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Lost in this outpouring of love is potentially the most valuable marketing channel for any Web business — affiliate publishers. Most affiliate marketers will continue to go it alone, deprived of many of the advantages that other marketing channels receive such as the continuous exchange of important product information and analytical data, not to mention additional opportunities for training, education and financial reward.

This Internet-age-old phenomenon makes it considerably harder for affiliates to successfully market, promote and sell a merchant’s products or a company’s services, yet countless business owners attribute lackluster performances to a lack of motivation on the part of the affiliate. That is why the most successful online business owners learn how to get inside the minds of their often misunderstood partners, which allows them to give their affiliates the same consideration afforded to members of their own staffs. That may include anything from sending a weekly email to say hello to a generous holiday bonus given out annually. The important point is that — like anyone else you encounter in the business world — the more you can do for your affiliates, the more they will do for you. Following are the four steps required for building prosperous and productive relationships with your affiliate marketing partners.

Set them up to succeed: Affiliates are often doomed to fail before they can promote their first offer. If your company hires a new director of social media marketing and invests a salary and benefits into the success of this new employee, how much of that success are  you — the business owner — responsible for? Would you outfit this new hire with an old rotary telephone and an outdated computer in an oversized broom closet, and then check on their progress every three months? Your new employee would never succeed if you did, but this is the equivalent to how many affiliates get started on a new campaign.

You are doing your company, your customers and your affiliates a grave disservice if you do not give the affiliates every chance to flourish. That requires providing each affiliate partner with quality products they can sell; engaging creative content that will appeal to the most qualified customer base; highly targeted promotional campaigns and the proper technology to effectively deploy them, and thoroughly researched sales leads. Most important of all are compelling offers
that your affiliates can sell.

Continue to give them tools to succeed: Many business owners manage to provide their affiliates with great content, compelling offers and promising leads on the front end, only to watch them fail over time because they didn’t offer continued support. Everything mentioned above should be included in the standard set of tools at the onset of the partnership, but new tools must be added as the relationship deepens.

These additional tools can include different kinds of training, detailed product demonstrations, video conferences, relevant data about your company, tracking information, customer reviews and testimonials, or anything else that will help them promote and sell your products or services. Providing your affiliates with these tools can be as simple as including them on your weekly company newsletter that has most or all of the information they need –— a simple enough task, but one that is often overlooked in the forgotten affiliate’s world.

However, it is more likely that a stronger commitment is necessary to provide your partners with the tools they need. It may require scheduling training webinars or investing in affiliate tracking software. You may even want to send selected affiliates to the most appropriate conferences where they can network on your company’s behalf and However, it is more likely that a stronger commitment is necessary to provide your partners with the tools they need. It may require
scheduling training webinars or investing in affiliate tracking software. You may even want to send selected affiliates to the most appropriate conferences where they can network on your company’s behalf and make the knowledge they gain work to your advantage, just as a paid employee on your sales staff would.

Show them that you want them to succeed: What affiliates want most from their online business partners — with the possible exception of great offers to sell — is a level of commitment that does not fall short of their own. Investing in some of the tools mentioned previously — affiliate software, training webinars, video conferences and industry trade shows — not only gives your affiliates a better chance to succeed, it also shows them that you are committed to their success.

But commitment isn’t always reflected through financial investment alone. Reach out to your partners frequently, by phone as well as through email and video. Keep them informed of the different activities within your company; it will not only enhance their chances of selling your products but also make them feel like part of a team and increase their desire to succeed.

Adding your affiliates to the company newsletter, if you have  one — how about starting a weekly newsletter just for your affiliate partners? Give them the information they need to succeed, and at the same time show them that you are  committed to the process. Ask them for feedback about your products and content, and offer constructive opinions of theirs in return. The deeper the connection you build with your affiliates on a human level, the more prosperous your online business partnership will be.

Inspire them to continually succeed: If you are able to set up your affiliates for initial success, give them the tools they will need to achieve continued success, and show them your own commitment to their success, then it’s time to explore the next dimension of success. The industry term, after all, is “performance” marketing, and by adhering to the guidelines above you are already ensuring that your affiliates maintain a certain level of performance. How, then, can you help them go above and beyond?

By increasing the revenue shares for publishers by a few percentage points for six weeks, sales could increase by as much as 300 percent.  Along with boosting revenue share, an online merchant can also consider providing additional bonuses as well as free quality merchandise.  Generating special offers for strategic partners helps to strengthen the relationship, increase traffic and boost sales.

Other performance incentives for affiliates can include contests that you promote in your weekly affiliate newsletter, posting the results in subsequent newsletters for additional motivation; multi-tiered commission payouts based on performance, or faster payouts for the highest performers. Creating a competitive atmosphere instills a greater desire to succeed, but it is essential that the environment remain positive and respectful.

And, rather than penalizing your second-tier partners, pay even closer attention to them and try to identify and solve any problems they may be having. After all, even though you may not interact with them face to face as you do with your own staff, your affiliate partners are people, too.

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If social media is just reaching the tipping point as an important channel for retail marketers, the mobile channel has moved past that point and shows every sign of becoming more pivotal in the years to come. That has big implications
for e-mail marketing. A recent study revealed that 20% of marketing e-mails are opened on a mobile device. While
retailers are always glad to see their e-mail opened, the fact that consumers are reading marketing e-mail on the small
screens of mobile phones poses significant challenges. The most obvious is how to format e-mail so that it can be comfortably read on those smaller mobile screens. Some retailers create e-mail messages formatted specifically for mobile phones, which can be a time-consuming and expensive approach because there is no sure-fire way to tell whether a consumer will first view the message on her mobile phone or personal computer.

