Christian Fea - Collaboration Marketing Strategist

Developing a strategic marketing plan is important to raise awareness for your business. If consumers don’t know about your fabulous product, it’s very difficult for them to buy it! The art of successful marketing is largely about letting the public know how to find you.

For online business, there are a variety of creative ways to do this: direct email, banner ads, pop-up ads—all of which are successful and strategic tools. A rather new idea in Internet marketing is called collaboration marketing, an understanding of which will help develop a complete marketing strategy.

What is collaboration marketing?

In essence, collaboration marketing focuses on directly attracting customers to your site, rather than intercepting them with traditional advertising methods. In traditional advertising, customers are somewhat randomly drawn to your business. For instance, if they happen to see an enticing advertisement, and happen to click on it, they may find their way to your website and business. This is proven and effective marketing tool, but to find an edge in business, it is important to cultivate new and creative ways to raise awareness for your business.

How does collaboration marketing work?

Collaboration marketing attracts customers by becoming more and more helpful to them—in a sense a sort of personalized service. This type of marketing targets customers both in terms of evaluating potential new products and services that may be of interest to them, and working with them to get more value from products and services they have already purchased.

This may sound like a lot of work, but these goals can be obtained through straightforward processes that will target a large group of customers at one time. Personalized service need not be personal service. Collaboration marketing challenges the idea of “one to one” personalized service with the refreshing view of “many to one” and “one to many” types of marketing.

Push vs. Pull

Collaboration marketing works by mobilizing a broad range of relevant third party marketers to add value to the customer relationship. These marketers make resources and relationships available to the customer that will enhance the products the customer has already purchased, thus creating a type of need and loyalty to the company of previous purchases. This is a “pull” approach where the marketer becomes useful to the customer so the customer then seeks out the marketer, rather than other types of marketing that seek to “push” a customer towards their product by invading email and blasting out ads.

Certainly, traditional modes of marketing are effective. Many types of marketing have been successfully implemented for decades.  But the art of successful marketing and strategic marketing is about finding an edge—developing a strategy that will get you noticed and attract customers to the products and services that you offer.  Collaboration marketing should not be the only type of marketing you implement for a successful strategy, but is a tool—another piece to add to your repertoire to give you the business edge that will get you noticed and help make your business a success.

One of the fastest and most successful ways to expand awareness of your company’s business is through the practice of affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a strategy born of the World Wide Web, an effective method for gaining large-scale awareness of a company and its products and services, without investing the capital which is required of a typical marketing scheme.

Affiliate marketing: great for small to large corporations

An affiliate marketing network can vary in size and scope and can be tailored to service the needs of just about any business. While affiliate marketing is typically used in small to medium sized, mainly Internet driven businesses, they may be an integral part of any sized business.

Affiliate marketing is a practice in web-based marketing where one site is used to drive traffic to another site. This raises product awareness by listing a single business on a myriad of sites, increasing market awareness of the targeted business.  It takes the sole weight of marketing for a company off the shoulders of that company, and spreads the marketing responsibility to a number of agents.

Affiliate marketing works on an incentive program, so there are no up-front marketing costs for the company. Affiliates generally get a percentage or a specific monetary compensation for each customer they refer to a company’s website.

Types of affiliate marketing techniques

Affiliates use marketing techniques that are specific to the Internet medium, but that are based on traditional marketing strategies. Direct email marketing is one such technique where names of customers and clients for a similar product to the one they are marketing are obtained, and these prospective clients are sent an email. Originally this was a somewhat unorthodox method, and viewed to be invasive, but it is based on the “direct mail” marketing tool, which is very successful in the traditional business arena. Direct email marketing is more accepted than at its inception, and is a very successful method to help grow awareness for your business.

Display advertising is another Internet marketing tool, largely employed by affiliate marketing teams. It is essentially what its name describes: displays of advertising in various locations on the Internet. Display advertising can take a variety of formats—banner ads to side bars being the most widely popular, and all meant to drive business to a particular website, or even a series of websites.

Display ads usually come up on search engine sites, and will correspond to the key work search that was entered. They will advertise a product similar to the one that was entered on the search engine, either in the form of side banner ads, or a position in the list of search results. Display ads are also sometimes sold to occupy space on a company’s website. Thus, you can place ads on another company’s website, or decide to run ads on your own website as a way to generate revenue.

Affiliate marketing is a hugely successful third party marketing strategy, and can be beneficial to almost any business. It shifts the burden of marketing your company’s products and services to another source and alleviates this stress from the business owner. This third party marketer will be dedicated and reliable in the success of marketing your business, because of the individual profit they stand to make as an affiliate.

