Affiliate Programs
Affiliate marketing is made up of four key components.
Retailer or Brand (you)
Affiliate Network
Affiliate or Publisher
Consumers
In its simplest form, affiliate marketing is the process of a Retailer incentivizing an Affiliate Network to refer a brand or resell a product or services to Consumers. Individual Affiliates may use a variety of techniques to promote the Retailers' products, including SEO, SEM, advertising, social media, email marketing and other forms of online marketing to drive awareness and sales of your product.
The incentives will vary; however, the Retailer should provide some type of award to the Affiliate for a referral and/or a sale to a Consumer. The award typically is a monetary finders fee or commission on sales. The award need not necessarily be money, but can be anything of agreed upon value like membership to an exclusive community or credits exchange for other services or products.
The rules around your affiliate program must be clearly defined and explicit.
Among the definitions you must communicate to your Affiliates are: What constitutes a referral? How to manage a referral that leads to a sale? What about a direct sale? How will the affiliate be compensated? Likewise, the degree of transparency needs to be defined to enable the affiliate to track their referrals and compensation.
A successful affiliate program requires careful, up front planning to ensure that expectations are met by all parties.
Most affiliate programs fail due to lack of planning leading to a frustrated Affiliate Network that can just as easily turn against you.
When done right an Affiliate Network can be a businesses' dream come true and grow a business to exponential levels.
TMA can bring Affiliate marketing to your business and ensure that it is done right.
Contact us to find out more.