Affiliate Marketing Monday – Affiliate Promotions

During this week’s edition of Affiliate Marketing Monday, we will discuss Affiliate Promotions.  There are different types of promotions for all situations and events.  To begin with, these promotions will help keep your affiliates active and tuned into your program and all of your updates.  Here are a few tips to get you started.

Activation Promotions

One type of promotions that you can run is an activation promotion.  I consider there to be two types of activations, signing up and becoming active, or you are already an affiliate, but have been in-active.  The way that you define in-active is up to you and your program.  I personally consider an in-active affiliate one who has not generated any clicks within that 30 day or 90 day reporting.  To achieve this activation, create a promotion that gives a reward for generating a sale.  For instance, affiliate XYZ has not generated any traffic or a sale within 90 days, so in your monthly newsletter you start an activation promotion that will reward a $10 bonus for generating 1 sale within the next 7 days.  A promotion like this will motivate that affiliate to become more active to receive that extra bonus.

Sales (Percentage Increase) Promotions

This one is pretty self-explanatory.  Create a sales promotion and give a reward for reaching the performance levels.  However, the way that you set the goal can become tricky.  It is not a good idea to set a minimum dollar limit for these because some of your smaller, niche affiliates will never be able to reach that level.  Instead, one way that I prefer to run this promotion is through a percentage increase of sales.  For example, if affiliate XYZ is able to increase their monthly sales dollars by 20%, then they will receive the reward as well.

Weekend Promotions

This type of promotion can be ran the same way as the sales promotions, except it is for the weekend only to try and increase traffic during your down times.  If the weekend isn’t a downtime for your site, then use your analytics program to figure out when it is and create an affiliate promotion during that time.

Holiday Promotions

During the holidays, you are not the only publisher that is having sales and specials for your customers.  So how do you get your links listed higher than others?  An affiliate promotion would be a great way.  Increase commission rates during a holiday month, this is one way to give an affiliate a higher incentive to promote your links heavily.  Remember that your managing your affiliates and the relationship with them is just as near important than it is with your customer base.

For more creative promotion ideas, check out Geno Prussakov’s book – A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing: Quick Reference for Affiliate Managers & Merchants. (Amazon Link).

Check back next week for Affiliate Marketing Monday and Affiliate Reporting.
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