Heidi Cohen, President of Riverside Marketing Strategies, just wrote an overview of affiliate marketing at ClickZ.
It’s a good primer on the industry that points out reasons to add affiliate marketing to a marketing plan, hurdles for the industry, and affiliate marketing metrics to track.
Sixty-seven percent of U.S. Internet users seek the lowest priced items and 40 percent find coupons, according to Pew Internet and American Life Project’s July 2009 “The Internet and the Recession” study. With lower sales, longer purchase consideration periods, and smaller marketing budgets, what can a retailer do to beyond price cutting to drive sales? One cost-effective method is to add affiliate marketing to your marketing mix or enhance your current program.
Affiliate marketing can be a great way to extend your marketing efforts cost-effectively. (To better understand affiliates, check out this report.) Evidence of this is the recent Affiliate Summit East, where affiliates and retailers made real-world connections to solidify their online relationships. This year, the summit had an impressive 25 percent increase in attendance over last year.
Read the complete article at http://www.clickz.com/3634757.