Benefits of Outsourcing Your Affiliate Program
Management and Promotion
Many companies considering an affiliate program as
part
of their promotional efforts are under the impression it provides an
instantaneous solution to free traffic. In time this becomes true, but
affiliate programs will not start themselves and they require attentive
management and maintenance to ensure profitability.
To be successful an affiliate program must gain
traction, meaning it must be given a running start through time and
effort. Without a successful launch, an affiliate program becomes a
long term cumulative promotional effort. With a successful launch, a
program can be expected to grow substantially faster, producing
worthwhile results in months rather than years. This requires an
initial investment of time or money with the realization that over time
the program will pay for itself and eventually grow to the point of
supporting its own cost and producing sizable profit margins.
The affiliate program industry is incredibly
competitive, and novice marketers will have a difficult time promoting
their own program without access to knowledge that is not directly
available, or is scattered among many sources. To acquire this
knowledge takes years of experience as well as connections with major
players to ensure promotional efforts can be implemented smoothly.
Because of this, it may be advisable for companies to hire someone with
extensive experience, or to outsource their affiliate program promotion
and management to a firm that specializes in starting, growing and
managing affiliate programs.
There are several steps to creating a successful
affiliate program.
- First, a merchant must acquire affiliate
software
that is easy to use and functional. The software is the foundation upon
which the entire program is based and must suit the needs of the
merchant.
- Second, the merchant must promote the affiliate
program so as to acquire as many affiliates as possible to gain
traction.
- Third, the affiliates must be managed, which
includes getting them
to place their links, working with them to implement offers, answering
their questions, handling payments, and being attentive to their needs
to prevent attrition and to maximize results.
Essentially, an affiliate program with potential
for
serious growth requires full time attention. It is not a free and
instantaneous answer to acquiring more traffic. There are many
companies who handle various aspects of affiliate program
implementation, but few who offer a comprehensive solution. One such
company is AffiliateTraction. As Greg Shepard, the CEO of
AffiliateTraction explains, “There are major benefits to
outsourcing to one company for all affiliate program needs. We know our
software inside out, and we have also worked with all of the major
affiliate program applications that are available. Our promotional
efforts have been developed over the last 10 years. We learned through
experience so our clients don’t have to. Also, our affiliate
managers have been working with experienced affiliates for most of
their professional careers. They know exactly how to make them happy
and productive. Having every aspect of affiliate program startup,
management and promotion in-house allows fluent communication and
implementation. As many website owners know, working remotely on
technical and service related issues can be a headache, and can cost a
fortune in time communicating, negotiating and implementing solutions
that involve several third party vendors. All of our services are well
established and implemented by experienced in-house employees who are
highly specialized in their positions.”
By reviewing AffiliateTraction’s
services
merchants can easily see the complexity that is involved in an all-out
effort to start and grow an affiliate program. Besides offering
proprietary TrackAssure tracking software, AffiliateTraction offers
both management and promotion services that are available separately or
as part of one package that includes software.
Affiliate program management involves the
following:
- Affiliate technical support
- Affiliate payments
- Motivational emails
- Traffic and sales reports
- Expert advice
- Fraud & spam control
- Brand protection
- Attrition control
- Intra-program super affiliate scouting
- Affiliate qualification.
Affiliate program promotion may involve the
following:
- Announcements to leading affiliate directories
- Press release announcing the program
- Insertion into major affiliate networks
- Forum & blog promotion
- Search engine promotion
- Email promotion
- Display advertising
- Consultation
It is easy to see upon review of these services
that
starting, managing and promoting an affiliate program is anything but
straightforward. It is advisable for merchants to seek out the solution
that best fits their own needs and expectations. If expectations
include growing a program quickly and with as little hang ups as
possible, then an outsourced provider is clearly the answer. For more
information CLICK HERE
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