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 Take Control of your Affiliate Program
The online retailers we promote tend to be a pretty savvy lot. They have built some impressive businesses and brands while having to deal with issues like websites, seo, taking credit cards online, chargebacks, couriers and suppliers. However, affiliate marketing can leave them baffled and frustrated. Here are some tips to (re)gain control of your affiliate program and make it work for you.
- Decide whether you want business partners, a vast commission-based sales force, or a bit of both.
This is an important step because it determines the relationship you will have with affiliates and how you manage your program.
- Business partners are running businesses themselves and will act accordingly. You select them carefully, know who they are and communicate with them regularly... and you both benefit. These are typically long-term relationships.
- The vast commission-based sales force often touted by affiliate networks comprises of many different types of people. Some will act in a professional and ethical manner, some won't. Some will welcome communication, some won't. Some will hide their identities and methods.
- It is possible to run a program with a few business partners and a number of controlled sales affiliates and manage each one accordingly.
- Check their identity and reputations.
Contact affiliates and verify who they are and how they intend promoting your program. Be cautious of affiliates who hide their identity or refuse contact. Affiliate details entered on a form or provided by networks are not necessarily trustworthy (see this forum thread on affiliate identity fraud)... you need to check just like you would check a new employee or business associate.
- Remember who is working for whom.
If you have a business-like relationship with your affiliate, they might ask for specific information or services and will justify the request by saying what they intend to do with it and how it will benefit you both.
If you have a sales force which demands features (datafeeds etc) without sufficient explanation, check to see if there is mutual benefit.
- Set your terms and conditions to suit your goals.
There are two ways to do this:
- specify what you will accept eg visitor must click on a link on your designated website(s)
- specify what you will not accept - which requires ongoing research and some knowledge of black-hat techniques
You will probably find that you are more confident in giving free reign to affiliates that you know but will need to be more restrictive on anonymous affiliates.
- Monitor affiliates and police your terms and conditions
The more affiliates you have, the more you need to monitor. Develop some simple habits for checking. When you find an affiliate doing the wrong thing, remove them from your program. Share information with other merchants to lighten the load. You need to do this whether you are on a network or running an independent program.
Taking control of your affiliate program is essential. It's up to you to decide which affiliates are worth the time it takes to manage them. The answer will be different for every business.
Posted by Gayle at October 16, 2008 10:47 AM
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