4. Opportunities To Use Affiliate Marketing in Your Business
There are a number of places where you can use affiliate marketing in your business, but for the purposes of this course we’ll talk about the most common and relevant ones for photographers, and the easiest to implement.
On Your Blog
If you have a blog, then you are probably already linking to other products and services. Perhaps you are blogging shoots, creating editorial content or writing informational articles for your clients. These can be a great place to use affiliate links to products or services you would be linking to anyway.
On Your Website
As well as on your blog, you can add affiliate links on other pages on your website too. If you’re a proud Fujifilm shooter like I am, then you could add a section on your “About Me” page about the gear you use with affiliate links. The same goes for any software or other tools that you love. You can create a resources or partners page and link all of the tools you use so that people who want to know what you do behind the scenes can buy all the same software, presets, cameras and lenses as you, and you get commission from that!
On Social Media
Using links on social networks can be a controversial topic. But you can use your social media to share affiliate links from time to time.
While not a social network, I’m going to include Pinterest in this too, as Pinterest allows you to “shop” posts now, so you can tag products in your pins and use affiliate links to send people to the products you are recommending.
Client Communications
How often do you find yourself answering the same questions in emails from clients about what they should buy/wear for their shoot? Or asking for recommendations of places to stay for their elopement? Anticipate their questions and needs in advance, and have lists of recommendations ready to go – with affiliate links of course.
Email Newsletter
An often underestimated marketing tool, an email newsletter can be a great way to communicate with clients who may not have booked you, but may still be interested in your knowledge and expertise. Email newsletters can also be a way of sharing affiliate content with your audience, either directly in the email or as a way of sending them to your blog to read more.