Twitter Marketing for Affiliate Marketers

Twitter is often overlooked as a channel for affiliate marketing promotion.

But it’s a great platform to build an audience, drive traffic to your website, and promote your affiliate offers.

Number of monthly active Twitter users worldwide from 2010 to 2019:

With a user base of 330 million active monthly users, Twitter provides an excellent opportunity for affiliates looking to build an audience.

To successfully leverage the platform, you need to know the right kind of Tweets and content to post…

...And be strategic about how you promote your offers.

In this guide, we’ll take an in-depth look at how you can use Twitter to grow an audience and make money as an affiliate marketer.

You’ll learn:

• How to set up your Twitter account for more followers
• How to write Tweets that engage your audience
• How to get more Twitter followers
• Tips for promoting your affiliate products on Twitter

Let’s dive in.

Affiliate Marketing on Twitter

Twitter is a social media platform that works differently to the other major networks.

Users can post short messages with a limit of 280 characters.

This cap on characters encourages users to be more efficient with their use of language.

Rather than the long posts and holiday photos that you find on Facebook, Twitter is about sharing ideas, discussing topics, and posting links to external websites and resources.

Before you get started with affiliate marketing on Twitter, you should determine whether the platform is a good fit for your niche and your target audience.

So who uses Twitter?

Twitter Demographics

Twitter has a higher percentage of male users for every age demographic:

According to its advertising data, Twitter claims its worldwide user base is 62% male and 38% female.

A study by Pew Research Center revealed that Twitter users earn 9% more than the average U.S. citizen.

Twitter users are also more educated than the average citizen, with 42% of users with a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, compared to 31% of the general population.

If you’re in a niche with a generally younger educated male audience, Twitter is an ideal platform for building an audience and promoting your content and affiliate offers.

That’s not to say that you can’t achieve success targeting a different demographic.

If you can’t find any of your competitors on Twitter, you can become the leading account in your niche.  

Define Your Goals

You’ll need to identify the goals you want to achieve with Twitter.

While more affiliate sales and commission are the end goal, the best way to use Twitter is to grow an audience and send traffic to your website.

You can use Followerwonk to spy on how your competitors are using Twitter.

What are your competitors trying to achieve?

Are they promoting their content or trying to build a community and encourage discussion on the platform?

Take note of what’s working for them and what you can improve upon with your own Twitter account.

How to Get Started on Twitter

Creating your Twitter Bio

Your Twitter bio is the first impression people will get when they visit your profile.

Twitter limits bios to 160 characters, so you only have a couple of sentences to make a memorable and positive impression.

Don’t try to sell an affiliate offer.

You can add a link to your website, but the focus should be on illustrating the value you offer and giving people a reason to follow you.

Here’s an example of the Twitter profile for the affiliate website Home Grounds:

Try to give people a genuine impression of what they can expect from you and the content you will be sharing.

Choosing the right tone is important.

If you post formal content in the finance niche, make sure your Twitter bio appears professional.

It’s also essential to maintain consistency between your website, Twitter bio, and other social media profiles.

You want people to recognize your branding and feel they are in the right place when they move between your website and social channels.

Posting Your First Tweet

Once you’ve set up your profile, it’s time to send out your first Tweet.

Posting a Tweet is very simple. You just click on the text box on the left side of your screen and enter your text.

Alternatively, you can click on the blue square with a white feather, located at the top of your screen on the navigation bar.

That’s the “Compose New Tweet” button.

Once your text is entered, click the blue “Tweet” button to post a Tweet.

Understanding Hashtags

Hashtags are an integral part of how Twitter functions.

When you write a Tweet, you can add a hashtag using the hash symbol (#) before a keyword or trending phrase on Twitter.

Hashtags help you monitor what’s popular on Twitter.

They also help people that don’t already follow you to find your Tweets.

You can place a hashtag anywhere in your Tweet that makes sense.

Here’s an example from the Affilorama Twitter feed:

When a Twitter user sees a hashtag in a Tweet, they can click on the hashtag to see other Tweets containing the same hashtag.

Using hashtags is an effective way to increase your visibility on Twitter.

It’s also a useful tool for identifying hot trends and other Twitter users interested in your niche.

We’ll go into more detail on hashtags later in the guide.

7 Ways to Write Better Tweets

1. Include Eye-Catching Visuals

Just like every other social media platform, eye-catching visual content is vital for engagement on Twitter.

If you’re Tweeting to promote a product review on your website, include a high-quality image of the product.