Internet marketing has created endless possibilities to create revenue. Affiliate marketing has evolved as a consistently growing opportunity and venue for the Internet savvy entrepreneur. However, this lucrative marketing enterprise creates the need for specific contract and legal obligations.

Is An Agreement Needed?

Whether you are setting up or participating in an affiliate program, you will need an Affiliate Agreement. Typically, this form of agreement is posted directly on the Web site. The agreement or affiliate contract explores the “what ifs” at the formation process in order to create proposed solutions.
It is important to delve into and create solutions for any problems that may arise. Being proactive in this endeavor will reduce aggravation later. Generally, the potential affiliate partner enrolls in the program and agrees to the terms and conditions of the Affiliate Agreement, by checking a box that says “I have read and agree to the terms and conditions.” It is important to be familiar with the terms. Remember, all contracts and agreements are negotiable.

Do I Need To Use an Attorney?

If you are creating an affiliate marketing program and are in need of an agreement, use an attorney well versed in business partnerships. Often times, in order to cut corners, some may try to go it alone or use a “verbal” agreement. These type of relationships are complicated and although there can be lucrative results, without proper protection, disaster can occur. If you do not understand an affiliate agreement that you are about to enter into, it is important to get legal counsel.

What is an Affiliate Agreement?

A Website Affiliate Agreement sets forth the terms under which one website may become an affiliate of another, providing promotional services in exchange for commission payments. An affiliate contract generally contains the details of two main components: terms and compensation. There are many requisites of an affiliate contract.

Some of the key provisions that are addressed in an Affiliate Agreement are as follows:

• Payment/Commission Terms
• Frequency and schedule of payments
• A provision for indemnification in the case of infringement by any content created by either party.
• An explanation of how the referred customers will be tracked and reported.
• Who is responsible for the creation of the advertising?
• What types of links will be provided to the affiliate? (i.e. product link, a search box link, or some general text link )
• What are the trademark guidelines and may trademarks be used in title tags?
• Is there the right to remove the advertising if the advertiser fails to pay?
• Who will be liable for errors in the text of the ads and/or in the running of the ads in terms of times and placement?
• What are the requirements to end or terminate the agreement?

When joining an affiliate marketing program, it is easy to sign up and agree to terms without reading them. This is a mistake. The terms and conditions construe a legal contract. Tedious as it may be, it is imperative to read the agreement completely and carefully!

Affiliate programs can be a lucrative partnership for both sides. In order to proceed, there must be guidelines for all parties to follow. As a result, this complicated relationship should not be entered into without a strong contract protecting all who are involved.

The old adage, “It’s not what you know – it’s who you know,” is true, especially in affiliate marketing. You can have all the affiliates in the world, but if they’re not people with a network of people to whom they can market, you may as well save your time and energy when it comes to developing an affiliate marketing program.

You need to find the people that are already networked, or are networkers who understand the power of providing great information that will attract people who are interested in an additional product or service. Networkers actively “meet” people. Not necessarily face to face, but they are out there in the world getting to people and getting people to come to them. There’s a bit of an art to becoming a successful affiliate marketer, and you want to make sure you get at least a couple of these superstars on your team. One or two superstars can out do hundreds of well-meaning, but non-networked affiliates.

Think about it. In the sales world, who are the superstars? The people with the connections, right? Those people who are out there meeting people and giving and getting referrals are the ones who are most likely to succeed in the sales world.

It’s the same with affiliate marketers. The most successful affiliate marketers are those who are out there in cyberspace, meeting people while getting and giving referrals. You want to have people on your affiliate team who are networking fiends! Those are the people who network religiously and relentlessly. They’re the ones that will make your affiliate program a success.

Where do you go to find these networking superstars? You can do a search in your industry and see if there are any affiliate marketing superstars and contact them directly. You can tap into affiliate directories and advertise your affiliate program. You can even go to affiliate chat rooms and ask a few questions regarding the best ways to attract top-notch affiliates to your program. Just make sure you have a great program to attract them to before you get too far down the road.

Top affiliates, like top sales people, don’t want to waste time. Make sure your ducks are in a row and you know just what the compensation plan is going to be and how it will work. You can purchase software programs that will do all the tracking for you, or you can set up accounts with current websites that offer affiliate programs. You might even consider contacting a sales superstar in your industry and asking if him if he’s considered moving his sales skills and network into the affiliate marketing arena. It might just be the extra income he’s looking for – benefiting both his income and your revenues.

