Setting Up A Campaign

Setting Up A Campaign

Affiliate marketing is forming an integral part of digital marketing – how would

you go about setting up and launching a new campaign? Affiliate marketing

should grow your business, and grow with your business, so it’s important to

plan and prepare for long lasting success.

First, you need a clear idea of your business’s identity, goals and unique selling

points. No doubt you will have competitors that affiliates already promote; you

need to be able to give affiliates compelling reasons why your programme is

better.

With this in mind, you need to determine the goal of your affiliate marketing.

If you are a new business, you might just want to build traffic and brand

awareness. Depending on what industry you are in, your goal could be new

customer leads, or it could be increased retail sales. Make sure you are clear

on what you want, and that your website reflects this.

Then, you need to decide whether you are going to run your own programme,

from affiliate recruitment to tracking and paying, or whether you are going to

use an affiliate network. If you are using an affiliate network, you’ll need to do

your homework on the best network or networks to join. Look at:

• Where your competitors are.

• Who has the kind of affiliates you want.

• What the joining fees and monthly fees are.

• How much support they can offer you.

• What countries the network is in.

You’ll also need to decide whether you will hire an affiliate manager to run your

programme, whether you might outsource your programme management, or

whether you already have the resources to run the programme yourself.

You need to do a full competitor analysis, focusing on your competitors’ affiliate

programmes. Look at:

• Commission tiers

• Cookie periods

• Creative offerings

• Which affiliates they work with

• Networks

• Incentives offered to affiliates

Prepare the basics that you’ll need to start a programme:

• Product feed

• Banners and other creative offerings

Using your competitor research, decide on commission, commission tiers,

cookie period and incentives.

Test the tracking software on your site, and make sure that it does not conflict

with any other tracking you are using.

Recruit affiliates: use your competitor analysis to contact potential affiliates,

promote your programme through affiliate forums, use your affiliate network

contact channels to approach affiliates and approach sites that you think fit

your user demographic.

And it doesn’t all stop once you’ve launched! The key to successful affiliate

marketing is ongoing communication with and marketing to your affiliates.

You need to make sure you are on top of validating sales, so they get their

commission. You need to ensure that you stay competitive with your commission

offering. And, you need to keep your affiliates up to date with any information

that could make them send more customers your way – more revenue for you

and thus more cash for them!