10 Things to Look For in an Affiliate Management System
There are many different affiliate management systems available. You have to select the best one so that you can get good profit and your affiliates are also happy. This article explains 10 most important things that should be present in a great affiliate management system, so you would be able to run your affiliate marketing business easily:
1) Complete control over recruitment of Affiliates:
This is the basic requirement of any affiliate management system because if you don’t have control over the number of affiliates joining and promoting your affiliate program you might be soon end up in loss or some spammers or your competitor may try to break down your affiliate system and create loss in your business. So, wisely choose the affiliate management system which provides complete control over the affiliates so you would be able to contact them, offer them help, request information and keep in-touch.
2) Offer multiple payment options for your customers and affiliates:
Your affiliates are distributed geographically all over the world. In one region particular payment option will be available and the same will not be available in some other region. PayPal is a good option because they are almost present in all countries but you can’t withdraw the money in some countries like Egypt where you can use MoneyBookers to withdraw the money. So, your affiliate management system should enable your affiliates to receive the payment via lot of payment processors else they will not work for you. Offer as much affiliate payment options as possible and then you will have no problem getting your product promoted!
3) Affiliate visitor and sales tracking is a must – track as much details as possible:
The affiliate management system should be able to provide you the ratio between the number of visitors and the sales made by them. This can help you to find out your best affiliate and reward your best affiliate every month it will create a healthy competition among your affiliates and you will enjoy the benefits of it. You must be able to track all details of your affiliates activities: views and visitors that your affiliates bring, the number of sales, conversion rates of your promotional partners, refund rates. Some systems even allow you to track the websites referring sales to your website and even keywords used on search engines to find and buy your products.
4) Affiliate reward system based on their performance:
The affiliate management system should not give the same amount of commission to all your affiliates i.e., it should provide more commission to those who bring quality traffic and make good sales and should give somewhat less commission to poor performers. So, that your good affiliates will try to work even harder to get more commission per sale. Make sure to select the system that allows you to set custom affiliate commission percentages for each certain affiliate. Then you will be able to reward your best performing ones!
5) Ban the affiliates if they use illegal methods – Affiliate BAN mechanism :
Some of your affiliates may bring traffic to your site by spamming or by redirecting their browser in malicious manner and some may buy your product if they like it but more than 95% visitors will consider your site to be malicious site and trying to spam them. So, it will bring bad reputation to your business hence, your affiliate management system should identify these affiliates and ban them. Your affiliate management system should allow you to identify these scammers – by allowing you to track number of visitors, websites used by affiliate to refer visitors – and then ban if you feel that certain affiliate hurts your reputation.
6) Be in contact with your affiliates – always stay in touch with them:
Money is the main factor for which your affiliates are working for you, but it isn’t the only factor which helps you to retain your affiliates. More or less all the affiliate programs offered by different product sellers are almost the same, so you can have an advantage if you do something different than what others do, you can do this by being in contact with your affiliates try to understand their problem and help them whenever they need your support and get their suggestions to improve your product. Always help your affiliates by contacting them personally, asking if they need some help. This way they will reward you with a lot of sales!
7) Keep track the refund rates of each certain affiliate:
When your customer is not happy with your product they request you to refund the money and you have to do this to maintain good reputation. There are basically two reasons for which your customers will ask you to refund: first is when the product is not really worth the other reason is they might be given some wrong information about the product by your affiliates and when they didn’t find that feature in your product they will request you to refund. So, your system should be able to track down those affiliates and ban them if they bring too many sales that ends up as a refund request – in order to protect your product and online reputation.
8) Track all websites that bring you visitors and sales via affiliate links:
Tracing down the source from where visitors arrive. Your affiliate management system should be able to trace out from where your customers are coming from i.e., the source which directs them to find the sales page and buy your product. After pinpointing it you have to focus advertising there to boost your sales. Such tracking capabilities allow you to identify the most profitable ‘traffic sources’ and concentrate on them (if it’s an affiliate – offer additional help, etc.). This way you can easily make your profits soar!
9) Flexible affiliate training capabilities:
You should provide training to your affiliates about your product so that they can understand what they are selling, its advantages and disadvantages. This will help them greatly to convince their visitors to make them buy your product. Provide all possible promotional materials – banners, pre-written articles, e-mail letters and other content for your affiliates. Your affiliate management system should allow you to place and manage all promotional tools and thus enable your affiliates to access them easily whenever they need to.
10) Track all keywords that bring you visitors and sales and manage affiliates effectively:
Your affiliate management system should be able to find out the keywords used by the visitors to find your product on search engines like Google, yahoo or other search engines. This report can be used to stress these words more in other search engines by using the Meta tags and using ad services of Google, yahoo or other ad service providers. You should be able to track all keywords that people use to find your product via pay per click campaigns such as Google Adwords or Y! Search marketing or regular search engines. Once you find keywords that bring sales, you can easily concentrate on them, bid higher to get even more traffic and sales!
