Publisher recruitment is the ongoing process of attracting, activating, and retaining publishers. Recruiting affiliate publishers into your program involves building a program foundation and running your program.
Building and running your program
In most affiliate programs, approximately 80% of network sales come from 20% of the affiliates. Affiliates are generally large to mid-size publishers, and include many VIP publishers.Running your program is an ongoing process that involves:
- Finding previously hidden, but valuable, publishers over time.
- Researching new affiliates in your chosen Network.
- Recruiting business classes that are productive or underrepresented in the program.
- Researching sites with other affiliate programs to compare publishers with your your own list.
- Contacting content sites and inquiring about advertising opportunities.
Publisher perspective on recruitment
When developing your recruitment strategy, try to anticipate what affiliate publishers would value most, and target your program to the publisher's specific business class.Publishers choosing affiliate programs will generally review the following:
- Similar advertisers they're already working with
- Whether new advertisers will strain existing, profitable relationships.
- The risk of managing a new program.
- Earnings per hundred clicks (EPC)
- Average conversion rates
- Products or services, as compared to your competitors
- The revenue share or bounty you're willing to pay
- Any additional benefits (such as increased revenue share, launch incentives, or special consumer offers) you have
- Creative assets (and data feeds, if applicable)
Activation Strategies
In many cases, simply providing the right tools, communications, and incentives will encourage publishers to start driving sales quickly. In other cases, you may need to add bonuses or commissions for publishers who engage within a specific time period. And, of course, once publishers start making sales, their loyalty to your program is more assured.Building Program Awareness
Simply listing your program in an Affiliate Network won't necessarily attract top publishers. You must build awareness of your program first. For example, you can:- Email newsletters to the network.
- Highlight sales, coupons, or new products.
- Ensure that the affiliate recruitment link on your website leads to compelling information about your programs' benefits.
- Use external affiliate forums to spread the word.
Working with different publisher classifications
Here are some tips for working with different publishers:Loyalty and reward publishers
- Many shoppers are more loyal to the publisher site than to the advertiser. By increasing the passback offered by competitors, you can maintain or increase market share within the loyalty site.
- Loyalty sites provide a clear consumer benefit and can create a recurring source of revenue.
- Co-branded landing pages can add credibility and increase conversions. Shoppers who see a publisher logo and a reminder of the passback they'll earn on purchases are often more inclined to buy.
Community and content publishers
Community and content publishers:- Are the experts on their members and a valuable resource for designing consumer offers.
- Require detailed product information, consumer offers, unique selling propositions, and other detailed content.
- Can evangelize advertiser benefits (such as quality products, selection, and customer service).
Search specialist publishers
- If you have a search program, search specialists can focus on the search terms that supplement your current strategy.
- If you're working with a limited budget or a competitive vertical, search specialists can assist in a long tail strategy.
- Search specialists buy traffic to test a program and absorb risk at the beginning of a test. Because ROI is critical to search specialists, you might consider increasing revenue share for these publishers.
- Consider allowing search specialists to use URL assets.
Shopping and promotion publishers
- Coupons can improve conversions and new customer acquisitions.
- Exclusive offers attract publishers, who in turn can offer a greater value proposition to consumers.
- Exclusive offers can improve your visibility on publisher sites.
- Use coupons to encourage sales of lesser-known products and influence demand in the marketplace.
- Set redemption deadlines or coupon codes expiration dates to bring about faster purchases.
- Offer coupons to first-time customers to drive new customer acquisition.
- Increase the average order value by offering coupons valid on orders exceeding a specific amount.
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