Whatever program you decide to use, set your sights on those people who are networked and networking. They will bring more immediate traffic and income than some of your other affiliate marketers. However, keep in mind that even though superstars can boost your profits quickly, there is something to be said for developing your own affiliate base because you can create a loyalty and somewhat of a customized program based on their feedback. Therefore, creating a mix of superstars and the average affiliate marketer will maximize your profits, as well as your time and effort.

Get to know the people who know the people, and your affiliate program will flourish.

Building a successful affiliate marketing team requires that you provide your affiliates with appropriate support. Even the “super-affiliates” require organizational support in order to maximize referrals and sales, and the regular affiliates depend upon this assistance much more. If you are looking to maximize the returns on your affiliate marketing efforts, then providing them with a foundation of resources is the first step to higher revenues.

• Tracking Software

Of course, first and foremost, your affiliates are working hard to promote your business – to make both you and them money. Make sure that your payment structure is very clear, and that your affiliates are fairly and properly paid for their efforts. Using tracking software ensures that your affiliates are happy that they receive monetary credit where credit is due. Especially if you utilize third-party tracking software, this makes the entire process more transparent, which is an element that all affiliates appreciate.

• Persuasive Promotions

Whether you are online or offline, the quickest way to drum up business is through promotions. A discount is psychologically one of the most compelling ways to persuade a consumer to enter in their payment information and hit the “buy” button. When a consumer believes that he or she must “act now” to take advantage of a special offer, they are more likely to become a customer.
Empower your affiliates with special discount codes, promotions, or sales. You should change these promotions often – whether you offer free shipping on month, 10% off on another, or a free bonus gift. This keeps the energy fresh and exciting. When your affiliates can offer their contacts discounts, this creates larger volumes of orders – ultimately giving you a higher revenue boost. Giving 10% off a product that will result in an increase of revenues of 30% certainly passes all of the cost-benefit analysis.

• Content is King

Indeed, the internet adage “content is king” still reigns true in today’s online era. Your affiliates typically engage in high levels of SEO to garner large volumes of traffic. The key to building high search engine rankings stem from fresh, valuable content for the search engine bots to index. The more relevant content your affiliates have with appropriate keywords, the higher their rankings are – meaning the more customers they will reach.
Having your in-house staff or hiring a content company to create articles for your affiliates to use is a valuable resource that will be greatly appreciated. You can either allow your affiliates to publish the articles as is, or that they can use the articles for ideas, but must re-write the wording to avoid duplicate content. Either way you go, your affiliates will appreciate this additional resource they have in their arsenal to increase your company’s sales.

When you empower your affiliates, you empower your full revenues. Making sure that your affiliates have the tools you need is key to running a powerful affiliate marketing strategy. In addition, when you show that you are dedicated to your affiliates’ success, they will return the appreciation threefold in increased sales.

Affiliate marketing via the internet is really still in its infancy. It’s only about 20 years old. Thus, there’s lots of opportunity and room for growth. You may even know people who are looking for a little extra income that you can help via your affiliate marketing program.

Who do you know who is passionate about the types of products or services that you offer? Who do you know that might like to make a little extra income on the side by sharing their passion and/or expertise with others? Who is already a successful affiliate marketer in your field? Think about these things as you plan your affiliate marketing program. There is significant opportunity available in the affiliate marketing field.

One of the biggest affiliate marketing sites is Amazon.com. You can sell books, CDs, DVDs, etc and Amazon makes a commission for helping get the sale. Of course, Amazon is a giant in the affiliate marketing industry. But, they’re also a great example of how effective affiliate marketing can be and how much potential there is in the marketplace. You don’t have to become Amazon to create an additional revenue stream from affiliate marketing. However, you will need to know a bit about affiliate marketing and the basics of what it takes for an affiliate marketer to succeed.

Because the industry is still in its infancy, you may need to offer fundamental information to your potential affiliate marketers in order to get them up and running. For instance, if you’re recruiting family and friends as your first tier affiliates, you may need to let them know that there are some basics they will need in order to be successful in the affiliate marketing arena.

For example, much of the advice for beginning affiliate marketers suggests that they should find a great product or service that they are passionate about and promote that product or service initially. Why?

• Because they won’t have to deal with customers and customer complaints.
• They don’t need to worry about creating a product.
• The billing and delivery of an existing product is taken care of by the affiliate program.
• If there are refunds or other problems, that is handled by the company and not the affiliate.

This eases the burden on the affiliate initially and allows them to get their feet wet. You may also want to provide information regarding promoting a product or service.

