The Future of Affiliate Marketing
By Marc Goldman
When affiliate programs first appeared on the internet circa 1996, the
internet marketing community thought they had found Nirvana. On one hand
the owners of these affiliate programs thought they had an army of sales
people working for them around the clock strictly on commission. On the
other hand, the affiliates thought they had found their pot of gold. They
were made to believe that this was the fastest and easiest way ever to
make money. Needless to say, they were both dead wrong.
Most affiliates failed because they believed all they had to do was sign
up for as many affiliate programs as possible, place a few affiliate
banners on their site and the checks would begin pouring in. They figured
the companies would take care of the rest and they could sit back and
enjoy the sound of the cash registers ringing out of control. This is akin
to the "build it and they will come" mentality. This was a direct result
of what they were being told by the program owners. In essence, these
program owners shot themselves in the foot by tring to sell their
affiliates the dream instead of providing them with real world helpful
marketing strategies that would have made both parties real money.
However, there was a very small percentage of people who were making a lot
of money with affiliate programs. These individuals were ambitious. They
understood they had to work to achieve the dream. They also knew that in
order to make money they would have to invest both money and time in smart
advertising and promotion. They did it all and the result was an
astounding six figure income for most of these Super Affiliates.
Many of these Super Affiliates belonged to affiliate programs that were
managed by people who came from a direct marketing or sales background and
knew how to motivate their sales force. They provided incentives, bonuses,
recognition and much more in order to encourage maximum effort. These
techniques were not rocket science, rather they were techniques taken
right out of the traditional offline sales environment.
The goal of every program should be to have and nurture as many Super
Affiliates as you can. So how do you turn an average affiliate into a
Super Affiliate? The onus lies on the program owner to motivate affiliates
and create program loyalty. In order to do this, the owner or manager has
to develop an affiliate program that is exceptional, filled with
incentives to succeed, provides a support network that guides affiliates
along the path to success and delivers multiple streams of revenue for the
affiliate.
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So the ideal affiliate program would incorporate:
1) A Team Focus. This strategy originates from the traditional offline
sales world. By bundling groups of affiliates together you are able to
create teams of sales people who support and help each other promote,
participate in co-op advertising, generate leads, and close sales. Since
everyone is sharing in the wealth, it creates a tremendous incentive to
function as a team.
2) A Front End/Entry Level Product and Multiple Backends from which
affiliates can also profit. You want to make your front end product
attractive and affordable so you increase your opportunity to sell more on
the backend. The profits from backend sales have traditionally been
reserved for the program owner. If you expect affiliates to stick around
when they are just earning one time commissions on front end sales you are
crazy. However, if you offer a share in the backend profits or residual
income you will be on your way to creating an army of loyal Super
Affiliates for life.
3) Incentives for Selling. Offer bonuses to your super affiliates. Run
sales contests. Offer higher commissions to affiliates who meet a certain
sales quota for the month. Recognize your affiliates efforts by
recommending them in your newsletter, promoting them on your website
and/or letting them buy your products at a discount.
What affiliates can do to become Super Affiliates:
1) Affiliates can look to their program manager or owner for support in
helping them succeed. Ask to be mentored by a Super Affiliate. Find out
what they are doing that makes them successful and model after them. Look
to join affiliate programs that promote a team focus so you can benefit
from the support of others.
2) Use Minisites to draw in highly targeted traffic in order to pre-sell
the products and services of the affiliate program and capture names and
email addresses of your prospects. This is one of the secrets of true
Super Affiliates. They never send traffic directly to their affiliate
link, instead they create a one or two page site that describes the
benefits of purchasing the product or service of the affiliate program.
Before sending your prospects away from this minisite, you should have a
method of capturing their names and email address in place so you can
follow up on them later in order to increase your sales and response rate.
3) Write an endorsement for the affiliate program in your own words. Use
the product and service so you can wholeheartedly offer a testimonial.
People do not buy products and services, they buy results. What this
program will do for them. If you tell people what it has done for you and
will do for them, you will greatly increase your sales percentages.
4) Finally, don't be an affiliate program junkie. Stick to a core of
programs and promote them successfully. This is where many affiliates make
a mistake, if they don't make commissions fast enough, they are off to the
next program. Try to find one or a few programs that you truly believe in,
(ideally they should meet ALL the criteria of the ideal program above) and
remain loyal to them.
If you do all of these things, your status as a Super Affiliate is
virtually guaranteed.
When program managers and affiliates come together like this they create a
win/win situation for everyone involved. This is when an affiliate program
is a success!
Marc Goldman in principal of Goldbar Enterprises. The company's website
helps increase traffic and boost online sales. Visit
http://www.goldbar.net
