Sleepyhead Blog

It Began at a Cocktail Party

The idea of affiliate marketing emerged during a conversation between a young woman and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The young woman had created a Web site about divorce and Bezos asked whether she could offer to a sales commission books on this subject on its website. The idea of the affiliate program was born and is now one of the key pillars of our reputation and success. Today Amazon sells books and CDs to more than 500,000 partner sites worldwide.

The Affiliate Site As a Sales Office on The Internet

Affiliate marketing is basically not a revolutionary idea, but rather a return to the traditional distribution channels in the offline business. The function that performs the traditional retailers and the specialty shop in the pedestrian street in a small town, takes over the affiliate site in a similar form on the Internet. Products and services are brought closer to the customer for the customer better and more quickly accessible and can be immediately adapted to the specific interests and needs of specific target groups.

For example, an insurance provider of travel insurance would be offered a wider range of potential customer segment. With the help of an affiliate program, he acquired to provide partner sites, the complementary products and services or to address a similar audience, such as Travel agents, travel content sites, a provider of travel literature, Globetrotter and outdoor equipment supplier, a provider of travel items, etc. The use of existing distribution channels other websites creates entirely new opportunities for co-branding and cross-selling strategies.

Affiliate Marketing as a New Form of Cooperative Marketing on The Internet

Affiliate programs are thus creating the basis for a novel form of cooperative marketing and distribution on the Internet. Rather than placing some banner advertising platforms that can make e-business company with the help of an affiliate program set up virtual branch networks “that offer their products and services on their websites and sell. The partners will therefore be directly involved in the actual marketing and sales process.

The marketing and sales functions through online marketing media, which represents the provider’s partners. This can be text links, images and even whole Web sites or shop modules be built into the partner’s Web site. A special HTML code, all transactions are recorded and registered. For each transaction successfully mediated the partner receives a commission.

Performance as a New Standard of Value for Online Marketing

The most impressive is affiliate marketing, that the remuneration of the affiliate partner is always tied to a particular result. The costs of this new form of marketing are therefore purely success-oriented. The affiliate technology enables the reliable registration of all transactions on the partner site, from first click to sale. If there is a purchase that will be credited to the Partner a commission. Type and amount of the commission are individually consistent between program managers and partners. Pay-per-click (PPC), pay-per-lead (per prospect / download / subscribe, etc.) and pay-per-sale (PPS) for each sale are the most common types of partner remuneration.

The on-line sales activities on partner sites are thus directly measurable and controllable. This allows the online merchant know very quickly, which partners which traffic and revenue to achieve its business. It can promote the most successful partners in separate measures and to bind more closely to his business.

Target and Niche Marketing via Partner Sites

“The Internet is only a mile wide, but a hundred thousand miles deep,” says the citation by Declan Dunn, a well-known online marketers in the U.S.. In fact, moving more than 85% of web users outside of the big Web portals and marketplaces. You control primarily at sites that match their specific interests, the so-called content and community websites. For this reason, playing the theme and target group specific content of the partner websites in affiliate marketing is a special role. With the help of many special themed Web sites use on-line businesses to expand their editorial expertise in areas important for the individual companies themselves would not be achievable, thus reaching audiences throughout the depth of the Internet. Instead lure customers with expensive advertising campaigns to its online store, creating the affiliate program is a network of new “virtual trading places” or “sale”. By integrating a “Partner Offer” in the environment related topic, a new impulse buying behavior at the point-of-interest is triggered.

Affiliate Marketing – Also for The Partner a Lucrative Business

Not only for the vendor affiliate marketing is a lucrative business, but also for the partner. The partner can use to participate in an affiliate program to expand his own web offerings and more attractive. He offers in this way add value to its customers without investing in their own infrastructure. Affiliate marketing offers for almost every website and every online business, open up a way to new business. Thus, an online travel suppliers can use the affiliate partnership with an insurance company to make its customers along with the confirmation of a simple link, an offer for travel insurance. The handling of insurance policy, he need not worry about this, but canceling one case of successful mediation, only the success fee. Affiliate marketing is useful to exploit up-sell and cross-selling potential without investing in additional logistics, fulfillment and back office administration. There are affiliate to affiliate with clever strategies to generate the 6-digit amount of commission. The win-win situation for both parties, affiliate programs to make the ultimate form of electronic joint ventures.

Success in affiliate marketing

Affiliate programs are more than a new form of online advertising on a contingency basis. An affiliate program can the poor click-through rates of banner ads do not improve if it is based on the same methods. An important criterion for the successful implementation of an affiliate program is the integration into the overall strategy of sales and marketing processes of suppliers and partners. To generate an affiliate program related transactions, it depends on the correct strategy, professional partner and a good relationship management to the partner network.

*The right partner
Quality not quantity. In the affiliate partnership, the same criteria apply as in the classical cooperation: only sites that would create additional value through content, target audience by affinity or by means of complementary products and services are suitable partners.

* Versatile media
Important for the precise presentation on partner sites is the provision of different presentation options, not just banners and text links. Better suited to specific content modules, line of business deals, mini-shops, and dynamic web modules to entire web pages. The more flexible to adapt to the partnerships the offers to the individual needs of its website and its audience is, the more likely the willingness to participate and the chances for success.

* Fair conditions
A good partnership will only work on a win-win basis. Whether per lead or per sale, a commission should always reflect the value of a new customer. With major partners are also hybrid payment models consisting of a fixed and a performance component. This gives both partners a certain level of security and emphasizes the seriousness of the cooperation. Even a long-term partner-customer protection for repeat business is a good basis for a fair partnership.

* Good Partner Management
Online partners are virtual distributor. You need to have regular information on new developments and new offers, tips and support for the online sale and of course now and again a little motivation. Partner’s newsletter, regular e-mail communication and sometimes a personal phone call with the top partners are appropriate media for relationship management.

* Integrative sales processes
The visitor is directed instead to the shopping basket on a hotline number, the partner often lose his well-deserved commission. Here, too, processes should be created that combine a good customer service with Partner concept.

* Define goals
An affiliate program should always be an integral part of an overall strategy planned and implemented. The more accurately a company in the run defines the objectives of the partnership concept to be achieved, for example, desired target, required partner profiles and accompanying measures, the better the chances of success.

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