Top affiliate marketing companies differ drastically from the mediocre ones in these four ways

They instill trust through a consultative approach. This one is about finding a pilot who knows how to navigate, the first step of which is determining where you want to end up. It’s absolutely astounding to us how many affiliate marketing services deliver a one-size fits all approach and are so excited to earn your business that they don’t even stop to ask about you. The result, is a pilot who only knows how to fly to Chicago. Which might be fine, but when you were supposed to be in Miami and you wake up in O’Hare, you’re in a bit of a pickle.

In affiliate marketing, this is when your affiliate management company connects you to all of the wrong affiliate networks and affiliate partners who don’t match your brand and can’t reach your ideal audience. A great affiliate marketing service on the other hand always begins by asking you what’s important to you. They’ll be interested in your goals, learn the history of the business, and of course, they’ll develop a jointly agreed upon definition of success.

How can you most easily spot the good from the bad? The good will invest time into learning about you before accepting the job. Beware those who think they’re ready to move forward and promise “big results” after just a few minutes of conversation!

2. They deliver insights from value added advice. Malcolm Gladwell wrote that truly great innovators must be disagreeable.That is, willing to disagree with others when it’s called for. A pinch of this is true in affiliate marketing. You can immediately spot a mediocre company when they answer all of your questions with “yes, absolutely.” You never get challenged. And think, after all, aren’t you coming to them for advice? What are they providing if they don’t disagree with you or have considered a new aspect of your program that you haven’t?

To be successful and avoid pitfalls what you need is someone who is vastly more of an expert than yourself.This is a quality you will find in top affiliate marketing companies: they’re unafraid to disagree with your plan. What makes them so unafraid? It’s theirconfidence in what they offer. This doesn’t excuse them from having no manners of course, but they’ll immediately begin enhance your strategy by telling you what they’ve seen work and not work. This is how you arrive at spectacular results.

When you find affiliate marketers who can politely challenge you and suggest better ways of doing things, you’re on the right track. When you’ve got a crowd of “yes” men, run the other way.

3. Your success is guaranteed by their tenure and track record: How many bad affiliate marketing companies are out there? We’re not one to presuppose, but think about the fact that there are virtually zero barriers to entry. Everyone with a computer is can get started, butrest assured they won’t be landing planes any time soon.

There are hordes of companies trying to make a quick buck and willing to take on the management of your affiliate program but who are bound to fizzle out over time. Forbes reported that only 0.6% of affiliate marketers in business today have been in the business since 2013. That’s some serious turnover! Thus, a company that has been around for more than three years has clearly been doing something right.

Now that you’ve narrowed it down by experience, how are you to pick out the best from the rest? Quite simple: proven, quantitative, and verifiable results. A top affiliate management company will be willing to share logos, case studies, and references that can be verified.

4. You gain peace of mind because they control the message down-channel. Affiliate marketing takes a little trust because as your brand message passes through several hands, they’re bound to be reinterpreted. This is good and bad, good because it means that your value proposition becomes tailored to that niche market and bad because sometimes it goes awry.

One friend was using outsourced affiliate program management for his mood-enhancing wearable device and found that way down the chain, one super affiliate was driving a lot of traffic by comparing it’s positive effects to those of unfavorable drugs. He was horrified by the association and had to pull the plug. A great affiliate marketing service doesn’t let this happen because they know their affiliate networks well enough to control quality and ensure that the message sent is the message received.

How can you best spot this? This is more nuanced and harder to judge, but look at their website to see if the agency lists off their affiliate partners. Do they look like good companies? Is there a theme? If so, it’s a good sign.

Things don’t seem so daunting, now do they?

You’re no longer staring at a sea of amateur pilots all raising their hands begging for your business. You now know how to look for the telltale signs of a top affiliate marketing company, and can narrow it down to the top few pilots who are willing to learn about your destination, offer insights, have control of their plane, and who have proven their ability to get there.

Lucky for you, you really don’t have to search much further. Versa Marketing Inc is widely recognized as one of the top affiliate marketing companies. It’s been in the business of serving clients for over four years and its founders for over ten, acting as the single point of contact for the entire universe of affiliate marketing networks to drive real impactful results.