Episode #1 – This Ain’t Your Grandma’s Affiliate Marketing

Chaos Makes Sense | Affiliate Marketing / Affiliate Programs / Internet / Social Media Marketing – Matt Frary

Does your brand have an affiliate marketing program? Is it performing the way you planned? Have you optimized your program to leverage all the available sources of sales traffic? If you haven’t seriously evaluated your affiliate plan in the last two or three years you are most likely missing out on significant revenue and growth opportunities.

Affiliate marketing has changed dramatically for both brands and their affiliates and for those who have kept pace with the changing landscape the rewards have been spectacular. Does that describe your brand’s performance?

If you’re interested in hyping up your affiliate revenue you’ll want to invest 20 minutes to listen to this edition of the Chaos Makes Sense podcast where your host Kimberly Henrie interviews Matt Frary, CEO of the leading outsourced affiliate agency SmarterChaos and James Martell, recognized affiliate marketing pioneer and founder of The School of Internet Marketing about the changes in affiliate marketing and what you can do to turn flat sales into significant revenue growth.

Forrester Research says that total affiliate marketing sales will jump another billion dollars in 2014. This interview is an opportunity to learn how the leaders are grabbing more than their fair share.

If You Still Party Like It’s 1999 You’re Losing Money

Matt and James both go back to the “old days” of affiliate marketing and both agree that in the beginning affiliate marketing was a pretty simple proposition. Even sites that evolved into giants in the industry like Amazon.com and eBags.com started with a simple formula. Find websites that would agree to place a banner or text link on their pages give them a reliable tracking system and pay a commission on any sales that were initiated from their site.

The more sites you had signed up as affiliates the more “advertising” exposure you had and theoretically the more sales you would get. That strategy spawned the hundreds of “affiliate networks” and the need for brands to hire affiliate managers to keep track of it all and to support the affiliates.

If this all sounds familiar, if it pretty much describes your current program, you’re living in the past and you’re losing money.

Physician Heal Thyself

Affiliate sales are important but if you are like most brands you have an active proprietary marketing strategy as well. Take a moment to examine the sales traffic your own site is getting. Where it’s coming from is not as important as the type of traffic it is. For example how many sales are the results of traffic coming from:

• Social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.)
• Search
• Video
• Toolbars
• Coupons
• PPC
• And the monster of them all…mobile devices.

Now ask yourself two questions. Does your affiliate manager have the necessary expertise to stay on top of all the cross channel opportunities? Are you providing the kind of support and content to affiliates that allow them to promote on the channels that are the most successful for you? If you answered “No” to either or both of these questions it’s time to reinvent your affiliate program.

Start Rethinking Your Rules and Relationships

Matt’s focus has always been working for brands and with affiliate networks. James on the other hand has spent his career as a successful affiliate marketer and mentor for aspiring affiliates. Between the two of them they have watched both sides of the industry evolve giving them a unique appreciation of the process.

Both agree that to be successful in affiliate marketing given the importance of cross channel traffic, brands have to take a different approach with affiliates. Brands that spend the time, resources and effort to develop real partnerships with affiliates can tap into their expertise effectively expanding the brand’s presence in the most effective channels.

Rules restricting the use of brand name and specific search terms have to be rethought as well. Your competition is using your name and search terms…why won’t you let the people who are promoting you?

Matt spells out what he believes the ideal relationship should be and points out two examples of brands that are making it work, Picaboo.com and the Fortune 500 organization Meredith Corporation.

Invest 20 minutes now and learn how your program stacks up to the leaders. You’ll be glad you did.

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