Q: "I have heard that affiliate marketing is a good way to increase sales and orders, but my business works by generating leads from our site which we follow up by phone. Could this type of marketing still work for us?"
Affiliate marketing is a great strategy for both e-commerce and lead generation websites. For your business model, I would recommend a Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) program, where you would only pay an affiliate a fixed commission if a visitor completes a form on your site, thus generating a lead. The form can simply be a name and phone number for your company to follow up with via phone. Given that you would be committing to pay (your affiliates) for each individual who completes a form, it’s important that the landing page that the individual is being sent to have enough “qualifying” information to discourage individuals who are not viable leads from completing the form.
A CPL affiliate program can be easier to set up than other advertising campaigns and would not need as much time and focus once the set up is complete. In addition, you can choose a fixed commission that is less than the cost of a new lead from your email or Pay-Per-Click advertising campaigns. CPL affiliate programs can be an ideal match for your business if you are focused on closing sales on the telephone.
