How To Motivate Your Affiliates With Contests
If you run an affiliate program, you want your affiliates to perform their best. After all, the more traffic your affiliate’s websites get, the more clicks your links and banners get. These clicks should translate into sales. As an online retailer that operates an affiliate program, you have a stake in the hard work put forth by your affiliates. So, how do you ensure they are doing their best? You have many options, but contests have proven successful.
As nice as it is to hear that contests can motivate your affiliates to perform their best, you may wonder why. What makes them work? There are a number of different reasons why. Contest rewards often include monetary compensation or prominent highlighting. Regardless of the rewards, people love contents. This is particularly true with tasks they do everyday or enjoy, like designing websites or internet marketing. Contests will provide your affiliates with drive, determination, and motivation.
The best affiliate marketing partners to work with are those that provide enough communication with their webmasters. Affiliates that have established great customer service and feedback systems in place are easier to work with than fly-by-night advertisers. Partnering with affiliates that have plenty of support available will reduce the amount of hassle website owners have to go through to make affiliate marketing pay off.
What does drive and determination from affiliates mean for you? It should mean increased sales and profits. The more an affiliate markets their website, the more traffic it will receive. Each website visitor should see your links displayed. If they like the link or what you have to offer, they are likely to click through. At this point, a sale is likely. Not only should you reward affiliates with contests, but always emphasize the fact that the more traffic a website gets, the more money they make. This, alone, is enough drive and determination for some.
So, what type of contests should you host? It all depends on your preferences. With that said, make it exciting. Over months, you will notice a pattern in the top earning affiliates. It is usually the same group of individuals. For some, once they get started, it is difficult to slow them down. This is good. After all, they earn you money too. However, don’t let your other affiliates, especially those who try hard, feel like they are being left out. It may be best to alternate your contests or hold two contests at the same time. Reward the top performing and the most improved affiliate.
When creating an affiliate marketing program for your products, encourage deep linking. You want links on your affiliate's pages to go directly to the product page for the item they're recommending. The more clicks it takes the reader to reach the product, the less likely it is that they will convert.
When hosting contests for affiliates, you can also think outside of the box. Consider all the aspects of affiliate programs. As previously stated, a well-trafficked website translates into click throughs and sales. You want to encourage your affiliates to market their websites. Host a contest seeking unique internet marketing ideas. Reward the top five affiliates with the best answers. Take all of the ideas and compile them into a list to share. A professional and easy to navigate website is ideal, as it keep readers on the website and coming back. Host a contest looking for the affiliate with the best designed or the most easy to navigate website. When you think outside of the box, anything can be turned into a contest.
As for the rewards, you have many options. As previously stated, they include compensation and recognition. For some individuals, seeing their name posted on your website or in the monthly affiliate newsletter is enough. However, most would prefer compensation. Take the frequency of your contents into consideration. If you offer monthly contest winners money, opt for a low reward, like $25. If you offer one contest a year, make the prize big and worthwhile, like $500 or $1,000.
Make sure that any information you have on your site is legitimate content that actually makes sense and is not full of filler content. If a user comes to your site and the text on the site is not relevant or coherent, what are the chances that they are going to remain on the site long enough to click on any links.
Speaking of frequency, how often should you host contests for your affiliates? Your goal is to improve moral, drive, and determination. For that reason, the more contests the better. Consider hosting one or two a month. Aftertime, new affiliates will see that they have the opportunity to earn additional cash or attention. If you have monthly contests scheduled, they know they didn’t miss the opportunity to win. They won’t give up simply because the deadline has passed.
In conclusion, contests are an easy way to increase your sales, please your affiliates, and keep the relationship a healthy and positive one. If you operate an affiliate program and have yet to offer a contest, try it. Chances are you will notice an increase in sales from your affiliates and hear positive feedback from members.
