Your retail affiliate program needs an agency?

TAGS: Affiliate marketing | eCommerce

With so many online retailers operating affiliate programs Neil Robbins, Managing Director at Silverbean, asks whether your company could benefit from working with a specialist affiliate management agency.

Amazon pioneered the first affiliate program before many people had even opened a free Hotmail account! Since then the UK affiliate marketing industry has matured into a £4 billion industry with many online retailers achieving phenomenal volumes of sales generated by their affiliates.

However as the affiliate marketing industry has grown so has the number of online retailers launching affiliate programs.

What does this mean to you then?

Let’s assume you have an affiliate program hosted on a reputable UK affiliate network and you don’t have an in-house affiliate manager. If you don’t already have an affiliate program then pay close attention this could save you some valuable time!

The affiliate networks are great. In the main their technology is very good and affiliates rely on them to centralise sales reports and pay them in a timely fashion.

Without affiliate networks I fail to see how the average online retailer could have an affiliate program.

However, the vast majority of UK affiliate networks are busy. Very busy. Very very busy. And whilst many will claim to help online retailers launch and build their affiliate program the reality is they are unable to dedicate the resources to do so.

I can’t blame them, finding knowledgeable affiliate marketing staff is not easy and the costs required developing and maintaining those technical platforms must be vast.

Here is where the specialist affiliate marketing agency comes in to play.

In recent times we have seen a real acceptance from the affiliate networks as to the important role the quality affiliate management agencies can play – after all the majority of an affiliate networks revenue comes from their commission override so it makes sense they welcome their clients employing specialist people to increase those sales from affiliates.

A good quality affiliate marketing agency should be able to help you with;

• Recruiting affiliates into your program particularly ones that specialise in your sector.
• Creating a commission strategy that incentivises affiliates whilst protecting your profit margins over time.
• Implementing further incentives to encourage affiliates to increase the traffic they refer to your site.
• Creating compelling, original content for affiliates to use on their sites promoting your business, products and offers.

I could go on and on but I think you get the gist.

If you have an affiliate program (or are thinking about it) and are not planning to employ an in-house affiliate manger then seriously consider talking to an agency like Silverbean (if you don’t like the look of us there are one or two others we could tell you about!).

I can guarantee it will make all the difference to the amount of sales your affiliate program achieves.

Whilst the investment to set an affiliate program is very low don’t treat it as a “no win - no fee” online marketing channel.

An affiliate program has the potential to make a real different to your online retail business.

Neil Robbins is Managing Director at Silverbean. If you have any questions or would like to discuss how Silverbean can help you achieve your online marketing objectives through good usability; please contact Steve using one of the following.

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