David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

The idea for this article came to me last night whilst I was thinking about all the thing's I've got to do (very busy chap lately!)

Friends and family outside of affiliate marketing keep asking what exactly it is I do all day, "you know, apart from sitting around?!"

We can all roll off a definition of affiliate marketing (if you can't, what exactly is it that you do all day?!) but have you ever broken it down to gain a different perspective?
 
Affiliate marketing to me is advertising products and services on behalf of a retailer and taking a slice of the sale or commission for introducing that sale. Now obviously, this extends further such as with recurring sales whereby the introducer gets lifelong credit so long as another cookie isn't set for instance.

The lightbulb moment last night was this.

Affiliate marketing shouldn't be looked at as advertising. I do this but it's wrong. Why?

Merchants do their own advertising. They run TV campaigns PPC campaigns, printed media campaigns, etc. The goal from this primarily to create awareness. Think of an advert you have seen recently. The chances are it portrays the brand over the product. How about this:



It's a video for Iveco. For those not in the know, Iveco manufacture trucks. So where was this advert shown? To be honest, I can't remember! It was definitely in the evening and it was definitely on ITV or S4C (Channel 4). So what was the purpose? Given that you and I wouldn't go out tomorrow and buy a truck, the purpose was to create awareness. If the advert got through to some drivers who then talked about it at work, the buzz on ground zero could work it's way up to management. "We're looking to buy a new truck - any preferences?"

Confused? Let me clarify.

My job as an affiliate marketer is to create a buzz about a product, not a brand. I'm not being paid to run a TV campaign, I'm not being paid for awareness, I'm being paid for actual results.

So rather than placing a few banners for Tesco on my website (for example), I should be promoting products they sell plus I should be giving the reader a reason for buying from them. I should be preselling not promoting.

Let's continue the Tesco example. Here's a couple of scenarios:

Scenario 1

Tesco are offering a £5 off every order from Tesco groceries online (for example). I create a page optimised for the phrase "online groceries" and add a few banners. The problem with this is that I am creating brand awareness. I have given the user no reason to click on a link and buy. I've wasted virtual real estate. Imagine, if you will, buying a plot of land and building a house on it but forgetting to create spaces for doors and windows. I've got a house I can't live in and there's no chance anyone would want to buy it off me. It's a complete waste of time.

Scenario 2

I've picked a product (the only one I could find a video for!):



I create a page that has this video on it, some blurb about why the product is great and crucially, why the visitor should whip out their credit card and order £50 from Tesco groceries to get the £5 off. Rather than creating brand awareness, I'm creating a buzz about the product. If I could show some real life proof that the product works (such as Rob's video) this would help to presell the item. By the end of the 'experience' the reader should be clicking like mad!

The key here is 'experience'. You need to create an experience based upon a strict formula:

Targeted traffic + Presell copy + Reason to buy now = Success

Some will undoubtedly argue with this and that's good as it promotes a discussion. However, I think it's a sound way to formulate your sites.

We've covered presell copy and the reasons to buy. So what about traffic?

Marketing is all about getting your message through to an audience. So where does this audience come from? Well, it depends upon what kind of site you are running. You have to get into the heads of your visitors (metaphorically).

Take Compare Sat Nav for instance. It showcases sat nav systems. The type of person who would buy a sat nav system would be looking to buy one that lasts a while. I would like to guess a period of 3 years as that's my benchmark for electrical. If an electrical item fails before 3 years, it's not worth buying the same one again.

So building a mailing list would be pointless, unless I wanted to send out emails once every three years. Sure, an autoresponder would help boost conversions but what do you do after the first 2 weeks of emails?

Most of the traffic to the site has to therefore come from PPC or natural listings.

Take another example. Let's take UK Offers (only because Kieron's on hols!) - more specifically a discount voucher for Flowers. The very nature of discount coupons means if someone is searching for them, they are more than likely going to search for codes for more retailers. The best use of this visitor is subscribing them to a mailing list or RSS feed. Why? Because of the strong probability of recurring sales.

There's an awful lot to take in here and it's presented in my own unique style which may not be as clear as you may imagine! Hopefully this helps someone though.