Marketing has pretty much been around forever in one form or another. Since the day when humans first
started trading whatever it was that they first traded, marketing was there. Marketing was the stories they
used to convince other humans to trade. Humans have come a long way since then, (Well, we like to
think we have) and marketing has too.
The methods of marketing have changed and improved, and we've become a lot more efficient at telling
our stories and getting our marketing messages out there. eMarketing is the product of the meeting
between modern communication technologies and the age-old marketing principles that humans have
always applied.
That said, the specifics are reasonably complex and are best handled piece by piece. So we’ve decided
to break it all down and tackle the parts one at a time. This week we’ll be looking at the "what" and "why"
of eMarketing, outlining the benefits and pointing out how it differs from traditional marketing methods.
By the end of the series we're pretty sure you'll have everything you need to tell better marketing stories.
Let's say you recommend a restaurant to your friend. Your friend visits the restaurant and in turn the
restaurant makes money - all thanks to you! Normally you wouldn't get rewarded for this, one of the most
simple and natural forms of marketing called word-of-mouth marketing. However, in some instances it is
possible to earn a commission or fee for recommending a product or service; this is known as referral
marketing. Referral marketing has worked in the offline world for many years; but it is online that referral
marketing has really found a home.
The Internet is a connected place. People navigate by a series of links, each site referring the user to
another site with each person referred to a website being a potential client. As each click can be
accurately tracked, it is very easy to reward sites for referring customers. This system of reward where
compensation is based on referral is called Affiliate Marketing.
It Takes Two or More to Tango
The basic parties in an affiliate program are:
The Merchant: The individual or company that wants to sell its service or product
The Affiliate: The individual or company that allows their website to be used for the marketing of the
merchant's product
There can also be more parties in the mix, depending on how big the affiliate program is. Some larger
affiliate programs require a lot of work to maintain the relationship between the affiliate and the merchant.
In these cases the merchant can hire an experienced company to run their affiliate campaign for them, or
they can join an affiliate network.
Affiliate networks help suitable affiliates and merchants to find each other amongst the thousands of
affiliate programs on the Internet. In return for this service they usually charge a set up fee, or take
commission on sales.