Digital trends constantly change with the passing of time, and so does the field of marketing. Many of these changes have involved companies shifting their marketing focus to the digital world. As a catch-all approach to online advertising, performance marketing involves a transactional process between an advertiser and a marketer, where the transactions are made whenever the marketer successfully convinces customers to purchase a service or product that is promoted by the advertiser. Affiliate marketing has become perhaps the most common form of performance marketing. It\u2019s employed by companies around the world, including FastComet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
We have already gone over affiliate marketing via Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and even TikTok. Now it\u2019s time to explain how you can do affiliate marketing through LinkedIn. Marketers have been spreading their strategy to include this \u201cdifferent\u201d digital platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Table of Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Facebook is known as THE Social Network, we all know that. With that in mind, LinkedIn can be best described as the Professional Social Network. Yes, the site used to be a hub only for professional networking and job searching, but it managed to morph into a promotional channel for businesses, freelancers, and potential employees. With hundreds of millions of users, LinkedIn has an enormous rate of engagement filled with opportunities and growth for networking. That\u2019s perfect when your goal is to succeed as an affiliate marketer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LinkedIn promotes itself as \u201cthe world\u2019s largest professional network\u201d. It\u2019s impossible to quantify that claim, but with almost 740 million members<\/a> in over 200 countries and territories, it\u2019s certainly big.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, it\u2019s much bigger than Snapchat or Twitter, and not far behind Instagram or TikTok in the user stakes. However, it\u2019s not just about quantity \u2013 it\u2019s also about who those users are. LinkedIn is where business power brokers hang out online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An estimated 63 million decision-makers<\/a> use the platform. In other words, more than one in every 12 LinkedIn users has the authority to make decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is born out by the fact that 80% of B2B marketing leads<\/a> generated through social media come from LinkedIn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The platform\u2019s audience shares some other attractive qualities, too. In particular, it massively over-indexes for high earners<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among households with annual incomes of less than $30,000, just 27% use LinkedIn. Nevertheless, that shoots up to 60% for households whose annual earnings surpass $100,000. So, if you\u2019re targeting affluent individuals with a lot of buying prestige, LinkedIn could be the platform for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LinkedIn can be a viable part of your affiliate marketing strategy. To put it simply, using LinkedIn as an affiliate marketer is all about forming connections, then leveraging those connections to push your products and services. Depending on the terms of your chosen affiliate program, you can then earn a flat or percentage-based commission rate on those referrals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So it\u2019s more or less the same as on any other website or social platform. However, there are some key differences that are worth highlighting here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With such a wealth of tactics, LinkedIn can be a real affiliate marketing gold mine. However, to make it work, you need to start by building an audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we just mentioned, there are two flavors of profile on LinkedIn:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to building a following, those two profile types aren\u2019t exactly on an equal footing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simply put, people are much more likely to interact with personal profiles than company pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s hard to verify this through up-to-date figures, but back when Google+ was still a thing, LinkedIn company pages were seeing an average engagement rate of just 0.054%. So if you have 10,000 followers on your company page, an average post will generate 5.4 interactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By contrast, a decent engagement rate for a personal account on Linkedin is around 2%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s more, company pages have limited functionality. So if you\u2019re going to use LinkedIn as part of your affiliate marketing strategy, do it from a personal profile. That means building a personal following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To build a following, you need to give people a reason to connect with you by posting regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But how often should you be posting as an affiliate marketer? And when should you do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, there are some stats to help us get answers to these questions. When it comes to posting frequency, there\u2019s a big dropoff in clicks once you exceed five posts a week, or once per working day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More specifically, pages with at least 100 followers generate an average of two clicks apiece on their first two posts per week. By the 10th post in a week, that drops to around 0.5 clicks. That\u2019s likely because LinkedIn doesn\u2019t want you to spam your network with constant activity \u2013 it favors quality over quantity, and so should you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for timings, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best bet. If you\u2019re posting more than twice a week, any weekday can work well \u2013 but definitely avoid weekends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s start with the fact that there\u2019s an entire Twitter account<\/a> dedicated to awful LinkedIn posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To avoid falling into the same trap as those posters, make sure you\u2019re actually adding value through helpful, insightful content. Don\u2019t just launch into a sales pitch \u2014 the average LinkedIn member is way too savvy for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, focus on the things that matter to the people you\u2019re trying to engage \u2013 content that helps them resolve their pain points or achieve their goals. When talking about that, web hosting is quite close, and almost every business owner needs to host their website somewhere. Additionally, the pricing for the thorough services that FastComet provides makes for an easy sale. