The affiliate marketing is a pay-for-performance model; remember, how you approach affiliate marketing will significantly impact the success of your marketing campaign. First of all recognise that affiliates must be considered as sales partners and not advertising partners. They are compensated for selling your products and/or services and for generating leads. The affiliate marketing program is a sales channel, not a marketing or advertising channel. Top affiliates can immediately discern your attitude towards your program, and are quick to move on to other programs if you do not demonstrate that you value them as sales partners.
With an affiliate marketing program you also develop a network of individuals working solely to promote your product. This network grows and grows and becomes larger and more powerful each day. Each new affiliate adds a link to your website, which simply increases your target market. So, each new affiliate allows your targeted market to grow larger in an exponential manner and reach unlimited amounts of individuals all over the web and the globe. Also, with each new link your website will rank higher in search engines so you not only increase your market, but you also increase your search engine results. The amount of websites linking to your site as a result of your affiliates means exposure and the more exposure you have the more results your targeted marketing and advertising plan will receive.
Maximizing Link Performance
Links should include a clear call to action, giving the consumer an immediate incentive to shop, such as free shipping, limited time offer, free gift with purchase, etc. Remember, the goal of your affiliate marketing program is most likely sales or new customer acquisition - not branding.
A plain logo or "merchant.com" text link won't get clicks or conversions like a link highlighting a 10% off discount. Provide a few basic logos that link to your homepage, but make the majority of your links promotional to close sales.
A link sets an expectation for the path that a consumer will follow, and the landing page for the link should meet that expectation. For example, a link for a sale on winter coats should lead directly to the coat section, not to your home page.
Encourage affiliates to place links within or near related, robust content. Provide them with samples in your affiliate newsletters. As the merchant, you know how to position and sell your product most effectively, so share your knowledge with affiliate sales partners.
