setting up a campaign
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| setting up a campaign |
Affiliate marketing is forming such an integral part of eMarketing – how would you go about setting up and launching a new campaign? Affiliate marketing should grow your business, and grow with your business, so it’s important to plan and prepare for long-lasting success.
First up, you need a clear idea of your business’s identity, goals and Unique Selling Points. No doubt you will have competitors that affiliates already promote; you need to be able to give affiliates compelling reasons why your programme is better.
With this in mind, you need to determine the goal of your affiliate marketing. If you are a new business, you might just want to build traffic and brand awareness. Depending on what industry you are in, your goal could be new customer leads, or it could be increased retail sales. Make sure you are clear on what you want, and that your web site reflects this.
Then, you need to decide whether you are going to run your own programme, from affiliate recruitment to tracking and paying, or whether you are going to use an affiliate network. If you are using an affiliate network, you’ll need to do your homework on the best network or networks to join. Look at:
Where your competitors are
Who has the kind of affiliates you want
What the joining fees and monthly fees are
How much support they can offer you
What countries the network is in
You’ll also need to decide whether you will hire an affiliate manager to run your programme, whether you might outsource your programme management, or whether you already have the resources to run the programme yourself.
You need to do a full competitor analysis, focussing on your competitors’ affiliate programmes. Look at:
Commission tiers
Cookie periods
Creative offerings
Which affiliates they work with
Networks
Incentives offered to affiliates
Prepare the basics that you’ll need to start a programme:
Product feed
Banners and other creative offerings
Using your competitor research, decide on commission, commission tiers, cookie period and incentives.
Test the tracking software on your site, and make sure that it does not conflict with any other tracking you are using.
Recruit affiliates: use your competitor analysis to contact potential affiliates; promote your programme through affiliate forums; use your affiliate network contact channels to approach affiliates; approach sites that you think fit your user demographic.
First up, you need a clear idea of your business’s identity, goals and Unique Selling Points. No doubt you will have competitors that affiliates already promote; you need to be able to give affiliates compelling reasons why your programme is better.
With this in mind, you need to determine the goal of your affiliate marketing. If you are a new business, you might just want to build traffic and brand awareness. Depending on what industry you are in, your goal could be new customer leads, or it could be increased retail sales. Make sure you are clear on what you want, and that your web site reflects this.
Then, you need to decide whether you are going to run your own programme, from affiliate recruitment to tracking and paying, or whether you are going to use an affiliate network. If you are using an affiliate network, you’ll need to do your homework on the best network or networks to join. Look at:
Where your competitors are
Who has the kind of affiliates you want
What the joining fees and monthly fees are
How much support they can offer you
What countries the network is in
You’ll also need to decide whether you will hire an affiliate manager to run your programme, whether you might outsource your programme management, or whether you already have the resources to run the programme yourself.
You need to do a full competitor analysis, focussing on your competitors’ affiliate programmes. Look at:
Commission tiers
Cookie periods
Creative offerings
Which affiliates they work with
Networks
Incentives offered to affiliates
Prepare the basics that you’ll need to start a programme:
Product feed
Banners and other creative offerings
Using your competitor research, decide on commission, commission tiers, cookie period and incentives.
Test the tracking software on your site, and make sure that it does not conflict with any other tracking you are using.
Recruit affiliates: use your competitor analysis to contact potential affiliates; promote your programme through affiliate forums; use your affiliate network contact channels to approach affiliates; approach sites that you think fit your user demographic.
And it doesn’t all stop once you’ve launched! The key to successful affiliate marketing is ongoing communication and marketing to your affiliates. You need to make sure you are on top of validating sales, so they get their commission. You need to ensure that you stay competitive with your commission offering. And, you need to keep your affiliates up to date with any information that could make them send more customers your way – more revenue for you and thus more cash for them!
