Brick and Mortar store- how to create a good affilaite program?
Hey there,
I work for a brick and mortar company that does plumbing and HVAC work, as well as some home warranty stuff. We have a in person sales team that sells our contracts, and I was thinking it might be a good idea to start an affiliate program for our services. We're the highest ranked company in pretty much every way in the industry where we serve (customer satisfaction, etc) but the problem has been getting the word out.
What are some of the pitfalls of setting up an affiliate program? Is there anything I should be on the lookout for? Are there any good open source or low cost affiliate tracking systems?
How can I make sure that the people who are coming in to be our affiliates won't do bad things, lie, and otherwise make our company look shady when we've worked really hard at being the good guys in a sometimes shady industry?
What do you look for in an affiliate program? What makes something a "good" program vs. a "bad" program, besides the payout rates? We're probably looking at something like $100 a sale, and bumping it a bit for people who do volume ($100 first sale, $120 for the next tier, maybe up to $150 if you sell over a certain number a month).
How can I make sure we take good care of our affiliates? What are the things that have made you mad about other programs?
This is all still in Maybe/Someday land, so it might not happen, but I would really like to make a great affiliate program that takes care of everyone- brings us more business, makes sure that more people get our maintenance programs than some of the really crappy ones out there, makes our affiliates happy and gets them money.
I know that's a LOT of advice to ask for, but I'm just hoping to get pointed in a good direction. When I searched the forum for creating an affiliate program I got a lot of other results that weren't really about starting one, but more about doing well in them.
I work for a brick and mortar company that does plumbing and HVAC work, as well as some home warranty stuff. We have a in person sales team that sells our contracts, and I was thinking it might be a good idea to start an affiliate program for our services. We're the highest ranked company in pretty much every way in the industry where we serve (customer satisfaction, etc) but the problem has been getting the word out.
What are some of the pitfalls of setting up an affiliate program? Is there anything I should be on the lookout for? Are there any good open source or low cost affiliate tracking systems?
How can I make sure that the people who are coming in to be our affiliates won't do bad things, lie, and otherwise make our company look shady when we've worked really hard at being the good guys in a sometimes shady industry?
What do you look for in an affiliate program? What makes something a "good" program vs. a "bad" program, besides the payout rates? We're probably looking at something like $100 a sale, and bumping it a bit for people who do volume ($100 first sale, $120 for the next tier, maybe up to $150 if you sell over a certain number a month).
How can I make sure we take good care of our affiliates? What are the things that have made you mad about other programs?
This is all still in Maybe/Someday land, so it might not happen, but I would really like to make a great affiliate program that takes care of everyone- brings us more business, makes sure that more people get our maintenance programs than some of the really crappy ones out there, makes our affiliates happy and gets them money.
I know that's a LOT of advice to ask for, but I'm just hoping to get pointed in a good direction. When I searched the forum for creating an affiliate program I got a lot of other results that weren't really about starting one, but more about doing well in them.