Merchants are having to rethink whether their affiliate software offers the functionality their affiliates demand. "Next-G" tools offered by Euraffiliates are changing the perception of what should be included as standard. Personalised promotional tools, differential commission settings, deep natural linking, more reliable referral tracking and affiliate CRM tools are all provided as standard.
The affiliate industry is evolving rapidly. Methods of motivating affiliates used even a year ago now no longer maintain loyalty to a particular merchant. Simply put,
it's not just about a question of paying the highest commission rates. Affiliates are recognising the cost to themselves of generating traffic. If a programme doesn't offer more than just attractive commission rates, or worse, works in such a way that increases the cost of traffic generation, then affiliates are likely to walk straight to a merchant's competitors.
Where the World Meets plc, a British company, has launched a next generation affiliate programme software called Euraffiliates, available at www.euraffiliates.com. The software was originally developed for use in-house only, in response to other major programmes failing to offer a feature set that affiliates were demanding. After years of testing and refining it has been now been made available to any merchant looking for affordable, yet feature rich affiliate software.
"Next-G AFFILIATE MANAGEMENT TOOLS"
Affiliates are now demanding personalised commission rates and promotions, a wider range of promotional tools, flexibility in how the programme integrates with their site, and improved reporting. They also are unwilling to trade their search engine ranking, and thus their traffic volume, for short-term monetary reward.
Euraffiliates has introduced new set of new generation, branded "Next-G", affiliate tools to meet all these new demands of affiliates. The tools have been developed completely from a marketer's perspective, rather than from a coder's, making them much more intuitive to use.
They include:
EASIER ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT
"In-house Affiliate Network": Merchants can run multiple affiliate programs for different websites on the same affiliate base, simplifying business administration.
"AJAX Control Panel": Administer a web based system without the wait for pages to load. The software is built on the latest MVC-AJAX architecture, which gives a fast and user-friendly experience.
"Application Firewall": Using an inbuilt and proactive firewall gives the merchant an additional layer of security over which he has full control.
INNOVATIVE CAMPAIGN TOOLS
"Affiliate Content Widget": Affiliates can publish products or services that have been branded to look like their own.
"Affiliate RSS Feed": Allows affiliates to display an RSS feed from the merchant's site and earn commission.
"Refer a friend tool": Allows the visitors to the affiliate to refer their friends to the merchant's site and earn commission for the affiliate. Existing affiliates can also refer the merchant to their friends from their affiliate panel.
SEO FRIENDLY AND CUSTOM LINKING TOOLS
"Natural Links": Link to the merchant using a 'natural' link. All affiliate information is hidden so human visitors and search engines alike can't tell that it's an affiliate link. Search engines won't confuse affiliate links with paid links anymore.
"Deep Links": Allows linking direct to the merchant's sites without redirects.
"Affiliate Defined Links": Merchants can allow an affiliate to design and use his own promotions and link them through to a page of his own choice
MOTIVATE AFFILIATES
"Differential Commission Management Tools": Reward your best affiliates in an individual way. Define different commission rates for different affiliates. Commissions can be set as a percentage, a flat rate or mixed. Commissions can set as life-time or limited time with repeat commissions for repeat sales.
"Flexible Cookie Options": The merchant can set his own cookie expiry period and can choose cookie overwriting options (whether to reward first referrer or the last).
IMPROVED REPORTING
"Performance Reports": All reports are intuitive reports to allow smart decision making by both the merchant and the affiliate.
"Other Sales Sources Tracking": Euraffiliates can track and report on non-affiliate generated sales and lead sources so that the merchant has a complete picture of revenue sources.
CRM AND RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT TOOLS
"Affiliate Support Desk": The merchant can communicate efficiently with affiliates to offer support and build rapport.
"Broadcasting Tool": Communicate your message once to all affiliates.
"Affiliate Mailing System": Allows the merchant to find new affiliates or send a newsletter to the existing affiliates. New functionality make this more than a mass e-mail system.
Users of the software are positive. David McAuley, an early customer said: "Choosing Euraffiliates allowed us to approach potential affiliates and show them that we understood what they needed to sell our products. Using Euraffiliates demonstrates to affiliates that we're serious about our programme."
For more information on the software visit www.euraffiliates.com.
