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How to Attract Super Affiliates to your Affiliate Program

Oct 14, 2006
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When affiliate marketing came out strong towards the end of the 90′s many affiliates were struggling with multi product organized websites. Now with more streamlined segmentation and affiliates having years of strong niche marketing experience under their belts, affiliates have become the savviest of online marketers.

Super Affiliates, adapting, targeting, and testing

Affiliates are making on average a commission base of less then 35% for an average order. Their online marketing, targeting and testing has to work or they do not get a paycheck. Many merchants have taken for granted the years of experience and testing many affiliates have put in concerning their abilities to sell online. Affiliates have to make it work, they do make it work and now many merchants are asking affiliates for assistance in their own niche markets.

Many super affiliates have come out strong in specific e marketing channels, such as email, natural search, paid search, and some in direct mail and online media. Testing and measuring is paramount to an affiliate’s success, and often times new market exploration for a merchant will bring about affiliate marketers who have already captured the niche and made it successful.

Ensuring your affiliates are communicated too based on their marketing style is important, you wouldn’t send a keyword list update to your email marketing affiliates for example, this is where segmenting your affiliate communication is key. There are other key program elements that can help you attract super affiliates to your program.

How to attract Super affiliates to your program.

1) Make offers to affiliates who are strongly placed in specific niche markets. Remember they have many other offers from other merchants. Ask super affiliates what they would like as far as incentives to market your product. Instead of emailing them, get your affiliate director on the phone to super affiliates!

2) Segment your communication based on the affiliates marketing methodologies and then sub segment based on niche market. Super affiliates really appreciate receiving new marketing material or program information that is based on their audience through their preferred marketing channel. Remember super affiliates receive offers and e-mail’s every day from sometimes hundreds of merchants; make your communication piece count with personalized content and information pertinent to that affiliate.

3) Multiple network offerings is also key. Super affiliates have their preferred networks, offering your program through multiple networks is important if you are interested in attracting super affiliates. It is sometimes helpful when recruiting to “ask” a super affiliate who “they” prefer to work with.

4) External communication is of extreme important for growing your affiliate program. Weekly postings on external Blogs, forums, chat rooms, and having a presence on all of the affiliate directories will help communicate your program terms to super affiliates. Posting schedules should be developed to ensure fresh communication and program information is complete. Developing your own internal blog for affiliate questions and answers is helpful, but nothing beats the outreach of already established affiliate forums and directories.

5) Do not discount offline affiliate marketers. Many affiliates have taken their sales practices to the streets in the form of direct mail, newspaper ads, and even mall kiosks. Ensure customizable sales collateral and material for select offline partner marketers is fresh. I suggest creating a press or marketing materials area for affiliates to have access to all offline marketing material.

Note: (Offline collateral can direct consumer to merchant’s site to facilitate the sale, affiliates can be given promotional codes for sales tracking of offline marketing endeavors, custom template sites or landing pages. Some merchants offer super affiliates customizable 800 numbers for tracking sales or pay per call codes. Coupons and other codes can also be used to track offline affiliate sales)

6) Paid search affiliates let them in! Who would you rather have get the sale? Your affiliates? Or your competition? The math is simple, create a keyword list that targets areas of keyword saturation of your competitors and let your affiliates target those spaces. Super affiliates know how to jam, ghost, and bump, your competition won’t know what hit them. Many super affiliates will request a keyword list from you, be prepared to allow affiliates the ability to capture sales through this channel.

7) Super affiliates are attracted to affiliate programs that are well managed. Hiring an MBA with no technical knowledge is not going to cut it. Super affiliates will have super complicated technical questions, your affiliate staff must understand what it is they are managing. Affiliate directors or managers must be able to communicate to some of the savviest web developers and online marketers in the world. Be prepared to hire experience over pedigree.

8) Many super affiliates live overseas. One of my personal favorites lives in Israel, he is a genius with paid search, his income is over $200K per month and I receive emails from him from all over the world as he has offices in many countries. He sells to US based consumers for US based products. Do not automatically disapprove overseas affiliates. Your affiliate team needs to know who they are dealing with before they disallow a relationship to form.

