Is my service suitable for affiliate marketing?

[Mr.V5]

As a newbee, I would like to know if my business is suitable for affiliate marketing.

My company is a Web based information provider, specializing in bankruptcy data. We sell to a nationwide audience and have several proven target markets within large industries. In addition, there are several markets with huge potential that we have been unable to penetrate as yet.

The reason I question if we are suitable for affiliate marketing, is that I get the impression the norm is for publishers - the affiliates doing the actual selling, typically do not get involved with telephone sales activity. They are more likely to use electronic promotion to generate sales, but are not inclined to make followup telephone calls to close sales. Is that accurate?

Thanks in advance.

Paul

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Paul,

Yes that's correct. They not only sell or drive leads via the web, but the sale needs to take place on the net in order for the sale to be tracked back to the affiliates. Do you have a shopping cart? Or do people only buy over the phone?

But all types of financial services type companies have affiliate programs. Sometimes however the affiliate is only generating the lead and gets paid for that and the sale is made in-house by the company via phone. There are LOTS of different ways to set up affiliate programs and lead gen is one type.

One question though... forgive me but I do not know your market. I assume your target market is businesses. That's who buys the data, correct?

I ask because I wanted to let you know that B2B affiliate programs are much harder than consumer based affiliate programs. So that could be a hurdle.

 

[Mr.V5]

Linda: Kind of what I thought.

To answer your questions:
Yes we do have a shopping cart. [site removed] And we have actually have made a few sales totally hands off, but the overwhelming majority require person to person interaction. So the ideal for us was to have a sales force that could close the sale - over the phone or e-mail if need be. I had hoped there may be a niche group of affiliates that offer that ability. Recognizing that many affiliates just don't want to deal with people, and that is understandable, for those that don't mind it, there can be great financial returns.

Who buys our data: You are correct B2B. You have probably seen or heard advertising like this "No credit. Bad credit. Come on in, Joe's Auto can put you in a car today". Car dealers are one of our big markest. Statistics show that once consumers emerge from bankruptcy (that is one of the lists we provide), 37% will buy a car within 30 days. With 100's of thousands of car dealers, it's a big market. Other market segments are mortgage brokers, real estate, and other big ticket sales people. Then their is potential in other industries, e.g. insurance, credit card companies, etc. Using some imagination there are many.

The other point that I would think would be relevant is the price of the product/service. I have sold as much as $4,000 in services to one customer in one day.

Aren't there any people that sell high end products/services that would justify some old fashioned sales work, combined with new marketing techniques?

Thanks for you time.

 

[tomerh]

I also have a delima in my site we are hosting a service platform. Is it possible to add affiliate links in our sites...

 

[Linda Buquet]

Linda: Kind of what I thought.

Aren't there any people that sell high end products/services that would justify some old fashioned sales work, combined with new marketing techniques

I'm sure there are people like that, but setting up an affiliate program is not going to be the venue for finding them, plus like I said B2B programs are hard anyway.

I think your best avenue would be to advertise for independent sales reps.

 

[Mr.V5]

Linda: OK, if affiliate programs are not the venue for typical full service sales reps, perhaps we could explore the potential for affiliates to simply generate leads - as opposed to closing sales. What would be the proper aproach?

Recognizing you have stated, that affiliate programs are not ideal for B2B programs, I would still like to explore the possibilities in case there is a fit with our service; I would hate to miss an opportunity to have an affiliate sales team. Could you elaborate on exactly why B2B sales are not conducive?

In order to gain some insight into the possibilities, it would be helpful to know the basic process an affiliate uses to market what ever widget they choose to promote.
Would I be correct in assuming:
they would use PayPerClick advertising?
If so, would they be competing with on going merchant efforts?
Do they use opt-in email; is there a danger of them tarnishing product image by spaming?
What other techniques do they use?
Exactly how are they assured of credit for their efforts?
Do they drive people to a designated Web landing page coded with their ID?

If we were to have affiliates market our data - essentially data is what we are selling, under a different brand name, with it's own Web site and shopping cart, would that make it more appealing and effective for affiliates?

Your thoughts - as well as other others, would be appreciated.