For SMEs selling online, seasonal retail dates can make or break their entire year. With numerous celebrations throughout the year, it can be challenging to compete with large brands and competitors through planning seasonal promotions and bidding on digital ads. However, affiliate marketing can help. This performance-based marketing allows an ecommerce website to reward a chosen partner for driving an agreed action on their website, such as a sale or completing an online form. This approach provides access to vast numbers of new customers that can be difficult to reach alone or through other expensive digital ad platforms, making it an excellent way to spend precious marketing budgets.
To reap the benefits of affiliate marketing, SMEs should maintain a year-round presence, measuring performance, and gathering enough data to know where to put extra focus. The best time to join an affiliate platform is before the busy winter retail season, as sales start as early as October. By preparing early, you can take advantage of specific promotional pushes or marketing opportunities offered by the affiliate platform for days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
To prepare for seasonal retail dates, SMEs should hang out where their customers do, focusing on channels that their specific target audiences regularly use. They should also go early by researching all peak events across the peak retail season and sustaining promotions across multiple sales events. SMEs should play to their strengths, being agile, flexible, and quick to respond to new opportunities, implementing new tech quickly and avoiding lengthy internal processes. Finally, SMEs should not assume peak season is just for retail or gifting, but think about how to impact their messaging and appeal to shoppers getting themselves that payday treat.
To get ready for peak season, reach new customers, and grow online sales, SMEs can use Awin Access, Awin’s affiliate marketing solution that has generated over £200m in sales for SMEs. With an average return of £14 for every £1 spent by Awin’s customers, this approach can provide a reliable and low-maintenance income stream, making it an ideal choice for a source of steady revenue.
