Affiliate Marketing for Direct-to-Consumer Brands
Why DTC Brands Use Affiliate Marketing
No matter what kind of product or service you sell, affiliate marketing can help you directly reach your target audience at every stage of the customer journey. And because you only pay for measurable results in affiliate marketing, it’s a low-risk way for direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands to drive more sales, leads, and traffic.
HIGHER AOV FOR SALES DRIVEN BY AFFILIATE MARKETING*
OF ALL U.S. ECOMMERCE SALES ARE GENERATED BY AFFILIATES**
HIGHER ANNUAL CUSTOMER REVENUE THROUGH AFFILIATE MARKETING*
*https://www.shopify.com/retail/affiliate-programs-for-retailers
** https://www.businessinsider.com/the-affiliate-marketing-report-how-mainstream-publishers-are-turning-performance-based-marketing-into-a-fine-art-2015-11
DTC ECOMMERCE
Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
With more consumers choosing to shop online and on smartphones, it can become a challenge for e-commerce brands and direct-to-consumer retailers to stand out. Affiliate marketing can help your business break away from the crowd. Affiliates are professional promoters who get paid for delivering results. As such, affiliates know exactly how to engage consumers and drive incremental sales and traffic. Content publishers, influencers, deal sites, and other affiliate partners can also provide new insights into your customers and their communities.
Benefits of affiliate marketing for DTC brands:
- Access to valuable, highly qualified audiences
- Guaranteed, measurable results
- Cross-channel promotion
- Technologies to protect against fraud
- Valuable consumer insights
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Technology Solutions for DTC Brands
Direct-to-consumer brands have two options for starting a partner marketing program. The first option is to join and pay a traditional affiliate network. Generally, an affiliate network provides two things: access to a proprietary platform to manage and track your offers, and a marketplace of affiliates for you to choose from. The size of these marketplaces, as well as the type and quality of partners in them, varies from network to network.
The second option is to use a SaaS product: a cloud-based affiliate tracking platform. A SaaS platform like TUNE provides the same foundational technology as an affiliate network. The difference is that you have total control over your platform and your relationships. True SaaS platforms are partner agnostic, allowing you to measure, manage, and work with anyone: affiliates, influencers, agencies, business development relationships, and even affiliate networks. TUNE's software provides everything you need to track and optimize partnerships, at a fraction of the cost of traditional affiliate networks. An affiliate marketing platform also offers far more freedom when it comes to controlling your program and choosing your partners, integrations, and custom development. This is important if you want to keep your partner relationships exclusive, or work with different kinds of affiliates than what a network provides.
Signing up for a traditional affiliate network is still a viable choice for DTC brands. If you’re looking for a “plug-and-play” option, or don’t need the customization or control found in affiliate marketing software, a traditional network is likely your best bet. Just remember that you will be more limited in your program and business choices if you use only an affiliate network.
For DTC brands, the TUNE Partner Marketing Platform offers an all-in-one SaaS platform with the right mix of features and affordability:
- Partner-agnostic technology works with content publishers, influencers, deal and loyalty partners, networks, and anyone else
- Granular, cross-channel attribution
- Promo codes (clickless tracking)
- Cookieless conversion tracking
- Deep linking and direct linking functionality
- Real-time reporting and data sharing
- Built-in, proactive fraud prevention
- Flexible commissions — dynamically pay out by SKU, category, partner, and more
- In-platform payment processing
- Automation for workflows and campaign optimizations
- Two-way APIs for custom development options
- Global support with industry-leading 98% customer satisfaction
- Comprehensive data security and privacy practices
Ready to drive more revenue with TUNE?
The TUNE platform helped our company to scale quicker. With TUNE’s integrations, I can now spend more time with our partners building that relationship rather than explaining a hard-to-navigate affiliate portal.
AMY REICHERT, DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIPS
Resources on Affiliate Marketing
for DTC Brands
Learn more about how to create, run, and grow a successful affiliate program.
CUSTOMER STORy
Tata CLiQ Case Study
Omnichannel e-commerce marketplace Tata CLiQ has trusted affiliate marketers to drive quality traffic to their products since 2016. Read how TUNE helped them double their affiliates and save hours per week in this case study.
ULTIMATE GUIDE
DTC Industry Playbook
Created specifically for DTC companies, this two-page playbook is an introduction to the Ultimate Guide to Partner Marketing as well as an industry-specific look at how you can align your business needs with TUNE solutions.
BLOG POST
Why DTC Affiliate Marketing Works
If you’re looking to expand your reach, improve marketing ROI, and inspire new interest in your products, DTC affiliate marketing is an effective, cost-efficient solution. Here are five reasons why.