Generally, there are three ways affiliates sell items online. You can use your own website, write articles, and establish expertise and/or create a blog. All of these require a little learning, but they are becoming easier to use as more of the providers of these services offer WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get.) software – meaning that your affiliates can basically type and follow directions to create any one or all of the three points of selling. It’s important to remind your affiliates that whatever they do to set up as a selling point should be well done. People don’t have time for less-than-appealing sites these days.

Take advantage of the initial stages of the affiliate marketing phenomenon by educating yourself so that you can educate your affiliates.

When you start thinking strategic partnerships, think about what you don’t have that you need to move your business to the next level. For instance, if you’ve developed a unique product, but lack a mass distribution system, what companies would have a distribution system that could be utilized to get your product into the hands of the masses? You may need to give up a bit of your revenue per sale, but when you weigh that against the time and money it would take to build your own distribution system, you will most likely decide that it is a small price to pay.

Protect yourself and your ideas

Before you approach a larger company about a strategic partnership, make sure you’ve thought ahead and protected yourself and your product with the necessary patents, trademarks, and non-disclosure agreements. This is an important and necessary step for you to take. There is more than one tale of woe of an unsuspecting entrepreneur sharing an idea or product prototype only to see it on the market a few months later. Your attorney can help you draw up the necessary paperwork.

Research pays off

Make sure you research your potential strategic partner ahead of time. Find out all you can about the company. Study their offerings and determine if your product is a good addition or improvement to their current offerings. Ask people in the industry what they know about the company. A company with a reputation for treating strategic partners poorly in more than one instance is most likely a company to be avoided. On the flip side, a company with a track record for treating their partners fairly can be a great find. You want to partner with a company that has a great reputation, because you’re tying your reputation to theirs.

Plan for contingencies

Once you’ve decided to work together, think ahead to the “what ifs” of your agreement. What if things don’t work out as you planned? When you draw up your agreement, make sure that you have an “out” clause, just in case. Perhaps you’ll want to run a trial period to see how many units of your product your new partner can actually move, or how well they are able to fulfill orders. By putting a time-line or quantifying number in your contract, you’ll be better able to gauge whether the partnership is working how you had hoped or not. If not, you can move on in your search for a new strategic partner.

Long-term relations

When looking at a potential strategic partner, you should take into consideration your future product offerings. Look ahead to what you want to accomplish as a company. Before you form your strategic alliance, know where you want to go with your company. Think ahead to the possibilities. Will your potential partner be able to help distribute other products into the marketplace? While you don’t need to lay all your cards on the table when you’re forming a strategic alliance, look for the strongest possible strategic partner so that you can work towards to developing a long-term working relationship once you’ve made it through an initial project or two.

Business owners have to be creative when it comes to cost effective ways to promote a product or service. Advertising has its place, but it is critical that any advertising and marketing efforts have a return on investment. Joint ventures are an extremely effective and low-cost way to market your business and increase profit.

There are many simple ways to step into the joint venture arena. Think about sharing these ideas with a joint venture partner:

• Exchange links on your websites
• Include information in your newsletters about your joint venture partner
• Display information on counter tops
• Place information in shopping bags, billings or other mailings
• Share a booth at a tradeshow or event
• Write articles for each other’s newsletters
• Provide prizes for fundraising events for various organizations
• Become involved with a local non-profit or non-profit event that allows you to be seen as benefactors.

Find businesses and service providers in your industry or a cross-related industry and approach them about with your joint venture idea. Here are some examples of creative joint ventures to get your juices flowing:

• Make up Artist/ Bridal Shop: The make-up artist kept bridal shop and prom information in her kit and passed it to potential clients when she was out on a job. The bridal store displayed the make-up artist’s information on their counter.
• Travel Agent/ Wedding Planner: The wedding planner kept the travel agent information available for her clients to book honeymoons and received a free trip for every so many clients she sent to the agent.
• Real Estate Agent/ Moving Company: The real estate agent negotiated a discounted moving rate within a local area for her clients. The moving company received additional advertising in the agent’s newsletter.
• Small Pet Shop/ Dog Groomer/ Animal Shelter: The pet shop offered the groomer’s services and helped to promote the local animal shelter fundraising events. The groomer offered services to the shelter and the pet shop. The shelter promoted the pet shop and the groomer to people who adopted pets.
• Travel Agent/ Luggage Store/ Non-wrinkle clothing line: The travel agent promoted both the luggage store and the non-wrinkle clothing line. The luggage store included the travel agent’s card and information about the non-wrinkle clothing in their luggage and on the counter. The clothing line consultant promoted the luggage store and the travel agent during her consultations.
  By thinking of scenarios where both parties benefit, joint venture opportunities abound. Pick a target market that you don’t always reach, but your potential joint venture partner does. Then brainstorm as to the type of cross-promotion you would like to do. Bring that to your potential joint venture partner and explain what it is that you envision. Be sure to highlight the benefits to the other party. Also, make sure that you outline what the responsibilities are for each project you work on together. That way, you’ll avoid misunderstandings. Use joint ventures to increase exposure and profit. Be creative and have fun!

