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Why Become a Merchant with an Affiliate Scheme? Your questions answered
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What is an affiliate scheme?
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Why Become a Merchant with an Affiliate Scheme?
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Why Become a Merchant with an Affiliate Scheme?
UK e-commerce has come of age.
- In 2005 it was valued at £19 billion, or 7 per cent of all retail.*
- In 2006 the share is expected to rise to 10 per cent. *
- The growth of internet expenditure is 15 times the rate of the overall retail sector. **
- Of the extra £3.9bn UK consumer spend in 2005 vs 2004, almost half has been delivered online. **
Source:
- * IMRG
- ** Verdict Research 2006
No wonder that success in online marketing, whether as part of a multi-channel strategy or not, has largely come to define successful 21st century businesses. Online, described by some as the New Frontier for marketers, is here to stay. And it may represent an enormous opportunity for your business.
Whilst there are branding benefits to online activity, a proven and natural strength of the medium is the customer call to action. Performance marketing at its most streamlined and productive is today delivered online.
Impressions, clicks, customer leads and acquisitions, as well as sales can be tracked with absolute accuracy and transparency, ensuring that Return on Investment (ROI) data is available instantly.
Are you currently getting accountable, transparent results, immediately, from your marketing spend?
TV and radio channels are proliferating, and national press circulations are in decline. As audiences become more fragmented and difficult to reach through means, online has come into its own.
Offering a unique combination of audience reach, creative potential, and measurable performance, online is attracting serious marketing budgets.
The Advertising Association estimates that UK internet ad spend has risen from £408m in 2003, to £653m in 2004, to £1.1bn in 2005.
Customer leads, new customer acquisitions and profitable sales are the key building blocks for growth and competitive share in any business.
Marketers now have at their disposal an online channel that allows payment directly for these results - affiliate marketing.
It is an established and successful means to drive performance.
So what are the benefits over other forms of marketing? The key areas to consider are accountability, transparency and control.
With affiliate marketing, run properly, you are in the driving seat. You specify whether you are rewarding affiliates for sales, leads or calls, and you define in advance the amount you are prepared to pay for every such result. You pay affiliates only once these results are delivered.
Which other marketing channel is this flexible and accountable?
Affiliate marketing has become an indispensable growth channel for those 'in the know'. E-consultancy estimates that the value of affiliate driven sales in the UK has risen from £300m in 2003 to £1.35bn in 2005.
Affiliates are often website owners who are prepared to divert their targeted traffic, via banners, buttons or text links, to areas of your site. They would consider doing this on the basis that any sales accruing from that diverted traffic would earn them a commission.
Other affiliates, known as Pay Per Click (PPC) affiliates, may be individuals or companies who will invest in keyword campaigns on Overture, Ask.com, Google or other major search engines. Bidding on terms relevant to your business, their advertisements can drive customer traffic to your site in return for a commission. They take the financial risk on the campaign. You pay them only for results they will already have delivered.
There are a few managed affiliate networks (see Useful Links to the right) that you could sign up to all with existing registered affiliates in the UK and world wide. The affiliate websites range from niche content sites, with discreet audiences, to major shopping comparison sites such as PriceRunner and Kelkoo, to loyalty sites such as AirMiles, Nectar and The Mutual. You could tap in and take advantage of the already astablished websites to advertise your website and your products an increase your productivity.
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