Enpiem Internet Marketing Blog

There are some excellent affiliate marketing management applications around allowing you to run your own private affiliate programmes without the need to use affiliate networks. Whilst the networks have ready access to a pool of publishers who can promote your campaign, they often have significant set-up costs and ongoing commissions on top of your affiliate commissions making them initially out of the reach of smaller organisations. But it should also be noted that the task of managing such campaigns is significantly more time consuming than when using a network.

Before implementing a private affiliate programme for a client, we ask a number of questions that help to guide us to selecting a particular affiliate management application that meets the client’s specific requirements. Some provide multiple currencies, some provide email broadcasting capabilities, some provide tracking code free affiliate URLs. If you are a business looking to start a private affiliate programme or a supplier looking to implement a programme for a client, we recommend asking yourself/your client the following questions:

• Budget – what is the budget for set-up of a private affiliate programme? Whilst you might know your cost-per-acquisition threshold for generating a sale, you also need to factor in purchase of a management application, artwork development, campaign promotional spend etc. on top of the per-sale commission
• Location – where does the affiliate system need to physically live? Would you host it off the back of your corporate website or a specific product related website? If separate then you need to factor in additional hosting space and a URL
• Registration – do you want affiliates to be automatically accepted onto your programme or do you need to assess each application before granting/denying access? And do you want the management system to provide email communications with the prospective affiliate to let then know their registration status at each stage? (e.g. application received, application granted etc.). Would they also need to have agreed to the programme’s terms & conditions at the registration stage?
• Campaigns – how many individual affiliate programmes do you want to run? One covering all products? Separate campaigns for each product group? Should visibility of programmes be selective according to each affiliate? Can you select remuneration models other than cost-per-sale? This would cover lead generation, enquiries or downloads
• Banners – what type of promotional collateral are you able to provide to affiliates, is there a limit on the type of banners, buttons? Can you control changes in artwork through Javascript code rather than having to request to each affiliate to update a banner? What reporting information would be available to both the administrator and affiliate as to the performance of each banner type for sales, impressions, clicks etc.
• Tracking – what tracking options do you want to use? Are URLs with visible affiliate data acceptable or do you need some way of providing clean URLs without affiliate code?
• Incentivising – do you want to provide a joining bonus to encourage affiliates to reach the first payout threshold quicker? Could commission levels vary according to productivity of individual affiliates?
• Support – would affiliates know who the affiliate manager was and have methods of contacting the affiliate manager to ask questions, report problems or request changes to their status?
• Monitoring – what information would you want to know about the performance of your affiliates and the promotional collateral provided to those affiliates? And would the affiliate also need to see this information for their own management? This could include impressions, clicks, sales, commission data as well as banner performance, CTR
• Commission – do you need to validate the affiliate sale prior to accepting the commission as genuine for your affiliate? Do your products have a returns policy that could render a sale invalid within a given number of days? Do you need to provide payment in multiple currencies (e.g. USD, GBP, Euro etc.). Can you set payout thresholds that must be reached before the commission payout is valid (e.g. £50 minimum commission earning before payout)
• Payout – how would you want to handle the physical payout of commission to the affiliate community? Do you want to write individual cheques or pay via on online method such as Paypal?

With that information you can assess the wide variety of applications on offer to manage your/your client’s private affiliate programme. We recommend http://www.affiliate-software-review.com/ as a great way to review functionality and compare one system against another to find the provider that best matches you/your client’s requirements. When you have identified a system there are often websites and blogs providing further recommendations or warnings to help guide your decision.

If that sounds too daunting or time consuming, Enpiem Internet Marketing have experience of scoping and implementing private affiliate marketing programmes and provide a full affiliate marketing service from programme development to ongoing affiliate management. Contact us to discuss your affiliate marketing requirements.

The old adage ‘if you can’t beat them…join them’ is certainly true of the online phenomena that is Amazon. With the brand recognition and the marketing power, tapping in to the colossal audience Amazon have can be a useful source of additional revenue if your product/service offering is appropriate for selling via Amazon.

