Activating Affiliates - Motivating The Non-Performers
Every program manager soon realises that the vast majority of their affiliates do little or nothing to drive traffic and sales through their program. If you are about to launch your own program then the figures may surprise you. It's not unlikely that only a few percent of your affiliates will actually prove active leaving you with hundreds maybe thousands of non-performers.
Ultimately its quality not quantity that really counts.
So what about all those hundreds of inactive affiliates? The 99% of your network that joined with good intentions that are earning nothing for you or themselves. What can you do to re-activate these affiliates? What tools and incentives can you provide to help? How far do you extend your responsibilities to help the up and coming webmaster that needs that extra help to find their ground?
When they joined, each affiliate was excited about your program, eager to get started and most importantly expected to earn revenue from your program. So what happened and how can you recapture that excitement?
Firstly, lets try to categorise the affiliates in your network -
The Super Affiliate
The backbone of your program probably made up from just the top few percent of your program, your super affiliates will drive 99% of your revenues. The super affiliate will have a highly trafficked site attracting your customer base and they know how to effectively market your program. In fact they will provide you with valuable ideas and tips you can pass on to your other affiliates - if you stay in touch and communicate with them!
The super affiliate qualifies for special attention to maintain their loyalty, keep in touch personally further your relationship by phone and offer special terms and incentives.
The Up-and-Coming
Although not making the ranks of super affiliate the up and coming show the potential. They have original content or high traffic levels of your potential customer base.
The up-an-coming may be lacking in merchandising skills and need educating in how to best promote your program or perhaps need general marketing tips to help build their traffic levels.
The Banner Farmer
Typically the banner farm will be operating on a free web host with no original content and displaying an eclectic mix of banner after banner. The banner farmer is unlikely to harvest any rewards for you or themselves.
The only thing you do know about the banner farmer is that at some point they where motivated to earn an additional income. Whilst many probably thought this was a way to earn a quick buck, they have a big learning curve to go through. I am not suggesting you invest a lot of time here but perhaps you can simply point these affiliates in the direction of good training resources. Some of the self-motivated will use the material to move themselves up the ranks.
Plus of course we can divide all your affiliates into two further groups - those with links in place and those that have not yet added a link to your program!
Dependent on your tracking solution you ought to be able to export a list of affiliates that do not yet have links in place in to your program, some systems will also allow you to group affiliates allowing you to target different levels of affiliate with more relevant communications.
Activating Affiliates
There are a number of ideas you can implement to start helping your affiliates increase their revenues. Each concept needs to be refined and tested to compliment your unique program but lets examine some ideas to include:- Activating affiliates not yet linking to your program
- Quick start email guide
- Your affiliate newsletter
- Affiliate community building
- Resources to help train and educate affiliates