Affiliate Marketing in the South African Market
When you’re a smart entrepreneur running a thriving business, you know that there’s always more to do that would assist in expanding your business growth. If you’re looking at taking things to the next level, then we suggest exploring the wonderful world of using alternative marketing as an additional income stream. This doesn’t mean starting a second business, but rather finding ways to complement and grow the business you already have by offering more value to your customers, followers, and target audience.
Thanks to the surge in online use that was brought about by the introduction of smart phones and smart devices, the affiliate market is growing globally and is slowly being introduced to more developing countries where widespread internet use is more accessible to citizens.
When it comes to affiliate marketing in South Africa the pool is unfortunately a smaller one in comparison to the affiliate marketing pool in developed countries. This is due to the fact that the majority of the country does not have the “luxury” of internet accessibility as well as a smart device. Thus, in order to ensure that your affiliate marketing campaign is effective within the South African market, one requires a comprehensive marketing strategy to assess the success rate potential on a campaign by campaign basis.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Let’s start with the basics, what exactly is “Affiliate Marketing”? Affiliate marketing is the promotion of products or services of a retail store or service provider in which the marketer gets paid a commission when their referral buys the product within a certain period. There are 3 players in this relationship, namely the advertiser, the publisher, and the consumer.
An affiliate program is an agreement in which a business pays another business or influencer/individual (‘the affiliate’) a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way. This can be achieved through web content, social media or product integration. One can join as many affiliate programs as desired. Being part of one program does not preclude you from joining the affiliate program of a competing brand. What you should be aware of is the fact that your content and brand should be aligned with the brand of the advertiser whose affiliate program you want to join.
Affiliate marketing is slowly becoming very popular in the South African market due to its low start-up costs and being able to run from anywhere as long as there is an internet connection and a smart device. The additional appeal that comes with this business model includes that it is flexible and allows you to transact from anywhere in the world while being favourable to the potential of earning in stronger currencies such as the US Dollar and British Pound.
You’re probably wondering if this is genuine, or just another internet scam that requires a lot of time and energy but doesn’t t deliver the desired results. Further, is this even a business model you can trust, commit your resources to and ultimately earn a passive online income from?
How to Earn Money Online in South Africa?
Affiliate marketing is huge overseas however, as mentioned previously, the South African marketing is smaller but still growing. This can be seen as a positive, in that there are fewer competitors within the market.
At this moment, not all affiliation programs allow for South African citizens to participate due to the low internet accessibility. These programs are usually free to join, so one would not need to worry about any high start-up costs involved. If done well, affiliate marketing can go from a side hustle to a profitable online business idea by netting you a healthy income in a competitive currency.
To have success in affiliate marketing one needs to convert sales. This is done when you work with companies that are relevant to your personal or business brand and what your current online audience/followers relate to. For example, if you subscribe to a makeup blog, then you happen to find affiliate links promoting cars or computer accessories on that same channel, you are most likely going to completely ignore them as there is no connection between the two.
With affiliate marketing you can make money through your website, blog, YouTube channel, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and email account. It involves placing advertisements for other companies on your website, social media platform or blog or sending newsletters with advertisements from your email account. Visitors to your website or blog will see the ads and should a visitor click the add or make a purchase, you will earn commission for that referral.
Affiliate marketing isn’t just the dropping of affiliate links on your social media platforms or website. One needs to be strategic, AUTHENTIC and give their audience solutions that they were already looking for. This is the importance of relevance, as a successful affiliate marketer, your audience is already engaged with your content and are looking for what you are marketing to them. You are now just pointing them in the right direction.
Affiliate Marketing Programs in South Africa
In South Africa, our major retailers like Pick n Pay and Woolworths have only, in recent years moved into the space of online shopping and do not have affiliate programs at this moment. But as more and more people adopt online shopping and become acquainted with online practices, it is a safe assumption that our major retailers will eventually offer affiliate programs of their own.
Options of popular marketplaces that have affiliate programs are Zando, Raru and Loot. Takealot is the leading online store in South Africa and it is unfortunate that they do not have an affiliate program…YET. But as the affiliate marketing model takes hold in South Africa, and other companies see the growth through this model, we can expect companies like Takealot and other big retail companies like Pick n Pay, Shoprite and Spar to adopt the model or get left behind.
There Is Room for Success
From us to you, there is no better time to join affiliate marketing than now. Affiliate marketing is still very new in South Africa, for example, the USN and Mr Price programs were only introduced in 2019 while new companies are definitely changing and developing their online practices so it’s only a matter of time before we see a heave in new companies adopting affiliate marketing programs.
It’s important to note that affiliate marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It requires time and patience to grow an audience and gain influence. There’s no boss handing you a weekly paycheque as an affiliate marketer and you work on a purely commission basis, where you’re paid by lead, click, or sale on social media.
Done right, affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative and sustainable for an individual as well as a business. You can create a full-time income source out of it where you are your own boss and don’t have to deal with a lot of the headaches that come with running an actual or additional business.
In our opinion, watch this affiliate marketing space so you don’t get left behind!
