Affiliate Marketing – More than a margin opportunity

Affiliate Marketing has grown in popularity among organizations who want to leverage their web site presence into referral-based commissions by enabling their visitors to link to and purchase 3^rd party products and services.    Affiliate Programs can serve up valuable products to Trade Association members at discounted prices, while Associations can earn up to 20% commission on each referral that leads to a sale.   The key to a successful Affiliate Marketing Program for Trade and Professional Organizations is relevance of the products or services to its members’ needs, and value, meaning good products at discounted prices.

Trade and Professional Organizations are always looking for ways to add valuable services for their members and Affiliate Marketing represents an additional source of revenue.  And, if it helps to cover administrative costs, benefits and professional salaries, rather than raising Association member dues, that is a good thing, especially in these difficult economic times.

But Associations must choose their Affiliate Partners wisely.   As with much of the Internet, there are lots of people out to make a quick buck without adding any value.  A Google search on “Affiliate Marketing Programs” will generate hundreds of articles about how to start up a program or how to find a program to join.   Sorting between something that is value-added for your Association members and something that would just clutter up your web site, takes some thought.    A good way to determine whether something would be value-added is if your own organization could use and benefit from the product or service.  Then you should to try it out to make sure it is something that you are comfortable promoting to your members.  From personal experience, some useful services that I use that you might want to consider are:  online backup storage, web conferencing and collaboration, database and email list marketing and search engine optimization.  If you find that you benefit from these services and are comfortable recommending them to your members anyway (getting them a discount off retail pricing), why wouldn’t you want to earn a commission on the referral?

So how would the Affiliate Marketing program work and how much effort is involved on your part?  As an Affiliate Partner your role is to let your members know about the service or services.   Typically that means placing a banner ad or logo on your home page and/or creating a separate page on your web site that describes the product or service and the discount they would receive as a member of the Association.  You could create and link to a dedicated BLOG (like this one) that describes the product or service and allows users to ask questions or post testimonials.   You could also include an article in your member newsletter.    The Affiliate Program Provider would create a special code that is incorporated into the banner ad or logo and a URL link to their web site, which has the ability to track the purchaser throughout the buying process, identifying you as the Affiliate Partner who should get paid a commission.  The Affiliate Program Provider would be responsible for answering any questions, facilitating the online purchase through their own eCommerce engine and supporting the purchaser after the sale.

If you are evaluating affiliate programs, here are some questions to ask:

- Is the price that my members get at retail or a discount off of retail, and how much?

- When one of my members buys, will I get notified or provided a periodic report on purchases?

- Is that a one-time commission or does it cover future purchases or renewals?

- Will you cross sell other products and services to my members without my knowledge or permission?

Visitors to this Blog are encouraged to share their insights and experiences, ask questions and/or make recommendations for programs or screening criteria.

Introduction to the Trade Association Marketing Forum

The Trade Association Marketing Forum is for trade and professional organization marketers to share their knowledge and collaborate on best practices in online and offline marketing tools and techniques.  Some marketing tools basics are described and cataloged in somewhat of a Wikipedia style, and you are welcome to comment on these:

•    Affiliate Marketing Basics
•    Blog & Web Site Development Basics
•    Branding & Positioning Basics
•    Conferencing & Collaboration Basics
•    eMail Marketing Basics
•    Records Management Compliance Basics
•    Search Engine Marketing Basics
•    Search Engine Optimization Basics
•    Social Media Basics

You can also contribute directly to Trade Association Marketing Best Practices in any of these categories, (i.e. post new content yourself).  Send an email to tradeassociationmarketingforum@proamericas.com with your first post and we will add you as an author/contributor.    Marketing service providers to Trade Associations are encouraged to comment and/or submit best practices, although we reserve the right to delete any blatant commercialism or offensive content.