Realising this potential, Amazon have established a number of programmes for merchants to earn additional revenue. The longest standing of these is the Amazon Associates affiliate programme where you drive visitors from your website to the Amazon site for a percentage commission of subsequent sales. The programme we are interested in here though is the Pro Merchant service that allows you to sell products directly on the Amazon site with payment being taken by Amazon.

When a user searches on Amazon using keywords (as they would on a search engine) your product will appear (if you have configured the appropriate keywords in the Pro Merchant inventory section). Clicking on the ‘new and used’ link will show your details as will clicking on ‘available from these sellers’. Multiple images, technical specifications and product descriptions are all configurable by the Merchant in the control panel. If the visitor decides to purchase the item, Amazon manage the transaction process through their own system, meaning that you don’t need to have full-ecommerce functionality on your own site. Shoppers can also use Amazon gift vouchers as a method of payment and Amazon credit you with cash for the item. On sale of an item, an email is sent from Amazon and the Merchant must despatch the item within 2-days of receiving the email. Payment for the item is made on a 14-day cycle by Amazon.

To establish a Pro Merchant account you need to apply to Amazon and meet a number of qualifying criteria. Your business must be established in the United Kingdom. To receive payments for goods sold, you must provide Amazon with a United Kingdom bank account. Products must be listed in British Pounds and include all taxes. All customer facing content and communication must be in English. Products that require electric plugs must be supplied with local plugs. Amazon.co.uk default time to ship is 1-2 business days. If your shipping lead time is longer than 2 days, please ensure you input accurate ship time when you list. You must also:

• > Have access to e-mail to receive communication from customers and Amazon.co.uk
• > Dispatch items within two business days of receiving a confirmed order
• > Maintain a high level of customer satisfaction which is measured by customer feedback, A-z claims, chargebacks, cancellation rate and late shipment rate
• > Have Excel or tab-delimited text file database to use the inventory loading templates

As a Pro Merchant the per-item completion fee is waived, you only pay the applicable commission plus monthly subscription of £25 (or £28.75 for those not qualifying for VAT-exclusive fees). There is no fixed term contract.

We were impressed by the Merchant user interface and the ease by which you could build and manage your inventory of products on the system. Order status information was clearly displayed and almost any set-up parameter could be changed such as bank details, account login, the inventory and shipping information.

If you have an appropriate portfolio of products and a limited marketing budget, the Amazon Pro Merchant product is an excellent route-to-market and worth considering with no fixed subscription period so you can test its effectiveness.

Enpiem Internet Marketing are experienced at working with online retailers to establish a presence on Amazon through the Merchant@ programme. Contact us for more information about how we can help you expand your online reach through reseller and affiliate programmes.

So you’ve created your affiliate programme, designed your banner portfolio, set your commission level and are ready to welcome on-board your virtual sales force who will drive up new business sales for you…but how do you spread the word about your affiliate programme? Today we’ll look at some resources for informing the affiliate community of new and existing affiliate programmes and how you can get sign-ups.

If you have joined a national affiliate network as a merchant then you will have the support of that network and access to their affiliate community. With a vested interest in the success of your programme, the network can help you promote and publicise your programme as well as facilitating the sign-up process for recruiting new affiliates.

If you are running a private affiliate programme then you won’t have this support and immediate access to a community of affiliates or an easy channel for communicating with them. In this case you will need to promote your programme on affiliate community websites and affiliate programme directories. Here we will look at a number of these directory websites that you can get listed on for programme promotion.

