Many companies count on outside help in selling their products. "Affiliate marketing" is a big buzz-word for the practice of offering commissions to bloggers and other website owners—the "affiliates" in affiliate marketing—when a customer follows a link on their site to make a purchase. Affiliate marketing offers the opportunity for significantly increased sales and exposure. For example say you invented a new way of making guitar picks that would allow you to sell them for a fraction of what your competitors sell them for. Sounds like a homerun, right? This may be true but you’re only going to see sales if people know about your product. You can wait around and hope that guitarists find your newly built website or you can sell your guitar picks on Amazon; a site that gets millions of visitors every day.

Popular websites like ClickBank match product and service providers with affiliates to promote their offerings. One advantage of using affiliate marketers is that if you find the right one they often have a list of prospects that is relevant to the niche you are targeting. In the battle for sales, affiliates are part of your team of front-line warriors. They'll be more effective if you give them the tools they need to promote, describe, and instruct about your products and services.

Video is a particularly powerful weapon to arm your affiliates with. "People are much more likely to engage with a video on your site than they are any other type of media" said Jonathan Stefansky of video application company Viewbix (formerly Qoof). In fact, many affiliates realize this already and create their own videos as part of the content they create for their websites. As a consumer, you might think twice next time you watch an overly positive product review on a popular blog. As the product manufacturer, consider creating your own videos to give to affiliates to post. It gives you control over the video quality and content while making the life of your affiliate much easier.

Affiliates already have a relationship with their readers, which is what makes them so valuable for businesses. Here are several ideas of videos that can make the best use of that relationship:

   •    Promotional videos that show the personality of the brand and the benefits of the product or service in a quick, entertaining, and informative way.

   •    In-depth videos that cover the problem customers need solved, and explain how the features and benefits of your product will work for them.

   •    Instructional videos that show precisely how your product or service can be used. Consumers can be curious about new things, but also intimidated. Keep the curiosity alive while dispelling fear by showing them exactly how it all works.

   •    Expertise videos that prove you and your employees are thought leaders and experts in your industry, and not just shilling junk to make a quick buck. For example, profile your product's inventor, letting them explain what motivated their creation and why they are uniquely qualified to make it. For example, we'd surely trust an emergency room doctor to invent an ER patient tracking software over a random entrepreneur.

Every tool you give your affiliate marketers can result in increased sales for you. Don't limit your company's potential by withholding persuasive and engaging videos. And don’t think that the videos you create for affiliates can only be used in that form. You can get more miles out of these videos by using them on your website, sending them out in email campaigns, taking them to trade shows and more.

Using a video in your marketing materials gives you the best chance to make a sale.  A study by Unruly Media found that "video enjoyment increased purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139%.” An increase in purchase intent of 97% sounds pretty good to me!

Once again we see that a video can bring you more sales in more ways!