The EdTech sector has today proven that education and technology truly go hand in hand. Leveraging disparate technologies such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and even Augmented Reality, the segment has simplified learning for students. At the same time, it has made quality education available across the remotest regions at the simple touch of a button. It is why there are more takers for innovative EdTech solutions today than before. The segment is also receiving a fillip from progressive reforms such as NEP 2020. Owing to these factors, the EdTech market – valued at around $700 million as of now – is pegged to achieve 8 to 10 times growth in just 5 years from now. However, there is also a flip side to this growth.
At present, there are more than 4,530 EdTech startups operating in India. If you are at the helm of one such startup yourself, how do you plan to differentiate your offering in the market? Standard channels for attracting customers – contextual advertising, bloggers, placement in the media and beyond – are either fraught with risk or are already quite overheated. You still have to use them, but there is an alternative that allows you to pay only for the result – affiliate marketing. According to Admitad Affiliate statistics, it adds 15% – 20% value to the brand’s existing revenue.
For the uninitiated, affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing approach wherein someone promotes your offering and earns a commission upon generating sales. Here, we have highlighted some of the benefits that it equips your business with.
Minimizing spend and maximizing ROI
First and foremost, almost every marketing strategy requires you to build your own marketing funnel, generate leads, process them, and then hope for a customer to convert. It is a time- and capital-intensive approach that requires a high degree of marketing specialization. On the other hand, leveraging affiliate marketing, you only pay for the end results such as installations, registrations, and orders. Technically, you circumvent the entire process and save considerably on the cost of customer acquisition. It further eliminates the risk of bloating your marketing budget on ineffective marketing initiatives. You only pay a commission when you see clear results.
Increasing reach, traffic, and sales
Another advantage of affiliate marketing is that it equips you with predictable results and transparent statistics. Since multiple advertisers and publishers promote your offering simultaneously, thousands of publishers simultaneously drive all sorts of traffic to your offering(s). So, you can easily identify which marketing channels and demographics work the best for you. Affiliate marketing networks also extend detailed reports that help you in the decision-making process. Using these insights, you can not only improve the performance of your across-the-board marketing campaigns but also further enhance your product.
Bringing unique and effective ways of promotions
Since affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing approach, publishers leverage unique and effective promotion strategies that make your prospective customers tick. Leading affiliate marketing platforms further use specialized tools to ensure that you only receive high-quality traffic, thereby eliminating instances such as ‘brand bidding’, ‘cookie stuffing’, and ‘incentive traffic’ from the picture. You also have superior control over your channels which could range from social media and YouTube to SEM, price comparison services, and cashback as well as loyalty programs. You can further add to the effectiveness of your promotions by using coupons and special offers.
Boosting brand awareness
Spending your precious time and energy creating a course that offers great content will go in vain if nobody knows that it exists. This is precisely where affiliate marketing can bring about a tangible difference. The pool of affiliates including bloggers and social media influencers know how to position your product the best in front of their audiences. It not only drives your sales but also works as a brand-building initiative. Your product achieves higher recall without you having to explicitly pay for it.
According to a survey of advertisers from Admitad Affiliate, it is the growth of brand awareness that is one of the main additional benefits of working with a CPA. Especially considering that the brand doesn’t pay for these additional reaches and only rewards targeted actions.
In conclusion, affiliate marketing is the go-to option if you want result-oriented marketing. It’s as close as you can get to your potential customers. So, if you wish to have a considerable edge over your competitors, affiliate marketing should perhaps be your weapon of choice in the market.
Affiliate is gaining more and more weight in the marketing strategies of online education companies. While the sector continues its rapid growth and development, and the load on traditional promotion channels is higher than ever, the CPA scheme without risks and with quick access to a huge audience of partners remains very attractive. Market participants expect that the growth in the share of affiliate orders in the overall sales of educational brands will continue to grow in the future.
Authored article by Neha Kulwal Country Manager, Admitad India.
