Setting Up Your Affiliate Program for Success

Learn how to target ideal affiliates

Author

Nate Smoyer
November 14, 2023

Before we get into anything about affiliate marketing, you must know this one thing: If your affiliates are not making money, your success with affiliates will be short-lived or totally nonexistent.

And that is why we’ll focus on a crucial element of affiliate marketing today: prospecting affiliates.

Why You Should Consider Affiliates

There are a few very good reasons right on the surface to consider working with affiliates.

Many affiliate partners don’t require upfront payment. This means you at least will get some amount of word-of-mouth or brand marketing at no cost to you. (Please don’t make the mistake of just looking for free brand exposure—this will hurt you in the long run.)

Affiliates typically help you maintain a predicative cost structure to new accounts or sales since it’s common to offer a fixed commission or annuity on a specific conversion. This will make it possible for you to back out your numbers and know your CPA (cost per acquisition) is always where you need it to be for your business model.

One of the greatest benefits of a successful affiliate program is the brand exposure. I know, I just said to not approach this from the prospective of just getting free brand exposure. It’s not free because when the program is successful, it will cost money. But, the more successful your program, the more affiliates will talk about you. Being the talked about solution or service by poplar outlets or personalities will lead to greater direct and organic business—not just affiliate-sourced business.

How to Structure Your Prospecting Efforts

ABC/123. This simple and helpful matrix can be used for prospecting affiliates. You can use this matrix for many things, but I’ve always come back to this when starting an affiliate program build.

Here’s a guide on creating definitions to fill in your matrix.

ABC

A = Most ideal prospect. Perfect overlap with your product/company and has a large and engaged audience. Has multiple channels to distribute through. Understands savvy marketing campaigns.

B = Very ideal prospect. Has a medium to large audience with good engagement. Likely has 1 or 2 channels to distribute. Easy to work with.

C = Potentially good prospect. Has a small to medium audience with an OK to good amount of engagement. Likely has 1, maybe 2 channels to distribute. Lesser savvy on campaigns.

123

1 = You know them on a first-name basis, have several friends and industry colleagues in common—they might even be a friend. You can email or text them informally and know they’ll probably say yes to being an affiliate.

2 = You’ve met or spoken with them before. Probably have a few LinkedIn connections in common. You have their contact info, but have done little to no work with each other. Good possibility to work together.

3 = This is a cold contact. Maybe there’s 1 or 2 in common connections with you. You’ve never worked with each other and it’s not very likely they’ll say yes to your offer.

Your definitions for ABC and 123 will likely have some variations to what’s provided above. I’d encourage you to create definitive metrics for ABC, such as number of followers on social media, SEO rankings on given topics, or email subscribers. For 123, this will entirely depend on your industry and how things work for your specifically. Maybe in common friendships aren’t meaningful, in that case, redefine 123 so that you have a good clear idea of what a 1 and a 3 is.

Take some time to identify and rank prospective affiliates before you start your outreach. You can find and rank 20, 50, or 100. Follow your heart and work within your constraints.

After you begin pitching, look to see if your number rankings are holding true. And once your affiliates begin promoting, check to see if your letter rankings are holding true. You may find you need to make adjustments.

Tips on Getting Affiliates to Say Yes to Promoting Your Offer

Getting an affiliate to accept your offer is actually quite simple. If the following bullet points end up being true, then you’ll likely succeed in closing on an affiliate.

  • You have a successful offer in that people want what you’re selling, consistently

  • You have an enticing incentive that will make it worth the affiliates’ while to promote your offer

  • Your offer helps the affiliate build credibility with their audience and doesn’t distract from their priorities

  • You provide copy, creative direction, and analytics to affiliates

If you’re doing all of the above, you’re going to win with affiliates. If you’re doing 2 or 3, you can still win, but you might find it difficult to get or maintain momentum.

It’s important you align with the affiliate, not the other way around. This is why you must prospect in a focused manner, otherwise, you’re dooming your affiliate program from the start.

I didn’t cover everything today. Affiliate programs can have MANY, MANY more layers. Joint-venture affiliates, affiliate-to-affiliate referral bonuses, graduated performance incentives, structuring pay to play plus commission, and retargeting affiliate audiences. It’s important, however, to get the base dialed in first and foremost. It’s a powerful channel. Don’t skip out on affiliate marketing and don’t skip these steps.

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