1. Affiliates4u – THE affiliate community website and probably the best place to promote your affiliate campaign online. This site includes a very well used forum, directories, jobs and blogs as well as regular email newsletters. They have several promotional channels that you can tap-into such as banner advertising on the site and promotion in their email newsletters.
2. Affiliate First – a directory of US and UK affiliate programmes covering a wide variety of vertical markets from jewellery, health & fitness, entertainment and finance.
3. UK Affiliate Programmes – this is a site that lists the popular affiliate networks, explains specific merchant programmes and the associated network or process for signing up to the programme.
4. Webmaster Opportunities – a site with a lot of UK affiliate programmes listed, including information on commissions, commission thresholds and payment periods as well as how to sign-up.
5. E Sponsors – clear categorisation of markets, brief background of merchant company, commission level paid and link to programme sign-up.
6. PWD Net – searchable database of affiliate programmes, with programme information, approx number of affiliates (if known), commission level and how many tiers the programme has.

In addition to this you should create a link on your website to a page of sales copy that invites visitors to join your programme. If the programme is managed through an affiliate network then the sign-up page link to that network could be listed on this page. If you are running a private programme then this could be the link to your affiliate management application sign-up page.

If that sounds like too much hassle, Enpiem Internet Marketing provide a full affiliate marketing service from programme development to ongoing affiliate management. Contact us to discuss your affiliate marketing requirements.

In addition to managing an affiliate programme directly between merchant and affiliate, you could also consider the potential increase in revenue by expanding your affiliate marketing programme to incorporate additional tiers in the affiliate/merchant relationship. Empowering the primary affiliates with the ability to recruit affiliates to your programme themselves opens up a whole new avenue of possibilities for new sales with sub-affiliates. However, you should also be aware of the rising cost of affiliate payments when new tiers are added and more parties require financial rewards for their efforts. You will need to know your tolerable acquisition cost and ensure that the compound total of sales remuneration remains within that acquisition cost.

In a single tier affiliate programme you will have the merchant (you) and the affiliate (the webmaster promoting your programme) and commissions will be calculated and paid usually on confirmed sales generated by visits to your site from the affiliate’s site. With a 2-tier programme the affiliate will have the opportunity to attract affiliates on your behalf to join your programme and for this service they will also receive a commission payment when that new affiliate drives a sale from their website. Without the first affiliate you probably wouldn’t have found the new affiliate so the first affiliate deserves remuneration for their recruitment and an ongoing incentive to encourage them to promote your business. This can be as easy as the tier-1 affiliate placing a link on their website promoting your programme and a cookie is placed on the new affiliates computer that identifies the tier-1 affiliate to the affiliate management system as the referrer. The tier-2 affiliate doesn’t even need know they are a sub-affiliate of the first affiliate.

So let’s look at an example. Let’s say that we are a merchant with a product that sells for £100 on which we have a 40% profit margin and can afford to spend 20% on customer acquisition. Our tier-1 affiliates will receive a 10% commission for all attributable sales which is £10 per sale. Having recruited a number of affiliates we want to increase our affiliate pool and encourage further new business sales. We open a second level to our programme offering the new affiliate (sub-affiliate) the same10% commission on the sale as the first affiliate receives, but we also pay our first level affiliate an 8% commission on that new affiliate’s sale for recruiting the new affiliate. As you can see, it is still more profitable for the tier-1 affiliate to generate the sale themselves, but if they have a limited market share then £8 is better than £0 obviously! The merchant wouldn’t have generated either sales on their own so they now generate £200 revenue (£80 profit) on two sales with a marketing cost of £28 (£10 to the tier-1 affiliate for the first sale, £10 to the tier-2 affiliate for the second sale and £8 to the tier-1 affiliate for introducing the tier-2 affiliate to you to drive the second sale). The original affiliate now receives £18 for the two sales despite having only generated one sale directly from their website. So you can see how it becomes advantageous to affiliates to recruit sub-affiliates and earn extra revenue and based on a £20 tolerable acquisition cost, the programme remains a highly cost-effective way of driving sales.

