Affiliate Marketing for B2B? Yup! #30 🦾 🙌 📈

5 for 5! Today we’ll discuss 5 reasons why affiliate partner influencer marketing is working well for B2B SaaS brands and 5 questions to validate if you are ready.

Some quick announcements…

• The refreshed RBL website is dropping this week! 🔥

• We are launching a podcast called Always Be Testing! (coming soon)👀

• Join our webinar on B2B Partner Marketing with me, Matt Moore - Impact, Keema Ferasat - Microsoft, and Zoe Mackay - Technology Advice on Jul 27, 2023 12:00 PM CST

• The RBL team and I will be in NYC 🗽 in a week for Affiliate Summit East. 

Ok, let’s dive in!

We have talked a lot about Consumer EComm but what about B2B?

Can Affiliate Marketing Be a Lever for B2B?

Affiliate Partner Influencer Marketing is one of if not the fastest-growing channels/levers in B2B SaaS.

Definitions:

B2B = Business to Business e.g. Monday.com

(versus B2C = Business to Consumer e.g. Nike or DTC = Direct to Consumer HexClad )

Brands like: Microsoft, Atlassian, Asana, Notion, Slack, Canva, Hubspot, DocuSign, MailChimp, WP Engine, Marketo, Klaviyo, and Amplitude are all taking advantage of Partner (Affiliate) Marketing.

Are you?

What will you learn?

An easy rubric to grade whether your B2B marketing org is ready to start with an affiliate program and where I would suggest you begin your journey!

Why consider affiliate marketing for B2B Saas?

#1 - SaaS has exploded 📈

B2B SaaS Interest over time

The global Software as a Service (SaaS) market is projected to grow from $273.55 billion in 2023 to $908.21 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 18.7%. Source.

#2 - SaaS margins are healthy enabling partner payments 🤝 💵

50%-80% gross margins versus 10%-50% in ECommerce - this can be empowering but to consider your SaaS competitors can payout as much or more than you can as they have similar margins as well.

Typical Ecomm Margin info from Shopify

How do you calculate Gross Margin?

What’s a good margin in B2B SaaS?

#3 - Content Demand & Volume have exploded 🤯

There are thousands of potential partners across search engines and social networks that are willing to work with you and promote your B2B brand.

The explosion of cloud computing in the last 10 years has launched a demand for sites and brand ambassadors that educate buyers and promote leading B2B and SaaS brands.

A Notion power user breaks it down on YouTube

Notice the FTC-compliant call out 🙂 ?

#4 - Customers want to hear from their peers > brands 🖥️ 🛍️

Customers shopping for anything from a surfboard to Trello are HUNGRY for real thoughtful reviews and insights from their PEERS.

As OG readers of this newsletter know, this is central to our Flywheel philosophy of building high-performing landing pages to boost conversion rates, increase affiliate partner adoption, whitelist, and amplify their rave reviews of your product/service in paid social ads.

#5 - Competition & High Prices of Platforms require new channels 🤑

Seeking out new levers for leads and growth is critical in a more competitive world.

Diversification, Always Be Testing, and finding emerging channels have frequently been touted in this newsletter.

Tomas Tunguz illustrates the importance of this for B2B SaaS here comparing marketing teams to hedge funds.

Marketing teams need to develop a diverse portfolio of bets to acquire leads and optimize and frequently launch new levers, teams, and channels to grow.

That means assessing and launching a proper affiliate partner marketing program.

But, Are you Ready? 🏎️

If you have the following, we would recommend kicking off a program:

1. Volume

   1. >100k unique visitors minimum

   2. >$20M / year in revenue minimum

2. Gross Margin >50% and healthy vis-a-vis your competitors

3. Total Addressable Market

   1. >250k customers in a particular region e.g. United States

4. Retention

   1. We spoke about this previously but your cohort analysis should show a flat retention curve and the churn rate needs to be manageable

   2. Some additional reading on SaaS Churn Rate

5. Willing to Let Go

   1. Successful affiliate programs set up clear value-based program terms and payouts. They contain clear rules, provide excellent quality fresh creative, and tee up partners to promote them and educate prospective leads and buyers.

   2. Once they set up the framework part of the job is to get out of the way. If a partner infringes on brand terms in search, steps outside brand guidelines, or miscategorizes the product or their site or review that contains misleading, negative/hateful content then it’s time to step in.

   3. Great affiliate programs maintain an ongoing relationship and communication with partners to unlock opportunities to grow and give and receive feedback to improve the quantity and quality of leads. They do not micromanage. Remember, these partners are individual entrepreneurs and often being compensated on a performance basis they are not full-time employees or a media platform like Meta or LinkedIn distributing your ads via their algorithmic targeting.

Wrap Up ✅ 💻

1. SaaS and B2B are growing like crazy

2. You should definitely be eyeing affiliate marketing to grow even more efficiently if you are managing a B2B SaaS brand

3. Where you should start:

   1. Review our 5-step checklist.

   2. If you meet those criteria, you should be speaking with affiliate pros to consider launching a program.

   3. Join our webinar on B2B Partner Marketing with me, Matt Moore - Impact, Keema Ferasat - Microsoft, and Zoe Mackay - Technology Advice on Jul 27, 2023, at 12:00 PM CST

   4. I would take a look at Impact to assess affiliate marketing tracking options.

   5. Start with 5 high-quality high-traffic affiliates in the Content, Review, How To, and Comparison space. YouTube brand ambassador/partner is an excellent option for B2B and B2B SaaS brands.

Have an amazing week!

Tye