According to a study published in Ad Week, Tweets containing images receive 18% more clickthroughs, 89% more likes, and 150% more ReTweets.

Including high-quality images, GIFs, and video clips in your Tweets can help you engage your audience and communicate your message.

Human beings are visual learners.

Around 90% of the information sent to the brain is visual, and it takes only 13 milliseconds for the human brain to process an image.

With internet users’ attention spans at an all-time low, use visual content to your advantage when you send out your Tweets.

2. Use Power Words

Some words are proven to be effective for headlines, sales copy, and social media posts.

These “power” words can make your Tweets more impactful and increase engagement.

Twitter limits the number of characters in a Tweet, so you need to be efficient in your use of language.

Power words help you to do just that.

According to respected marketing expert Jeff Bullas, the following power words are the most effective for boosting engagement on Twitter:

• ReTweet
• Check out
• Blog
• Post
• How to
• Top
• Social
• Follow
• You
• Help
• Great
• Share

Whichever power words you include, try to keep the length of your Tweet as short as possible.

Your Tweet should only be as long as needed to communicate your message effectively.

3. Tag Followers, Influencers, and Brands in Your Niche

If you mention a particular influencer, brand, or follower in your Tweet, you can tag their Twitter handle to notify them.

If you’re linking to a quality piece of content, there’s a good chance they’ll ReTweet your message.

This is an excellent way to increase the reach of your Tweet and encourage engagement.

It’s also a great way to build relationships with influencers in your niche and grow your audience by actively engaging with your followers.

Here’s an example of a Twitter user tagging a brand in their Tweet:

This is a good strategy if you have identified influencers that can help you to build an audience.

Try to find influencers that regularly share relevant content in your niche and tag them the next time you promote your new content.

4. Keep it Simple

Try to keep your Tweets simple and easy to understand.

You want to make your Twitter posts appealing to as broad an audience as possible.

That means choosing simple words and avoiding any jargon or complicated terms that are hard to understand.

You have the option of including 280 characters in your Tweet, but that doesn’t mean you should use all that space if you don’t need to.

Here’s an example of a short Tweet from the affiliate website The Wirecutter:

The Tweet does a great job of triggering an audience pain point in a short, simple, and subtle Tweet.

Sometimes a short, engaging couple of phrases can be more effective than multiple sentences.

5. Start Discussions and Conversations

A great way to boost engagement and increase your Tweets’ reach is to ask questions or start a debate.

You can start a conversation about a trending topic in your niche or encourage your followers to give you their feedback on one of your affiliate products.

This is a great way to gain a deeper understanding of your audience and what they look for in a product.

It’s also an effective way to build a community and make your followers feel like their voices are being heard.

Twitter has an in-built feature that lets you conduct a poll in your Tweet.

This can be an excellent tool for determining the topics and products your audience wants to hear more about.

You can also use the poll feature to start debates and conversations to boost your Tweets’ engagement and reach.

6. Use Relevant Hashtags

We’ve already mentioned how hashtags are an important feature to help Twitter users find relevant content and trending topics.

They’re also a great way to boost the reach of your Tweets.

According to HubSpot, Tweets with hashtags receive significantly more ReTweets than those without:

You can use a tool like Hashtagify to reveal trending hashtags and generate new ideas for your Tweets.

There are also a bunch of tracking tools like Socialert to help you track the popularity of hashtags and provide insights you can use to inform your Tweeting and content marketing strategy.

However, if a competing affiliate website starts a hashtag, try to be original and create your own rather than contributing to theirs.

7. Include a CTA to Drive Traffic and Get More ReTweets

A call-to-action (CTA) tells your followers what to do next after reading your Tweet.

This is a powerful tool for sending traffic to your website.

You only have 280 characters in your Tweet, but you should always leave space for a CTA to encourage your audience to take action.

Here’s an example from the Car Magazine Twitter account:

You can use a CTA to encourage your followers to click through to visit your website to read your content in full.

Including a CTA encouraging your followers to ReTweet is also an excellent tactic for increasing your reach.

According to the Search Engine Journal, Tweets that contain a “please ReTweet” or “please R.T.” call-to-action generate 72.4% more ReTweets than Tweets with no CTA.

How to Get More Followers on Twitter

Posting entertaining, educational, and engaging Tweets is the foundation for affiliate marketing on Twitter.

But to gain traction on the platform, you need followers.

More followers mean that your content and affiliate promotion will reach a larger audience.

It also indicates to any Twitter users that find your profile that your account is popular and that lots of people listen to you and trust your recommendations.

So how do you get more Twitter followers?

