Affiliation Programs

nvi is here to help you throughout the project

You want to take advantage of every possibility to increase your revenue through the Internet? Talk to nvi about affiliation programs for your website. Successful affiliate programs allow you to increase your client base through a commissions system for sites that are affiliated to yours.

The nvi team, that has a knack for managing all aspects of a strong digital marketing campaign, will support your company through each step of the affiliate marketing program implementation, from creating successful banners, ads, and newsletters, to incorporating an affiliation program. We can also give you tips regarding the different affiliation software and affiliation program solutions available.

Build your networks, it pays!

A key aspect of a great affiliation program is definitely the subscription to relevant affiliation networks. You can therefore promote your program among known and active affiliated sites, such as Linkshare and Google Affiliates.

With powerful advertising and promotional initiatives and clever efforts to recruit affiliates, nvi will make your affiliation program an actual lead generation machine!

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is a digital marketing system that pays out commissions to affiliated websites who refer visitors. Commissions are typically based on a percentage of sales made by visitors referred by the affiliate, or as a bounty for providing a qualified lead. This makes affiliate marketing an entirely performance based digital marketing channel, with simple ROI calculations.  

Setting up a new affiliate program is a complex project involving marketing strategy, Web design, creative design, programming, and conversions optimization. Many affiliate programs fail soon after launch, so core expertise and knowledge in best practice in this Web marketing channel, along with a skilled creative and programming team, is required in order to launch a successful affiliate program. nvi brings these various components together along with their critical experience in coordinating many types of complex digital marketing initiatives. 

Strategic Audit

The first step in establishing an affiliate program is to gain an understanding of client business needs, and developing a marketing strategy that is compatible with the existing business model.  

Marketing Plan

Some important considerations when setting up an affiliate program are choosing the right affiliate software solution, developing attractive and compelling creatives, and determining the commission model. The Affiliate Marketing Plan will lay down the groundwork for these various aspects of the initiative.

Project setup

The affiliate software solution will be integrated with the existing e-commerce or lead-tracking system. A range of creatives and other promotional materials for affiliates will be developed and integrated into the affiliate software.

Affiliate recruitment

An affiliate program without affiliates is… nothing.  Affiliate recruitment could be considered the primary core component of a successful affiliate strategy. The affiliate program must be promoted right from Day 1 of launch using all available tactics. Affiliates must be sought out and attracted to the program with a competitive offering. Just as important is selecting the right affiliates whose referral traffic will contribute and add value to the overall marketing strategy.

The benefits of affiliate marketing

One of the key benefits of affiliate marketing is the ability to closely track and measure performance. Because every single referred visitor and subsequent conversion is tracked via the affiliate software, an affiliate program offers complete performance transparency. This in turn offers the ability to pinpoint the best converting creatives, landing pages, affiliates or particular tactics or strategies, allowing continual optimization and improvement to the performance of the channel, and to overall revenues.

Reporting

Extensive and in-depth reporting can be offered, providing a large, transparent window into the performance of the affiliate program. Data can be crunched and analyzed to gain deep insights, and presented in the most appropriate custom format. 

Ongoing promotion

Since affiliates are the backbone of the affiliate program, the primary method to continually grow the affiliate program is to grow the affiliate base. Therefore, ongoing affiliate recruitment is one of the most important aspects of a long-term affiliate marketing strategy. This involves seeking out affiliates directly as well as finding other creative ways to attract new affiliates to the program.

Creative design

Compelling creatives are key to attracting clicks and driving performance. New banner creatives are typically required on a regular basis when new products or services are launched, a hot new promotion or sale needs to be pushed into the affiliate channel, or when existing creatives simply become old and tired. These creatives must be offered in at least several of the standard ad unit sizes, or more depending on the needs and promotional capabilities of the affiliates.  

Landing pages

The landing page is the first thing a visitor sees upon landing on your site – the first impression. You know how much first impressions matter, and in the world of Web marketing they matter even more. Developing the right landing page is critical to ensuring that the visitors, that you and the affiliates work so hard to attract, stay on the website. If visitors bounce away too often, then you won’t be happy, we won’t be happy, and affiliates won’t be happy. Attractive and compelling landing pages must be developed in order to have success in this channel.

Conversions optimization

From the time the visitor lands on the affiliate website, to the time they make a purchase or self-identify on your website – thereby completing a conversion – the visitor must spend time, visit many pages, click on many links and make dozens of small decisions. It’s important that this conversion path be strategically considered and optimized throughout the entire process for maximum performance.

Maintain a long-term relationship

A good affiliate program is one that will continue to perform over the long term. In addition to growing the program and attracting new affiliates, the program must also retain existing affiliates and gain the highest performance possible from them. The program must remain fresh and competitive, and close relationships with top affiliates must be maintained. 

Affiliate management

Most affiliates, particularly top-performing affiliates, expect to receive regular communications from their affiliate program manager.  Not only does the affiliate manager need to be available when affiliates have needs and questions, but he should also take a proactive approach to these relationships. The needs of each affiliate must be understood, along with their individual marketing strategies. This allows the affiliate manager to provide the most ideal promotional materials and advice.

Promotions

Regular promotions are a core component to most successful affiliate programs. This may be in the form of product discounts, coupons, seasonal sales, new product launches and more. These should be considered and developed strategically from an affiliate marketing perspective as well as a business perspective. 

Email marketing

Most successful affiliate programs offer a regular affiliate newsletter. These may be daily, weekly or monthly, but some form of regular email newsletters is expected. As such, a list of affiliate emails must be maintained, a newsletter template created, newsletter content prepared, and an email blast scheduled as required.