How to get B2B affiliates?

[Paul_MN]

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Hi everyone,

We recently launched a web design company on our affiliate network, MoreNiche.

This is the first B2B company we have launched and although we have got some good affiliates on board so far I was wondering if anyone had any tips for promoting a B2B company to affiliates.

What techniques for getting established B2B affiliates have you used? Any good examples of B2B companies that have made affiliate marketing work for them?

Interested in anyones thoughts and ideas on this one.

Thanks,

Paul.

[Rollerblader]

Hi Paul,

B2B is a whole different ball game in Affiliate Marketing. Many times it will be other businesses whom will act as an Affiliate of yours which means you will get stuck in red tape with some of the larger ones.

You may want to take the approach of finding business blogs and other sites which provide content around your niche and try to get reviews done as well as rotating banner ads and email sponsorships. If you approach it from a B2C angle.

If you do it from the B2B angle, you will be reaching out to other Businesses and explaining why a "Partnership" with your company is mutually beneficial for both parties.

For example, you all as a design firm would be a perfect fit for one of my B2B programs VideoSpokesModel.com. (I'm not going to pitch or plug any more than that. Just using it as an example as it is an appropriate fit.)

What I would need to do to get you as a business involved in the promotion of it is to:

1. Find the proper contact in the company whether it is Marketing or Product Management or Business Development.

2. Explain why you all would want to promote it and offer it to your existing client base and show how it will give you an advantage over your competitors.

3. Focus on why it is new and or innovative, or the better product to push than a competitor (if there is one).

4. Then get you started while we are talking so that we can get it moving through the red tape, product releases, stage settings and going live.

The B2B realm is whole different ball game which can take longer to get going, but the sales generated, the networking and relationships built are incredible.

[kcheung]

i find that find affiliates is all about user profiling.

actually profile the end consumer, then keyword research, then target affiliates based on that, i assume that for B2B its no different, after all there are a multitude of affiliate related blogs and design blogs out there that could be affiliates.

[gpxbiker]

The best way to get B2B affiliates is to give them a fair amount of control over the business they are reffering. We found it is best to set people/companies up as agents under an umbrella rather than just affiliates. Almost like a franchise but with out the huge intial fee.

Frank

[Mich]

I know I am joining in the thread a little late...I would agree with the above posts, we have a few programmes here and you often have to look outside the normal affiliate base, focusing on sites servicing that particular area of the B2B market.

That said, there are increasing numbers of traditional affiliates delivering B2B traffic, so it is worth exploring normal channels too.

Would it be worth establishing a B2B section of the forum? There is definately growing interest out there.