Affiliate Marketing for Retailers – Communicating With Your Affiliates
Now that your company has launched an affiliate program, it’s important to communicate with your affiliates to keep them happy and actively promoting your program. To keep your affiliates engaged and informed, follow these simple guidelines.
1. Communicate by email.
Most affiliates prefer to be contacted by email rather than by phone. There are a variety of reasons for this preference, but often it’s because affiliates have chosen to be self-employed and enjoy being able to work on their own time without keeping set business hours. By utilizing email, you can develop a relationship with affiliates without encroaching on their personal time.
2. Keep them up-to-date with monthly newsletters.
By sending out a monthly email newsletter, you can keep your affiliates informed and up-to-date on promotions and/or program changes. In your newsletter, include information that will help your affiliates promote your program, such as best-selling products, top brands, upcoming sales or promotions, changes to your website and new creatives. Since some affiliate networks charge a small fee for sending email to affiliates, target your newsletters to affiliates who are actively promoting program (i.e. are already generating clicks or orders).
3. Encourage inactive affiliates with special promotions.
In most affiliate programs, a small percentage of affiliates generate the majority of clicks and sales. This is mainly because a lot of affiliates will join your program and then never get around to posting your links or building out a new website to promote your business. By converting some of these inactive affiliates to active ones, you will increase your base of engaged affiliates in the long run. One of the best ways to accomplish this goal is to run an “activation” promotion. Offer your inactive affiliates a one-time bonus for referring a certain number of visitors or generating their first sale. Though these bonuses will decrease your program’s ROI in the short term, you’ll end up with more affiliates promoting your program in the future (especially since most affiliates won’t take down your links once they’ve initially posted them).
4. Reach out to your best affiliates.
Who are your program’s top affiliates? Could they do more to promote your business with a special coupon or different creative? Just because an affiliate is your top-performer, that doesn’t necessarily mean they couldn’t drive more business for your program. By reaching out to individual affiliates who are actively promoting your company, you’ll build a relationship that will keep them engaged and excited about your program. You’ll also learn what simple things they might need to generate even more sales. And when you’re considering adding new creatives or making a change to your program terms, you’ll have a base of responsive affiliates to whom you can reach out for suggestions and advice.
5. Have a presence in online affiliate communities.
Many affiliates participate in online communities or forums, where they share ideas and experiences. By spending some time on discussion boards like ABestWeb.com, you can seek out and respond to questions and comments from your affiliates. You might also come across negative feedback about your program on these boards. By becoming an active member of these affiliate communities, you’ll have an opportunity to explain your company’s perspective on issues brought up by your affiliates in an open and constructive way.
6. Be responsive.
The most important thing when it comes to communicating with affiliates is responsiveness. Make sure to check your email every day and respond to any questions or comments from affiliates in a timely manner. Affiliates want to know that their hard work and loyalty to your program is valued, and being responsive to their needs is the best way to tell them you appreciate the relationship you have with them.
Danielle Mead is the owner of PopStringDrink, an online marketing and e-commerce services company that specializes in affiliate marketing management and optimization. Businesses interested in outsourcing their affiliate program should visit the company’s website at http://www.popstringdrink.com to request a proposal and price quote.
Author: Danielle Mead
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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