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A simple blog post or text-only update can work perfectly well, but don\u2019t be afraid to test more striking content types. Embedding rich media \u2013 like imagery and videos \u2013 can help your affiliate marketing content stand out in a busy LinkedIn feed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LinkedIn members are 20 times more likely to share videos than any other type of post. That means you get more eyes on your content (and hopefully more clicks on your affiliate links).<\/p>\n\n\n\n While LinkedIn is often described as a business networking platform, it\u2019s still a social network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that word \u2013 \u201csocial\u201d \u2013 holds the key to building a following. Unfortunately, there aren\u2019t any shortcuts here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only way to \u201clook like\u201d you\u2019re part of a community is to actually do it. That means joining the same groups as the people you\u2019re trying to reach; getting involved in conversations, and responding to comments on the posts and content you share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re looking for low-touch, high-yield affiliate marketing strategies, this isn\u2019t it. On the flip side, once you\u2019ve forged a reputation as a trusted community member who genuinely knows what they\u2019re talking about, your life as an affiliate marketer becomes much simpler. By that point, people will be more than happy to check out the FastComet web hosting services that you recommend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a slow burn, but the results are worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After you have built a following on LinkedIn by publishing valuable content and engaging with people in your niche, it\u2019s time to start monetizing that audience. Here\u2019s how to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s nothing stopping you from including affiliate links in your LinkedIn posts, blogs, comments, or direct messages. Remember that it pays to be cautious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most affiliate programs request that you publish a disclaimer with your links. What\u2019s more, LinkedIn automatically shortens links in posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People won\u2019t be able to see where you\u2019re sending them \u2013 so they might not appreciate you including affiliate links in this way. Sure, it\u2019s inadvertent, but you don\u2019t want to look like you\u2019re trying to mislead anyone. Finally, as with any social platform, you shouldn\u2019t spam LinkedIn with one affiliate link after another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pretty soon, your followers will start to zone out. Keep it up and you may even get your account restricted or blocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can\u2019t go overboard with publishing links on LinkedIn, you can earn money from your affiliate program of choice. It\u2019s simple \u2014 treat it as an exercise in inbound marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By which we mean, create high-quality content on your own site, include affiliate links where relevant, then share it to your network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Send people to a blog post, or build a landing page with a lead generation form to capture email addresses. That way, you can start building a mailing list, too \u2013 offering another avenue to incorporate your affiliate links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Groups are quite a big deal on LinkedIn, arguably much more when compared to Facebook. Chatting with professionals provides a great opening for you to both network and promote your affiliate links. Web Hosting groups on LinkedIn have slowly but surely become the home of market chat and industry discussion. If you don\u2019t believe us, take a look at the WordPress Group<\/a>, the Hosting Industry Group<\/a>, and the Affiliate Marketing Offers & More<\/a> group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of these groups have thousands upon thousands of members, which means they open the door to more potential affiliate clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plus, if you and a number of partners\u2014or fellow affiliates\u2014all co-exist on LinkedIn, you can create a group. This enables you to exchange information easily, as well as network into larger areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sponsored content on LinkedIn is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can get you in front of a lot more customers. On the other hand, advertising on LinkedIn is a lot more expensive than on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t
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The Professional Social Network: LinkedIn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why Use LinkedIn For Affiliate Marketing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Is LinkedIn Affiliate Marketing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to Build an Audience on LinkedIn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Nail Your Posting Strategy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Add Value When You Post<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Use Eye-Catching Formats<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Join in The Conversation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How to Use LinkedIn For Affiliate Marketing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Use In-Platform Affiliate Links Sparingly<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Adopt an Inbound Marketing Approach<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Join and Engage in Related Groups<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Be Smart About Sponsored Content<\/h3>\n\n\n\n