A more practical solution is to find a format that will ensure e-mail messages render properly on a mobile phone and a PC. The standard width for desktop e-mails is 600 pixels and the standard for smartphones is 300 pixels. Creating an e-mail that splits the difference to between 400 and 450 pixels is a good compromise.

No one can predict the device on which a consumer will view their e-mail, but e-mail marketers can create messages to be viewed on narrower screens, such as a mobile phone, that will look fine on a personal computer. The main thing to
remember is that most consumers perform e-mail triage on their phone, so there is no guarantee they will scroll to read the entire message. That means the most important information has to be above the fold.

Other tips for creating e-mails that can properly format on mobile phones include using blocky text links that are easier to see and push on a touch screen, and reducing and eliminating graphics embedded in the message. Retailers can also employ technology that automatically formats an e-mail message to the mobile device, such as an iPhone.

Formatting to mobile devices is a strategic challenge for e-mail marketers, but also a necessity because more consumers are opening their mail on their smartphone. It’s important that retailers take the time to understand this challenge to create a smoother e-mail marketing experience for mobile users.

E-mail marketing software offers retailers a choice of ready-made e-mail templates and the option of creating customized templates. Retailers can place logos and images in the e-mail. Retailers can monitor open rates, click-throughs and forwarded e-mails in real time and compare the results of current e-mail campaigns with previous campaigns.

While formatting e-mails for mobile phones imposes new requirements on retailers, they also have new opportunities
because consumers carry their mobile phones with them all the time, wherever they go.

Retailers seeking to capture new e-mail addresses should hang signs in their stores urging consumers to opt in to their e-mail lists by entering a mobile code or scanning a QR code to receive a discount coupon for that day’s purchase.
(A QR code is a two-dimensional bar code consumers can scan with their phone cameras to obtain information or link to a retailer’s web site.)

Once the consumer enters or scans the code, the retailer can immediately respond with a text message asking for the shopper’s e-mail address; upon receiving that address, the retailer can then send a welcome e-mail containing a scannable electronic coupon, along with other promotional information.

The same concept can be used in store by retailers to promote their mobile apps or a rewards program. When consumers are in the store they are already engaged with the retailer and are more receptive to e-mail marketing.

While text messaging can be a useful complement to e-mail marketing, especially for reaching mobile consumers, retailers must also keep in mind its drawbacks. For one thing, it costs considerably more than e-mail and it is harder to track whether the message has been opened.

Text messaging is great for time-sensitive campaigns, such as sending a reminder to consumers that opened an e-mail about a four-hour sale that only an hour is left, but we are not seeing widespread use of text messaging campaigns.

Some retailers send text messages to consumers whose location indicates they are close to one of the retailer’s stores. For example, the merchant can promote limited-time incentives to encourage a shopper to walk into a nearby store.

While the mobile channel and social media represents new and sexy ways to reach consumers through e-mail, retailers should not forget the fundamental blocking and tackling techniques that have made e-mail one of the most reliable forms of marketing.

Creating lifecycle campaigns that maintain steady contact with consumers is a core strategy. Starting with welcome
messages when a consumer opts in to a retailer’s e-mail list and continuing with birthday greetings, post-sale follow-up
and product care tips, there is no shortage of messages that can be sent to customers over the course of the relationship.

Lifecycle campaigns are set up according to specific triggers, so opportunities are not missed. Lifecycle messages speak directly to the consumer in very targeted and timely ways so the open rates tend to be in the 30% to 80% range, usually significantly higher than regular broadcast sends.

Another basic of e-mail marketing is to use images wisely. While images can sometimes slow downloads, a few wellplaced images can greatly enhance an e-mail’s effectiveness.  In terms of placement, images put off to one side allow for text and image to share the prime space above the fold. There has to be a good balance between HTML text and images so that consumers scanning their e-mail understand what you’re trying to convey—even with images off.

Personalization is another critical element of e-mail marketing, and one that offers even more potential today because consumers reveal more information about themselves via social networks. Retailers have more opportunities than ever to accumulate information about consumers to segment their e-mail marketing lists. Two key segments include their best customers, those that represent the greatest lifetime value, and evangelists, shoppers who are anxious to proclaim their appreciation of the retailer’s merchandise.

Thanking high-value customers and brand evangelists for their loyalty by offering exclusive deals or sneak previews of incoming merchandise speaks to them on a personal level and can significantly increase future open and click-through rates for a retailer’s e-mail.

Once the decision to segment the list is made, retailers need to decide how finely they want to slice and dice it. The goal is to identify segments that retailers know the most about, and express that knowledge in a way that creates a very personalized experience. The more personal the e-mail the better the response to it will be.

Better segmentation not only leads to higher open rates, it can open the door to more opportunities to communicate
with consumers through e-mail. “A lot of retailers don’t e-mail with enough frequency because they overlook opportunities to send an e-mail. Using customer intelligence applications can help them unearth new up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.

Customer intelligence is a segmentation practice based on consumer behavior. For example, a retailer of outdoor apparel and gear might want to reach out to customers that have purchased hiking boots in order to offer them related
accessories, such as socks, rain gear and water bottles. The retailer can filter out those consumers who purchased their boots at least six months ago, then segment by gender, in order to send out well-targeted e-mail offers that will not seem overly intrusive.

Customer intelligence used to be for identifying which customers not to (snail) mail to, but by reversing its use for e-mail, retailers can identify new opportunities to reach out to customers. Customer intelligence is bringing more of the discipline used in traditional direct marketing to e-mail.

One fundamental that should not be forgotten is the need to test all aspects of an e-mail campaign.  Everything from what’s in the subject line and its length to layout and timing of the message should be tested.  E-mail best practices evolve, so retailers need to constantly test to find out what is working now for their customers.