Introduction Affiliate Marketing

An Introduction to Affiliate Marketing   

In the modern technologically driven consumer age the majority of companies offering goods and services have their own website. These companies often use the internet as a marketing tool in order to increase sales of their goods and services, and in doing so increase their own profit margins.

The ways in which companies can market themselves online are many and varied and include Display Marketing, Email Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media Marketing and several others besides. The choice for companies is broad, and the multitude of options allows them to formulate a marketing strategy that is ideally suited to their business model and customer base.

Although all of the approaches are in themselves different from each other to lesser or greater extents, one of the things they all have in common is that they all have in common is the ability to reach the target audience at a relatively low cost when compared to more traditional modes of advertising and marketing. One of the most commonly adopted online marketing strategies is that of Affiliate Marketing.

The concept of Affiliate Marketing is not a new one, having in fact been conceived in the late 1980s by an American entrepreneur named William J Tobin. Tobin conceived, put into practice and patented this approach, and in doing so made millions of dollars per annum for companies he was employed by. The idea behind Affiliate Marketing was to get more traffic, or visitors, to your website by rewarding third party advertisers who help you to do so. The Affiliate part of this tool's name in itself suggests a certain amount of cooperation with these advertisers, so it is important when using this model that the right business is paired with the right advertiser, or group of advertisers. If managed properly, then Affiliate Marketing has the potential to facilitate a dramatic increase in sales, alongside an improvement in brand awareness - which in itself is highly beneficial.

However, managing a marketing campaign on the internet, as with other means is fraught with its own unique set of challenges and issues. Not least of these is due to the constantly changing nature of the internet and websites on it. An Affiliate Marketing campaign needs to be constantly monitored to make sure that good quality leads are passed on, and stringent quality control targets need to be designed and adhered to. This means that Affiliate Marketing, as with other internet marketing strategies is often subcontracted to specialist online marketing companies, who can consistently ensure the best results are achieved.

by Levi Mckie