Many businesses miss out on the real benefits of affiliate marketing. As an advertiser (business looking to get affiliates) you really need to understand the extremely delicate balance that needs to be struck to get to that sweet spot of incredible commercial success. First of all, it depends on the goal of your affiliate marketing campaign. There are 3 main goals for most companies to focus on:

1. Build Your Brand

2. Making a Ton of Profit

3. Making to a Ton of Profits for Your Affiliates

All three of these goals are involved in hitting the sweet spot. I’ve seen a lot of companies start an affiliate program and generate a bunch of leads, and dump their affiliates without caring. If you do this you will miss out on a ton of money that could have been made.

You have to understand what affiliate marketing really is, and have been on both sides of the table (meaning I’ve run affiliate programs for my business, and have also been a publisher selling affiliate products). That’s exactly what needs to be achieved for both of them to be successful.

You see, affiliate marketing is much more than just you (the advertiser) making a great business decision to only pay for the ad that results in sales and therefore profit, it is about building your company’s brand. It’s also about building strategic partnerships with individuals who can literally explode your business.

It’s fine and dandy to use affiliate programs to deliver some banner ads to individuals to earn some extra money and generate leads for your business, but that’s what most companies do, so why stop there? You don’t want to be like everyone else, you want to be better than them. You want to be better than them, don’t you? I hope your answer is yes, because if not then you can stop reading now. You don’t need to know these strategies if you don’t want to, but for those who do, pay close attention to the rest of this article.

By this point, your goal with your affiliate program should be aiming for the 3 goals I mentioned earlier: building your brand, making a ton of profit for yourself, and making a ton of profit for your affiliates. Having your affiliates help you will help, I can guarantee, and it will come down to how you ultimately structure your affiliate program.

So How do you Structure an Affiliate Program?

First of all, it’s all about the commission. You have to give people a big incentive to advertise for you. Your goal isn’t just to make that quick sale (quick sales are good, but there’s more to it), it’s about building that customer’s lifetime value and that strong brand image with them. If you don’t know what your client’s average lifetime value is, you’ll need to look at your records, do some research, and maybe do a little math. You want to know at least how much they cost, and how long they remain an active customer.

Usually, a good commission to start with for physical products is 6-8%, and once an affiliate shows good sales volume you can increase the commission amount to 12% or 15% if it is possible. Keep in mind at this point, whatever commission you fix, make sure you are still making a profit. I know this sounds like common sense to you, but after testing your campaign a few times later you may actually find it more economical to take a loss on the first sale. Don’t worry, I’m going to cover this in a bit, so just keep reading, but first I want to cover informational/digital product affiliate commissions.

For informational/digital download affiliate programs, you want to pay at least 50% commission. Statistics show that programs that do not offer 50% or more do very badly. There have been a few exceptions to the products I worked with, but that was only because they had very high conversion rates. So use that as your baseline, test it out, and see if you can afford to go higher. With downloadable products, it is usually not the first sale that will make your business, but it is the backend products and the upsells that follow. So like with physical products, you want to know what the average lifetime value of a customer is, and from there, you can assess how much commission you can pay.

The second is the cookie duration. This is very important for your affiliates because most sales don’t happen in the first meeting. Studies show that customers return an average of 4-7 times before the sale actually takes place, depending on the product being sold. I recommend companies use cookies for at least 60 days. Why 60? Because all the rest 30, 30 days usage is standard. Even though most sales happen within that time period, you’ll attract a ton more affiliates with a 60 day (or longer) cookie period.

Third, in addition to cookie duration, it’s worth selling something for you to consider. Attribution basically means deciding who is to be credited for the sale. If you have a customer who goes to an affiliate, and then doesn’t buy, but manages to land on a different site a day or two later and then buys, who do you want to attribute the sale to?

Most companies prefer the last click attribute, which means that the last site to receive a click as a result of the sale gets the credit. This is the most common method, but there are some other companies that prefer the opposite which is the first click feature, which means that even if someone bought from another site like in the example above, the site that got that first click, He will get the sale. Choose which logic works for you, for me, I also like the last click feature.

