Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Tools
The best affiliate marketers can work from literally anywhere in the world and still have great peace of mind. This is because of the affiliate marketing tools and support available from versatile software programs in the market.
What is affiliate marketing?
To put in simple terms, affiliate marketing is when a person markets and earns a commission for selling another company’s products. For each sale that the company makes from affiliate promotions, the affiliate earns a profit percentage.
Why people do affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing has become a new trend because it gives people good control over what they want or doesn’t want to do.
Additionally, companies opt for affiliates as they are budget-friendly and a lot more efficient. They also help reduce marketing time and efforts for the company.
As affiliate marketing becomes increasingly important and popular, the tools for marketers become more complex. However, with a handful of the best tools, affiliate marketing efforts can be successful.
Product reviews
Rating – 4/5
- Availability of a free demo so you can make a more informed decision
- A library of mobile-optimized templates and themes for quick and easy selection
- Develops personalized call-to-action for a better user experience
- Offers customized suggestions for improving SEO, guaranteeing better performance for your site
Rating – 3.5/5
- Offers a 7-day free trial and is budget-friendly
- Has over 140 geodatabases
- Helps manage the site’s content audit; saves time and effort
- A customized list of suggested SEO actions helps improve SEO performance
Rating – 3/5
- Highlights pages that bring the most leads to help you track better
- The onSite retargeting feature creates a personalized experience for customers
- Automatically diverts traffic to important pages
- Offers a 14-day no-satisfaction money-back guarantee
Rating – 4/5
- Tracks performance on social media platforms like Facebook
- Real-time analytics based on location, placement, and many other aspects
- Has a mobile application for ease of use and allows you to manage your site from anywhere
- ITP compliant eCommerce tracking, ensuring reliability as well as quality tracking
Rating – 4.5/5
- Sets up and installs within minutes
- Dedicated payout options for paying affiliated partners
- Real-time data analytics for better management
- Offers a tracking feature as well
If you have a great idea for a custom WordPress plugin you can source a development team like PA to build it for you!
Buying guide
Affiliate marketing takes up a lot of your time and energy, as well as your efforts. Make sure you check the important aspects and features of any affiliate marketing tools before you go ahead and use one.
Here is a section to help you to better decide. Whether it is choosing the best WordPress plug-in or the best tracker, there will always be some important considerations to make.
What is the opt-in tool
In affiliate marketing, opt-in tools are, particularly for email marketing. Many marketers today are shifting their focus to email marketing as it enables better personalization and customization. Consequently, the industry is getting filled with new and innovative features for opt-in emails.
So, the question arises – What does an opt-in really do, and why is it important as an affiliate marketing tool?
- Regulations
Since emails are personal and often contain other sensitive information, sending unsolicited emails can be a problem. Doing so can have repercussions; therefore, one must follow government laws and codes of ethics. Opt-in tools help you to achieve that.
- Better engagement
Since you will only send emails to people who ask for them, customers will be more interactive. This will lead to better traffic and engagement on your site.
In other words, marketers using the opt-in strategy market products to customers only if they permit it. Customers will only receive email updates from the brand after “opting in” or specifically choosing to do so.
This marketing strategy is basically more ethical and guarantees better lead conversions and user engagement. It also helps you to target only the customers who are genuinely concerned and interested in your site. Follow-up communication is also much better with opt-in marketing.
Making any list of emails cannot be called an opt-in email list. This is why specific professional tools exist in the industry. These tools are better in optimizing and bringing in more willing subscribers to your site.
Opt-in tools like OptinMonster are really versatile and diverse. They started as only an opt-in email tool but now have expanded their products and provide more features to customers. Such tools can be budget-friendly and good for the overall performance of your site.
How to choose the best WordPress plugin
Many people make the mistake of choosing only popular and high-end plugins for their WordPress site. Just the name of the plugin is not enough to guarantee that it will work well for your website. Instead, there are some other factors you must consider:
- Your site’s needs
You need to sit down and re-evaluate your site. Understand its dynamics, evaluate the kind of content you are selling, and assess your audience. Your current performance and your desired performance are also two very critical aspects you should think about.
Once you understand what your site truly needs, then invest in a plugin.
- WP plugin directory
There is a whole directory of plugins offered by WordPress itself. The abundance of plugins in the directory can be really tiring and overwhelming for newcomers.
There are two solutions to this. You can either switch to Google search and learn about the best WordPress plugins, or simply search the plugins based on categories.
- Ratings and reviews
The WP directory has a sidebar of reviews and ratings. These are from actual users of plugins who either are using them or have used them in the past. This information helps you understand the shortcomings and benefits of the plugins.
- Plugin screenshots
The WP directory also includes screenshots of the plugin interface. This is vital for your understanding of the plugin before you actually use it. The screenshots help you understand what the plugin is going to be like if its user-friendly or too technical for you.
Is HubSpot better than Salesforce?
HubSpot is not the only option in the market when it comes to building landing pages. Due to the diverse product portfolio of HubSpot, it has gained an excellent reputation amongst marketers.
However, a constant competitor for HubSpot is Salesforce. Both have very similar services and products but still are unique in their own way.
So, which one is better?
HubSpot Pros
- Best inbound content marketing
- Provides content management services for an extra charge
- Automatically captures contact information
- Helps streamline and ease down the sales process
- Only allows one sales pipeline for all products
- A good option for smaller to medium scale businesses
- Suitable for more tech-savvy people
Salesforce Pros
- More customizability on lead management
- Recommended for larger sized, complex businesses
- Comes with an excellent support package for users
- Works incredibly well with complex sales processes
- Allows multiple sales pipelines for multiple products
Which tool is better?
The answer is simple: the software you need to use for your business depends on your current knowledge, capabilities, and understanding of back-end technicalities. It also depends on the size and kind of business you have and how much customization you really care for.
Five different types of affiliate marketing tools
The best WordPress plugin, in our humble opinion, is Affiliate WP, which is a world-famous plugin that significantly improves management and is considered essential by many marketers.
Meanwhile, OptinMonster is the runner-up in this roundup, considering that it offers opt-in email lists and many other additional features. Therefore, it can be a decent all-in-one choice for most affiliate marketers. With its free trial and a money-back guarantee, there is no reason not to try out.
In closing remember, the tools alone cannot guarantee success; your dedication and motivation are also essential for affiliate marketing. Make sure to go through the important aspects discussed in the buying guide as well before choosing your next tool.
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