We have discussed a multitude of marketing software topics. Everything from email automation to lead generation to sales software, and all the features in between. There is a wealth of great customer relationship management software (just check out our reviews), but that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Before we talk about this new post, let’s take a stroll down memory lane. In the old days word of mouth advertising was king. There was nothing more powerful to convince a customer of the value proposition of your product than the endorsement of someone they know and trust. It is still incredibly powerful in the modern era, there is no doubt about that. However, it has transformed and grown into something much more powerful.
We are speaking of affiliate marketing, of course. Affiliate marketing is the modern incarnation of digital word of mouth advertising. If you’re not familiar with the model, it boils down to a producer offering another individual a portion of the profit from the sale of their product if the individual brings in a paying customer. This has the potential to be incredibly beneficial for all parties involved. The customer gets to purchase a quality product, the affiliate earns a commission and the producer gets access to a broader market for their pro
duct.
There are a number of affiliate programs you are probably familiar with, even if it’s only indirectly. Amazon is one business that offers an affiliate program. Content producers can review a product, say a drone or hoverboard, and then provide a link to that product’s amazon listing. Embedded in that link is the content producer’s affiliate code. When you click the link and buy the drone or hoverboard, the affiliate gets a portion of the sale. Typically it’s something like 3% – 5%.
It’s important to realize that there are a massive number of affiliate programs out there. Many of them are one content producer selling the content of another. It’s quite popular to affiliate market eCourses this way. You can buy courses to teach you just about anything these days, and it’s a big business. It’s therefore not surprising that there is a class of software solutions that are offered with the intention of facilitating affiliate marketing.
In this article we’re going to talk a little bit about a couple different types of software. We will discuss referral software, which generally leads to referrals to your website (traffic, yay!) and affiliate marketing software that helps you manage your affiliate programs. We will discuss the features you should be looking for when making a selection.
Core Functionality of Referral and Affiliate Marketing Software
The heart of any referral (affiliate marketing) software is going to be the ability to drive traffic to your website. It is traffic that ultimately drives sales, so this is what you’re looking for. Some software will help facilitate this by including a social share widget. Basically it lets them share your website on their favorite social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Speaking of traffic, many affiliate marketing software packages will have SEO optimization integrated. This is helpful so you can boost your page rankings over time and appear in organic searches. Of course this is critical functionality to have in some software or another that you are using. If the affiliate marketing software doesn’t have it, make sure you are doing what you need to get boosted in rankings.
Similar to other marketing software, referral software will let you send out surveys to your customers so you can find out who would be willing to act as a brand advocate. Word of mouth advertising is still very much alive in 2016, so you shouldn’t be afraid of using it to your advantage whenever possible. In addition to soliciting referrals, you can get valuable feedback from the people who matter most – your customers. It’s important to know what went well and what didn’t, so that you can improve your business in the future.
One popular trend in the affiliate marketing world is the use of contests to drive sales and traffic for a short concentrated period of time. Contents are exactly as the name implies. You offer some prize for the affiliate that sends the most traffic or sales to your business.
Of course, another critical function is going to be the ability to set the incentive for your affiliates. You want to be able to tailor the incentive to both the individual and the product. Typically the software will support fixed rate commissions, where you give the affiliate a fixed amount on each sale, regardless of what the product is. The alternative to fixed rate commissions is the percentage based commission where you give the affiliate a percentage of the sale price of the product.
The best affiliate 
marketing software will support other types of rewards, such as gift cards, coupons or other items. Want to give them an iPad for the sale of a high ticket item? You can do that too.
It’s important to keep track of your affiliate sales, so the software will usually come with invoicing capability. This lets you identify the best performing affiliates so you can work hard at solidifying your relationship with them.
Additional promotional functionality includes email templates so that you can standardize your message across affiliates. This will help you get the data you need to know which emails sell, and which don’t. When you have that information you can optimize your affiliate campaign by using your highest performing email templates.
Once you get the ball rolling and start getting hordes of affiliates and sales, you are going to be collecting mountains of data. You want to be able to easily visualize and track that data so you can know which programs and campaigns are most profitable. You need to know who is giving you the most traffic, so you can double down on your investment with them. The best affiliate marketing software will make this easy for you, but it’s something you can’t be without. It’s definitely a critical feature.
Other Factors to Consider When Choosing Affiliate Marketing Software
One thing to consider is the nature of your relationship with the affiliate. So far we have discussed what amount to customer and partner affiliates, but are there other relationships that can result in affiliate sales? Of course! If you run a business with employees, they can act as some of your best affiliates. 
They have a direct incentive to ensure the success of the business (assuming they want to keep their job) so they make natural candidates for the role of affiliate marketers.
From the perspective of making it easy to get affiliates, you want to make sure the software has a user friendly sign up module. If the potential affiliate has to jump through ten thousand hoops just to join the program, there is a good chance they may opt to market for someone else.
Some software has the capability to auto register customers as affiliates. This is a pretty powerful feature. If you have done your job right, then your customer should be happy with the product. This will make it easy for them to recommend it in good conscience, and the auto enrollment makes it easy for them to get a cut of the profits.
Integration with other software is also something that needs to be considered. If you are using Shopify, Mail Chimp, PayPal, etc. then you want to be sure the affiliate marketing software you are considering can easily integrate and play nicely with your existing systems. The best affiliate marketing software can easily accommodate this goal, so this one should almost be a given.
One popular feature, that really has nothing to do with the software itself, is the availability of a free trial. It’s always great to be able to try before you buy. Particularly when you are making such a big investment in time and energy.
Since affiliate marketing isn’t as involved, in terms of manpower, as other forms of marketing, you don’t have to worry as much about getting buy in from a team of people. This is one theme we touch in quite a bit in this blog, but it doesn’t really apply here as much. If you are going to be the one using the software, then you are the one who has to be happy. The affiliate portals are going to be pretty limited in their functionality, so even if they aren’t as intuitive it won’t take long for the affiliates to figure it out and get over the learning curve.
What Sort of Pricing to Expect
Ah, now we get to the real heart of the matter. How much is all of this going to cost you? Of course, this isn’t the right question to ask. The right question to ask is: how much money can I make by using affiliate marketing software? Regardless, let’s at least say a few words about price.
Most affiliate marketing software packages are going to run you from $50 to $150 per month depending on the level (basic to premium). Which tier you need will depend on the number of affiliates you are going to be employing. If you’re going to have something like a couple hundred affiliates then you can get away with the basic package in most cases. If you are going to have thousands, then you will want to err on the side of the premium package.
Conclusion
As you can see, affiliate marketing is the digital incarnation of word of mouth advertising. It has brought it into the digital era and given it a nice shiny coat of paint. Affiliate marketing software will help you take your affiliate marketing efforts to the next level by making it easier to acquire and manage affiliates. You can control payouts and observe key metrics on each affiliate.
For the most part, these software packages are affordably priced. It is quite likely that if the products you are offering are of sufficient quality, the software will pay for itself many times over.
That’s all the time we have for this article. We hope it has been informative. As always, stay tuned for the next blog post J
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