Starting an affiliate program is an awesome way to build a sales team that you don’t pay until they sell for you. However, it’s not that easy! Setting up an effective affiliate program takes time and hard work.

1. Don’t Skimp on the affiliate center setup. Have all the rules, promotional materials, creative ads ready to go. This makes it easy for your affiliates to get in and get out. This is probably the most overlooked steps by business owners because quite simply they don’t understand how to actually set it up.  I suggest business owner’s sign up for relatable affiliate programs and do a bit-o-homework to get some ideas on how other business owners motivate their affiliates. Having a great affiliate center DOES require you to do more than just have an affiliate link. It involves:

- Creating affiliate links directly to each of your products
- Hosting your products on individual pages
- Offering a great training guide—when creating an affiliate how-to  guide assume all of your affiliates are new to this rodeo!
- Having great promotional content ready to go, such as: pre-written emails, blog posts, tweets, Facebook updates. (This may require the use of a creative designer for ads)
- Establishing easy to understand rules and have them easily accessible. *Don’t forget to mention spamming and false endorsements are no-nos per you and the FTC
- Customizing your initial welcome letter to your affiliates. The welcome letter is your affiliate first impression of your time and effort into making them feel valued

2. Personally contact people who you would like to see promote your product. Write down your Dream Team of Affiliates and begin doing your research on them.  Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and subscribe to their newsletter. Comment on their blog and then once you see your opening—a related blog post, their own upcoming product launch, an interview, etc., send them an email and say that you are impressed with their product or service. Point out exactly how your product fits in with their audience. Let them know what you find interesting about them and give details on commissions. You could even ask them to review your product. If they are doing a launch, offer to include your product and promotion on their thank you page for their orders.

 

3. Offer interviews and freebies bonuses to key affiliates. In additions to letting everyone know you are “interviewable” by setting up a media page so that you can easily be contacted; be sure key partners know your areas of expertise and they will welcome you to speak on your topic-of-choice to their list.  Offer reductions of your products for key affiliates, as well. There are many people out there that make a living reviewing other’s people products, be sure to reach out to them and sweeten the offer by giving them your product in exchange for an honest review and some exposure on their blog/email campaign.

 

4. Be respectful of your affiliates own promotional calendar and be sure to give them a quick heads up (insider’s scoop) on what is on the horizon for your business, well before the official launch date.  This  allows your affiliate to mark their calendar and ensures they have ample time to set up their affiliate promotional activities. Your affiliates will be grateful for the content with benefits you eagerly share with them. Also, your affiliates are given the opportunity to become your eyes and ears with their own audience and will let you know if they have someone they think you can connect with, in order to help you have greater success. Be sure your “heads up”  includes:

- How excited you are to be offering this product
- What issue your product/service solves
- Official launch date
- Any special pricing

5. Keep in Touch and be responsive! You must take the “following up” with your affiliates as serious as you do with your own list of potential buyers. Send reminders, extra promotional material, encouraging words, thank you messages, success stories and offer to help in any and every way you can to ensure your affiliates have success with promoting your product. When you receive a question from an affiliate place on your customer service hat and resolve the issue quickly and thoroughly.

 

6. Consider additional incentives to have extra fun with your affiliates.  How about offering seasonal promotions, such as an iPad for your highest earner during the holiday season? Also you can create a newsletter and openly dote on your best earners with case studies and links to their own products. Your affiliates will be eager to learn how others are doing so well and truly appreciate the extra gifts of gratitude!

 

7. Hire an affiliate manager to ensure your affiliate center offers much more than just a cookie capturing link. In my opinion, the only affiliate work that a business owner needs to be directly doing is making personal connections with key affiliates. The rest of the work is best left to someone that understands affiliate set-up and can save the business owners time by managing their affiliate system for them. Your affiliate manager, ensures all the pieces are in place so that you achieve your goal for having affiliates: raising your exposure and profit line by creating a group of people who are compensated for selling your products/services to their audience.

So there you have it–7 Secrets to Jumpstarting Your Affiliates Desire to Sell for You. Remember setting up an affiliate system take stime and effort, but the more planning you do know, the better chances you have of putting together a winning affiliate program that will serve you long into the future.

If you have any comments, I invite you to share them here or email me directly!