As an affiliate marketer, you have embarked on a journey that provides you with the entrepreneurial freedom to choose a business model that caters to your professional strengths and personal interests. All successful conquests begin with a clear and concise roadmap and as an affiliate marketer yours must be transferrable and innovative! Your marketing strategy should be as dynamic as the landscape is, and by incorporating these points to each of your initiatives, you will be well on your way to a successful campaign launch!

Identify and Become the Brand

• Take the time to assess the active marketing initiatives of the brand you are looking to promote.
  -What mediums is the brand actively using to market its product? (online, radio etc)
  -Current SEM promotion: is the brand marketing on all tier 1-3 engines?
  -Note the verbiage and graphics used in all of the promotions (is the message clear and marketable?)
  -What is the value proposition to the user and is there a sense of urgency (seasonality/limited time offer)?
• Determine the core demographic of the brand and identify who the online target audience is.
  -Is there a similarity (brand demo and online target audience)?
  -If so, draw the parallels and note the similarities. This will assist you with marketing to the most conversion prone audience.
  -If not, be sure to target both audiences as there may be an opportunity to capitalize on a new (unsaturated) market share.

Competitive Landscape Analysis

• Conduct an extensive search to determine who the brands offline/online competitors are.
  -Analyze each competitors campaigns by taking note of the features/benefits of the product and the value proposition to the user.
• Note the distribution channels that the competition is using to promote their campaign (IE: SEM and Social Media etc).
  -Diversifying distribution channels allows for an extensive reach to multiple market shares. (IE: SEM targets real-time purchasers while social media provides brand engagement/awareness)
• Do not simply mirror the competition but trump it through innovation.
  -Identify what is marketable about the competitor’s campaign and finesse it.

Distribution Channel: En Route to Conversions

• Establish a marketing budget which is flexible to the emerging media landscape.
  -SEM distribution: Be clear with what your ceiling and floor spends are but ensure you have the ability to inflate/deflate daily.
• Institute a monthly TEST budget .
  -If you’re monthly marketing budget is $1000 (SEM distribution), allocate $200 of that to test distribution via an alternative channel.
• Marketing your campaign through more than one distribution channel will assist with stabilizing your revenue streams and building your portfolio. Diversification is the claim to fame!

Happy marketing (and earning)!