This guest post is part of our ongoing Small Business Experts series, and is written by the Internet Marketing Center (www.internetmarketing.com)
Starting your own affiliate marketing program is your ticket to the ultimate in performance-based advertising because you only ever pay for results!
You can sign up hundreds of affiliates who will promote your product or service to their customers, newsletter subscribers, opt-in email lists, and website visitors.
You set the rules regarding how your affiliates are allowed to market your products, and you only ever pay them when they make a sale.
How to recruit your affiliates
Your affiliate marketing program will only be as successful as the affiliates you recruit.
There’s nothing wrong with opening up your affiliate marketing program to anyone who wants to join — but we recommend that you cultivate real, long-term relationships with your best affiliates, the ones who understand website marketing and cater to your market.
Here’s how to recruit your own affiliates:
- Recruit affiliates by searching for sites that cater to your target market
- Promote your affiliate marketing program to your customers and subscribers
- Advertise your affiliate marketing program in relevant newsletters and e-zines
- Register your program with the major affiliate networks:
- Associate Programs (www.associateprograms.com)
- Affiliates Directory (www.affiliatesdirectory.com)
- Form strategic alliances with your competitors or with complementary businesses
- Promote your affiliate marketing program in blogs, forums, industry events or directories, or even press releases
Build relationships with your affiliates
Once you start recruiting affiliates, you need to stay in regular contact with them (especially your top sellers).
Let them know all about what is selling and what is working. For example, let them know which slogans, banners, and text descriptions work best, how to word classified ads, and how to use testimonials.
Here are four great tools you can use for motivation to promotion:
- An affiliate welcome letter — Use this to guide your affiliates, step-by-step, through the process of selling your product
- A Frequently Asked Questions page — Save yourself time and trouble by anticipating questions your affiliates may have and providing them with clear answers
- Motivational articles that contain profitable marketing tips to help them expand their own business
- An affiliate newsletter — A fantastic opportunity to motivate your people by providing the latest, most profitable tips for promoting your product or service
By staying in touch with your affiliates and providing them with the tools and motivation they need to promote your products, you will create loyal and eager affiliates who will do their best to spread the word about your products — resulting in more sales for you, and more commissions for them!
