Webinar are you ready to launch an affiliate program?

10 Point Checklist Before You Launch a Killer Affiliate Program
Things to check on your site before launching an Affiliate Program
Presented by
Deborah Carney – MerchantABCs

Who is Deborah Carney?
Affiliate: since the early days
Affiliate Manager: Former In-house for CaféPress.com
Consultant: for several CPA networks and other ecommerce companies
Outsourced Program Manager: (OPM) since 2006 – Multiple programs in Shareasale Top 100 Merchants List
Merchant:LoxlyGallery.com
Training and Podcasts: ABCsPlus.com –for Affiliates, Bloggers, Merchants and more
MerchantABCs.com
@loxly
@merchantabcs
Facebook.com/loxly
Linkedin.com/in/loxly

Merchant ABCs
Focus on the basics – most overlooked area of affiliate marketing
Focus on training merchants how to run their affiliate programs
Free podcasts and videos with industry experts
Premium services:
Private access forum
Complete training for merchants from inception to recruitment
MerchantABCs.com

Site Elements
You may think your site is well designed, your designer and tech teams say everything is great and someone in the company heard that this thing called Affiliate Marketing can get you tons of sales fast.
MerchantABCs.com

Site Elements
First thing: Affiliate Marketing isn’t going to get you fast results, it is a long term commitment with long term results.
MerchantABCs.com

Site Elements
Let’s take a look at some elements and see if they are on your site.
The same elements that make your site Affiliate Friendly will also increase your conversions.
MerchantABCs.com

Building Trust
Customers
Affiliates
MerchantABCs.com
Customers need to trust you and your site before they will buy from you. Unless you are Amazon or Walmart that means your site needs to have some elements customers look for.
Affiliates know what drives a customer to make a purchase and they know that the following elements – at the very least – need to be on your site before they will promote your products or services

Transparency
WhoIs Registration– Affiliates (and Customers) want to know who you are
Private Registration sets off red flags
Shared hosting sets off red flags
MerchantABCs.com

The Big 5
AboutUs
PrivacyPolicy
ReturnsPolicy
ShippingPolicy
ContactInfo/Customer Service Info
MerchantABCs.com

The Big 5
AboutUs– tellaboutyourcompany, howyougotstarted, howyourproducthelps the user, whatisyour point of difference from yourcompetitors
PrivacyPolicy – Whoyoushare info with, what do youshare, whohasaccess, 3rd party newsletter, 3rd party toolsetc
ReturnsPolicy – Ifyourproductcan’t be returned, sayso. Ifitcan, outlinerequirements and restrictions
ShippingPolicy – Be clearaboutshippingcostsup front
ContactInfo/Customer Service Info – must be easilyfound on yoursite.
MerchantABCs.com

Live Chat?
Great for building trust
Live Help – not commission based, convert the sale with the affiliate retaining credit for sale
Be sure you are using a service that doesn’t take the affiliate cookie away
Answer questions but customer finishes purchase without clicking links in chat
Most useful for pre-purchase questions and post purchase customer service
MerchantABCs.com

Leaks – What are they?
Any link that goes off your website.
Any link that goes off your website.
Did I say ANY link that goes off your website?
Seriously, you are in business to sell YOUR products, your affiliates are in business to sell YOUR products.
MerchantABCs.com

Leaks
Links to your products at Amazon
Links to your products at eBay
Links to your webmaster
Backlinks to people that link to you
If it’s a link off your site, it’s a leak and affiliates will not work with you.
Exception: pay per click or pay per lead
MerchantABCs.com

Selling on eBay or Amazon
Must link to only your own products on your own site or sites of yours that cross track all the sales to your affiliate
Why take someone ready to purchase and send them to another site?
Niche sites that cross track are ok (Still your cart)
MerchantABCs.com

Phone Numbers
Phone numbers build trust, but they are also a leak.
Check with your network for phone tracking information
Keep phone number limited to customer service pages
Require people who call to complete the purchase online
MerchantABCs.com

