The Four Best Ways to Market Your Affiliate Program

Declan Dunn If you look around the Internet, you would think the only
way to promote an affiliate program is via banner ads.
Everyone creates banner ads and invites people to place
these at their site.

Yet for many affiliate programs, the banner ad is simply a
poor form of advertising. It encourages a limited response,
is stuck on the top or bottom of the screen, and does little
if anything for the affiliate, or your network.

If you are going to use banner ads, be sure to drive them to
one product page, or even better, to a sign up form where
you can email them. These are the best methods to put
banner ads into action.

Okay, so what works better than banner ads for affiliate
network? Here are some ideas:

Email/ezine promotions to a qualified list:

One of the funniest, common realizations at a recent
conference was that customers do not buy until the third or
fourth visit to a Web Site. Direct response marketing has
been built on this fact for years, following up initial
contacts with repeated messages inviting people to visit.
Email is the best means to conduct this and to keep up with
the volumes of email that come with a new affiliate program.

Yet the real power of email comes in the endorsed mailing.

When an ezine or list has been developed, with a trust
between the writer and the audience, the endorsement is
gold. It moves people from being strangers to being
introduced to you personally. The unfamiliar is replaced by
a recommendation from someone they trust. Response rates to
email offerings are much greater; a recent article about
the December Internet retail push claimed a 300% increase in
sales via email than via other methods. This is the
hottest, unknown affiliate promotion available.

Text Links/Endorsement With Banner:

PC World does an excellent job of increasing the response
to their affiliate programs. PC World has an audience who
buys online; over 90% of their audience have bought online.
They are extremely selective with who they make their
affiliate partners, for a good reason; they are good at
selling advertising space, so little of this space is dead.

When they do use affiliate networks, they favor a small
banner ad that can sit in a side bar of the page, or at
least not dominate the page. To the right of the small
banner "button" is text that describes the benefits behind
clicking on that banner ad. The text is a link, the banner
is a link, and by combining the visual with a short text
description, they are able to group affiliate programs on a
single Web Page. It is an extremely effective method of
offering more than one product on a page, without
overwhelming the visitor. Once again, words do the
explaining that pictures can’t, and a picture tells a
thousand words. Together, they are a potent affiliate
advertising tool.

Featured Product:

An excellent method to increase affiliate
leads is to offer a Web Page that acts as a featured product
at the affiliate’s Web Site. This can be a stand alone Web
Page or one that merges in with Web Page content at the
affiliate’s site. The key is to focus on the product being
sold, a one product offer that stands out from the rest of
the page. This can be integrated into a site almost as a
sponsorship, without the cost. For example, if a high
traffic area of an affiliate’s Web Site is available,
encourage them to feature your product in that section
alone. It is more effective for the affiliate to test
response rates, and for the affiliate network it will result
in more qualified leads.

This approach basically eliminates the grouping of affiliate
programs and encourages people to click on this important
product, because it appears to be featured. The featured
product enables you to gain exposure at the affiliate’s site
in a way that is perceived favorably by visitors.

Storefront:

The best affiliate responses can come from a
storefront integrated into another Web Site. This can be as
simple as putting a logo graphic on top of the page with a
return link to the affiliate’s Web Site, so that the
storefront appears to be an important part of the Web Site
as a whole.

Storefronts increase credibility by offering a selection of
products in a single setting. The storefront should not be
one of many at an affiliate’s Web Site, but an integral part
of their efforts. While this requires more work on the part
of the affiliate network, the returns can be much greater.
Popular portal sites use this strategy often, but by
extending it to highly trafficked sites, you can increase
branding and perceived value of what you offer.

A good idea is to mix the text/banner ad approach in number
2 to a storefront, so you can offer multiple products. A
good rule of thumb is not to offer more than 3-5 products at
another Web Site; too many choices confuse the visitor.

Finally, the most glaring lack of focus in most affiliate
networks is ad copy. Words are what motivate people to
read, act, and buy. Without a good headline, testimonial,
and ad copy, all your efforts will be hindered. Be sure
that you look at the words you use in any of the four
methods and find the ones that work best for you, and your
affiliates. Adapt your words until you find the ones that
pull the best.

As I like to say, there are two types of businesses online;
those who test, and those who lose money. If you are not
testing, counting, and quantifying your affiliate network
efforts, you are missing most of the value . . . guaranteed.

About the Author

Declan Dunn is one of the top experts on affiliate programs
and the author of "Winning the Affiliate Game."
( http://activemarketplace.com/winning )