Affiliate programs are also known as associate programs. In this arrangement merchant website pays affiliate website some commission for marketing their product. The agreement is based upon no of people that affiliate sent to merchant website. Some arrangements pay according to no of people who visit merchant page containing merchant banner advertisement. Simply speaking if traffic is accelerated on merchant website due to affiliate marketing efforts then they (affiliates) are adequately remunerated. Besides that recruiting affiliate is an excellent way to sell your product on online basis without much marketing efforts. Developing an affiliate program is a huge task and requires dedicated program manger, monetary resources, solid strategy and focus on finding the best affiliates and maintaining them. Some of the affiliate program benefits are enumerated below
In case of merchant
- You need to pay commission only when affiliate marketer has delivered desired outcome.
- Acquisition cost is quite less as compare to television advertising.
- It is an economic way to market product/services.
- Huge base of affiliates will help in increasing market exposure. Simply you will get recognition from traditional as well as international market.
- If you are going to get global then marketing of products will be it quite expensive but affiliate marketing you can easily gain exposure with vantage of reduced marketing costs.
- Affiliates have better reach as compare to traditional marketers. They can sell your products through ads, links, media, social networking newsletters etc. Also they can use certain internet marketing techniques which may accelerate right kind of traffic to your website.
- As affiliate concentrates on preselling of your products and now you simply can focus on other areas of business.
- Since you pay according to performance hence it is easier to measure and predict customer acquisition cost. Nowadays affiliate marketing software is also available in market that lets you to determine trends in your program and provides you data that can be used to ameliorate your strategies.
To the affiliate
- In case of affiliate marketer, the biggest advantage is that he/she will make money without having any inventory, orders or customer service.
So, are you still in dilemma whether affiliate program is right for you then do consider following points
- It requires strong commitment in terms of money and effort. The reimbursement needs to be adequate. If you pay less then they (affiliates) won’t perform effectively and vice versa.
- Treat your affiliates with same respect as you want to treat your work.
- Select products and service that have high margin.
- Identify your objective or goal which means selecting your goal for example your goal can be to increase turnover of particular product or to create brand awareness among potential customers or to generate new customers. Once the objective is established you can decide your strategy.
- Payout is significant thing and its importance can’t be undermined. There are three modes of payment pay per click, pay per lead and pay per sale. If your objective is to increase awareness of your product then blend of pay per click and pay per sale will work for you.
In epilogue, affiliate program is need of an hour.
