good article.

What value does the agency add should be the first thing on the merchants mind (note: i am the affiliate director within a digital marketing agency).

The following summary can be found at http://www.yucca.co.uk/affiliate4.asp however to avoid you having to click through here goes….

Help in getting over the ‘barriers’

Many companies have issues with internal resource, affiliate marketing knowledge, maintaining control of brand and tracking. We advise on the correct strategy to take and then implement that strategy for you.
Integration

Yucca will help you take a holistic approach to digital. We’ll integrate affiliate marketing with your other online & offline activity to realise the greatest results.
Innovation

Affiliate marketing is a complex sector that requires companies to draw up an innovative affiliate strategy if they want to succeed and generate extra business.

It all boils down to…
Work

We will… develop your strategy, provide competitor analysis, program administration and reporting, tying these in with KPI’s. We’ll also resolve technical issues, enhance your tracking capabilities, keep in touch with current affiliate partners and develop new relationships, help maintain control of your brand, generate fresh, creative marketing to differentiate you from the competition, approve affiliate applications and answer the inevitable affiliate questions. There’s quite a bit to do.

paul morris – Yucca.co.uk

Interesting article but I must pick you up on the terminology you use. For me an ‘Affiliate Marketing Agency’ is one which specialises in affiliate marketing, of which there are some very good ones. However I think you have to clearly differentiate between those guys and a media agency with responsibilities across multiple channels.

Affiliate only agencies do an excellent job in providing outsourced management for a client’s affiliate program but in my opinion, what a media agency should do goes a lot further than that. Anyone who saw the talk that me and a colleague from i-level did at the Expo will understand the kind of customer journey analysis that we are carrying out for our clients and how we are tying together multiple channels.

Otherwise, quite a decent summary pal!

Matt