Don’t buy followers or resort to spamming trending hashtags.

There are several proven tactics to gain more Twitter followers.

Just implement the following techniques and see your number of followers grow.

1. Nail Your Tweeting Frequency

Compared to Facebook, Twitter is a fast-paced platform.

It’s not unusual for brands and businesses to Tweet 20 times per day or more.

However, you should always deliver value and avoid spamming out the same Tweet ten times.

The best way to maintain a high Tweeting frequency is to not only promote your content and affiliate offers but to ReTweet and promote relevant third-party content.

Twitter provides a bunch of opportunities to engage your followers regularly.

You can Tweet interesting third-party articles you know your audience will be interested in, ReTweet experts and influencers in your niche, ReTweet your followers, etc.

They only rule when it comes to third-party content is that it offers value to your followers.

When you position your Twitter account as a source of interesting information and content, people interested in your niche will see you as an account worth following.

There are a bunch of automation tools to help you set up a Tweeting calendar and update your Twitter without manually logging in every time you post.

2. Tweet at the Right Times

It’s vital to send out your Tweets when your audience is most likely to engage.

If your target audience is sleeping, your Tweets won’t make much of an impact.

According to Sprout Social, Tweeting in the late morning during weekdays is the best time to Tweet for maximum engagement.

The worst day to Tweet is Saturday.

Tweeting in the evening around 7 pm is also a time of high engagement.

It’s also important to Tweet at the optimal time for your target audience.

If the majority of your audience is on the east coast of the U.S., you’ll want to time your Tweets to engage those users.

3. Engage with Your Followers and the Twitter Community

Automation tools are great for scheduling Tweets and maintaining an active presence on Twitter…

…But you don’t want your account to appear as if a machine runs it.

That’s why it’s so important to interact with your followers and influencers in your niche.

Replying to comments, liking Tweets, ReTweeting, and tagging are essential tools for engaging Twitter users and building a following.

Provide value to your followers by answering any questions with detailed replies.

It shows that you care about your followers and helps to build trust.

Getting your audience to trust you is vital for affiliate marketing.

By tagging and ReTweeting your followers and influencers in your niche, you can increase your reach and get your account in front of new audiences.

When you ReTweet an account, it increases the chances that they will follow you and ReTweet your content.

Being active means more than just Tweeting a lot.

It means actively building relationships with other users by being helpful and offering great content.

4. Optimize Your Profile and Header Photos

According to research from the University of Southern California and Indiana University, around 15% of Twitter accounts are bots.

Automation tools are a great time saver when it comes to social media publishing, but you’ll struggle to gain a following and build a community if Twitter users suspect that your account is running on autopilot.

Regularly engaging with your followers by tagging and ReTweeting is important, but your Twitter profile is the first impression you’ll make on potential followers.

It needs to be optimized to appear like a real account with a person behind it.

For your profile photo, choose a clear, unobstructed image of you or a high-quality brand logo.

When it comes to your header photo, Twitter users will generally spend less time looking there than at your profile photo.

If you think of your Twitter profile as a landing page, the header image is the headline, and the profile photo is the subheading.

The header image is the first thing people will see when they land on your profile.

You need to use this space to quickly communicate your value and encourage new people to follow you.

A good way to use this space is to quickly establish credibility by using social proof.

You can display a significant accomplishment, list media mentions, or highlight any awards you have received.

Lots of niche influencers use an image of any public speaking event they have spoken at.

Here’s an example from Tim Soulo, the CMO of Ahrefs:

Tim immediately establishes credibility by highlighting that he is a speaker at public events.

The header image shows how other people are interested in what he has to say, and that his Twitter account is worth following.

5. Import Your Email List to Twitter

This is the easiest and most effective way to gain new followers quickly.

People who have already engaged with your affiliate website and signed up to your email list already know who you are.

These people are much more likely to follow you than a Twitter user that stumbles on your profile by chance.

If you have an email list, importing it to Twitter can instantly boost your number of followers.

When one of your email subscribers is on Twitter, there’s a high probability that your Twitter account will show up in the “Who to Follow” section.

6. Promote Your Twitter Account on Your Website and Social Channels

The above tips and strategies are focused on gaining followers from within the Twitter platform.

However, promoting your Twitter profile to your website visitors and other social profiles is a great way to gain more followers.

You can use a free plugin like Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons to include a button to your social handles on your content pages and opt-in forms.

This gives your website visitors a quick way to share your content on Twitter and follow you on the platform.

You can also include a social button in your emails to promote your Twitter account in your newsletters.

