Post Pandemic 2020
As a Small Business Owner COVID-19 has changed the narrative on how we do business and generate income in 2020. In “The Ultimate Top 10 Guide” to Small Business Money our goal is to demonstrate how quickly you can sky-rocket your business revenues (within 60 days or less) with simple, yet creative marketing projects that can drastically improve your Small Business Financials post-pandemic. By the way, if you’re in charge of a department within a larger organization these ideas can also work wonders for you as well.

Whether cash is plentiful or just plain invisible we’re offering a new twist on an old game and gave it a well-deserved face-lift just in time for you to give it a whirl. In this series of blog posts (we’re starting with Number 10 working our way to number one) we’ll give you some of the best small business marketing strategies to re-generate your sales and skyrocket your revenues. So without further delay here is our number 10 best marketing strategy to help you create, protect, and grow your “Small Business Money” tree. “How To Start An Affiliate Marking Program For “Small Business Financial” Success.

WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING FOR SMALL BUSINESS?
Affiliate Marketing For Business is basically a new twist on an old game. Some call it referral marketing, others call it “Piggy-Back” marketing. The list of names for this simple, yet effective form of DIY marketing is as long as this article and wider than most bodies of water here in North America (lol). Affiliate marketing is simply a way to generate revenue from the work of another company or individual by having them promote your products or services offline or online. They earn a reward for sending you new customers.

In a nutshell you recruit affiliates (other business owners, customers, interested parties, etc.) and pay them via (direct dollars/services/products, or even fresh baked cookies or some cool software they’ve been looking for – you can get creative with this) when they bring new business your way. This can be through your front door, your website, etc. Although, there are a few more steps to climb for optimum results, for the most part this can and does work wonders and requires little if any upfront investment on your part. For a bit more insight regarding best practices, tips, tricks and trends to support your small business financial objectives you should find this blog very helpful.

WHAT’S IN THIS FOR ME AND MY SMALL BUSINESS?
Basically you are paying for results with a nominal upfront investment (other than baking those cookies and printing a few flyers or postcards). Just a few more steps and you’re ready to “rock-n-roll”. The beauty of this method is the simplicity. Not only is it a true”set- it-and-forget it” model, if you play your cards right this method has the potential to increase your small business financial landscape a minimum of 25%. Yes, I said 25%. I am sure you can do the math on this one. If your current revenues are let’s say $400,000 a month this simple, yet hearty plan has the potential to boost that up to approximately $500.000. With your small business money raining down like manna from heaven Marketing Funnels would be a great way to keep track of your affiliates and the business they bring in.

Basically you plant the seed once then just keep the garden watered from time to time. Realistically, depending on the product or service you offer you may have to keep the troops motivated until they’ve made a few decent referrals or sales. In other words until they’ve gotten “paid”. Trust me it’s not that difficult. Many of the most successful business owners and start up entrepreneurs have done this day in and day out without much fanfare to their joy and amazement. The good news is that after you’ve studied and implemented the data on these series of posts you and your team will now have the tools necessary to achieve your small business financial goals.

ONLINE OR OFFLINE BUSINESS?
How does this apply to your offline or online business? Well first of all visitors to your website done right can generate as much revenue as a customer walking through your front door. By now I am sure you understand the important role your website plays in your small business financial success. Your website should always be viewed as a source of potential revenue not just a glorified menu or brochure (oh right, that’s the next blog post, I digress). Let’get back to the issue at hand.

This gem of an idea is as easy as 1,2,3. First, you identify the business owners who have access to your perfect customer. Second, you introduce yourself/your business in person or by phone (make sure you always bring “goodies” when you call on them). Third, network, network, network. You can either barter business services with your affiliates or just provide a flat small business financial incentive from the start. Whatever you do just make sure you’re keeping track of your small business affiliates. This is one of the best ways we know to make that happen.

I’ve heard of some very savvy small business owners offering a flat percentage on the net value of the business as an incentive to their best small business affiliates. It worked like magic! Their small business financials grew by well over 42% in a matter of months. An example might be if you’re a carpet cleaner, a complimentary business for you could be a realtor, property managers, interior decorators and the like. In order to fully monetize this arrangement developing a strong email list is imperative. This is a cinch if you follow some basic best practices. There could even be some tax incentives available with this approach. Speak with your small business tax professional for guidance on that one.

THE LIST
Start with a list of businesses in your area if you’re a local small business owner. If your small business offerings are mainly online or have a more global reach, begin that online search accordingly. Start with business groups you know like the local chamber of commerce or even Facebook groups geared to business professionals. Basically you’re looking for anyone that has a customer base that you want to tap into. The magic to this type of marketing is to always remember to have something to offer, never come-a-calling empty handed.

A good source of easily accessible businesses to contact can be found via Google’s Local Business Listing. Here you will find a plethora of local and on occasion online businesses that you can sort through by their relevance to your enterprise, distance to your location or any other criteria you choose. Once you’ve curated the list, finalized your offering and made your contacts, a great way to keep the troupes “moving” is to make sure you’re in contact with them on a regular basis. Again, this is where a strong email management application can literally save the day.

