Before you Create that Referrals or Affiliates System for Your Business...

A referral/affiliate program is a strategic way of getting more sales for your business. It's a proven technique employed by marketers that not only brings increased brand awareness, but sales. Few things to consider before implementing an affiliates system for your business?

First, understand that a referral program is basically a marketing job. You are asking people to market for you. As much as people hate being sold to, they hate selling even more. The few of us who boldly wear the sales and marketing tags are the real OGs, but that's another gist. Knowing this, there are things about your business that you should consider critically before creating a referral program.

1. Is your business a startup? When starting up, getting those first few sales over the line will always be a concern, but not if you've taken the time to define your ideal buyer persona.This is an avatar representation of who your ideal customer is. It answers critical questions that shows you who should be in your target audience and how to craft your marketing message to appeal to them. When you have this, getting those first few sales over the line becomes less of an issue.

2. Businesses that have the most successful referral programs are those that have defined their buyer personas, made sales, built a system that works and are now considering other methods to scale and bring in more sales. Check out affiliate marketing platforms like Clickbanks and JvZoo, the businesses with the most sales on these platforms are those that provide the necessary sales materials for their affiliates, from keywords to sales letters, to visuals, they basically give out their proven methods and sales materials to their affiliates.

This is first because they know it works. Second, they know how much people hate to sell so they do all the heavy lifting and leave their affiliates to use their methods on their various platforms, effectively easing the stress, and making them much more likely to be interested in selling their product, whether as total strangers who have never used their product or as customers.

3. People hate to sell. I'm repeating this because of its importance. Asides making the sales process easier for affiliates another way you can get people to sell for you is by getting them to trust you.

How can you get people to trust you?
- Do they know you in person, like friends/family? If you're lucky, your family/friends will support you when you're starting out. This is good, but doesn't last. Not to mention that there are only a few persons in this demography. A business that depends on family/friends for sales will definitely crumble.

- Have they used your product/service? People who have bought from you and loved your product/service, whether early adopters or not, will be willing to bring in referrals for your business. This is popularly called word of mouth. It's easier for them to do this because they were pleased with your service or product and would definitely know one or two persons just like them that would love your offer as well.

Think about it, a good review is an indirect referral. These are people who are willing to put their names on the line for your business. They are your brand advocates and would usually bring in a lot of good business for your brand.

So when people trust you, they're much more likely to bring in referrals for your busineess.

4. Something else you'd have to consider is money! Whether people like/trust you or not, an easy way to get anyone to do anything for you is to offer them money. Can you answer this question from your affiliates; "what or how much is in it for me?".

There are affiliate programs that are just not worth the trouble. One of the easiest ways to get affiliates willing to work for and keep them motivated is by offering them money, tangible money. But you can't just throw money around.

Think about the cost of your product and at what price you'd sell to make any profit, and what percentage of this profit can you give to your affiliate to ensure that both parties are happy. If you can't answer those clearly, don't bother starting an affiliate program.

5. Lastly, what values do you communicate in your brand marketing message? Opening up your business to affiliates is giving them the chance to say whatever comes to mind about your brand and directly to your prospects. This may often go against what your brand values are.

You always want to control your brand perception, what people think about your brand. Opening up your business to affiliates could often mean losing that control. Your affiliates can be spammy, and have zero customer relations skills and end up hurting your brand.

So still want to go on with that affiliate program? Think again. But don't forget the importance of creating your Ideal Buyer Persona. All your marketing efforts depends on it.