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Recession Proofing Your Affiliate Business

Apr 1, 2009
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You may think that down in South Africa we’ve been insulated from the effects of the global recession, but affiliate marketers around the world are reeling from the effects of the recession too.

In the last 3 months we’ve seen a significantly increased number of US and global affiliate programs either going out of business or intermittently being suspended by their networks due to funds shortages.

Advertisers, in a recession you need to prove that you’re a stable revenue partner.  I’ve jotted down a few guidelines that are tried and tested and are especially useful to merchants trading in troubled times.

  1. Never run out of funds or have a network suspend your program.
    Affiliates will abandon you for the next brand.
  2. Pay on time, every time.
    Everybody is sensitive about payment – especially the affiliates that are bankrolling your marketing.
    If you keep them waiting for payment they’ll simply cut back or stop marketing your program.
  3. Talk to your affiliates.
    I’m not talking about the usual formulaic letters and auto-emails.  REALLY talk to your affiliates – find out what they need, how they think you can improve your program and what you should be focusing on.
  4. Work your offer.
    Improve payouts, introduce free trials, try continuity billing  & implement additional payment methods & deferred payment options like BillMeLater.
    Offer your affiliates lead payouts on long sales cycle products and compensate them for  recurring purchases.
  5. Do private / one off / out-of-the-box marketing and promotions deals.
    Now’s not the time to be stressing about keeping things simple!   You need to do more so think about tracking offline sales, referring URL tracked sales, set up dedicated  tracked landing pages and offer co-branded pages.
  6. Spy on your competitors.
    You need to be leading the pack on creative, affiliate and consumer offers, coupons, offline marketing – now’s the time to take the lead!
  7. Aggressively manage your EPC.
    Affiliates really DO watch network EPCs and use it as a determining factor when selecting programs.
  8. Take on your competitors.
    Every competitor has a weak spot.  Find it and exploit it to your advantage.  Did your competitor’s tracking break?  Were they suspended?  Did their EPC drop though the floor?  Did a coupon lapse?  You need to know in order to take advantage of guerrilla marketing opportunities.
  9. Make good on failures.
    Don’t just brush untracked channel sales under the carpet – check your referrers, check IP’s, cross reference coupons and make sure you attribute every sale you can to your affiliates.  If your tracking breaks don’t wait for it to be reported on a forum.  Proactively compensate your affiliates and make good!
  10. Expand, expand, expand.
    Affiliates have a choice of over 160 affiliate and CPA networks.  Pick wisely and be where your affiliate is.

Have anything to add to this list?  Feel free to comment!

About Jonathan Miller

I’m the CEO of Forge Media Investments Limited and its Online Marketing subsidiaries including the Forge Outsourced Affiliate Program Management & offerforge.com Affiliate Network.

I’m more talent scout & ambassador than Business Manager. I do strategy, high level planning & client engagement. I love getting my hands on a project, working with clients to figure out what they need then letting my team get on and do it.

I love finding new businesses for us to grow & opportunities for us & our clients to capitalize on.

I’m well known in Performance Marketing circles and judging by the fact that I keep getting invited back, seem to be rather an engaging, or at least a passable speaker.

I live in Johannesburg with my wife, 2 daughters and assorted pets! I travel relentlessly between our markets in the US, UK and South Africa and consequently my kids often refer to me as stranger ;-(

You can find Jonathan on Twitter: @JonathanAtForge .

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing + Business Tools + Internet Marketing + Online Marketing + Performance Marketing
  • http://stephanielichtenstein.com Stephanie Lichtenste

    I agree it is important to always been online and pay on time. When there is a failure fess up to it and fix it. Affiliates respect that a lot more than if you ignore it. My job is to educate our merchants about this and why it is important. Great post Jonathan!

  • http://www.amnavigator.com/blog Geno Prussakov

    Good post, Jonathan. I'd also add:

    11. Employ social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) for relationship-building, as well as to keep affiliates (both current, and prospective ones) up-to-date on what's going on in your affiliate program(s).

    12. Don't forget about the "fun" component. Run contests and promos (remember to set reachable goals!)

  • http://www.shopping-bargains.com Mike Allen

    Great points, Jonathan. Down times can be exciting times if one things creatively. They force us to think outside the box, to cut back on waste, and to innovate. Thinking of one's competition, if they decline and you remain level, you gained market share! It's that simple. If you move forward even an inch during tough times you are ahead of the game.

  • http://www.internetmarketing.com-seemore.info Learn Internet Marke

    Good post Jonathan. That was precise and straight to the point. I agree, merchants should make sure that they pay on time. It is important to establish and maintain that credibility among your affiliate partners.

    Moreover, they should learn to listen to their affiliates and take note about their areas of concern.