OK, lets assume its your first day as an affiliate manager. Your boss gives you a bit of a pep talk, tells you to increase performance by 100%, and then bogs off back to the golf course without a backward glance.
Let’s also assume you don’t have a clue about affiliate marketing. In fact, you were only in the building asking directions to the nearest train station when they asked you the fateful question “Ah. So do you know what this internet thing is then? Beautiful. You’re hired!”
OK? Right. The following advice is the best you’ll ever hear in your new career.
Forgive the sarcasm (it’s not as if you’re not expecting to see it on this blog!). However after being alive and kicking for around 10 years in the UK, the venerable institution of affiliate marketing still seems to be beset by what I perceive to be newbie mistakes by an unacceptable proportion of merchants.
A recent survey of super affiliates by UK affiliate management agency R.O.EYE (geddit?!) uncovered that the biggest bar to growth of many affiliate programmes is simply poor management. This isn’t news to myself and most other affiliates. We’re well used to this status quo. It’s time for merchants to sit up, listen, and make use of the valuable resource affiliates represent. Most importantly, it’s time for merchants to realise that lack of attention to your affiliate programme can seriously damage your bottom line. The study underlines that with Affiliate Marketing in the UK having passed the £2 Billion mark in 2006, it’s high time that the resources dedicated to programme management reflected its revenue spinning potential.
So sit back, relax, and let the affiliates do the talking: –
What Super Affiliates Really Want
- Do Your Housekeeping. Is an up to date data feed too much to ask? How about making sure your affiliates are up to date with current special offers and promotions? Regularly updated creatives? It’s hardly rocket science guys.
- Communication Is The Key. Communicate directly with your affiliates. Passing information only via your affiliate network can be frustrating for your affiliates. It can also result in “Chinese Whispers” syndrome with miscommunication a common by-product.
- Affiliates Really Just Want To Be Loved. Include the affiliate stream as an integrated part of your marketing strategy. Make use of their expertise at the outset of your online campaigns, and make sure everyone is aware of each other’s goals and striving to achieve them together.
There. It’s not hard is it? There are many highly talented marketers in the affiliate world. They are in the business because they can earn better money from their talents than becoming a marketing consultant… doesn’t that tell you something about their skillset?
On behalf of all affiliates I say: –
“Oh great merchants hear my plea… YOU can make more money by talking to me!”
August 4th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Very well said Kirsty. I am often amazed at how little Affiliate Managers know about affiliate marketing and how unprofessional they are. Have spent many years teaching them the basics! But for the majority of them I think it’s just a 9-5 role that, as you say, they were asked to do because they knew how to use Hotmail.
August 4th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Hey Nadeem,
Happy 10th anniversary in Affiliate Marketing! We love you!!
*ahem*
There are many good affiliate managers around, but they should be the rule rather than the exception. I do know a lot of affiliate managers who are taken into the role with little or no experience. Not always a bad thing, as many are really keen to learn (but can actually eat into the time resources of affiliates in the process). This isn’t their fault, but increasingly there’s no excuse for large companies to throw someone in at the deep end without any training.
August 4th, 2007 at 10:42 am
[...] Kirsty Filed under Blog by Permalink • Print [...]
August 4th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Second time I’ve read your blog and I like what I see. I’ve started the affiliate marketing thing earlier this year and have had some moderate success…hoping to turn it into something bigger. Keep up the great articles.
August 4th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Hi Kirsty,
Good points, I think you’re alluding to a deeper level of the affiliate – affiliate network relationship: that of intent.
As in to think like an affiliate – out of the box, when it comes to data feeds, updates, creatives.
Personally, there’s nothing more irritating than seeing 10 variations of a banner which has slight variations and they might just as well have listed a single banner.
Or a text link creative’s “variations” that go:
variation 1) “Get this Ringtone now!”
variation 2) “Limited Ringtones!”
variation 3) “Click here now!”
What the heck is that…?
Going with your make money mantra, I’d think any network worth its salt would fork out some cash and have a super affiliate or two on board creating this stuff, cos the Einstein they have in the backoffice making this stuff now, isn’t quite hacking it…
August 5th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Do agree with you there Andrew. There are quite a few UK networks who are constantly innovating and listening to affiliates requirement. It’s when they try and educate a lot of the merchants currently on the go that things seem to go awry.
That’s why I really do feel it’s time for merchants to individually take responsibility for in-house training and education. More knowledge and attention to affiliate programmes from merchants can only mean more revenue for all concerned.
All to the good I say!
August 5th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
[...] If anyone wants to read the full press release then Keith has it here, and Kirsty has some chat about it here. [...]
