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Affiliate Communication
by Sharon Housley
Communication is
Key!
When building an affiliate network communicating with affiliates is
important for merchants to maintain a good relationship. An affiliate's web
site targets visitors, who may not necessarily view a merchant's web site,
and therefore expands a merchants market. An affiliate may not be able to
actively keep up with the merchants product, it is important for a merchant
to keep affiliate's informed about new product information, sales, new
releases, links, graphics, promotions and special offers.
Keep in
mind, not all affiliates are going to produce a high
volume of traffic, and
importantly, visitors who want to
purchase a merchant's products or services.
The occasional
gem makes the time taken well worth your effort. Talk
with
successful affiliates, find out what they are doing to effectively
promote your software, and use that information to assist those affiliates
who are not as successful.
Assist affiliates in understanding your
product; no one knows your products like you do. For affiliates to
drive traffic that will convert to sales, they need to understand the
benefits of the product they are marketing. Once an affiliate knows the
product, they will be better able to act as an extended sales force. In order
for the affiliate to make the effort, you simply must support
them!
Make Communication Easy
Many 3rd party affiliate-tracking
programs notify both the
affiliate and merchant of a sale. This can often
be automated and will create positive communication between merchants and
affiliates. Making an affiliate's role easier will help them increase
earnings and further promote a merchants site.
Provide affiliates with
great looking graphics and sample text. Graphics that work best are those
that highlight your web site, yet fit the look of an affiliate's web
site.
Newsletters are another great way to get information
to affiliates. Include tips and specific for affiliates, along with
general marketing advice that helps with site promotion. If you are looking
for software to manage newsletters, I highly recommend Group Mail -.
http://tinyurl.com/23ljy
Affiliate
Taboos
An affiliate generates a sale for a product and the
merchant
promptly decreases the commission. This sends a very negative
message to the affiliate, in many cases they've taken a lot of time to place
links, promote products and because they've driven effective traffic their
commission is decreased. If its necessary to decrease a commission
for whatever reason, be sure to include a personal note detailing the
reason and letting the affiliate know that you still support their
efforts.
A Cheat?
An affiliate sale occurs, you go to their
website and don't find any links you decide they must be cheating you!
This conclusion is simply a based on poor communication and reporting.
Many, many affiliates have multiple sites, very few affiliate tracking
programs allow affiliates to list multiple sites, and in many cases the
number of sites listed do not accurately reflect the number of sites owned
and managed by the affiliate. Additionally many affiliates manage opt-in
newsletters that may result in sales, but
links are not visible on a website.
An example of a popular ezine often promoting affiliates is
Lockergnome!
Links, Links, Links
Keep your links valid! If you update
a section of the site or remove an offer provide a redirect or retain the
link saying that such and such offer has expired and a new one has
replaced it. It seems a waste to discard targeted traffic because a special
has expired. Be sure to communicate with your affiliates, and if a link will
only be good for a specified length of time tell them up front. When an
offer expires notify affiliates a week prior to the
expiration with a
reminder. This will give them ample time
to make any needed
updates.
Added Incentives!
Affiliates love added bonuses for reaching
goals or specified levels of sales. Many of the 3rd party
affiliate vendors run contests and provide large incentives for their top
performing ones. Reward and praise successful affiliates.
Affiliates
tend to be experts in other areas, which relate to a merchants business;
therefore, by communicating useful
information, and helping affiliates
increase their earnings, they will give added exposure and increase your
sales. Communicating with affiliates will ultimately benefit visitors of
both sites. A little effort in the beginning can mean big rewards in the long
run.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage,
Inc.
http://www.notepage.net a company
specializing in
alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging
software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com
and http://www.small-business-software.net
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