How to Start Affiliate Program 2017 A-Z / What you need to know best

How to Start Affiliate Program 2017 A-Z / What you need to know best

What Is an Affiliate Program?

Affiliate program is a performance based form of marketing – It is a system that allows other people to promote your physical products and gain a commission on any sales made from people who are referred

Why do we need an Affiliate Program?

Here are the reasons why we should consider setting up affiliate program for the  e-Commerce store::
Extend the Reach

The greatest advantage of affiliate program is the fact that it will enable website/ store to connect with more potential customers.

Increase sales:

The increased leads that will be generated will result in increased sales and a boost in members for the site/store.


Have a Competitive Presence:

Affiliate programs will enable website/ store to be present at the actual point of purchase, where the competitors also are. This is a good thing, most especially when prospects have to choose between so many brands.

Advocates creation:

It is good thing to hear your website/store is good from someone else that to say it yourself, this would boost the morale of doing it even better.

Cost effective marketing strategy:

We will only be paying when a sale is made, so we are not taking any risks with the money or spending more than what we might get back.

Tailoring to the needs:

It is up to us how we run our affiliate program, there is no hard and fast or any rules, so you can do what works best for us and our site/store.

Easy Tracking:

An affiliate program is also easy to track; we can check how many clicks generated from the platform, and how many purchases were made via affiliate links.

Who Can Become An Affiliate?

One of the first things to consider when setting up the affiliate program is how we will recruit affiliates. The affiliate program could be:

1. Members only:- People who are members of the site can become affiliates.
2. Public:- anyone who wants to can become an affiliate.
3. Invitee:- We can hand select  people to become affiliates for you.

 

The Costs Involved With Setting Up An Affiliate Program

These can be divided into three bigger areas:

1. Management costs – we need someone, like an affiliate program manager, to keep an eye on and run the affiliate program
2. Platform costs – to run affiliate marketing, we need software or an affiliate network to help with the day-to-day activity.
3. Creative costs – someone needs to design creative materials banners, videos, landing pages and more for the program.

The cost of manage the program:

We need someone who will be responsible for;

·         The day-to-day running and up-keeping of the program.

·         The affiliate manager will manage tasks like recruitment of affiliates,

·         general communication with affiliates,

·         Designing policies, optimization of the program, reports, newsletters and more.

The Cost of  Platform Technology:

When choosing the right platform for you , we have two options. Either go with an affiliate network or use specialized software in-house.

The first thing you need to do is to decide on the program that you will be using for the website's needs.
Affiliate networks. These are just like mediators that provide merchants and affiliates with tracking and maintenance solutions to run their affiliate campaigns, making the program easier. The affiliate network will make it easier to get started because it automatically tracks and recruits affiliates. Keep in mind that the network will probably also charge a monthly fee or commission for utilizing the service.
Running our own program or script. You either have to create your own script or use an affiliate tracking software SAAS solution.

Specialized software gives more freedom and customization options. It can be adapted to fit the needs, interface is generally better and it is easier to track individual’s performance.

In-house Software & Affiliate Networks:

For the in-house software side of things, we can choose one of  the following:

• CAKE
• HasOffers
• AffliatePRO

For affiliate networks we have:

• Clicksure
• ShareASale
• CJ Affiliate by Conversant
• LinkShare
• Clickbank
• Affilinet
• Webgains

The Cost Of Creative

The great resources to be provided include:

• Relevant reviews and articles about the products
• Solid marketing plans and social media presence
• High quality graphic banners
• Promotional videos and visuals
• Product samples or excerpts

The Affiliate Landing Page

The affiliate program should be visible on the homepage because the majority of affiliates report discovering new programs through the merchant’s website.

Affiliate landing page is of no different than any other page (landing) on the site. It is imperative we are able to communicate the value the products and the program brings, so they know it is worth sharing with their audience/customers.

How to recruit Affiliates to join the Program

• Engaging with potential partners on social media.
• Seeking affiliate partners with the help of online tools. We can use tools such as;

ü  SemRush,

ü  Ahrefs,

ü  Citation Labs,

ü  BuzzStream,

ü  SEOQuake

• Reaching out to potential partners through summits, symposiums, or conferences.
• Employed structured-based recruitment strategies.
• Encouraging potential partners to set-up affiliate marketing after reading reviews from satisfied customers.
• Attracting potential partners through organic search.
• Sending recruitment emails. Email marketing is another effective strategy for attracting affiliate partners to join the program. The email should be concise, friendly, and  most importantly, personal. It should start with a catchy subject line, a short introduction of the company, an explanation for why  sending the email, a personalized comment, concrete data about the affiliate program and its competitive advantages.

How Much To Pay (The commission)

There are several strategies and bonus types that you can use to incentivize affiliates such as;

1. Paying commission on a per sale basis
2. Paying commission on a per lead basis (PPL)

Let us take a closer look at others run their affiliate incentives: