Why Affiliate Marketing Works Best For SaaS Businesses?

Due to the recent pandemic, major changes have overcome the SaaS marketing industry. As a consequence, we see a rise in various interesting new trends, one of the most important being affiliate marketing.

But what exactly does 'affiliate marketing' stand for, and what should your SaaS company invest in it? Affiliate marketing is a strategy in which businesses employ affiliates (e.g., influencers, bloggers, streamers, etc.) to recommend and advertise their products or services.

Affiliates share banners and links, make video reviews, post relevant information on their blogs, social media pages, and much more. They are then paid a commission based on the traffic generated for the business they work for. Affiliate marketing is the perfect tool for businesses of all kinds, but it is of especially great value for SaaS companies. In this article, we'll explore all the reasons why.

Why Should Your SaaS Business Consider Affiliate Marketing?

For a start, affiliate marketing is a lucrative prospect for SaaS companies due to its low cost. Think of the typical marketing models, which require you to pay in advance in hopes that your campaign might bring in new clients. With affiliate marketing, however, there's no risk involved, as you only pay commissions for results.

To understand which affiliates are generating traffic for your business, in affiliate marketing, you track metrics. By your setup, you may only have to pay for converted prospects.

This relaxed model helps businesses keep marketing costs at a minimum while driving revenue through the roof.

Other than saving you plenty of money, here are some other key reasons your SaaS business should consider affiliate marketing.

The Amazing Benefits of SaaS Affiliate Marketing

Perhaps one of the most attractive benefits of SaaS affiliate marketing is that it's a minimal-risk/minimal-cost solution. Most marketing strategies typically require heavy financial investment with no guaranteed success. However, affiliate marketing is a whole different ball game - no results = no payment on your side!

You no longer need to break your head creating out-of-the-box content as well because that is what affiliates are for. The only cost involved is the commission percentage you need to pay your busy bees for bringing all that honey to your doorstep.

That is why affiliate marketing is the most powerful tool for small and startup companies with tight budgets. However, there's more to it than just minimal cost. With a SaaS affiliate program, you also get the following:

• Happy and motivated affiliates – the affiliate's earnings depend on the traffic they lead to your website or the products/services sold as a result of their recommendation. And that is also why their motivation for success aligns closely with your own.
• Focused traffic – with affiliate marketing, you minimize the risk of drawing in low-potential customers to your campaign more than you would with any other strategy, as your affiliates already know the ins and outs of your product/industry.
• Minimal cost exposure boost – no matter what industry you may be in, there are many relevant social media personalities or bloggers with a big audience, so if you partner with them, you will have the chance to put your name out there and draw customers who might never have heard of your business otherwise. It will be much cheaper than targeting people with traditional marketing strategies.
• Customer loyalty – when it comes to finding the right affiliates for you, your customer base can do wonders for you as they are much more likely to back a product or service if they are rewarded for recommending it. Also, you can give special rewards to your affiliates to motivate them to tell more people about what you're offering.
• More credibility – If you join forces with established names or popular websites from your industry niche, you can build your reputation and customer trust in your products/services.

So, a well-organized and properly executed affiliate program will not only boost your traffic and sales sky-high, but also help increase and solidify your presence, winning you the trust of top-quality customers, strengthening the name of your business, and even elevating client satisfaction levels. After all, who wouldn't be happy about being rewarded for putting in a good word about a product or service they adore?

Common types of partnerships for SaaS

Successful partnership programs are known to have one key element in common — diversity. And since different partner types deliver different results, every business needs to include the right combination of partners for maximal results.

What follows are some of the most typical partnership types in the SaaS world:

• Traditional affiliates
• Ambassadors
• Content and Comparison
• Mobile apps
• Premium publishers
• Brand-to-brand influencers
• Communities and associations
• Brand-to-brand strategic and native integrations

Specific types of partners, such as ambassadors, affiliates, and influencers, can do wonders when it comes to reaching your target customer group. Others, on the other hand, have their strengths on the retention, expansion, and renewals front.

The perfect partner mix should take into account your location, target industry, and experience.

But what are the safest yet most efficient types of referral partners to join forces with?

Each abovementioned partnership can be effective in helping you find new customers. Still, some of them have more advantages, depending on your industry and which partners you have more compatibility with.

There are five key elements of a harmonious partnership:

1. Your brands are a natural match. When working together, partners and their brands intertwine in the minds of audiences, customers, and people they do business with. Carefully devise the message about the core values and principles of your product and what it stands for.
2. Your business objectives complement each other. Partners cross paths because they share a common belief that what they have on offer can be significantly enhanced with teamwork. They may differ when it comes to their ultimate goals, but they must complement each other in more than one way.
3. Competition. Being jointly productive with a competitor can work to your advantage - especially when it comes to your credibility. You must, however, always keep an edge on them.
4. Eagerness to work as a team. Both sides have to have the desire to work together. Mutual time and resource commitment are a must in SaaS partnerships.
5. Ability to work as a team. Finally, whoever your partners of choice may be, they must have the patience and resources to work with you towards a shared dream in a mutually beneficial and friendly way.
   
