketing will pay off handsomely.

B2B affiliate marketing also has a very useful customer lifecycle. A lot of affiliate marketing is designed to increase brand awareness and develop loyal customers. Eventually, the customer will most likely come directly to you, bypassing the affiliate on the way. This implies you won’t have to pay the affiliate and will have a returning customer.

It’s also worth noting that B2B affiliate marketing often takes longer than B2C affiliate marketing. According to HubSpot, your B2B partners will frequently be looking for a solution within the next 12-24 months. That implies you should get started as soon as possible so you can convert those B2B prospects into sales as soon as feasible.

How to Begin With B2B Affiliate Marketing?

As we can already see, affiliate marketing isn’t exclusively for B2C businesses. Customers look to nodes of trust in their communities to help them choose goods in a sea of possibilities, and more B2B SaaS businesses are recognizing the significance of affiliate networks. 

Now that you’re hopefully interested in B2B affiliate marketing, it’s time to build your affiliate marketing practices. Here’s a short 6-step checklist for launching a successful B2B affiliate marketing program for your business.

1 – Choose the Best Platform for Your Product

Not all affiliate programs are the same. You must pick a platform that is compatible with your product and provides the functionality you require.

If you want to launch an affiliate program, consider a few things before deciding on the best platform for your product. First, consider the type of product you’re offering and who your target market is. When it comes to affiliate software, you’ll want to ensure the platform enables the smoothest connection and tracking for your sales funnel.

Another factor to consider is the level of control you desire over your affiliate program. Some platforms allow you the entire control over your affiliates and their commissions, but others give you less. Selecting a platform that gives you the level of control you want is critical.

Finally, before making a decision, consider the fees associated with various platforms. Some platforms charge monthly or annual fees, while others take a share of each transaction made by your new affiliates. By comparing your options, you can ensure that you select the best platform for your product and business needs.

2 – Create Your Payment Structure

How you compensate your new affiliates will have an impact on the success of your program. You must choose how much you are willing to pay per transaction and devise a method for tracking sales and payments.

Begin by conducting a competitive analysis to determine what other firms in your industry pay their affiliates. Use this data to develop a fair and competitive commission structure for your program.

Once you’ve determined how much you’ll pay per sale, you’ll need to promote what will inspire partners to recommend you over competitors.

3 – Create a Service Targeted at Quality Affiliate Partners.

The first step in developing a successful B2B affiliate marketing program is to find quality affiliate partners. One of the main reasons you may be experiencing trouble with your program is because of stagnant and apathetic affiliates, while you need assertive and actionable ones. 

Begin by creating an “Affiliate Partner Persona” that highlights your ideal partner’s characteristics. Content publishers and YouTube influencers are popular affiliate partners, but each company has a unique ideal partner.

Create a wish list of affiliate sites and programs that you would like to include in your program. You must gather contact information for each website.

Once you’ve compiled your list, begin reaching out to each individual with a personalized greeting. Don’t give up if you don’t receive an answer! Building a successful affiliate program requires tenacity.

Pareto Principle works here too. According to AM Navigator, 10% of your affiliates account for 90% of your affiliate activity, which often occurs when you have low-quality affiliate partners or partners that do not wish to spread your information.

4 – Create Marketing Materials

To properly sell your product, your affiliates will require high-quality promotional materials. Product photos, banner adverts, and email templates are examples of this.

Create a range of resources in various sizes and formats so that your new affiliates can select what works best for them. Remember to add your brand standards so that everyone promotes your product uniformly.

One of the most crucial components of this step is to create a friendly introductory email sequence in which partners are informed:

  • Their affiliate link
  • Who is their affiliate manager
  • Commission structure
  • Marketing creative assets that are available to them

You never have a second chance to make a good first impression, so welcome new partners with open arms.

5 – Advertise Your Business-to-Business Marketing Program

Although you can contact affiliates directly, it is much easier to get affiliates to come to you. To expand your B2B affiliate marketing program, you must advertise it to affiliates who may have relationships with firms that will benefit from your products. 

Make an eye-catching landing page with a clear call to action. Make sure to respond swiftly to those who respond to the call to action.

6 – Maintain Long-Term Motivation

B2B affiliate agreements must be long-term. It is crucial to maintain long-term connections with all affiliate partners. Still, in B2B affiliates, where the customer may not be seeking to act for up to 24 months, it is critical to maintaining contact with your affiliates. 

Consider developing referral levels, where increasing numbers of recommendations raise the percentage received by the affiliate, or producing an affiliate newsletter to keep your affiliates informed.

For Smoother B2B Affiliate Marketing, Employ Affiliate Marketing Technology.

Affiliate marketing technology helps automate the affiliate process. While it is possible to manually monitor all website visits and then manually calculate how much commission you need to pay for each person, this is a lot of work and rarely effective. This is why most companies use affiliate marketing technologies instead.

If you use an affiliate marketing platform like Scaleo, you can track all aspects of your affiliate marketing program. This includes information such as the number of commissions you pay to your affiliates, their average conversion rate, and the total revenue your affiliates generate. This will help you shape your overall affiliate marketing program and both your short-term and long-term strategy.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing poses a big advantage for many businesses, and it’s critical that you do everything you can to improve your company’s affiliate marketing strategy. If B2B affiliate marketing is the appropriate fit for your company, today we have discussed the easiest methods to get started. With these suggestions, you’ll be well on your way to developing a successful affiliate marketing project in a B2B environment.

Ready to get started? Start your B2B affiliate program with Scaleo!

Enjoy smooth real-time sales tracking and management of your B2B affiliate program. Begin free with a 14-day trial, or schedule a demo call.

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Last Updated on October 10, 2023

Author

Elizabeth is a Senior Content Manager at Scaleo. Currently enjoying the life in Prague and sharing professional affiliate marketing tips. She's been in the online marketing business since 2006 and gladly shares all her insights and ideas on this blog.