Marketing, Recruiting and Managing Affiliates
Marketing, Recruiting and Managing Affiliates
Affiliate marketing refers to a method of promoting web businesses, where an affiliate or a publisher is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer and sale provided through his/her endeavor.
Affiliate marketing has gained momentum since came into existence. According to reports, total sales generated through affiliate networks in 2006 were £2.16 billion in the UK itself. The estimates in sales were £1.35 billion in 2005.
Gaming, adult and retail sectors are some of the most active affiliate marketing sectors. However, mobile phones, travel and finance are also very good.
There are a number of myths in affiliate marketing. Many affiliates believe that it is easy to make a kill by promoting other people’s services and likewise and they can generate great sales through an affiliate program. Similar to other factors of marketing, this could be the case, but it also calls for hard work.
Even if you have a network of thousands of affiliates, it is likely that a few percent of those marketing your products will be responsible for more than 90 percent of affiliate generated sales.
Affiliate marketing also calls for preparing marketing materials. Once you are through with your marketing material, you can move ahead of your site and start publicizing.
This process is similar to convincing a client to buy your products. You can also refer to different affiliate program directories to get great places to start advertising your program.
There are a number of directories that list you in exchange for a link back to them, but some may also charge you for listing or a cut of any earnings that may be generated by affiliates.
While recruiting affiliates, it is necessary to note that affiliates do not spend much of a time looking for affiliate programs. It is the merchants who come to them. A power affiliate is basically concerned with the following issues:
Revenue share levels
Tracking accuracy
Reliability of payment
Service /product quality
Money back guarantee for people they refer
Promotion resources
Merchant reputation
You need to address the above mentioned points in your recruitment note. Make sure that all the information details are realistic without any exaggeration. It is advisable to audit the network on a regular basis once affiliates start signing up. You will come across a number of affiliates during the recruitment process, ranging from hobbyists with sites to spammers, to legit career webmasters and marketers.
Therefore, it is essential that you review each affiliate on a regular basis to ensure that the way you are being promoted is fine and above all, legal. You can keep the following screening tips in mind while recruiting affiliates:
An affiliate should necessarily have an active site because there are chances that he may be a spammer.
Affiliate site content needs to be relevant to your product.
The site should contain appreciable level of content. It is advisable to avoid sites that primarily contain advertisements, unless it is a popular destination.
Content misuse is one of the most critical issues. You should be clear about the contents that your affiliates would use. In order to minimize confusion for potential clients, you need to supply your affiliates with quality contents and promotional materials.
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Tags: affiliate management, affiliate recruiting, affiliate marketing
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