Grow your website’s traffic and your company’s sales by understanding the nuances behind using affiliate marketing. Brook Schaaf is an industry expert and is breaking down the walls around what affiliate marketing really is. In this episode, you’ll learn about the extent of how impactful offering coupons can be, the changing ways that consumers shop, and how to implement affiliate marketing for your company.   Busted Myths: Coupons and rewards sites do add value and merchants should work with them. It’s too simple to say that the customer would have bought anyway without the coupon or affiliate marketing program. Affiliate marketing is a huge ecosystem that is more than just coupons and reward programs. Consumer reports and Wirecutter are examples of affiliate marketing in the form of “commerce content”.   Takeaways: Customers today are always on the lookout for deals, especially when shopping online, with 69% of millennials not completing a purchase until after searching for a deal. Coupons have been shown to decrease shopping cart abandonment and raise cart size. The established deal sites, such as Honey or Rakuten, have an immense amount of traffic and many consumers begin their searches there. By working with these sites, your company will have access to that existing traffic. People from all socioeconomic backgrounds love to find deals. For some, it is more need-based, while others find it to be a competitive outlet. For a merchant to begin using affiliate marketing, they need to choose a tracking provider, then hire a program manager, choose the type of affiliates they want to work with, figure out the commission structure, and settle on a discount strategy. Your discount strategy should be more dynamic than a single, evergreen coupon. You can use gift with purchase, credit with purchase, percentage off with a certain cart value, discount a specific product, etc. Get creative and get dynamic with your discounts. For affiliates, the industry around affiliate marketing has evolved over the last decade or two. At first, it relied on some quirky misfits, however, it has become very corporate as the money behind it has grown drastically. More than with any other channel, the merchant can control the terms, level of commission, etc. of an affiliate program.    Quote of the Show: “People play different games for different prizes. You’ve got to figure out their game and figure out their prize” - Brook Schaaf    Book Recommendations: The City of God by Saint Augustine More Than Words by John Howard Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel S. F. Heller The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida Online Great Books - Bookclub The Bible in a Year - Podcast   Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookschaaf/ Email: brook@fmtc.co Website: https://www.fmtc.co/ Ways to Tune In: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hard-corps-marketing-show/id1338838763 Amazon Music/Audible: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/37228621-2f9c-4905-a223-1844effb49dd Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/show/1vVLpNI1LssMTiL6Kdsamn Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-hard-corps-marketing-show Google Podcasts: https://play.google.com/music/m/Im7mytmu2wa2mekhoeixlja5hpe?t=The_Hard_Corps_Marketing_Show YouTube: https://youtu.be/2UIyBx6hlwE