If your affiliate management system has these 10 things then you can be assured that you will make good profit, but always try to improve your system according to the latest technology so that you are always ahead of your competitors. We would recommend you to join Click2Sell.EU (http://www.click2sell.eu) affiliate management system. It allows you to sell your products online, run your affiliate marketing business and manage all your affiliates easily with a help of great statistical and analytics features. Choose a good affiliate manage system that will enable you succeed online!
Egidijus Andreika is a creator of Click2Sell.EU affiliate management system. Sell digital products online and run your affiliate program. Manage affiliates, track all aspects of affiliate campaigns. Get paid instantly to Paypal, Moneybookers. Fully control affiliates, offer them help and run affiliate marketing business successfully. Visit Click2Sell affiliate management system.
10 Affiliate Marketing Management Tips
Discover The Answer To The 10 Most Common Affiliate Marketing Management Questions
1. Is affiliate marketing right for my business?
Affiliate marketing is one of the most powerful and effective means of gaining new customers, regardless of your product or service. Affiliate marketing exposes your business to new customers and can get you out of your marketing rut. Additionally, when you initiate an affiliate marketing campaign, you’re in control. You determine the commission rate you pay and pay only when your affiliates make a sale. It’s a no loss operation for you because you only pay when a sale is made.
2. What are the startup costs?
When you start an affiliate program you have the choice of handling the operations yourself or having it managed by an affiliate network. The costs for either choice are reasonable and generally start around a few hundred dollars. Additionally, as a business owner don’t forget that many of your costs may be tax deductible. To start an affiliate marketing program in house, costs will include:
Affiliate management software
Affiliate marketing support including a website that answers affiliate questions and a means for them to contact you if any issues arise.
Affiliate marketing materials including banner ads, copy, coupons, and promotional content.
An affiliate marketing contract agreement
Tracking software to track cookies, click throughs, payments, etc…
If you choose to hire an affiliate network to handle your program they generally charge a flat fee or a percentage of what you pay out each month.
3. How much time will it take out of my workday/workweek?
Most experts agree that it will take you about an hour and a half each day to manage your affiliate program. They also recommend you to budget more time in the first few months of your program, approximately two to three hours a day. Even the most efficient affiliate managers spend about 45 minutes a day managing their affiliate program.
Professional affiliate managers generally spend an average of 40-80 hours a month dedicated to managing, tracking and promoting your affiliate program.
4. Should I use an affiliate network?
Do you have an extra 3 hours a day for the next two or three months? Do you have an hour a day to devote to managing your program after the initial three month program is complete? An affiliate network, while it may be a bit more expensive on the outset, can help you focus your time on other profit generating tasks. Additionally, an affiliate network can help expose your affiliate program to a wide variety of experience affiliates, which means more money in your bottom line and more exposure overall.
That being said, there are a tremendous number of effective in-house solutions including some you’re likely already familiar with like 1shoppingcart.com and affiliatepro.com. These programs will help you stay 100% in control of your affiliate program and are effective at managing your program.
5. How should I pay affiliates? What type of commission works best?
This is a very important decision because it not only affects your profits, the right commission rate will help you recruit top-notch affiliates. The general rule of thumb is to set your default commission rate at a rate you can afford to pay while leaving room for time limited commission increase offers, promotions, and private offers. For example, if you can afford to pay 50% of your gross profit margin, pay 25% instead and tier it so that after a sales goal is reached they earn 30% or you can bump it up to 50% during the holidays or during typically low sales times.
6. How do I recruit affiliates?
Your customers may be your best affiliates. After all, they already appreciate and enjoy your products or services. A simple link on your website is a good place to start. Here are a few ways to find quality affiliates:
Online forums. These are excellent places to meet and greet and connect with like minded individuals. They’re also a good resource for affiliates who are interested in, motivated, and qualified to sell your products and services. Using a forum, you can announce your affiliate program. Be careful to not ‘sell’ on the forum as most forums look down on this and may kick you off. Additionally, you can include a link to your affiliate site in your signature.
Find websites that link to your competitors and approach them about being an affiliate for you. Likewise, you can find affiliates using your favorite search engine and contact them about joining your program.
One last way is to join an affiliate network or become listed on an affiliate directory. This will ensure that affiliate marketers who are searching for new products and services to promote. However, keep in mind that many beginner marketers also seek products and services to promote via affiliate directories and they may lose interest and motivation before they ever make a sale. This isn’t a strong deterrent because they don’t get paid unless they make a sale, however it should be noted.
