Stagnant affiliates are an ongoing problem of the vast majority of affiliate programs out there. Not that the inactive affiliates themselves pose the problem. It is the very fact that they are aboard the program, but not doing much that makes many CMOs and CEOs scratch their heads. There is also an inherent paradox to this situation; as affiliates only join the programs that they themselves want to join (there is no way for us to make these independent marketers sign up). Why, then, only 10% of your affiliates (or less!) are responsible for 90% of clicks and conversions driven by your affiliate program? Could it be because you are not devoting attention to affiliate activation?
To make things as easily digestible as possible I have created the below infographic — to help you start supporting affiliate activation in your program(s). As you will see, each of the elaborations start with an action verb (educate, motivate, equip, maintain). The four ways are also easy-to-remember as a RITS mnemonic, where every letter stands for a way to aid affiliate activation: via Resources, Incentives, Tools, and Support. Here is the infographic (and you may find more of my thoughts on this on page 17 of the newest issue of FeedFront Magazine):
Feel free to share this graphic as well as chime in with your thoughts on affiliate activation (via the “Comments” area under this post).
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I recently signed up to one affiliate program that had their act together:
1. It was “manual approval” and I was accepted into the program within 24 hours.
2. I received a nice welcome email with all the names of the managers at the affiliate management company.
3. Shortly after that I was welcomed by the ecommerce the company itself and the affiliate associates introduced themselves.
4. Over the next week the affiliate management company sent a few suggestions to get the most out of the program via email.
5. I also had a few inventory, shipping and procedure questions. I sent the questions to the affiliate manager and he quickly responded that he would get the answers.
6. They kept in touch every other day until the company got back with the answers.
I will do my best to promote this company and their products.
What a contrast to about 70% of the other companies that have affiliate programs.
1. They take weeks or months to approve/not approve
2. When you ask a question through the affiliate interface no one ever responds or it takes over a week. If you are not an affiliate they don’t respond.
3. When you are not approved and you know you can do a great job for the company, the affiliate managers are harsh and unwilling to work with you either to why they won’t approve you or what you should do to obtain approval. (I go for specific products to promote more than a particular ecommerce site)
4. They never ask what they can do to help.
Excellent example/experience, Paul! Thank you for chiming in to describe it. Most affiliate programs lose it (the opportunity to activate) right on that second step (of approval email), not to mention the rest of the steps/points. Thanks again for sharing this!
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