The Guerrilla Marketing Advantage!

The internet is changing the way people do business and part 1 examined how an individual or small business can use the internet to take advantage of "economies of scale

It is estimated that by 2005, as much as 70% of online revenue will pass through affiliate programs. in reverse" - http://www.thewebseye.com/articles/article006.txt Part 2 will attempt to show you how affiliate programs use "economies of scale in reverse" to gain the Guerrilla Advantage! Because of the internet, "guerrilla marketing" gives the small business an unfair advantage. Rather it gives them the same advantage as larger established businesses. In the words of Jay Conrad Levinson, Guerrilla Marketing is about turning your income-generating ideas into a system - a system where EVERY contact your business has with the market, is designed to capture REPEAT and REFERRAL customers. Your aim should be to generate customers who will refer you to others and who will come back and buy again. Some of the internet's most successful online marketers use "guerrilla marketing tactics". You will find that EVERY correspondence they have with you indirectly makes you want to find out more. They use techniques such as viral marketing or an affiliate program to encourage their customers to REFER others. Plus they follow up their existing customers with new or improved offers and thus generate REPEAT sales. Just as a bricks & mortar business builds equity which then hopefully pays dividends, an online business needs to build affiliate partners. Your affiliates are your equity as they can generate a residual income for you. Your "economies of scale in reverse" click in when your affiliate program starts to work. You only pay an affiliate when you make a sale so there is no up-front cost. Although many affiliate programs pay per click-though or per lead, the most successful ones pay per sale. Secondly your affiliates take on your advertising costs because of the incentive to make commissions so you do not need a huge advertising budget. However there are 4 requirements for an affiliate program to be successful. The first is a growing line of HIGH-VALUE and related products. Without a high-value product the program does not have a foundation to stand on and will not get off the starting block. Also it is a proven fact in marketing that the customer who has already bought your product will buy more of the same or similar products again. Generating prospects and making the first sale is the most difficult part of marketing, therefore if you don't follow up and offer your customers your new or improved products you are not leveraging your marketing investment. Secondly, a HIGH first purchase commission is necessary since this is what encourages affiliates to attract and refer new customers. NEW referrals are what you need to BUILD your online business. A 5 to 10% commission just won't make it worthwhile for most affiliates! Third, the affiliate program should pay REPEAT commissions. This will make it worthwhile for your referrals to spend time and money promoting. They also know that their profits will come from the repeat sales and will be more likely to advertise. Remember that you do not pay for the advertising your affiliates are doing. Fourth, a MULTI-LEVEL commission structure is important. This will increase the depth and reach of your marketing. This is where referrals are able to earn commission not only on their direct sales but also on their referrals' sales. Affiliate programs that offer a one-off commission on direct sales will not build equity since there the affiliates can easily leave. If however they have spent time and energy developing thier own affiliates they are less likely to stop promoting you. The 80/20 principle shows how 80% of referral sales are usually made by the top 20% of affiliates. These top 20% are the ones that you want to be your sales reps as they make their income from affiliate programs. Affiliate programs can help you build an online business by taking advantage of "economies of scale in reverse" and, in the words of Jay Conrad Levinson, "investing energy instead of money". You can also read more articles about guerrilla marketing at our online library at http://www.thewebseye.com/library.htm including an article by Jay Conrad Levinson about how guerrillas approach direct response marketing - the art of getting orders *here and now*. You may need to read it 2 or 3 times before these "insights" sink in, but once they do, many of you will be seriously reviewing your marketing tactics. You will also learn how to get a copy of Jay's new e-book "Guerrilla Marketing for the New Millennium". He lists 18 factors that make "guerrilla" marketing different from old-fashioned marketing. Make sure you have the "Guerrilla Advantage!"