Affiliate marketing do’s

I do not pretend I am a guru, far from that but hope my experience as I have set up some successful program could be beneficial for advertisers and affiliate marketers alike.

The way I approach affiliate is always the same, I am doing my best to get a win /win situation between the affiliates and the advertiser.
At the end of the day it is in nobody’s interest to have a program that is too expensive to run or with so little commission the affiliate won’t even give it a try.

Not all affiliate programs are the same, but they do share similarities and here is a list of do’s and don’ts I came accross in my Internet marketing life.
I won’t call it a recipe for success too pretentious but it helped me on more than one occasion.

Affiliate Marketing is a system of revenue sharing between one site (the affiliate/publisher) which features an ad or content designed to drive traffic to another site (the advertiser/merchant).

Affiliates do not necessary own a website, they can also drive traffic to a merchant site via Paid Search activity.

1) Affiliate Approach: Affiliates should be considered as an online sales force, and the merchant should provide company information/news, incentives and tools to motivate and educate them to drive revenue. Building a relationship with your affiliates does make a tremendous difference. Merchants should encourage feedback from affiliates. Affiliates can offer valuable suggestions to help you improve your program.

2) Affiliate Recruitment: Constantly look for new affiliates to recruit. They can be potential top affiliates or core producers (affiliates generating a few sales on a regular basis).

3) Commission Schedule: Commission can be a percentage of sales or a flat fee. Commissions should be based on your business objectives, budget, and margins. Commissions should always be paid on time.

4) Link Portfolio: Focus on a comprehensive, effective and diverse creative inventory (Flash banners, interactive banners, storefront, landing pages…)
Bring the visitor to the right page using deep linking, it will boost conversion rates.
The creative inventory should stay up to date and interesting to motivate affiliates and give them a reason to replace links and seek information about your program on a regular basis.

5) Tracking: Tracking is essential. How would you feel if you didn’t get paid for what you’ve earned?

6) Plan your program: Affiliate Marketing is a powerful tool, but make sure you thought and planned your program before getting into it. Yes, you can switch a program on and off but this will ultimatly damage not only your program but also your reputation as a merchant.

7) Get a full time affiliate manager: because affiliation IS a full time job. Not only you have to keep a great relationship with your affiliates and your network but you also need to animate, motivate, educate your affiliates.

Establish tiered commission: a tiered commission is ALWAYS the way to go. Affiliates would need to go this extra mile, if they put money and time in your program they should be retributed.

9) Choose the best product for your affiliate to promote: many merchants are tempted to put the all catalogue and let affiliate decide what to promote. Well this may not be the best option. You know your brand and products more than anyone, put this knowledge into action by choosing the best performing and best value for money products. Don’t ask your affiliate to know your portofolio better than you do.

10) 80/20 rule: Most programs experience a situation where the top 20% of affiliate sales partners drive 80% of sales. It is important to focus on those top affiliates as they will bring immediate high revenues, however core producers are important too as they are producing steady monthly sales at a low cost.