Affiliate programs.  Medium with no message.

It is quite common that we see affiliate programs with no bells and whistles at all.

Here is your link code, please promote us.

Many other affiliate programs out there help us out a little more and are powered by affiliate tools such as iDevDirect's iDevAffiliate program which is super amazingly functional and offers tiered commissions and helps provide multiple mediums for distributing the affiliate code.  With the iDevAffiliate software or any other affiliate tool or in-house affiliate system we generally see the same options.

Text Links, Text Ads, Images / banners (468x60, 125x125, 728x90 etc.).  If we're lucky we get email links in ASCII format, flash images and mini videos, or a few keyword lists.

It does seem though that we are missing something very important, which is the message itself.  Why does the target audience of any given product want that product?  Affiliate product/service promotion that is truly effective is accomplished by not just referring a product but by marketing it.  Successful Internet Marketers tend to build affiliate offerings into anything and everything they have going.....  Mailings lists / newsletters, articles / content, support channels, auto-responders, contests, features, etc.  Regardless of the method of distributing an affiliate ad, you want to send a message at the same time.  To create a little relevant buzz around what is being promoted typically works very well.

So the question is, why do we not see more product vendors bend over backwards to give us more help in this department... help us market the product rather then have us do all the legwork.  The successful marketer will do the legwork to reap the rewards and the successful marketer will educate themselves about the product/service and become more of a sales representative then just providing a referral but think about how many other busy/lazy marketers out there would get onboard if the vendors made it easier.  While a vendors product pages and website etc can often be scouted to put material together for promotion/education, why don't we see a more personalized and affiliate specific collection of this data available for the affiliate.

Here is what I would like to see more of from the affiliate programs I sign up for:

• multiple versions of an effectively written sales copy for the product or service
• more mini sales blurbs about the product
• testimonials that the affiliate has permission to reprint
• Complete and short version of the specifications/features
• Non public Coupons or specials available for affiliate only to promote
• Insider information, press release type information or an affiliate news area or newsletter
• a library of PLR articles about the product/service
• a library of PLR articles relating to the product/service
• case studies and examples of the product/service

I'm sure there are other ideas I am missing but the point is that I want more product/specific marketing material handed to me right in the affiliate members area right next to the text link and banner codes....  with the added material available I can then creatively combine those resources into the message I want, then channel it to an appropriate target audience and watch the conversions turn!

While I don't expect that every company that provides an affiliate program for their product or service will go this far,,, I do recommend that they do.  The initial investment of time setting up all of these extras and the maintenance to continue them will surely pay off.