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I was chatting with a prospect today and came to an interesting loggerhead.

The prospect had a very small shop - only 2 people making things happen, but was doing nicely and was positioned well due to an exclusive marketing relationship to sell a potentially hot product online. After our initial contact, he mentioned that he was already in process of launching with one of the big 2 affiliate networks. Great I said… what is your management effort going to look like? Can we be a part of it?

I sent him a run down of the services that we provide as well as a cost estimate that was on the low side of market average because he works in a vertical market that we have a soft spot for.

He responded that we were probably out of his budget, and that “the software was going to take care of this for him.” I’m not sure if this is naiveté, or if he had been sold a bill of goods.

Let me make this clear. In no circumstance is just launching an affiliate program in a major network (with no management) “enough” to make things happen for your online business. Affiliate programs need management and if you want real results that you can be proud of, will justify their expense, and will positively impact your brand, trained affiliate management is a must.

As an outsourced management firm, one of the most common scenarios that we see is the merchant who has launched a program with no cohesive management plan, failed, and is now looking for help “righting the ship” in many cases they have suffered brand damage from their links being displayed on sites that they would never work with due to auto approval, or they have been taken advantage of by spyware/adware affiliates who have even polluted their paid search efforts and INCREASED the cost of customer acquisition.

If you are looking to open a new sales and marketing channel, give yourself a chance to succeed. Work with experienced affiliate managers who know the game to make sure that you launch with a good strategy, and that that strategy is carried forward as the program grows. It will cost more money initially than just launching the program in a network, but it will pay off for you.

Happy selling!

Wade Tonkin