Using an affiliate marketing program to promote your product or service via the internet is a no-brainer. Tracking your affiliate traffic can be a bit of a challenge, unless you get an affiliate tracking software to help you with this task. There is a variety of tracking software available. You will need to familiarize yourself with the features and services offered by the different programs, and choose the one that fits both your needs and your budget.

Research your software options

When you are purchasing tracking software, it’s wise to research both the name of the seller and the name of the software. By doing a search, you can see what types of issues other users may have run into. Also, make sure that the instructions come with the software. Sounds silly, but there are some internet scams out there that provide the software, but no information on how to set it up or use it. A reputable software dealer will provide software information, answer questions you may have, and offer a guarantee that his product will work.

Evaluating affiliate software

Before you choose your affiliate tracking software, you should decide exactly what it is you need your software to do. Ask yourself a few questions to help you clarify what you need from your tracking software.

• First, is the software easy to use? You don’t want to spend a lot of time learning how to run a program.
• Can the software be branded to your domain? Some software providers offer this for an additional fee, which can be cost prohibitive. Another option to look for is direct linking, which will allow your affiliates to link directly to your domain name.
• Next, is the software something that can accommodate high traffic volume if the need arises? Stable software is important to you and your affiliates, so be sure to check out the downtime statistics of the software company you choose. Also, take a look and see if the software something that can grow with you as your affiliate network grows.
• How much of the software is automated and how much will you need to do manually?

Once you’ve answered a few of these questions, it’s time to begin narrowing down your options.

Reviewing the pricing structures

Pricing for affiliate management or tracking programs is all over the board. There are straight one-time buys, monthly leasing options, and leasing options with a one-time set up fee. You will need to determine your needs and decide on your budget. Keep in mind that the most expensive programs are not always the best. Stay with a mid-range price point that has the features you need. Ask other business owners who have an affiliate program what software they’re using and how they like it. You can learn a lot from other business owners.

Considering affiliate networks

The alternative to setting up your own software is to join an affiliate network like Clickbank or Commission Junction. This gives you a neutral party to track affiliate performance and handle payments. Also, you have access to affiliates who are looking for products to promote. If you want be fairly hands off, this is a viable option.

Before you enter into a strategic alliance, it is a good idea to decide what it is you hope to see happen as a result of the relationship.  Most strategic alliances have one main mission: to increase sales in such a way that both companies benefit.  You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”  Well, there’s more than one way to approach a strategic alliance, but there are a few things to consider before you rush headlong into the relationship.

First, outline a business plan specifically for the strategic alliance.  It doesn’t have to be extremely detailed, but it should create a clear picture that outlines the functions of the participants, the expected contributions from each party, and the anticipated benefits.  Do some research to determine if the alliance you dream of is actually feasible in dollars and cents.

Next, learn all you can about the company you plan to approach.  It doesn’t hurt to have a list of candidate companies for your proposed alliance.  Think of it as interviewing to fill an executive position in your company.  You don’t just want anyone in a high level position.  You want someone who can get the job done.  You may need to interview a couple “candidates” before you find the right fit.

Once you’ve found the right company, you need to find the decision maker within the company to whom you can present your concept.  Sometimes finding a contact within the sales or marketing department to help steer you in the right direction can save you some time and energy.  Or you can simply pick up the phone and try working your way through the corporate jungle by asking, “Who would the decision maker be regarding ____.” (Then, name whatever your project is.)

After you’ve located your contact person, submit a concise proposal.  Explain exactly how the alliance will benefit both parties and if you can, include a financial projection in a spreadsheet format.  Companies are always interested in the bottom line.  Show them the potential profit.

When you’ve secured interest, create a simple contract that lines out who does what, how the money flows, and what the disbursement terms will be.  You want to make sure that everyone understands the role that they play so that there are no surprises.  Follow your gut.  You may think a company would make a great strategic partner, but if your outlook or culture is not the same, you wish you’d never joined forces.

You can create a clause in your contract that states you are going to start small or for a certain amount to time to test the concept.  That way, if personalities or cultures don’t mesh, each of the parties is free to go with no harm done.  However, if things work well, you have a contract in place that will allow you to move full speed ahead when the time is right.