Tips for Promoting Affiliate Products on Twitter

We’ve covered setting up your Twitter account and tactics to write better Tweets and gain more followers…

...Now, it’s time to go into the best practices for promoting your affiliate offers on Twitter.

1. Make Sure Your Offers are Highly Relevant

As with all affiliate marketing, you should only ever promote highly relevant products to your audience on Twitter.

If you Tweet about health and fitness trends and topics, don’t promote web hosting offers or video editing software.

You won’t make any sales, and you’ll annoy your followers by Tweeting irrelevant offers.

If you promote your affiliate links directly on Twitter, make sure they are highly relevant to your audience and fit the topics and the niche you usually cover.

2. Offer Personal Recommendations

Lots of beginner affiliates make the mistake of simply copying the landing page copy of the offer they are promoting and pasting it directly into their Tweets.

This comes across as pushing for a hard sell and doesn’t provide a reason for anyone to trust you.

It’s much more effective to provide a personal recommendation based on your experience with the product.

If your affiliate product has helped you overcome a problem or achieve a goal, tell your audience how it helped in a short and concise Tweet.

By making a genuine recommendation based on experience, you’re much more likely to make a sale and avoid annoying your followers.

Don’t destroy the relationship you have built with your followers by trying to make a quick sale.

3. Promote Your Products in Relevant Conversations

Twitter is a great platform for discussing ideas and sharing advice with your followers.

When you establish yourself as a trusted source of information in your niche, your followers will reach out to you and ask for your help and recommendations.

This is a great opportunity to share links to your affiliate products naturally.

Because the affiliate link is relevant and fits the conversation, it’s much more likely that people will click on your link and purchase your affiliate product.

Rather than blasting out your affiliate links in a promotional Tweet, try to help your followers and use your affiliate offers as an additional resource.

4. Link to Affiliate Content on Your Website

Promoting your content links is generally a much more effective tactic for generating sales than promoting your affiliate links directly on Twitter.

Twitter limits you to 280 characters.

You’ll find it hard to convince people to purchase a product in your Tweet alone.

Rather than posting an affiliate link directly, write a balanced review or product roundup that discusses why the product is relevant, and the benefits people will get by making a purchase.

Once you’ve published the content on your website, write a short and compelling Tweet that encourages people to click through to your website.

Here’s an example from the prepper affiliate website The Prepared:

Whenever you post a new blog post or product review on your website, promote the content on Twitter.

Getting people off of Twitter and on to your website is the key to making affiliate sales.

5. Don’t Over-Promote Your Affiliate Offers

Affiliate marketing on Twitter is most effective when you practice moderation and prioritize offering value to your audience.

If most of your Tweets are promoting affiliate offers, your audience switches off.

They might even unfollow you.

If you look at the most successful affiliate marketers on Twitter, you’ll notice that the vast majority of their Tweets promote their content.

They engage in conversation and discussion with their followers...

...And they rarely promote an affiliate offer directly in a Tweet.

When somebody discovers your Twitter page, they will usually scan your profile before they decide to follow you or not.

If your profile is full of promotional Tweets, people are less likely to follow your account, and you’ll struggle to grow an audience.

6. Get Feedback and Listen to Your Followers

Twitter is an excellent tool for listening to your audience and discovering new ideas and topics for content.

It’s an effective way to see what your followers are interested in and gain feedback on your content and website.

Marketing is all about measuring results and identifying ways to improve and make your messaging even more effective.

Whenever you Tweet a new piece of content, see how your audience responds and what happens to your number of followers.

If you get a positive response and see an increase in followers, produce more of that type of content.

The same goes for the types of affiliate products and offers you cover.

If your followers show interest in a particular type of product, write more in-depth content related to those products.

7. Be Helpful

The more helpful you are to your followers, the more people that will follow you and listen to your recommendations.

You should be helpful with your content and Tweets, and also with the choice of products you choose to promote.

When somebody listens to your advice and buys a product they are happy with, they’re more likely to listen to your future recommendations.

That’s the best way to build a sustainable affiliate marketing business.

Make sure that you only promote products that you know will help your audience.

If you offer value through every Tweet, piece of content, and product recommendation, you’ll soon start to build a loyal following that trusts you.

Conclusion

That’s it!

We’ve covered how to set up your profile, write better Tweets, grow your following, and promote your affiliate products.

Twitter is an excellent platform for building an audience...

...But you need to be strategic with your affiliate promotion.

Focus on offering value and helping people, establishing trust, and building relationships.

Once people trust you, it’s much easier to generate conversions and grow your passive income streams.