Affiliate Marketing: Beyond Search
by Dennis Consorte - May 20th, 2010
Key Benefits of Starting an Affiliate Program
If you still aren’t sure how an affiliate program could benefit your eBusiness, consider the following benefits that make it an integral part of any successful online marketing plan:
- You Pay Only for Performance – If your affiliates don’t make a sale, they don’t get paid – so you only pay a commission for results. Compare this to pay per click (PPC) where you have variable costs based on the volume of clicks, whether they generate sales or not.
- Free Advertising for Your Business – When you join an affiliate network, your logo and brand name will be displayed on thousands of websites with no extra work on your part, making it essentially free advertising for you!
- You’re in the Presence of Larger Companies – When your product or logo is listed next to other well-known brand names, your business becomes associated with those brands “by extension.” For example, if someone were to search for Tory Burch handbags on TheFind, they would see that our client, JildorShoes.com is grouped together with other well-known department stores such as Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. A similar search for “cookies” on Savings.com reveals the David’s Cookies logo in the context of Cheryl&Co., Mrs. Fields and other players in the gourmet food industry.
How Do I Manage An Affiliate Program?
Knowing which affiliate network you want to join is just the first step toward effectively running an affiliate program for your business. You also have to integrate the right technology to suit your needs, know how to properly leverage relationships, negotiate for traffic and placement and how and when to approach the decision makers who hold the keys to your success. If you’re just starting out in ecommerce, then you may opt to manage a program yourself. However, it can take years to build a network and learn the ropes of affiliate marketing, and managing another fulltime staff member to handle this side of your business may shift focus away your overall growth. One alternative to in-house program management is to bring on an Outsourced Program Manager (OPM) who can effectively run your program from A to Z, allowing you to effectively scale your e-business. In either case, affiliate marketing, when done strategically, is a necessity to any business looking to scale their online presence and acquire new customers.
You’ve been getting a steady stream of business for a while now, but you’re ready to take things to the next level. You’ve been working hard to optimize your pages for the search engines, and you’ve just launched a new PPC campaign. Your email newsletter is going out to thousands of satisfied subscribers. What are you missing?