Affiliate marketing has provided a way for small businesses to promote their products and services with nearly the same reach as large corporations. This setup is advantageous for entrepreneurs since you only have to wait until a customer purchases your merchandise through your affiliate’s link before you compensate them with a commission.
An affiliate program is an entirely different marketing strategy that requires constant monitoring. This is where you need affiliate management, which is the process of cultivating a channel of marketers to entice customers to buy your products and services.
You can choose to hire an in-house team to handle your affiliate programs and networks. However, you should consider the costs of having to look for people with this specialized skill and having them onboard.
Outsourcing this process to an affiliate management company may provide you with a better deal. This way, you enjoy the services of experts in this field at affordable rates. Regardless of the setup you prefer for affiliate management, you should hire a manager to oversee your affiliate programs.
Here are some ways that affiliate management can help your business:
1. Improve Affiliate Relationships
Word-of-mouth marketing has always been effective because customers are more likely to buy your products and services if they know that their family or friends enjoyed it. Affiliate marketing is like word-of-mouth advertising, but the referrer actually gets compensated for their promotional efforts.
Having an affiliate manager will allow you to enjoy the positive reviews from your marketers continually. They take care of your partners to ensure that they’re sharing the links to your merchandise by developing incentive programs and the like. A manager should have exemplary customer service skills since they’ll be reaching out to lots of people and have them promote your brand.
There are three types of affiliate marketers:
- High-Value – This type is the most valuable for your business. These affiliates are typically bloggers, influencers, and industry leaders who drive substantial traffic to their websites independent of your promos.
- Mid-Funnel – Examples of these affiliates are review site administrators that encourage end-users to push through with the purchase of your products and services. These can also be websites that show up for search engine queries asking for the best items to solve a particular problem.
- Low-Value – These affiliate partners are unable to generate their own following, so they rely on your brand for traffic, which they then intercept and configure a cookie on. Some techniques include adware, browser extension, coupon sites, and monetization apps.
2. Accurate Tracking through Dedicated Tools
Affiliate managers are knowledgeable of the best tools to use for your program. They can build an affiliate database for your business as well as launch and track marketing campaigns. They are also adept at competitive analysis and intelligence.
The three best affiliate management tools today are:
- io – The tracking platform provides extensive features to managers, including its advanced campaign management functionality.
- LinkTrust – This software allows you to monitor leads, calls, and sales conversions. Plus, it has a customizable interface that enables you to track both offline and online advertising through pixels, cookies, server posts, and mobile traffic, among others.
- AffTrack – The primary perk that AffTrack offers users is unlimited clicks. It’s the only one in the market that eliminates your worries about click overages.
3. Create an Enticing Affiliate Program
Having a highly-rewarding affiliate program can lure potential partners into promoting your products and services. This is because the more they share your links, the bigger the chances customers will click on them and make a purchase. Then, they’ll receive their commission.
4. Develop Strategies to Improve Sales
The primary objective of your affiliate program is to boost sales and profits for your business. Your affiliate manager should know about search engine optimization and other necessary marketing strategies to boost traffic to your e-commerce website in the hopes of increasing sales.
5. Track Affiliate Sales and Manage Payments
You can manually monitor and count affiliate sales if you have a relatively small network of marketers. However, it won’t be manageable once the number of affiliates grows. An affiliate manager can help you track exactly how many people clicked and bought products through their links. With this information, you can provide them with accurate compensation for their efforts.
Conclusion
Affiliate management is necessary for any business that has a network of independent marketers. The process allows you to maintain your relationship with your partners, track their sales, and pay them accurately. Moreover, an affiliate manager knows how to use dedicated tools and help you improve your program.