Merchant acting as an affiliate
Sending traffic away to same or complementary products
If you don’t carry the product, get it through a supplier but don’t link elsewhere
If you are running affiliate program you need to get the merchandise in your cart
MerchantABCs.com

Adsense
Why would you?
Don’t do it, affiliates can target you
Adsense is a separate bot from the Googlebot, Adsense doesn’t bring search engines to you
Keep your customers
MerchantABCs.com

Non-Commissionable Items
Make it clear to affiliates about non-commissionable items
Must be in terms and conditions
Worse than other leaks, if affiliates don’t know they aren’t getting paid
Everything on your site should be commissionable unless you are paying per lead
MerchantABCs.com

Product Pages
Clear call to action
Sharp product images
Images all the same size
Professional looking images
Complete description – more is better – pretend you are explaining your product to someone over the phone
Easy way to indicate choices – Size, Colors available etc
MerchantABCs.com

Navigation
Clear and easy to follow
Affiliate will go through site to see if they can find things that customers will be looking for
Categories need to be clear and not too many levels
MerchantABCs.com

Branding
Keep the message and site branding consistent
If there is a “hop” to a different site for the cart, be sure tracking and branding carry over
MerchantABCs.com

Checkout Process
Make your checkout process fast and easy to use
Make sure your customers know your checkout is secure
Don’t have distractions get in the way of finishing checkout
Shipping costs clear prior to checkout begins
MerchantABCs.com

Checkout Process
Top reasons for shopping cart abandonment:
Shipping too high
Coupon prompt with no coupon available
Requiring an account
MerchantABCs.com

Checkout Process
Don’t require account creation until after the sale is completed
Finish the sale, then ask if they want to create an account
Provide an option for Guest Checkout
Worth the money to pay to get this programmed into your stock or open source cart.
MerchantABCs.com

Checkout Process
Don’t use 3rd party cart recovery services –
Don’t give your customers away
Your customers belong to you, they trust you with their information
MerchantABCs.com

Summary
Site Elements that build trust
Transparency
Public Whois
The Big 5
About Us
Privacy Policy
Returns
Shipping Policy
Clear Contact Us Info
MerchantABCs.com

Summary
Plug the Leaks
No outbound links
Phone number with tracking or walk customer through completing the sale online
Sell only your own products, no affiliate links to elsewhere
Adsense – remove it
Non-commissionable items – remove or rethink
Live Chat – make sure it keeps affiliate tracking
MerchantABCs.com

Summary
Product Pages – clean, clear images, professional looking
Site Navigation
Consistent Branding
Clear and easy Checkout
No distractions during checkout
Most importantly – keep your customer data, give your customers a good buying experience and your affiliates will love the conversions and keep sending you more customers
MerchantABCs.com

Next Steps
Now that your site is all ready for an affiliate program you need to find out what it takes to create and run one.
Join the Affiliate Summit Networking Forum to talk to OPMs (Outsourced Program Managers) and networks, and when you are ready – post a free job notice for a manager
http://forum.affiliatesummit.com
Head over to Merchant ABCs for a free video that explains the terminology and roles
http://merchantabcs.com/training
MerchantABCs.com

How We Can Help
We have a special offer for viewers of this webinar – free six months subscription at Merchant ABCs private access forum.
http://merchantabcs.com/specialoffer/
We will have experts available to answer your questions and a variety of OPMs that you can talk to about your management needs
MerchantABCs.com

Contact Us
Find Deborah at:
http://forum.affiliatesummit.com
http://merchantabcs.com
http://twitter.com/loxly
http://affiliatesummit.com - Speaking at ASE11
Email: dc@merchantabcs.com
Phone: (702)582-6742
MerchantABCs.com

Webinar are you ready to launch an affiliate program?

by Deborah Carney on Sep 19, 2011

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Webinar are you ready to launch an affiliate program? — Presentation Transcript