   

Naturally, you won't have the same needs and goals as another business to fit in perfectly as partners. The most successful types of partnerships for SaaS businesses, however, are influencers, strategic brand-to-brand, and content partners.

Things to Keep in Mind Before Launching an Affiliate Program

To avoid failure, before you dive into starting an affiliate program, you first need to establish a sales funnel that already converts. Affiliates can do a lot, but they won't be able to drive all of your conversions.

An affiliate program is your go-to solution when it comes to scaling and distribution. However, affiliates have no reason to work on a website that doesn't convert.

Conversion rates are crucial for attracting top affiliates to join forces with you. Your sales are highly dependent on customer engagement, and engaging your affiliates is just as important.

To stand out from the rest, an affiliate program must first have all the goods to satisfy market demands. The next steps are strengthening the whole customer experience, creating excellent landing pages and marketing materials for affiliates, as well as continuously optimizing your page for the best SEO results.

Your SaaS Business Needs A Powerful Affiliate Platform

Implementing your affiliate system begins with a choice between starting in-house or putting your trust in a network specially created to help businesses like yours find dream-like success.

If you have plenty of time on your hands, you can always start from scratch. But the good news is that you don't have to — and that's where affiliate platforms come in.

Many platforms can offer you solid tools in that respect, and the money is more than worth it.

Furthermore, as your program expands, you will have many more things on your hands to manage. An affiliate platform worth it's salt can take care of all the busywork and headaches so you can focus on what you do best.

To take your business to the next level, you will also need an affiliate marketing platform with a proven track record of driving revenue sky-high.

Powered by Smartico.ai, TheAffiliatePlatform is a comprehensive software solution that allows for multi-brand campaign creation and tracking while keeping each brand's affiliate registrations and access separate.

With this affiliate system tailor-made for online casinos and sports betting, you can build strong partner relationships and expand your affiliate network on your terms. Its flexible tools can also help you optimize your affiliate marketing spending with surprising efficiency.

This white-label platform is designed specifically for casino, poker, sportsbook, and fintech operators but can also be implemented in any other industry as well.

In addition, TheAffiliatePlatform offers the following features and benefits:

• Collaboration With Partners — Dedicated Account Manager is part of the service via any of the instant messaging apps (Slack, Skype, Teams) and Jira.
• Convenient Pricing — We don't charge by your results, clicks, or conversion — one price for all.
• Ease of Use — Allows your team total control over your entire affiliate operation, including overseeing your team of affiliate managers, affiliate management, real-time reporting, payments, and comprehensive BI reporting.
• Total Control In One Customizable Platform — Tap into the power of a fully customizable affiliate management solution designed to manage your affiliate marketing campaigns, payouts, creative assets, and more. Upload, update, and manage all your creatives across your entire affiliate network.
• Track Everything In One Place, Build The Partnership You Want — TheAffiliatePlatform can make your next campaign the most successful one yet. It is a powerful affiliate software platform bringing casino and betting operators advanced solutions for creating, running, and tracking multi-brand affiliate marketing campaigns.
• Comprehensive Feature-Rich Tracking — TheAffiliatePlatform provides real-time and accurate conversion tracking and records via API integration, FTP solutions, traffic sources, and media placements. It also features broadly advanced no cookie dependencies methods like Server 2 Server (S2S/Postback), Image pixel, iFrame, Client JS Block and Facebook pixel, which are ideal for advanced affiliate marketers.
• Multi-Product & Multi-Brand System — TheAffiliatePlatform allows for multi-brand campaign creation and tracking and keeps the affiliate registrations and access separate for each brand. Different commission plans can be assigned per product and brand. Unite your iGaming brands into one affiliate program and manage them from one admin panel.
  
  

TheAffiliatePlatform offers many more tools, and, driven by customer requests, new features and functionalities are monthly months. To book your free in-depth demo, please click the "Request a demo" button.

Final Words

Considering how beneficial it can be to your business, affiliate marketing is, without a doubt, an amazing technique for success. And while it may take a while to see the fruits of your and your affiliates' labor, it is a tried and tested, cheap method of promoting your products or services, finding new customers, building loyalty with existing customers, and strengthening your reputation.

However, that does not mean that you should stop working on your SEO, paid ads, or social media marketing. Combine affiliate marketing with all of those, and watch your business grow to new heights.

TheAffiliatePlatform team wishes you the best of luck!