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Do You Cater to Flunkies?
If affiliate marketing is all about a virtual “sales force” then why do marketers choose to maintain active relationships with so many affiliates that work in a vacuum (are sales flunkies)?
Lately, I’ve noticed how marketers actually invest time (money) in attracting “salespersons” who refuse to offer affiliate managers the time of day. Even more alarming, we now hear of how some affiliate managers lose sleep over pleasing these slugs who refuse to communicate with them.
Shawn Collins has uncovered alarming numbers and evidence that points to a stunning lack of logic that, in many ways, smells like bad business. In his AffStat report he reveals that 36 percent of marketers “auto approve” (take anyone off the street) affiliates a la 1996. Recently he commented on a marketer who questioned…
“What is the best way to handle affiliates who don’t obey the rules; i.e., bid on trademarked terms, don’t update datafeeds for years, etc.? These people make decent sales, so I don’t want to drop them, but repeated emails aren’t working!”
Rather than focus on this question I pose a question to the marketers out there who can relate to the question. That is…
“Would you hire a (non-Internet) salesperson who acted like such an affiliate?”
and/or
“Would you continue to invest your time/money/energy in them simply because they make sales?”
Companies hire “dirt world” distribution partners and sales people all the time. They have very strict rules regarding visual media/logo usage, sales tactics that may and may not be employed, trademarks, etc. They do not tolerate sales people or business partners who bend or break the rules… or who ignore them at risk of tarnishing the brand.
Why, in the world of affiliate marketing, do cheats and people who tell marketers “talk to the hand ’cause the face ain’t listening” not only earn a pass but generate stress for affiliate managers? Is anyone embarrassed to see managers writing to Shawn and asking him for advice on how to best handle a business situation (partners ignoring them) that, in the real world, would be handled rather routinely (by revoking the relationship, witholding commissiones, etc.)?
Are marketers really so desperate for Web-based sales that they’re willing to partner with anyone… to the point of engaging business partners (a “sales force”) that doesn’t speak to them and/or routinely breaks the rules? Why is online marketing seem so retarded today?
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Excellent point Jeff. Your comments highlight the difference between online marketers focused on short-term gain vs. marketers focusing on building long-term relationships with legitimate partners. I wonder which strategy will pan out over the next 5 to 10 years?
I am NOT A SALESPERON I am a publisher. No matter how the networks try to sell me.
I am looking out for number one. ME. And I will do whatever I can to ensure I get what I deserve.
Very good point Jeff.
We, whether we want to call ourselves ‘publishers, affiliates or Boozo The clown’, must remember that business is business. Yes, I want to make money for myself and the merchants. What I also want to do is keep my business. Dregs, flunkies and the like are ‘get rich quick’ knuckleheads that make it bad for everyone. What to do about it is clean our own houses first.
I agree with this commentary, Jeff. If someone has intolerable business etiquette I will boot them out of my program. It’s fair to point out that most of my partners are a pleasure to work with.
First, let me say that I am not a fan of “auto-approval”. But there is a big difference between working with many affiliates and taking “anyone off the streets”. Additionally, highlighting a few bad apples that are unresponsive or in violation of terms and conditions is confusing two separate issues. I agree with removing affiliates that are not able to drive results, are unresponsive and/or in violation of terms and conditions.
Jeff, your argument is somewhat flawed and essentially says fishermen should not use nets to catch fish but instead should catch them one at a time. This is why so many in-house programs never get off the ground because they need to recruit affiliates one at a time. Advertisers use network providers, like Commission Junction in order to gain access to thousands of potential affiliates and accelerate the growth and results of their affiliate program. They may allow as many affiliates into their program as they want and usually wish to evaluate more affiliates than they eventually work with on a long-term basis.
I will argue that some advertisers are throwing the baby out with the bath water due to their “approval” rules/policies. Many affiliate program managers do not know ahead of time which affiliates will or will not perform for their program. Many affiliates will join a program with the intention to market an advertiser - but it may take weeks or months to get the advertiser up on their site and begin driving results. Also, many “known” top performing affiliates do not perform well for all advertisers or do not care to work with every advertiser in a given category.
Another thing many advertisers overlook is the country in which the affiliate is doing business. I hear this time and again that affiliates are getting rejected when they are not in the same country as the advertiser or in their serviceable/shippable areas.
