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Long considered a boon for B2Cs, affiliate marketing provides all the same benefits for B2B companies — yet few are capitalizing on it.
We’ve all witnessed (or experienced) the precipitous rise in customer acquisition costs in the software as a service (SaaS) space and beyond. One industry report concluded that the cost to acquire a new eCommerce customer increased by a staggering 222% over a recent eight-year period (2014-2022).
While most analysts and trend watchers track this shift from a B2C perspective, the impact is far greater in B2B industries. For SaaS companies in particular, the average acquisition cost for an SMB is roughly triple the amount than that of a consumer, and the figures become even more inflated when you venture to middle market and enterprise customers.
The broader issue stems from a supply and demand imbalance in the digital ecosystem, as more and more B2B SaaS companies are investing in paid media. As a result, ad space is becoming harder to come by, so while B2B marketing costs are increasing, return on ad spend (ROAS) is decreasing. Companies are being forced to pay more for less.
B2B Affiliate Marketing: The Missing Link
There is a growing trend in digital customer acquisition and revenue growth, only way more prominent in B2C than B2B — affiliate marketing. At its essence, affiliate marketing is a revenue-sharing model in which third-party publishers or channels (i.e., affiliates) promote a company’s goods or services in exchange for commission.
While affiliate marketing predates the modern internet (think: a traditional referral program, where customers are incentivized to recommend products to other consumers), it’s clearly reached a new level in today’s interconnected world of social media. Now, brands can leverage bloggers, creators, and influencers across all social channels to promote their products to various demographics, while providing a level of trust and credibility that is hard to put a price tag on.
The question is — does this work for B2B? The short answer is yes. It may not be as obvious a path as it is for B2C, but some companies are starting to take notice and advantage of what is a very lucrative opportunity.
One of the major catalysts in recent years is that as B2B marketing and sales become increasingly online, the opportunities for successful affiliate partnerships increase too. And because B2B goods and services tend to be more expensive than B2C, the commission rates (and incentives) for affiliates are also greater.
Need more convincing? Here are three key benefits of B2B affiliate marketing programs for your SaaS company.
Cost Control
Since affiliate marketing is a revenue-sharing model, it preserves a company’s bottom line in more ways than one. For starters, there are typically zero upfront costs for signing affiliates, which is crucial when starting your program and scaling it to multiple partners. There is also the “self-funding” aspect of affiliate marketing, where revenue generated by partners can be reinvested back into the program. Affiliates also reduce (or won’t add to) your marketing spend, since many create and produce their own content.
Time to Market
With any marketing strategy, time (and speed) is of the essence. While email and paid search campaigns can take a long time to get off the ground and generate leads (let alone revenue), affiliate marketing creates a more direct way to get your SaaS products in front of their target markets. In the slow-moving landscape of B2B sales cycles, being able to leverage impactful, engaging content through affiliates in real-time is a valuable asset.
Want to hit the B2B affiliate marketing fast track? CleverPartners allows you to launch your first affiliate program in a matter of weeks, with a dedicated team of experts to provide guidance and best practices. Click here to request a demo.
Expanded Reach
One of the biggest challenges in B2B marketing is connecting to the right buyer personas, which hopefully leads to successful conversions and customer lifetime value. Affiliate marketing allows companies to reach a wider audience across different business demographics, by region, sector, size, and beyond. It does so while reducing the need for travel, third-party consultants, and other costly marketing expenses generally required to scale your reach.
For example, with card-linked offer affiliates, like Visa or MasterCard, companies can promote an offer to their vast networks of customers, and their advanced segmentation and targeting help in reaching the right audience.
Bottom Line
While we hope this blog has clearly established the benefits of B2B affiliate marketing, we’re really just scratching the surface. There’s still so much to learn about finding the right B2B affiliates, scaling your program, and aligning these efforts with the nurture-based B2B sales cycle.
That’s where CleverPartners comes in, a one-stop solution for accelerating partnership revenue and performance. With CleverPartners, you can recruit from a network of 80,000+ B2B partners, automate end-to-end partner management, and track partner-sourced conversions at every stage of the funnel.
At Cleverbridge, we believe affiliate marketing is a cost-effective revenue generator to utilize alongside other owned and paid media channels (e.g., email, search, social, etc.). It’s an opportunity that every B2B SaaS business could (and should) be taking advantage of.
Want to find out more about CleverPartners? Schedule a demo today.