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The New Name: Referral Marketing
Jim Kukral wisely noted that Affiliate Marketing has a branding problem. I’ve been saying this for years. He asked for a new name, and I’m here to provide one. Referral Marketing.
Here’s why I like it:
1) It tells merchants why they should play. I talk to CEO’s and Marketing VP’s of companies large and small who don’t use affiliate marketing as part of their channel mix in large part because of the very branding problem Jim discussed. A name change alone won’t solve this problem, but clarity in a new name will help the rebranding effort. Everyone knows what referrals are and I think that term has a good image.
2) It has a positive connotation for shoppers. Getting a referral is a good thing. This is a bit risky in terms of the branding exercise since while many affiliates do refer to trusted or recommended merchants, many other are mercenaries who refer just because they can and get paid to do so. Still, most people have not idea what an affiliate site is, but I think they could quickly understand that a ‘referral site’ gets paid to help merchants find customers.
3) It makes sense. In the end, that’s the problem with Affiliate. Sure the 3rd party is technically an affiliate of the merchant, but that’s quite a technical description. Affiliate marketers get paid for referring a customer to a merchant. They’re referral marketers. Case closed.
Bonus Fact: With ‘Word-of-Mouth Marketing’ on the rise, ‘Referral Marketing’ can tag along as the ‘Professional’ way to provide recommendations and get paid for it. Again there are problems for affiliates who don’t have a true value add to the equation, and I know the WOMMA side won’t like the connection, but in a larger re-branding scope there is something to be made of this relationship.
Kudos to Jim for getting this discussion going. It’ll be hard to pull off but if it could be done I believe the world of affiliate marketing would really benefit.
4 Comments
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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…
“Affiliate” is a key word that cannot be exchanged for something else. What “Referral Marketing” misses is that our industry is built on Partnerships, not just the cpa or “referral” technology it uses.
How you choose to sell affiliate marketing to your prospective merchants is up to you, but I don’t see a unifying standard coming together behind a new name. Before our industry dons a new moniker, we’ve got bigger fish to fry– namely adware, fraud, and unauthorized trademark brand denigration. Should those be cleaned up, new merchants may recognize affiliate marketing for the rose that it is.
Besides, if a prospective merchant can’t smell this perfume, just show them the numbers. “Here’s what you’re missing by avoiding affiliate marketing.”
On a different note, if we should need an industry slogan, Donuts over at ABestWeb has a great suggestion: “Refer Madness”.
I like this the best Craig. Maybe it will grow legs.
I like it better than some of the others but it’s still affiliate marketing. It’s not really an issue in the business, only here have I heard it needs any type of rebranding. I’m sure most people don’t know what numismatics is except the people doing it and that’s fine with them.
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