Fourth, pay your commission on time. If you don’t pay your colleagues on time they will venture elsewhere, even if it is for a small percentage. Your affiliates are working hard for you and at times getting paid to drive traffic to your sites for the possibility of making commissions for advertising your products, and most of the time those advertising bills come in the way before they are paid. are, and I know because I’ve been there.

I will get nothing more by not making timely payments by the affiliated company, and even worse, some will wait till the next payment cycle. You need to feel the pain of your colleagues and know what they are going through. There’s nothing more stimulating than spending a few hundred or thousand dollars on advertising and waiting 2 months to get paid on it.

More Advanced Affiliate Marketing Tips for the Advertiser

So what’s the point of making sure it all happens? Why is it important to make sure your colleagues are happy? Well here is some stuff that will really put you above the competition. I’m all about delivering great content in my articles, so here’s some juicy stuff for you.

Creating Excellent Affiliate Offers

Anyone can recruit a bunch of affiliate marketers, slap a good offer following the basics I listed above and you can make a bunch of sales, but will they make your business explode overnight? ? Maybe not. This is where you take it from here which will depend on how successful your affiliate program will be. After you (or your affiliate manager) have started building an affiliate, contact them. Send a message to your colleagues and ask them if any of them would like to take advantage of a special offer, and how you would love to work with them personally.

You see many companies give coupon codes to their affiliates for shopping discounts such as 5, 10, 15% off, or offer free shipping for people who shop through affiliate links. Now these work quite well from time to time, they help people buy through affiliates, but there’s always a way to take things a step above the competition, and that’s what I’m going to teach you here.

Exclusive Multi-Product Website Affiliate Offers

You want to work closely with a select few individuals who responded to the email you sent them to work with them in person. Depending on your business structure, you can get some guidelines from here. First I want to talk about your standard multi-product website. Let’s say you sell furniture online and really want to explode your business. Instead of just giving coupons to your affiliates you want to try to get your affiliates to promote different categories or even a specific product in ways that are not possible through your site.

Let me explain, a typical product website can only do so much. You have a product picture, a description, maybe a little ad copy, and a price. The factors you can really change to increase sales are price, free or reduced shipping, copy changes, and brand image. This is fairly standard stuff, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s another level you can hit with your allies, but won’t be able to fly over your site.

Since we’re talking about furniture, let’s say you have a product that you want to work with a partner to sell. The product is called the Super Deluxe Bed. There are many more things you can work on to sell this product with your chosen partner. A collaborator (with your supervision) can create a copy for the product which will be able to incorporate a number of other sales triggers to sell it.

Example: Your colleague is promoting a super deluxe bed. For his customers you give him a special offer (or allow him to say it is exclusive) for this bed, and that he will get this special offer only if his customers shop through him. However, this is just the beginning. Let your associate put some slack in your customers’ nerves. Make this an “extremely limited” offer that is only available for a limited time, or that you are only allowing a certain # of these beds to be sold at this price.

You can also allow your partner to award bonuses to customers who buy Super Deluxe bedding. The bonus can be either a physical product such as a “limited edition lamp”, or a free “How to Get an Amazing Night’s Sleep” special report. That way salesmanship will sell a ton more products for you.

Expanding Your Business With Affiliate Marketing

These are the things that will really make your business explode but something that you cannot do alone. If you did this for every product or category on your site, you would come across as oversold, or too pushy. I mean think about it, if every product purchased got the same special bonus then it wouldn’t be any more special, or if everything is listed as “available in limited quantities”, then you can start a business like that. Instead of offering “exclusive limited offers” to people who can’t seem to manage their stock.

Take a few minutes to really illustrate the 2 different sales processes I’ve described, and put yourself in the customers’ shoes to get a feel for the experience they have in each position. Who do you think will be more likely to sell: Your site lists the product with free shipping or an affiliate site that lists the product with an “exclusive limited-time free shipping offer,” as a bonus. With (for the next 10 orders only) the FREE “How to Get Amazing Sleep Nights” Special Report ($37 value), plus a somewhat more compelling copy?

