Industry events are a vital element of affiliate marketing. Establishing and nurturing relationships with potential affiliates is key to a successful affiliate marketing campaign, and networking at industry events is key to keeping these relationships.
In networking, you can seek out and approach potential affiliate partners, nurture your relationships with existing partners, and have your brand and business seen by industry peers. But you’ve got LinkedIn and email, isn’t that enough?
No, it really isn’t. Industry events are important for a number of reasons.
Brand visibility
You are already doing a lot by attending an industry event. Potential partners, marketing influencers, and peers are all aware of you. Industry players will now recognize you by name and face, possibly by a friendly conversation too.
You will expose yourself and your business to new opportunities by simply appearing and having a conversation with the others at the event. The more you interact, the more likely your name will spread around the event.
And don’t underestimate the power of word of mouth. Maybe someone you meet there doesn’t need to use your business, but they mention your business name to someone who is interested. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal.
Building relationships
Affiliate marketing campaigns need affiliate marketing partners to survive. We don’t need to explain the entire process to you, but without affiliate partners and their content, affiliate links have nowhere to go. Therefore, it is vital that you establish and build relationships.
There are a lot of ways to go about this: offering fair contracts, deeper conversations, fair praise where deserved, etc. and it is certainly doable over emails and chats.
But one of the earliest arguments against the internet is that it doesn’t match face-to-face conversations. There is something simply lost in the text. Whether that is body language, more authentic conversation, or good old-fashioned good vibes is up to you, but if you want to keep a healthy relationship with your partners you have to occasionally speak to them face to face.
This works both ways. Meeting face to face means you can also get a better reading of them. You can gain more authentic referrals from your peers, and gauge for yourself if you like who you are considering partnering with.
Have you ever started an email and hit backspace once you realized the topic was simply too heavy or too detailed for an email? Your affiliate partners might also have some grievances that they don’t think are suitable for an email. Speaking face to face offers them the chance, even if you didn’t bank on it, to flag up a problem for consideration.
Keeping up with trends
Affiliate marketing relies a lot on social media, and social media is an ever-changing entity. Trends will come and go in waves, which is illustrated by the Twitter trending page, the Instagram search page, and any TikTok account.
But more than that, industry changes are occurring all the time, at a slower level, thank goodness. Right now, for instance, in particular relevance to marketers, social media platforms are creating features that are increasingly geared towards turning social media into an online retail space. They are closing the gap between marketing and buying by allowing customers to buy straight from a piece of content and creating features that match affiliates with creators.
Industry events will be the first to inform affiliate managers of the newest industry trends. Attending speeches and events will allow you to be one of the first informed about updates, giving you an edge the ignorant in the industry won’t have.
Influential speaking
And then there is the chance to speak for yourself and share any wisdom you might have about the industry. If you are taking part in an event by becoming a keynote speaker, you can share what you have learned and on the other hand, if you attend speeches and panels you will learn from your peers.
These industry events are defined by sharing advice on the marketing industry, so you are bound to go back to the office with new insights and new approaches to consider, if not only a few extra tips to incorporate into your campaign.
On top of that, speaking at these events can bring yet even more attention to your brand. Your name will be on the tip of countless peers’ tongues, preceding the valid advice that you gave out. Your name will soon be in the same conversation as “…so you can tell they know what they are doing”.
If you are looking for advice on affiliate marketing, take a look at our blog, or book a free call with a member of our team for more personalized advice.