August 5th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
[...] If anyone wants to read the full press release then Keith has it here, and Kirsty has some chat about it here. [...]
August 5th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Hi Kirsty,
Great post – LoveHoney would like to offer super-affiliates exactly what they want… But who are they? Where are they? How do we get in touch with them?
We have an in-house program and a program on Affiliate Future who, amazingly, won’t share our own affiliates’ contact details with us.
Super-affiliates – please mail me richard at lovehoney.co.uk and let’s work together to make some £££s. We’ll give you what you want!
Gentle aside: for me, how is the comment from Nadeem about affiliate managers different from Robertson’s notorious “grubby little people” quote?
I’m sure some affiliate managers are crap and some are great – but to tar them all with the same brush is no doubt as offensive to affiliate managers as Robertson’s was to affiliates…
August 6th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Hi Richard,
The Affiliate Future system doesn’t make things terribly easy. However, in the past I’ve simply gone through all the sites making money on AF and found contact details on them, setting up my own database of people to talk to about performance. Also, sometimes you have to locate your own super affiliates, alas, I’ve rarely found one comes knocking! Check out who’s ranking for terms relating to your key revenue building areas… and identify which sites are e-commerce and which are affiliate sites. Being familiar with your search space is an excellent first step.
I do promote a couple of Lovehoney products which were part of a PPC test I ran a while back, and I’m quite impressed with conversions. Lovehoney definately has my stamp of approval. I must find time to do more with you guys.
I don’t think Nadeem meant to tar affiliate managers with the same brush. He is, after all, an affiliate manager himself! It is easy for affiliates to feel that affiliate managers are against them and make sweeping statements. I do too sometimes… it’s hard not to when you regularly come up against the “brick wall” to progress that is an untrained or ill informed AM.
August 7th, 2007 at 9:01 am
So what I am sort of reading from your article is that perhaps being an affiliate manager is not a very attractive option compared to being a successful and independent super affiliate.
Or else why don’t we see ex-affiliates bcoming affiliate managers? I mean really, we would be the best candidates for the job. Maybe it’s time companies start recruiting among their own affiliates and offer the kind of salary it would take to attract them.
August 9th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Being Affiliate Manager myself, I can not agree with Kirsty more… I am an affiliate manager of Leisure Direction, UK’s Tour Operator.
We have been running an in-house affiliate program for over 2 years and have also tested waters with Networks too. The success of our in-house program has been phenomenal and is down to personal relationships and making sures affiliates are updated with all the special offers to help them increase their conversions and drive more traffic to the site with offers that customers will respond well to. We communicate regularly with our in-house affiliates; they know I am just a phone call away and will respond via email, if not within an hour, then certainly the same day, sometimes even late in the evenings as I work from home. This has been hugely appreciated by affiliates. We treat them as partners and they are an integral part of our business.
Saying all that, I am extremely frustrated with Networks. We have not been able to replicate the same relationship through them. With some, we can not even pick up a phone and can only contact them affiliates via their Email Affiliate interface. It is very impersonal. Feeding regular offers every week once or twice is not as effective than when done through an in-house program.
Any suggestions how to overcome this problem?
August 14th, 2007 at 10:30 am
[...] and companies who earn scads of cash from this affiliate business. Kirsty recently posted about What Super Affiliates Really Want. And that’s what we want to give them – if only they would work with [...]
November 9th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Affiliates need to be paid. Don’t scam affiliates.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I have been an affiliate manager for 12 years and an affiliate even longer. Although we were not called affiliates then just advertisers.
I think the main problem for new affiliates is that they are never given real expectations by affiliate managers. Basically they all say, “Display our stuff and watch the money roll in”.
Everyone wants something for nothing, but the amount of time, effort and money super affiliates put in is massive.
Working in the Casino/poker sector I can say that 90% of affiliate revenue in the UK is provided by 10 affiliates. These affiliates have a bigger marketing budget than some of the casinos they are promoting and can demand up to 50% of net revenue.
One extreme example of a casino super affiliate that I know of:
Staff 30 mainly content management and ppc.
Number of web sites 200 plus
Offers a one-way link exchange with casino sites of pr3 and above.
Advertises more than 30 casinos each having equal exposure.
Can’t say how much he makes, but for one of the casinos I worked for he was making about 70K to 80k per month 6 years ago.
What affiliate managers should be saying to newcomers is:
“Put all your efforts into developing a good informative website and concentrate on SEO and any initial profits earned should be put straight back into advertising your site. Eventually you will be able to make some money. How much depends on you”.