Clients enjoy it when you accomplish good work for them. Some will even express their gratitude by recommending your services to their industry colleagues. This circumstance led to Scaleo’s introduction to a top business-to-business (B2B) service provider.
The B2B service provider had advanced traditional digital marketing, such as organic and paid search, but had not fully grasped the affiliate marketing model to commit time or money to build a program.
So, when one of our clients’ in-house affiliate managers went to work for a B2B service provider, they emphasized the importance of establishing an affiliate program and partnering with Scaleo to administer it. Because the B2B service provider had tried practically every marketing tactic except affiliate, they decided to investigate how a program would work for their company.
Dispelling Doubts and Concerns
During our first discussions with the client, they voiced concern that the affiliate model had not been “proved” to provide value to B2B-type firms and that it might not work for their product suite. While AP knew the contrary was true, we recognized that, in many ways, the model needed to be seen in action before it could be trusted.
We offered a pilot program for the B2B service provider because they were absolutely new to affiliate marketing. This allowed them to limit risk and see firsthand how lucrative the affiliate model can be.
Strategy Re-evaluation
Once the customer gave their approval, our team learned about their goals, company model, service offers, and product range.
This client provides several advantages to both small and large business owners.
Initially, the client intended to pay affiliates to increase sales of their B2B product suite. While employing affiliates to generate hardware sales for the B2B service provider could be helpful, the concern was that this method would require affiliates to focus primarily on the service provider’s existing customers.
When our team examined every aspect of their business and service offerings, we decided that using the affiliate model for a lead generation would result in a significantly higher lifetime value (LTV). This more planned strategy would bring the client new clients and high-value prospects to whom they might upsell.
Using Affiliates to Generate Leads
The AP team devised a competitive commission structure to attract top-tier B2B-focus affiliates who would be adept at promoting our client’s free service offering and free goods upon signup:
- If an affiliate drove a lead to the B2B provider’s site and the lead signed up for the provider’s free service, the affiliate would receive $20.
- When a new customer signs up for free, the affiliate earns an extra $10 if the new customer buys (not including the free product received at signup).
- If a new customer who purchased a product upon signup also began actively using the B2B provider’s service during the first 30 days after joining up, the affiliate would receive an additional $10.
In addition to establishing an appealing $20 to $40 cost-per-acquisition pay structure, the team leveraged AP’s massive CRM database to find top-tier B2B-focused affiliates.
After selecting these high-value B2B affiliates, the AP team created a newsletter campaign that taught the affiliates on the B2B provider’s software, hardware, brand, and so on and the company’s value to the affiliate’s readers.
New Customers and Incremental Lead Generation
While we are still in the early stages of their campaign, our client has stated that their program yields positive results. As expected, affiliates are bringing new consumers to their business that have a high lifetime value, in addition to providing high-quality leads for their firm.
Conclusion
In addition to creating an affiliate program from the ground up for a B2B service provider, Scaleo’s team devised a more strategic and effective approach for their program, allowing the client to experience a significant increase in the volume and quality of both leads and new business customers.
Last Updated on December 16, 2020
