#146: Tactical Tuesday: Should you Utilize an Affiliate Marketing Program?

<p><strong>OVERVIEW</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jason A. Duprat, Entrepreneur, Healthcare Practitioner and Host of the</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Healthcare Entrepreneur Academy</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">podcast discusses the pros and cons of affiliate programs to grow your business.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:</strong></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are three ways to grow your business. Word-of-mouth or through a general Google search, paid advertisements like billboards, Facebook or Google, and hiring sales staff or an affiliate marketer. </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Word-of-mouth is tough to scale. Paid ads can be expensive and tough to master. Often entrepreneurs lean towards affiliate marketing programs. </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">An affiliate marketing program is a commission-based program where you pay others to share your  product. </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The biggest cons to affiliate programs is they require a lot of administrative effort to manage, which can be tough for small businesses. You need to set up processes for partners to sign up and for payment compensation.  </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In addition, another con is it can be difficult to track legitimate sales. Sometimes affiliate marketers will say they can do more for your business than they can actually do. </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Screen potential partners by interviewing them. Review their track record for success and if they sign on, provide training on your business and its services or products. </span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The pros of affiliate programs include they can lead to  tremendous sales if the affiliate marketer is a so