9 Easy Steps to Successful Affiliate Marketing for the Merchant
1. Decide on an Affiliate Program: Hammer out the details. How big or small do you wish to make your affiliate program? What will you offer as incentive? What compensation model will you use? What action do you want your visitors to take (i.e., do you want them to click on your ad, go to your website, fill out a form, subscribe to your newsletter, or make a purchase?) What is a reasonable action to expect from your affiliates’ visitors?
2. Assign a Management System: Who in your business will oversee the program and insure its success? Do you need to hire an affiliate network, or do you need do-it-yourself software to track and generate reports for you? Make sure all the details are in place before you begin promoting your program. Without this step, you will find yourself losing affiliates who think you are disorganized. Or you may not have the tracking systems in place to determine what is working and what is not.
3. Create a System for Payment: Don’t spend all day writing checks and figuring out who gets paid what. There is software out there that can do that for you. The key is to get a system in place that will work smoothly and efficiently to get prompt payment out to your affiliates so you don’t lose them. Make it clear in your agreement as to what compensation model you will use, how soon they can expect payment, etc.
4. Find Affiliates: Who is your target audience? Who speaks to that audience that might be a potential affiliate? Join forums and online communities who share the same niche as you. Use search engines with your keywords to find other marketers (not competitors) who may also be working within that niche. Create a list of potential affiliates and contact them one by one.
5. Offer them an Incentive: What can you offer an affiliate for their efforts? Will you offer cash or some kind of rewards for their efforts? What are your competitors offering their affiliates? Make sure your program is competitive.
6. Create your Ad: Create an ad that presents a compelling proposition to visitors. Make it interesting, striking, and make them want to take action. Keep it up-to-date with relevance and creativity.
7. Create an Easy, Efficient Transaction Process: If you haven’t already, you need to streamline the transaction process that these referrals will be experiencing. If they are sent to your website and have to jump through hoops to take the action you desire, then you will lose them pretty quickly.
8. Track your Results: Going back to your management system, you need to track your results. Run reports frequently to determine which affiliates are returning the best results. Find out which banner ads are pulling, and which offers are the most effective. Just as you would with any other marketing program… track, test and refine.
9. Continue Promoting your Program: Once you establish a good base of affiliates, ask them to refer people they know who might also become affiliates of yours. Pay them an additional commission for bringing more affiliates to you. It is easy to sit back and reap the rewards of your efforts, and you should. But don’t forget to continue promoting your program, continue tracking and testing, and continue growing your affiliate marketing program with your business.
