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Outsource
Affiliate Program Management:
Greater Expertise = Greater
Effectiveness
By
Jim
Gribble,
Founder, LinkProfits.com
Is there a need for outside help in
establishing and managing successful
affiliate programs for online retailers?
Has this relatively new industry produced
any “experts” who are able to apply their
experience in meaningful and
measurable ways on behalf of companies
seeking to fully exploit this channel?
According to Shawn Collins, recognized
industry leader, author of
"Successful
Affiliate Marketing for Merchants",
and manager of the ClubMom Affiliate
Program:
“As we all know, a skilled and experienced
affiliate manager is nearly as rare as a
Honus Wagner T-206 baseball card. (There are
an estimated 58 of these cards in
circulation). This shortage of talent and
the rapid growth of the affiliate marketing
industry have resulted in the need for
merchants to outsource the duties of an
affiliate manager.”
Last year,
Affiliate
Metrix
performed
comprehensive research on the Affiliate
Marketing Industry. Their research resulted
in the identification of just five
Projections. One of these was:
"Outsourcing in the Future: Only 16%
of affiliate programs were outsourced in
2000. This number will increase two-fold by
the end of 2002 as companies determine
they are unable to locate and afford the
specialized skills needed to properly manage
an affiliate program."
As the Managing Director of LinkProfits, an
OPM (Outsource Program Management) solution,
I firmly believe the answer to both of the
above questions is an emphatic “YES”, and
here’s why…
Although affiliate or partnership marketing
is easy to conceptualize, unlike nearly all
other marketing channels (direct mail, TV,
space/media buys, etc.) there is no tangible
‘volume control knob’ for the affiliate
marketing manger to simply ‘turn’. Sales
expansion rests on the manager’s ability to
identify, form and cultivate mutually
beneficial partnerships – no easy task. This
inherent ‘fact of life’ has kept most
affiliate programs from becoming a
meaningful source of business for the
typical e-merchant. Faced with this daily
challenge, the affiliate channel often
reaches a level for which it cannot rise
above, or it eventually becomes neglected
and doomed to fail.
So why are some programs successful?
Some brands sell themselves and their demand
ensures a certain level of success
(everybody wants to partner with them).
Others, who are not so lucky, owe their
success to dedicated resources and superior
expertise.
It takes constant and innovative management
to master the critical tasks involved in
running a successful affiliate program.
These include:
-
Identifying, approaching and successfully
recruiting potentially productive affiliate
partners. At LinkProfits, we identify and
approach a minimum of 100 potential
affiliates (based on their site content and
traffic) each and every month for our
merchant clients. (This work alone typically
involves a minimum of 20 man-hours per
month.)
-
Developing mutually beneficial relationships
with affiliate partners through ongoing,
personal communications in order to maximize
production from participating affiliates and
the total number of participating affiliates
(always a challenge). A well-known,
experienced Program Manger has a tremendous
advantage here, having many relationships
already in-place. LinkProfits has been
working with hundreds of top affiliate sites
for the past three years.
-
Developing a full arsenal of effective sales
promotion support and making it easy for the
affiliate partner to implement these
campaigns successfully. This often involves
taking promotions that are working well for
the merchant in other marketing channels and
specially adapting these promotions for use
by affiliate partners. It takes an
individual who is not only familiar with
affiliate marketing, but is also an
experienced direct marketer to conceptualize
and implement successful affiliate
promotions. I personally, have over 20 years
direct marketing experience, having run
profit centers as large as $85 million in
annual sales for a number of firms.
If a company is willing to invest in the
resources and expertise needed in order to manage
their program in-house, then this may be a
prudent decision. This will probably involve
hiring an experienced program manager at a
salary of $50,000 or more, plus another
entry-level type individual who can be
trained to search out new affiliate
partners. As with all staffing decisions,
the challenge of dealing with employee
turnover and the additional expense of
hiring, training and employee benefits need
to be considered. As predicted by Affiliate Metrix, an increasing number of merchants are finding the outsource solution
more attractive.
Please feel free to
request a proposal
and I will attempt to further
demonstrate this fact for you...
Jim
Gribble
©
LinkProfits.com,
all rights reserved.
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