9) Be prepared to create niche market material for your super affiliates. Your affiliate team must be able to get niche market creative and promotions together quickly, if a super affiliate calls your affiliate team and tells them he has a quick include on a media spot with a large reach and needs material, your affiliate team must be prepared to get him/her what they need. In advance prepare and communicate with super affiliates, if they have an annual media promotions calendar get started on customized q2-q3-q4 creatives so you are prepared.

Super affiliates are not only smart marketers, in some cases they are seriously genius. Remember they are being contacted by other merchants; you are not doing them a favor by “allowing” them in your program. They are doing you a favor by making your brand successful, desirable and profitable online. Consider your affiliate program resources, consider your communication style, extend a partnership opportunity that a super affiliate would be attracted to. Build it and they will come.

About Heather Paulson

Heather Paulson is the President of PaulsonManagementGroup.com which provides Affiliate Management, Paid Search Management, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Management and affiliate video production and affiliate recruiting services.

Heather was appointed to the Affiliate Summit advisory board in 2006. In 2007 Ms. Paulson was appointed to the advisory board for Affiliate Classroom. In 2007 Ms. Paulson was elected as PPCClassroom.com’s education manager. in 2008 Ms Paulson was nominated as a FAB member of the Performance Marketing Association and is an honorary recipient of the ACC Certified Affiliate Managers Course. in 2008 Heather Paulson was invited to become a member of The Internet Oldtimers Foundation. She has passed the Google professionals certification twice. Heather also blogs at Paulson Management Group Blog. You can follow Heather on Twitter: @Heatherpaulsons.

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing
  • http://www.thoughtshapers.com Jeff Molander

    Interesting perspectives, Heather. I don't know if I'm going to disagree with your viewpoint but I will say that mine is different in that I do not find that affiliates, broadly speaking, are "gifted" so much as they're more daring.

    IMO, advertisers have been risk-adverse laggards to the point of shooting themselves in the e-marketing foot. Example: They forget to do things like register URL mis-spells and prohibit affiliates from unfairly using their trademarks in search and adware. Their reaction when the realize they've dropped the ball is equally horrifying — banning affiliates and worse (i.e. shutting them down without any discussion or a true understanding of what is fair and, more importantly, to their advantage… as in when an affiliate is dismissed over using a trademark in a page title).

    Overall, the slug-fest that is Web affiliate marketing is based around two things IMO — affiliates mastery of the TECHNICAL aspects of the Web and advertisers' fear of it. The result has been advertisers not understanding the Web and "outsourcing" marketing entirely to an army of anonymous (broadly speaking) affilaites… in an environment that sets affiliates up for a serious fall (again, based entirely on their ignorance and knee jerk reactions when they do start to realize how things work).

  • http://www.partnercentric.com Heather Paulson

    :: Hello Jeff ::

    Actually you come up with a very key point which is that some affiliates are in fact daring. Merchants that are niche market challenged or constrained due to many different issues can test niche markets with affiliates that have attempted or dared to explore beyond the merchants capabilities.

    Leveraging affiliates broadened abilities can help new market exploration. Testing product launches through market segments can be done with affiliates also. Sampling market exploration to achieve a better understanding of consumer buying patterns before all company wide e marketing endeavors are launched fully.

    As usual Jeff you gave me a great idea!

    Thanks!

  • http://www.thoughtshapers.com Jeff Molander

    But isn't it usually in the best interest of a marketer to internalize best practices… to be best at marketing their own products and not rely on the creativity, guts and savvy of outsiders?

    Specifically, what advantage does a marketer gain by *not* being the master of their marketing universe?

    Also doesn't this early/experimental/exploratory venture (outsourcing to affiliates) always lead to marketers saying, "hey… we can do that!" once they've seen what affiliates are up to — specifically in cases where affiliates are contributing customers that marketers themselves can just as easily secure?

    (I believe this is, traditionally speaking, where someone steps in and points out to me that affiliates are, and always will be, smarter and more capable than marketers)

  • http://www.thoughtshapers.com Jeff Molander

    Sorry… I forgot. I'd like to draw a distinction between what David Lewis calls "value added presellers" (VAPs) and distributors.

    I see the value in the VAP's/affiliates in that they are "helpers" (purchase influencers). That stated, the distributors (i.e. retailers) are unlike affiliates/VAPs — in that *DO* have the captive audience to share with marketers.