If I provide good commissions and recruit the right affiliates, would this help increase my website growth and sales?
Assuming your first two conditions are fulfilled, then yes, why not.
The problem is in the execution. Most affiliates allowed "in" under typical circumstances are useless and will do nothing. More than 90% of them. So your qualification process will have to be heavy.
You also have to make it easy for them: that means swipe files/emails, landing pages, VSLs, instructional videos and other documentation for them to a) learn how to sell your product, and b) actually DO the selling.
Don't expect them to lift a finger. Especially if you dump all the work on their collective lap. You need to spoon-feed them. Again, nearly all will do nothing if you accept requests willy-nilly. The key is finding the top 10% who will take action, and pleasing them. Easier said than done.
Remember, the affiliate doesn't really care about your product. They care about making money. And as an established affiliate, they want to see HOW they will make money with you. This means data. You need to show them numbers, even if they are conservative estimates.
I've been running affiliate programs for the last 8 years in the software as a service space (SaaS).
If your plan is to recruit affiliates and let your affiliate program run on autopilot, save your money. Neglect is the most common reason for an affiliate programs to fail.
Can an experienced affiliate drive website growth and sales? Without a doubt.
However, recruitment is just the first step, after an affiliate joins your program, you still must convince them to promote your website.
The affiliates who can really move the needle, the "Super Affiliates" will work with hundreds if not thousands of affiliate programs. These other affiliate programs are your competition.
Of the affiliates who do join your program, It's not uncommon to have over 90% never promote your product.
A major component of your affiliate manager's activity should focus on "Activating" affiliates to send affiliate traffic (and customers) to your website.
Your onboarding procedure for new affiliates should include:
* Interviews with affiliates before they are approved.
* An affiliate focused drip marketing email campaign.
* Activation bonuses / contest
I've found that an affiliate who makes one sale in their first month will sell 10x more than the average affiliate. An affiliate who makes 20 sales in their first month will sell 800x more. Your goal is to maximize the number of affiliates with sales in their first month.
Once you have identified which affiliates are driving traffic and sales it's time to look at optimizing that traffic. You'll probably have 10-20 Super Affiliates driving 70-80% of your total affiliate sales. Your affiliate manager should be speaking with these top affiliates on a regular basis, to solidify these relationships.
An investment in:
* Customized offers,
* Landing pages
* Creative
For your top affiliates could result in a significant increase in traffic & sales.
If you have further questions I'd be happy to hop on a call with you.
It all depend on what goal you want to achieve. For both growth and sales there are different affiliates who can help you. Before you start with affiliate you should know following things first:
> Ideal customer persona of your product or service
> You have infrastructure ready for growth
> You have a dedicated resource to handle affiliates and their queries
> You have proper finance and accounts setup available.
> Your current churn rate of your service are incredibility low.
Having above things in place you can go ahead recruiting right fit of affiliate partner for your product or service. Yes, having good affiliate partner onboard help you increase growth of your product / website / service.
