Affiliate Marketing – How do you make it work for you?

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing; also know as Performance Media can be thought of in 2 ways

1. it’s like having a team of commission only sales people that are continually putting your business / website in front of prospects
2. it’s like having and incentive based word of mouth program, so that people (who might have spread the word anyway) are given an incentive (usually monetary) to let everyone know how good your business is.

The Advantage

• You only pay for results. Like a commission salesperson, you only pay your affiliates if they have driven people to your website/business that has resulted in customers and/or sales. You don't pay for page views or click-throughs: you pay for results.
• It exposes you to a bigger market to sell your product.
• If you are spending a serious amount of money on affiliate marketing then that’s a nice problem to have, because it means you are doing a serious amount of business through your affiliates referrals to your site.

Creating a successful affiliate program

1. Make it lucrative – most affiliate programs fail because they try and be too stingy with rewards. Your affiliate needs to be able to make good money from referring people to you, or they are just not going to push your business very hard. They more lucrative you can make it for them, while retaining enough margin for yourself, the more your affiliate referrals will grow and the faster you will grow.
2. Give your affiliates the tools they need – Give your affiliates, pdf brochures, youtube videos and other marketing material to help them promote your site. Building a strong relationship with your affiliates is crucial to a successful performance campaign. Look at it as a long-term relationship that you need to work on constantly, which will lead to a mutually successful situation. It is essential to develop a community of reliable affiliates, who are committed to your program and its success.
3. Look at your conversion rates – The best performing online businesses have a simple and clear site. Ensure your site is easy to complete the desired conversion action whether that is making an enquiry, joining or registering or buying a product or service.
4. Direct traffic to a persuasive and relevant landing page – A link through to your site from an affiliate should go to a page that presents relevant information tailored to the products and services that your prospect is looking to buy. If they are coming from an affiliate they are already qualified, so give them the info they are after.