How does the study of a new science begin? Of course, from definitions and concepts. Perhaps I, too, in order to be consistent, will start with the basics.
Affiliate marketing for beginners
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How does the study of a new science begin? Of course, from definitions and concepts. Perhaps I, too, in order to be consistent, will start with the basics. The concept of Affiliate Marketing has no literal translation, so it is most often found in its original form in the literature. It is most common in the Internet business, being one of the most effective strategies for attracting new customers. In the traditional business, Affiliate Marketing, combined with Referral Marketing, has developed into a whole separate direction — MLM (multi-level marketing).
There is a widespread misconception that Affiliate Marketing is akin to affiliate programs. But this is not so: Affiliate Marketing is usually considered as an option to pay for the services of people or organizations that provide you with new target customers. The payment itself can be divided into :
- Pay per click (Pay per click)
- Pay per lead (Pay per lead)
- Pay per sale (Pay per sale).
The distribution of income usually occurs between several companies. The bottom line is that the main business pays other organizations or individuals (affiliates) to transfer or search for target customers. There are several ways of interaction between such companies: ads on the website, link placement, recommendations, cross-sales, online advertising, and so on.
The Affiliate Marketing strategy works well for companies that want to get thousands of new customers within a short period of time (half a year – a year). In addition, affiliate marketing allows you to attract a target customer at a lower cost than other channels of online advertising or offline promotion. Profitable, isn’t it?
However, it is worth mentioning that the success of the affiliate marketing program still requires serious investments and painstaking, hard work. Managing such a program includes many current and long-term tasks: recruiting, launching new promotions, team management, and so on. To date, there are several excellent options for managing such projects. Let’s look at them in more detail.
Management of affiliated programs
In-house Management (internal management). This type of management implies the launch of the project independently or by another employee of the company. In this case, a team of several people is recruited, headed by a project manager. responsibilities are signed, and everyone performs their part of the overall task (pipeline or linear solution), and the parallel work of all team members accelerates the time of implementing the program into the business (non-linear solution).
Network Management (network management). It uses previously created affiliate networks that can offer you various options for managing your program.This method is very expensive, but you can get great benefits and benefits from working with a network that will easily establish a connection with the best affiliates for your program.
Outsourced Program Management (external program management) — the choice for the work of an external program manager (OPM). OPM will offer you not only its experience in implementing such programs in your industry, but it is often cheaper than in the case of network management.
After the affiliated program is selected and configured, you can start working. The most important task is the so-called partner recruiting. You need to be sure that the affiliates are fans of your brand, that your program lives on, and the quality of the affiliates in your program will be a constant task that should never end.
Categories of affiliated programs
Read more: Most Profitable Affiliate Marketing Niches
There are three main categories:
Unrelated affinity
Such promotion implies a fee for a click made by the client on a pre-determined link. There is no connection with the customer and the buyer. The only task of the affiliate is to attract the attention of the target client to the link;
Related affinity
Placement of affiliated links on blogs, use as promotion of podcasts, videos and other tools;
Involved affinity
Provides for the direct use of advertised products and services that you offer to your own audience. Advertising in this case goes into the format of direct recommendations, and live inclusion in the affiliate promotion process significantly contributes to sales.
Promotion of an affiliated program
Affiliated programs can be promoted in a bunch of ways. Two heaps, to be more precise. However, the simplest and low-budget methods that you can try out without additional financial risks are the following:
- Creating a web page for the program on your website with basic information, as well as links to the registration page;
- Notification to the database of its customers about the launch of the program. It’s also worth mentioning this in every newsletter you send to new customers.;
- Announcement of the program on your blog;
- News on social networks;
- Thematic articles on forums;
- Contests and bonuses for program participants.
Summing up…
It may seem that having an affiliate program is a great way to develop your business, but it is important to note that such a strategy is designed to make a profit in the long term. Setting up and managing an affiliated program can take a lot of time and a lot of effort. Therefore, you should prepare for hard work.