These affiliates are upset because they know they can generate results if given the chance but advertisers are rejecting them based on their country of residence. These affiliates have no intention of marketing to the traffic in their country or region if the advertiser cannot ship to or provide service to the end users. Trust me - they want to market the advertiser to the traffic in the countries/regions that will earn them commissions.
In the end, managing a program that has a high percentage of active (valuable) affiliates is easier and can drive significantly more results than letting a program run on auto pilot (regardless of how you approve your affiliates) with hundreds or thousands of inactive affiliates. I think advertisers should allow more affiliates (but not all that apply) into their programs in order to create more opportunities to evaluate and develop relationships that will drive results. The key is actually managing the affiliate program and developing the relationships - unfortunately, being a program manager is not an easy job and not all program managers are created equal.
While you’re at it, Jeff, be sure to take a round out of affiliate managers who drop the communication ball. I’ve had the experience many times of asking an AM a question and never receiving a reply … even after the AM had initiated the conversation.
A particular pet peeve is AM’s who think that posting messages on [this or that message board] is any kind of substitute for answering their email. It’s galling when an AM announces on some board, “Send me a PM and I’ll send you the info” … breezily ignoring the fact that not all affiliates have access to the board and its features; and even if they did, that’s still no substitute for answering messages sent through a network’s mail system or direct email.
Affiliates have to give priority to the merchants who yield the best reward for their time and efforts. If an AM feels ignored the situation might be a symptom of problems at THEIR end. A merchant who puts nickels and dimes into an affiliate’s pocket will generally be a lower priority than the merchant who generates hundreds or even thousands of dollars for that affiliate every month.
Here’s an example of a situation where I ended up cringing every time I heard from one AM: He wanted me to post a certain banner on a certain page. Superficially it looked like a good match, but because of luck in the search engines the page had little traffic. Combine that with a below-average commission rate and less-than-stellar conversions on traffic I’d already been sending, and posting his banner was low on my to-do list. I was trying to work with the AM because I liked him, but do the math, other things were more pressing. If he had taken the trouble to create a dynamic promotional banner that they’d update from their end (a la Performics), I’d have posted that, but posting a static banner in an unproductive corner that I’d then have to update by hand made little sense at my end. The time the AM spent nagging about it would have been better spent creating better tools.
Excellent post, Buckworks. I’ve experienced this nightmare situation myself several times. In fact I’m experiencing an issue right now with a particular merchant in trying to get information about their PPC policy. You would think an AM would be thrilled to have affiliates that are so genuinely enthused about their product that they’d make repeated attempts at communicating with them, and that cared to take the time to go out of their way to obtain key information about their policies rather than simply doing as they please to make a quick buck.
Very early in my corporate career - pre-Internet, when computers still filled a room, I was taught to only tolerate being on hold for 2 minutes before hanging up the phone. I’d forgotten all about that in the decades since and need to apply some of that knowledge and experience in dealing with merchants.
Kudos to you, Jeff. Your article has caused me to experience a pre-Christmas Epiphany: Not to cater to flunkie AMs. I feel liberated and free as a bird ….
Thank you, Jeff, for your insight.
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Thanks, all, for the great comments. I am glad to see affiliates sharing their thoughts on what seem to be flunkie AM’s!
Again, my main point of confusion is, “why is the Internet different?” Why do marketers make investments in this business realm that they would not make in their traditional/offline realm?
I suppose the affiliate perspective works as well - why would an affiliate work with a marketer whom they feel is “lesser”, un-responsive or “not living up to expectation?”
Jeff, I agree with you. The only and offline worlds should be the same as far as relationships go. Affiliates need to view themselves as Value-Added Resellers. That is far different than being salespeople and requires a stronger relationship.
Todd, while you make good points, I think that you are discussing something that is slightly different. Jeff’s post is about how to deal with affiliates once they are in your program and not how to select them (aside from avoinding the accept all urge). Merchants should tier their programs so they can allow any good site to join and then give added benefits and VIP commissions to top performing VARs while firing bad affiliates.
Buckworks, you are right. It is frustrating to have merchants (AND NETWORKS) who are unresponsive. We have a term for these: backfill.
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