Communication and Motivation for Affiliates
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Q: I sometimes lose touch with my affiliates, because I don’t know how to keep them motivated and how to keep our name on top. Any suggestions on how to motivate our affiliates and what we should communicate to them?
A: As far as what you should communicate to your affiliates, I think a good rule of thumb is if you have nothing to say, don’t say anything.
Communicate vital, mission critical information about your affiliate program. Spread the word if you have some new offer starting or ending, or anything else that is newsworthy and relevant to your affiliates.
New promotions, the launch of products or services, etc.
But don’t send out a communication to affiliates on a regular basis just for the sake of it. That’s annoying to affiliates.
As far as keeping them motivated, one quick and easy thing is to send out a message to ask your affiliates what they want.
And if at all possible and reasonable, give it to them.
There might be some small elements of your affiliate program, such as available creatives or commission rate, which you could tweak to improve the number of active affiliates right away.
Additionally, when you are recruiting affiliates, don’t offer them the public commission.
You’ve identified that affiliate as a qualified prospect, so treat them accordingly and take care of them more than you would any old site.
- Posted in Affiliate Managers, Ask Shawn Collins
6 Comments
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On December 9 @ 5:23 pm posted[...] Communication and Motivation for Affiliates [...]
Nothing an affiliate program says motivates me more than the dollars and cents. If your offers are performing then I'm motivated. If your offers are not performing, nothing you say will interest me.
But I agree with the only communication being the sexy new offers. Those are (almost) always welcome.
reply to this commentShawn, thanks for the answer and explanation.
reply to this commentI want to comment: “…rule of thumb is if you have nothing to say, don’t say anything” I agree with you for this. I think just say with love and dollar to affiliate to motivate it
Great advice! Asking what your affiliates want is a good start, and having a focus to your communication is even better. We try to take all feedback, both positive and negative, from our affiliates and apply it to our business and interactions. That helps too!
reply to this commentThe key thing in working with your affilaites is as follows:
1) FInd out where you rank among the products that are promoted on there site. This will tell how and what you can offer them to motivate them.
reply to this comment2) I usually give an affiliate a 90 Day increase in commission. If they're at 25% I will bump them to 35% or 40%. If they do well I keep them at the higher percentage.
3) Just because they are not producing does not mean they will not. Communicate with everyone, track your sales closely. Every program I have managed I always look ed at what I have between 26 to 100. This is where your internal growth will come from. Your top 25 will promote you because they love your product. You give them what they want and take care of them when you communicate. 26-100 needs to educated, incented and you need to prove to them that your a good merchant partner.
4) Last thing – LISTEN TO YOUR AFFILIATES assume they know more than you, if not then you teach but stay humble. Give and you will get back 10 fold.
This is a very good affiliate option. I noticed many such articles about affiliate programs and how they work. One of the link is below:-
http://www.kanbal.com/index.php?/Affiliate/affi...
I could clearly understand the various affiliates.
reply to this comment