If an affiliate program is an important part of your business,
your profits are only as good as your affiliate members. Sales
drop like a rock when they get discouraged or lose interest.
You will see the dreaded signs if you frequently visit your
affiliates’ sites. The banner or enthusiastic endorsement they
once had on their opening page is now relegated to a link on the
second or third tier of their site. Something as simple as that
can cut the number of hits you get by a factor of ten or twenty.
Two things usually account for members giving you the back burner
treatment: Your product or service isn’t selling as well as it
once did for them. Or members are simply losing interest because
newer, more exciting affiliate programs are grabbing their
attention.
You can immediately solve both problems by offering a new or
improved product or service. Spend time to make sure your new
product is a big improvement over what has come before. The more
you can insure your product is a big deal, the more excited your
affiliates will get.
Make your roll-out a big production. Give your new creation a
whole new area with a fresh new look on your web site.
Two weeks before you unveil your new product, start sending
announcements to your affiliates. Let them know something
important is about to happen and they will be the first to hear
about it.
After you bring out your product, do a quick follow-up with
members. Get comments on how they expect the new product to
sell. Harvest early accounts of how some members are doing well
with the product. Include these comments in your weekly email
updates to members.
A word of warning–try not to veer completely away from what has
worked for you before. If you have always sold software, don’t
bring in a new line of office furniture as your new product for
affiliates. An exciting new software application will work
better and will not dilute the brand identity your business has
enjoyed.
Got a major product you don’t want to ignore? Good! It’s
almost always easier to get affiliates and customers excited
about an improvement to an old favorite than it is to make a
favorite out of a completely new product.
Keep a file of customer complaints and ideas about your product.
Over time you can use these as ideas starters for ways to build
improvements that customers and affiliates will appreciate and
value.
When interest in your product or service starts to diminish, pull
our your file and make requested improvements. Add in enough
improvements and you have a new issue, a next generation, or a
fresh edition you can sell as a replacement or upgrade to your
long list of previous customers.
Affiliate programs are still the number one way to market on the
Web. It pays to keep your program exiting and top-of-mind. For
many companies, it is unlikely that a better way to boost profits
will come along any time soon.
About the Author
Keller Flynn offers the full spectrum of tools, ideas and action
steps needed to create and run a successful affiliate program.
Reach him at mailto:keller@affiliatedirector.com or 801-328-9006.
Get his Extra Money Newsletter FREE at
http://www.AffiliateDirector.com to learn more about how YOU can
profit from the affiliate boom.