Now let’s complicate things further by introducing a third level to the programme where a sub-affiliate can recruit their own sub-affiliates. All the affiliates in the chain will be rewarded for sales as the chain gets longer, however, the commission levels will be lower the most distance the relationship. In our £100 product example we paid 8% commission to tier-1 affiliates and now introduce a 6% commission to the tier-1 affiliate on sales made by the tier-3 affiliate (the tier-2 affiliate receives £8). The Tier-3 affiliate generates a sale and receives £10 commission, the tier-2 affiliate who introduced that tier-3 affiliate therefore earns £8 commission for recruiting the tier-3 affiliate and the tier-1 affiliate receives 6% the tier-3 affiliate commission for introducing the sub-affiliate who introduced the tier-3 affiliate. Therefore the sale made by the tier-3 affiliate will cost you, the merchant, £24. To be profitable we will need to spend no more than £60 on acquiring three sales and the total commission we will have to pay the three affiliate on these three sales is £52 (£10 on sale one, £18 on sale two and £24 on sale three). With a tolerable acquisition cost of £60 for three sales, you are still within budget by having a 3-tier affiliate programme and remunerating all parties in the chain.

Enpiem Internet Marketing provide a full affiliate marketing service from programme development to ongoing affiliate management. Contact us to discuss your affiliate marketing requirements.

If you’ve not taken advantage of the benefits of affiliate marketing – maybe now could be the time. Affiliate marketing’s popularity stems from the fact that in almost all cases, remuneration is based on performance (unlike display advertising, PPC or email data rental). If you don’t make a sale – you don’t pay any acquisition cost. Here we’ll look at the parties involved in the affiliate relationship and the broad steps you need to take to set-up and start affiliate marketing.

There are three players in the affiliate relationship – the merchant (you with a product or service to sell), the publisher (the affiliate with a website to publicise your product or service on) and in most cases an affiliate network (intermediary between the merchant and publisher) who facilitates the relationship.

As the merchant, it’s your responsibility to plan and create an attractive and competitively positioned offering that the affiliate will ‘want’ to promote on their website. Remember that promotional space is at a premium and the affiliate is looking for maximum sales (and therefore maximum commission from you).

In order to plan an affiliate marketing campaign, there are a number of steps you need to take, including:

• > Determine a tolerable CPA – from your other digital marcomms activity to establish what an acceptable acquisition cost is to your business. Remember that you will be competing with other merchants looking to attract your prospective affiliates so that amount will have to be competitive. In addition to your commission payment, remember you will also incur network override charges of typically 30%. If your CPA is £50 per sale you can afford £35.70 affiliate commission with a network override of £14.40 on top of this. Anything more than this and your acquisition will be unprofitable
• > Develop a two-tier sales pack – remember that you’re not only looking to attract prospective customers to buy your products, but also attract affiliates to join your programme. In both cases this will include compelling sales information with clear USPs and a suite of banner creatives. If you can’t convince an affiliate to join your programme – how do you expect them to convince their website visitors to click on your adverts and buy your products/services?
• > Specify the terms & conditions of your programme to ensure that you are comfortable with how your affiliates will promote your product/service. For example – do you mind if the affiliate uses PPC alongside you on search engine results or content network sites (e.g. AdSense) and can they use your brand/product keywords?
• > Select an appropriate affiliate network and upload your promotional collateral to publicise both your affiliate programme and your product/service. In addition to this you might want to launch your programme with an introductory commission that is higher than your usual commission (remember your maximum CPA when doing this). The leading affiliate community online is the affiliate4uforum and you should consider launching and promoting your programme there
• > When you have signed-up your affiliates, communicate with them regularly, pay them promptly and incentivise them where possible to increase the number of sales they generate. The more commission payable – the more you will be selling. Consider cash bonuses and gifts for hitting specified targets
• > Keep your campaign fresh – regularly refresh your creatives to allow your affiliates to keep their websites refreshed. Remember, if you don’t service your affiliates with updated media and incentives you will lose them to a competitor. Signing up the affiliate isn’t the end of your obligations to the business relationship

If that sounds too complicated or time consuming, Enpiem Internet Marketing provide a full affiliate marketing service from programme development to ongoing affiliate management. Contact us to discuss your affiliate marketing requirements.