Affiliate Communication Best Practices

When helping advertisers build their affiliate program, we often talk about how important it is to offer competitive rates, a straightforward user flow, an ample amount of creative materials, and a successful landing page. These are the building blocks of every affiliate program. This list of building blocks is missing one important point, though – communication. Your relationship with your affiliates is just that, a relationship, and like any relationship, it needs to be maintained. Think about it this way: if you have an amazing product and landing page but no one hears about it, does it really exist? Philosophical questions aside, let’s talk about the least-discussed yet easiest way to improve your affiliate program’s performance – improving your communication with your affiliates.

If you are an advertiser managing your entire affiliate program with Matomy Market, the platform allows you to contact your affiliates directly, which allows you to see what affiliates want and need in order to promote your product. From our experience, there’s a fine line between sending your affiliates just enough information to incentivize them to run your program and bombarding them with too many emails. Thankfully, we’ve been tracking affiliate response to our emails for years, and can give you the best recommendations that adhere to this fine line.

Recommendation 1: “Ahem (little wave). It’s me, your Advertiser”

I was shocked to learn what great performance increases my advertisers received simply for sending out a mass email to affiliates reminding them that the program exists. Many affiliates sign up to a program but need a little push in order to start running it. This little email does the trick, and with Matomy Market’s platform, all you need to do is click “Send.”

Recommendation 2: The Haves and the Have-Nots

It’s imperative to know who your top affiliates are, and it’s easy to identify them as well as high-potential affiliates with Matomy Market’s platform – you can see who’s been generating impressions/clicks to your program, and who made their first commission. I recommend sending out a separate mass email to each of these groups, ideally weekly. For affiliates who only generated impressions/clicks, you can find out what’s preventing them from monetizing their traffic. And for those who made their first commission, you’ll see what it takes to get them to increase their traffic. Tailoring your mass emails by publisher potential allows the affiliate to receive the personalized feedback he needs to build a long term partnership. Soon enough, he’ll be your affiliate for life.

Recommendation 3: The Latest and Greatest

Matomy Market saves you time by sending affiliates automatic updates about program restrictions, new campaigns, etc. It’s often helpful, though, to also send a personalized message telling your affiliates about new creatives, landing pages, and restriction changes. In a sea of emails, your personalized message will stand out, and show affiliates that you are committed to keeping them informed of any change in their programs.

I can’t stress enough how successful these simple emails are to affiliates. Communication is key, and with the account tools we’ve mentioned here, you’ll see all the information you need in order to target the right messages to the right affiliates quickly and easily.

Author May Flam manages advertiser affiliate programs as a member of the Affiliate Solutions Department at Matomy Market. You can contact her at may.f@matomy.com