See you can’t do this with every product on your site, but with the power of affiliate marketing, you can drive highly targeted traffic to amazing offers like this without tarnishing your brand. It’s really unbelievable how doing this with multiple affiliates with so many different products or categories can take away the competition and make you and your affiliates a lot of money, and I’m just going through advertising on your site. Speaking of incoming visitors, don’t even get me started with what this process can do for you in order to launch or relaunch a product or business. Ever wanted to know what it’s like to make a year’s worth of sales in just a few days? You just try it at launch or relaunch and the results will definitely take your eyes out of their pockets.

Information Products Website Affiliate Offers

For an information/digital download type of site, you can use the techniques above. Work with your partners to create something unique to offer to their customers. Either you can make it for them or let them do it with your supervision. The point is to make it so that your colleague is giving them something special to order through them. Also, like the physical products above, you can expect to make cash very quickly if you launch a well-coordinated product with your partners.

Why You Need to Keep Your Affiliates For the Long Term

So why do you want your allies to succeed so badly? Why do you need them after the sale? I mean you got your money your leads, what else could they possibly be good for? Because your colleagues, if you work with them and help train them with the example techniques outlined in this report, they will always be bringing you high-quality leads. You always want to allow them to make “highly exclusive” offers available to their customers on an ongoing basis. Don’t forget, affiliates are using their time or cold hard cash in one way or another, that they are covering your advertising expenses.

Making a Profit by Selling at a Loss

Remember at the top of this article when I mentioned that sometimes you can have an affiliate program where you can actually take a loss on the first sale? OK, I’m going to get into that a little bit here like I promised. You see, making the first sale is important to your affiliate marketers, that’s what gets their motor running. If you can take a loss first then do it and you’ll see more affiliates then you can handle signing up for your program, but only if you have a great backend to sell to those customers, and that’s something This is one that requires testing. If you’re not making a profit, don’t do it.

Your backend, be it a digital download or a physical product, is supposed to bring you good returns. I’m not talking nickels and dimes, I mean huge profits. I know the bulk of this article talks about being nice to your colleagues, but you are in this to make money and they understand it. They may be taking the bulk of your advertising expenses, but you are also here to make a profit. If you’re going to make a loss on the front end, you don’t pay backend commissions to your affiliates unless you’re making huge profits yourself, but if you structure it so that you can do some good on the front end. There is no problem in thanking your associates with a decent commission even if you can earn money.

Building Your Brand With Affiliate Marketing

Remember your goals throughout this affiliate program process. Now you know how to make a ton of money for yourself and your partners, but don’t you dare forget about that brand! You have to brand your companies with the Affiliate Marketing process. Even though the link to the product will be redirected to your site, your site name should be on that page. Those customers need to know they’re visiting Squiggly Do’s Furniture Store Super Deluxe Bed “Exclusive Offer” before sending the link.

It really helps the reliability of the switch from one site to another. However, note that you are not endorsing any bonuses (anything other than your site offers) that may be offered through your affiliates, you are accepting them privately. It’s just a matter of protecting your brand and protecting yourself legally. If you find yourself receiving complaints about bonuses being offered, look into the matter immediately and notify the affiliate to discontinue offering it as your brand is your #1 long-term asset.

Your brand is what will keep those customers coming back to you to do business with you again and again and buy your products consistently. Another reason you want to keep your affiliates longer is that if they know the right techniques (what you tell them) they will build deeper relationships with people who just bought through their links. . That’s why you want to encourage your affiliates to build a list and be in close contact with your shared customers so that they can consistently promote for you, and both make a lot of money.

So to your advantage, reach out to your associates and make sure they can capture leads effectively. It’s much easier for different affiliates to build relationships with you who are your customers, as opposed to having it all on you. With you and your fellow marketers working as a team, you’ll all make lots of cash, and build a solid brand.