Theres currently a lot of contention about why its necessary to have an affiliate manager on an affiliate program, But the simple case to note is that Affiliate management isn’t as straight forwards as some may be lead to beleive.  The fact of the matter is that Affiliate managers act as your affiliate marketing control, we look at all aspects of a campaign, and a unique blend of skills is needed to really shine as an affiliate manager.

First, as an affiliate manager, you need to be personable and willing to help, being friendly builds rapport and helps with recruitment. You also need to be sociable considering the nuber of social gatherings and Affiliate meets that regularly happen. You need to have a good understanding the tracking technology and the programing principles behind the tracking technology. You need to understand how affiliates work, which means you need to know how SEO and PPC works, and in addition to this you need to understand how marketing on the internetworks and the different advertising models that exist. OK, so this is all a bit generic, but when you consider that each of these skills represents a different role, its easy to see why affiliate managers are a bit of a special breed.

Lets get more specific, when a campaign comes through, an affiliate manager needs to gain an understanding of the products, the needs and competitors of the campaign, innovative out of the box thinking here really helps, and when you consider that affiliate mangers will have to consider every angle of a campaign, having an affiliate manager is like having a one man online marketing team. There are occasions when affiliate managers need to broker special deals and plan incentives and promotions to make a campaign successful, so an entrepreneurial streak is important as is the skills to negotiate deals quickly and efficiently.

So why do affiliate managers matter? put simply, affiliates are like a sales team, you wouldn’t have a sales team without a management infrastructure in place would you? But add to that the knowledge and experience of an affiliate manager as an online marketer and the value of an affiliate manager becomes apparent. Affiliate managers represent the guys that live and breath affiliate marketing, they know how to make any campaign work and given the right tools and budget, they can make a significant difference to a clients campaign.