5 Easy to Implement Affiliate Marketing Tips for Marketers

Posted by in November 5th, 2008

Jeff Molander
Tired of the same old tips-and-tricks about Web affiliate marketing programs? “Communicate with them, treat them with respect” yada-yada. What about what really works? I pulled together a group of my most experienced, thought-leading colleagues to find out what’s moving the needle in affiliate marketing today. The below innovations are what I discovered. I’m happy to share these best practices. Yes, they can be quickly and easily applied - helping you manage your affiliates and extract maximum sales efficiency.

Stay tuned to Revenews for candid interviews with these experts where they’ll “go deep” on their secrets to success.

Allow affiliates to access a knowledge-driven feedback loop to improve their ROI and, as a result, increase yours.

1. Let affiliates “connect the ROI dots” between their investments (media spending) and your ultimate success (sales or new customers).

2. Provide select, trusted affiliates with limited yet unfettered access to your internal metrics and customer behavior data.

Strengthen relationships with superstar affiliates and open doors for potential superstars by actively, yet cautiously, investing hard and soft dollars in them.

1. Invest in affiliates: Underwrite affordable, educational opportunities and conferences for them. Sponsoring affiliates is very popular in the European realm.

2. Sponsor low-cost, virtual innovation forums and Webinars that offer training opportunities for top affiliates.

3. Provide limited access to Web metrics (ie. Google Analytics, Omniture) and optimization tools that are already at your disposal yet possess a high perceived (and applied!) value among affiliates.

4. Invest in affiliates: Subsidize the media buying of select, high-value affiliates by providing matching contributions to their expenditures or allowing access to your media buying prowess.

If you were paying attention that’s TWO strategies with supporting tactics. That’s plenty to chew on and begin to take ACTION on. I’ll be back in a few days with the final three. Also, stay tuned for more actionable tips and interviews with experts in a variety of performance-focused Web marketing strategies. I’ll be publishing interviews in the next few weeks.

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Jeff Molander is a leading Web marketing expert, author and speaker. He is CEO of Molander & Associates Inc., and can be reached at jeff_at_jeffmolander.com.