Now that you have your affiliate partners, how do you push them to promote you and your products? Here are some suggestions.
Get affiliates to pick up your banners, buttons and other links by researching
To understand how this works, you should have a keen understanding of your activation rate the percentage of affiliates that actually promote your program after joining. When evaluating various sources of affiliates, consider the rate at which affiliates join and upload your links. If you find out which partners do not really cover their end of the bargain, call their attention to it. Yes, let them know that you know.
Choose serious affiliates
The bottom line is – if you choose non-performing partners, no matter what you do, they will always turn in mediocre result. To avoid this, get to the source of problems – find better sources of serious affiliates. Through referrals and recommendations from colleagues, ask around where best to find partners who will turn out the best output.
Communication is key
There are other techniques for raising your activation rate which may seem simple, but may be your best bet for action. The best plan is a schedule of regular communication. Some affiliate networks allow you to send email only to inactive affiliates and to include personalised linking code right in the email. If this option is available, it doesn’t hurt to email your entire affiliate base active and inactive about new links, top-performing links, and other tips on how your affiliates can maximize their earnings.
Be proud of your performing affiliates – and let the world know
Another useful technique is to publicise the earnings of your top 5, 10 or 20 affiliates. This demonstrates to your inactive affiliates that others are making real money and that they can, too.
Constantly remind other of your existence
How do you do this? Simply constantly consume more pixel space on the web sites of your affiliates. More pixel space could mean better placement, placement on additional pages, or additional types of placements for your program or product.Of course affiliate retention is a familiar refrain to this column’s regular readers. Familiarity, in this sense, gets your name out there.