Affiliates – Focus on delivering new customers in 2009

I just read a blog entry over at Shareasale that I really enjoyed and really agree with.  Brian stated that 2009, with it’s financial challenges is

Shareasale CEO Brian Littleton

really a year of opportunity for affiliates willing to grasp it.   You can make yourself invaluble to merchants by delivering something they desperately need in a recession economy: NEW CUSTOMERS!

How do you do this?

Brian shared some great tips – my favorite was this one:

1. Get off (redirected) search.

Search makes up an enormous percentage of traffic generated – and thus we all love it. However, as Merchants become more sophisticated in their own search efforts, they will likely de-value Affiliates who work in that arena. This has already happened with Paid Search in the area of brand terms, trademarks, etc… and will continue into natural results. The most common reason that I hear Merchants changing and enforcing policy on this is that they feel the majority of customers who have searched for their “Company Name” are repeat customers or those customers who would have ended up at their store without the assistance of an Affiliate.

So – as an Affiliate, a new source of traffic – and one that belongs all to you should be a goal.

This is actually an opinion shared by a lot of the Paid Search Studs out there including Amit from PPC Classroom.   You can increase your sell through rate by providing some content on a landing page you build that supports the merchant offer you are promoting.  Merchandise it, sell it up, help your shopper make up their mind and deliver them ready to buy.

More and more merchants are refusing to allow “direct to merchant” listings – so you will open the door to more parntnerships.

Merchants who are smart are already marketing to their existing customers actively and (whether right or wrong) see less value in an affiliate using paid search to promote a coupon offer and send them a less profitable order from a customer they already have a relationship with.

Take Brian’s words to heart and carve out a more successful 2009 for yourself.