Affiliate Marketing is part of performance-based marketing that deals with businesses that provide goods or services compensating marketing affiliates to help them promote these goods or services. It is when a company rewards an affiliate for bringing them business by simply marketing for their product or service. In the Affiliate Marketing 101 video,Victoria Galperina made a reference to referring a friend to your favorite pizza restaurant. The pizza restaurant may offer discounts on certain items for anyone who refers their business to other customers. In this scenario, you would be an affiliate to the pizza restaurant by referring someone and being rewarded for it.
Affiliates can do several types of promotions. Content produces and opinion leaders are targeted by businesses to become affiliates. These types of affiliates usually already have supporters and a platform, and it is easier for them to reach a larger audience since they already so many followers. Other examples of marketing affiliates are ranking/review sites, deals or coupons, email marketers, video marketers, educators and speakers, social media publishers, and more. Affiliate marketers are ultimately marketers that were outsourced and hired to sell someone else’s product or service. It is what they are trained to do, so they often do it better, which makes it a beneficial marketing channel. The cost per sale model, where you only pay for the sale, is beneficial because you have nothing to lose. For example if you do not get any sales, you are not obligated to pay for their service.
The expert session clearly explained the difference between affiliate software and affiliate network. Affiliate software is customized per business while the affiliate networks include the actual affiliates as well as any affiliate programs. With an in-house affiliate program, businesses can purchase existing affiliate software, create their own in-house software, or join an existing affiliate network. As for affiliate software, advantages are one-time purchase option, total control with no extra fees, more attractive to new affiliates, and software versatility and customization. Disadvantages for affiliate software are it can be difficult to install and use plus an affiliate manager is needed. Affiliate networks are fully outsources with support and instance exposure from thousands of potential affiliates. It is more difficult to gain potential affiliates, and it can get extremely costly with commission fees, network fees, service costs, monthly fees, and so on.
When becoming involved with affiliate marketing, you have to do your research on competitors. You should know what they are currently offering as well as if they are associated with an affiliate marketing program. You must figure out if the person would like fixed or recurrent commission. You also have to figure out how high the percentage of payouts while comparing your pricing to your competitors. You would need to pick a Commission Attribution model in order to determine how and how often the affiliate marketers will get paid. Some other important things to remember are promotion materials, fraud protection, and localization. After watching the Affiliate Marketing 101 video, I think gained a much better understanding of what affiliate marketing is and why it is important.
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