Affiliate Marketing Basics

Affiliate marketing is fairly simple and easy to accomplish. Once your business establishes an affiliate program on the Web, the opportunity to increase income rises. Just as with any type of marketing, the closer you monitor your affiliate marketing relationships, the greater your potential for profit.

An affiliate marketing program is created when a merchandiser who wants to increase sales (of products or services) offers an affiliate program to other businesses online who are willing to sell or promote the merchant’s product or services on their site. In exchange, a commission is paid to the business Web site who promotes the merchant’s product and / or services and who sends the merchant visitors or sales. The actual purchase, payment transaction, and fulfillment are taken care of by the merchandiser. Basically, the affiliate Web site (Webmaster) gets paid when they are able to entice their site’s visitors to link to the merchant’s site and order a product or request more information.

The following are a few ways to “get paid” in an affiliate marketing program:

1. Pay per click: sometimes just clicking the link will earn you money.
   
2. Pay per sale: most popular (and oldest) affiliate standard agreement. Often the referred visitor will have to buy something in order for the affiliate to receive payment. The Webmaster can get paid with either a percentage of the sale or with a fixed amount.
3. Pay per lead: this type of affiliate program requires the referred visitor to act in a certain way before the Webmaster is paid. The most classic example of a pay per lead affiliate program is one in which a referred visitor subscribes to a newsletter. When the visitor clicks the merchandiser’s link and subscribes to the newsletter, the Webmaster gets paid.
4. Pay per impression: this is in fact just the same as paid advertising. The merchant pays only to show his banner ad. This means that the Webmaster or Web site publisher gets paid even if visitors don't purchase anything and even if they don’t click through to the merchant’s site.
5. Two-Tier Programs: these add an additional dimension. Commissions are paid on two levels; if a Webmaster directs another Web publisher to sign up for the merchant’s affiliate program, the Webmaster who made the referral receives a portion of the referred Web publisher’s revenue.

Are You Using Public Relations?

There are lots of examples of public relations that you experience each and every day—everything from reading a wonderful story about a local or national business in the newspaper to attending an event or program developed by a company you have contact with. Some people believe the practice to be only about speaking with journalists, or nothing more than reporting information about a company.

The practice of public relations is the outward and inward projection of your company’s identity. It is how people view your company and what people think about when they hear your company name. Do they have good feelings or have they had a bad experience? Part of public relations is how you look and feel to the community, how you look nationally or internationally. Some public relations issues are much more complex, such as what kinds of events do you have? What organizations are you affiliated with? Who does your company support? And, of course, what do people think and feel about your company?

An internal public relations function is to ask yourself how your employees feel about where they work and how they are treated. What do they say when they are not at work? Are they complaining in front of prospective customers, or are they singing praises of their boss and the organization as a whole? Some employees may not understand that whatever they say and do outside work hours affects their paycheck and the bottom line at their place of work.

If your company isn’t using public relations - you should take another look.

Here are just a few things to consider:

• Word-of-mouth – terrific promotion if it’s good
• Make announcements – new employees, new locations, and celebrate everything
• Find a cause to support and put your company name on it
• Phone hold information about your offerings
• Write editorials
• Write a customer mailing – with a client testimonial
• Be enthusiastic – the person who answers your phone should be happy (they must love where they work)
• Make sure you have satisfied customers
• Do something newsworthy and let the newspaper, radio, and TV stations know about it

If your business isn’t using public relations --- get help and get acclaim!

Marketing Tip:
Try a Marketing Drip!

Looking to create a place in your customer's mind (or at least their desk) as their preferred vendor or service provider?

How well do you communicate the benefits of doing business with you?

How often do your customers or potential customers receive something from your business?

Are your marketing efforts interesting enough to be worth remembering? Do they all have a consistent image?

Some marketing solutions to answer these important marketing questions:
Conduct a direct mail marketing campaign with several coordinated pieces sent in a specific order to your primary target market. This type of “planned” or “sequential” marketing program is also known to some as “drip marketing.” This strategy involves sending out a number of promotional pieces or marketing pieces that link together over a period of time to defined sales leads. It can create a sense of “what's coming next?” and assist with the ability to remember your company

Consistency
The term “drip marketing” may sound a bit “wet” but it actually is a direct marketing promotion that works to slowly but steadily gain customer sales over long periods of time. The constant drip (or marketing/promotional pieces) gets attention and gets your company's name in potential customer’s inboxes (both desk and desktop.)

Clarity and Brevity
Increased competition and an influx of communication in the marketplace demands clarity and brevity of your message. Be clear and brief in your marketing campaign to capture attention and get remembered at the moment of truth...when your customer is preparing to make a purchase.

Offer Results!
Solution-based messages are essential in a long-term direct mail campaign or “drip marketing” campaign.

Consistency, brevity, and continuity mixed together with creativity can produce results in a well coordinated sequential direct marketing or “drip marketing” campaign.

2008 Marketing Minute Archives
January/February | March/April | May/June | July/August | September/October | November/December