Anne Holland of marketingsherpa was at the recent Digital River summit, and had some great lessons learned for software companies and ecommerce. One excellent point was her comment:

"Affiliate marketing: Only half the software marketers I met at the show had an active affiliate program. Of those, a handful ran highly sophisticated campaigns with a dedicated manager. Bear in mind the typical online sales for these software and reseller firms was $100 million a year, and you'll see how different (behind?) this space is compared to other ecommerce."

So the software industry is behind. Who would have thought?

If an affiliate strategy could bring a 15-20% increase in sales  to a company and they're doing $100 million, why don't they invest in an affiliate strategy?

I believe many of these software companies are still living in the past - thinking that VAR's and resellers are the way to increase distribution. Somewhere along the way the software companies didn't notice the affiliate marketing channel as an option available to them.

And if they do wake up to the potential of affiliate marketing, they may not consider the costs. To all software companies out there - you do need to invest in training, technology, and resources if you are going to add 15-20% more sales to your company.

Software companies need to get educated and see how affiliate marketing can benefit them. But they also need to consider the investments to make it happen.