Initially it can take up to seven visits/calls to garner their attention. Be careful about simply leaving information behind unless you’ve been well received and are able to develop at least a minor level of rapport. Although, it may seem insignificant you never want to give anyone the impression that your offering is void of value. Once you’ve passed that hurdle you are literally “off to the races”. There are a number of amazingly inexpensive resources made just for this purpose that will work wonders if done the right way.

Regardless of who you decide to partner with as an affiliate just make sure they’re serious about what they do. Spend some time vetting the affiliate either over the phone or in person. Curating a list of 25 to 30 complimentary businesses should be a good start as you will most likely do this on a weekly basis. Depending on your small business financial mindset, curating approximately 50 to 100 affiliates in your network will surely guarantee the small business financial success you’re seeking. Many of your potential small affiliate partners would enjoy the ability to generate effective sales collateral for their own small business. That’s where an ebook takes center stage. Not only can you provide your small business affiliate network incentives to market and promote your business, you will also be revered as the expert marketer in your region. A true win, win.

You can farm the job of contacting the potential affiliates out to a subordinate, an online GIG WORKER or even your kids. It’s a great project that doesn’t take much time and they’ll have a blast doing it. The next step is to decide how much to offer your affiliates. This is your “secret sauce”. The right small business affiliate network can bring more monetary value to your small business financial profile than even the best terms on a small business loan and you don’t have to pay it back.

LIFETIME VALUE OF YOUR CUSTOMER
Don’t forget to make note of the lifetime value of your customers. In other words if a single customer will patronize your business or service 5 times during during their life cycle and you generate one hundred dollars ($100.00) in revenue for each visit, that means the lifetime value of the customer is approximately Five-Hundred Dollars ($500.00). Keep this in mind when for putting your offer together. In other words don’t worry about a larger up-front offer to your affiliates when your lifetime customer valuer supports that. You’ll get more interested parties who will actually do the work of marketing your business for you. Staying on top of your small business affiliate network is crucial. Make sure you have the right tools to both monitor and motivate your team.

With that being said you will then figure out what it’s worth to you to pay someone once in order to get that customer to actually do business with you many times over. Whatever you do remember to make the offer as “juicy” as possible. The better the offer the better your results. Your affiliates have to be motivated to get out there and beat the “pavement” of their customer base in order to get you business. Seeing as how one good affiliate can bring in anywhere from 2 to 10 new customers a week you must be creative and douse that affiliate offer with as much “secret sauce” as makes business sense.

While you’re at it be sure to stay abreast of new and trending ideas about business marketing in general. Sharing that information with your B2B Affiliate Marketing Partners shines a light on your expertise as well. In addition to our blog here is another site we believe provides relevant and valuable content you can use in the pursuit of small business financial success.

YOUR CURRENT CUSTOMER BASE AS YOUR AFFILIATES?
What I like about making your customers your affiliates is that most of, if not many of them have some type of group affiliation of one sort or another. If at the very least many attend and participate in some weekly religious service which is a great space for people to share information in a casual non-intimidating setting. Hobbyists and other enthusiasts like those into gardening, vintage car, small business groups and the like are great resources for just the kind of small business customer you’re looking for.
The list is endless. You just have to decide where you believe your customers are and who you know that has access to them. It’s just that simple. If you really want to scale your offering you can also create a small, simple ebook to send to your affiliates via email or they can download it from your website. This is another great way to keep them engaged and ready to “fight” another day for your business.

BUILDING YOUR AFFILIATE NETWORK – THE OFFER
Introductory offers, coupon codes and cash/donations per bon-a-fide new customer are all surefire incentive winners for building your new small business affiliate network. The offer must be appealing enough to your small business affiliate network so they are motivated to promote or sell it to their friends/associates and/or customers. If you are a service business you might want to contact your current customer base and offer to exchange a certain amount of the small business services you provide them (this works really great if you have a recurring or subscription service model) in exchange for a hearty rebate. Another great way to stay on top of the onslaught of new business coming your way is to develop a good email list. This will be one of the most valued investments your small business makes in 2020.

Remember, your affiliate offer should be a bit different than the offer you make directly to your potential customers or clients. In other words your affiliate offers should provide a bigger “bang for the buck” than the offers or incentives you give to your regular customer base for referrals. Make sure to put this in writing or even create a certificate to validate the offer and make it official.

As an extra incentive you can also offer to donate to the charity of their choice in their name or even purchase a really cool piece of software and offer it to your best affiliates as a Bonus. This is where a little “dose of creativity” becomes your best friend. While you’re at it be sure to create some simple post cards with corresponding identifiers and percent off codes to leave with each affiliate. When a potential customer calls, visits your website or comes into your establishment just match up the identifier with the affiliate and its a wrap.

YOU’RE OFF AND RUNNING
Okay, there’s number 10 small business marketing strategy on our “Top 10 Guide To Small Business Money Post Pandemic 2020”. Stay tuned or even consider subscribing to get the full list (9 more on the way) of sure-fire ways to push your post pandemic small business financials right into the stratosphere for the rest of 2020 and beyond.

BIO HERE
Codera Fredrickson has been a small business owner for well over 15 years. She has started and ran well ov 20 small and medium enterprises as well as worked within a corporate capacity as a Director of Marketing, Sales Manager and more.