7. What is the best way to communicate with my affiliates?
Email is the general tool of choice, which makes an auto responder a fantastic tool for basic emails like the welcome email, introducing promotions, coupons, sending links and banner ads, and answering Frequently Asked Questions. It is also generally advisable to have an email address, fax number, and telephone number available for when affiliates have questions that are not answered by your frequently asked questions web page or when they simply want to speak with you.
8. How do I motivate affiliates?
Money motivates no doubt about it. That being said, affiliates are also motivated by feeling that they’re important to you. This means when they ask for your time, you give it. Additionally, promotions, bonuses, prizes, contests, and commission increases are all tools to motivate and inspire affiliates. Constant communication, like sending a weekly or monthly Ezine, will also help remind your affiliates that you’re out there and invested in their success.
9. Do I need to hire an affiliate manager?
The answer to this question really depends on your needs. How large is your company? Do you have the time to manage your program? Do you have the skills to manage your program? An affiliate manager is the person that:
Recruits affiliates
Communicates with affiliates
Develops, tracks, and reports on promotions
Develops programs to enhance affiliate program
Motivates affiliates
Tracks sales and pays affiliates
Monitors your competition
These are all extremely important functions and if you have the time to handle them yourself, excellent! If you do not, then consider hiring an affiliate manager.
10. How do I find/hire an affiliate manager?
Outsourcing an affiliate manager is fairly easy to do. There are hundreds available with a quick online search. You can ask associates, inquire at online forums, or post an advertisement seeking someone to fill the position. Depending on the complexity of your affiliate program, you could consider a well qualified virtual assistant for the job. The skills your affiliate manager will need are:
Organizational skills
Communication skills
Attention to detail
Knowledge of online business, internet marketing, and basic ecommerce operations
Basic html and graphic experience are a plus
Because they’re going to be representing you, you’ll want to make sure they’re personable.
Jeremy Gislason is a leading expert on membership sites, marketing and online business. For more Business Strategies, Resources and Affiliate Manager Software visit MemberSpeed.com
Paulson Management Group, Inc. Welcomes New Client, SkinCubed.com
Paulson Management Group, Inc. Welcomes New Client, SkinCubed.com
SkinCubed.com, an online leader in clinical, age-defying cosmeceuticals that smooth away wrinkles and sun damage to restore beautiful skin, has recently chosen Paulson Management Group Inc. to launch their new affiliate program in LinkShare. SkinCubed.com offers a peptide-based, anti-wrinkle cream with clinically proven results.
Read more on PRWeb via Yahoo! News
Neolane to Host Cross-Channel Marketing Optimization Roundtable at the Customer Relationship Management Conference 2010
Neolane to Host Cross-Channel Marketing Optimization Roundtable at the Customer Relationship Management Conference 2010
NEWTON, Mass.—-Enterprise marketing software provider Neolane, Inc. today announced it is hosting a roundtable discussion at the Customer Relationship Management Conference 2010. The roundtable, “Covering All Your Bases – How to Move from Multi-Channel to Cross-Channel Marketing,” will present retailers with a roadmap to move from siloed, multi-channel efforts to seamless, cross-channel …
Read more on Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
Marketing Tips: Email Management Strategies
Marketing Tips: Email Management Strategies
Tips on how to reduce email overload, a resource for marketing on Twitter, and StarBucks learns a big lesson on listening to customers.
Read more on Small Business Computing
Mjh Group: Marketing Strategy & Marketing Management
How much should I spend on marketing?
This is a common question that marketing consultants gets asked on a regular basis.
The simple answer is that there is no hard a fast rule – it depends on the competitive environment, the stage of business development, the product or service category and the balance of advertising designed to promote the brand vs advertising designed to generate a specific response.
As a result of these factors, marketing budgets are best set based on careful analysis of a number of factors as part of a Marketing Strategy not via the often used % of sales method.
If you are looking to develop a deeper understanding of your marketing budget then there are two good places to start.
Brand Awareness- Analysing the level of advertising that is appropriate to reach your target markets with appropriate levels of frequency and credibility
Specific Response – Analysing the response and conversion rates you are achieving from various forms of advertising
Brand awareness is a direct product of the Marketing Strategy – by identifying the key target markets and having an understanding of the competitive environment it is possible to establish a picture of the level and types of “brand” advertising required to generate awareness of the brand for new customers and reinforce the message with existing consumers.
Planning the elements of the campaign designed to generate a specific response is more closely aligned with the sales budgets and requires analysis of the response and conversion rates you are achieving from various forms of advertising.
Using response and conversion rates as a starting point allows MJH Group to determine the expected result for a particular level of spend in a particular area and plan the marketing strategy accordingly. This is correlated to the sales budget to help plan the necessary mix of advertising required to drive the response to deliver the sales result.
MJH Group Marketing supports companies who want to be more innovative and effective in their marketing by providing marketing tips and expertise to develop strategic and tactical marketing programs.
