Virtual salesforce — how to build it with an affiliate program
A vibrant virtual salesforce working for your brand is the goal of many online store owners—and it’s a goal you can achieve with an affiliate program.
Affiliate program means partnership
As the name suggests, an affiliate program is designed to enable a collaborative partnership between independent parties—so each party benefits. In our case, these are advertisers (online stores), publishers (any websites and platforms that want to promote those stores in exchange for a sales commission), and the affiliate network, which makes this cooperation possible via its tracking platform.
E-commerce is booming and shows no sign of slowing down. There’s no shortage of ways to promote an online store, but testing them all to decide which are most profitable costs time and money. That’s why it’s best to start with channels that carry the lowest risk—or none at all. One such approach is to build a virtual salesforce (a network of online publishers) with whom you share a commission on each sale.
Affiliate program — your virtual salesforce
Publishers who join an affiliate program become a virtual sales team because they earn commissions on transactions completed in the online store thanks to their referrals. Publishers include niche websites, coupon/deal sites, cashback platforms, price comparison engines, product search sites, email list owners, bloggers, YouTubers, and users of all major social media—Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat—i.e., a diverse pool of partners eager to collaborate!
The advertiser creates an affiliate program and can either invite publishers directly or leave this task to the affiliate network while they focus on other areas of running the online business. The affiliate network continually expands its roster with new, high-quality publishers and engages them to actively promote partner program offers.
How to launch an affiliate program
Affiliate programs are a long-term component of your marketing strategy, so getting one up and running quickly is a smart move.
When you launch an affiliate program on a network platform, your store is immediately matched with relevant publishers. Networks also continuously recruit new publishers and sites, enabling steady growth of your program.
As part of the collaboration, you’re assigned an affiliate manager who handles publisher questions and issues, and advises on the best tools to drive sales through your partners. For billing, you receive a single consolidated invoice each month and don’t need to manage payouts to individual publishers.
How to choose the right affiliate network?
There are several performance-marketing billing models, but for sales the two core ones are Cost Per Sale (CPS) and Cost Per Lead (CPL). It’s crucial to work with a network whose operating model aligns with your goal.
If you run an online store and want to increase sales in exchange for a commission on each sale (CPS), choose a network that specializes in this model. In that case, the network focuses on onboarding publishers experienced in CPS—or those with strong potential to perform in it. webePartners specializes in CPS-based affiliate campaigns. You’ll find over 20,000 publishers with us who want to earn commission on sales. In summary: before you start working with a network, make sure it runs affiliate programs in your specific industry.
