How to inspire affiliate loyalty and increase affiliates' sales

How to inspire affiliate loyalty and increase affiliates' sales
Affiliate loyalty isn't easy to win. To encourage affiliates to be loyal to your affiliate program, you have to do something really special to stand out from the crowd.

Some of these techniques require considerable time and effort. However, it's a wise investment because the alternative is so much worse – spending time and money hunting for super affiliates, who then switch to other programs.

If you succeed in creating loyal affiliates, they will not only stick with your affiliate program and promote it enthusiastically, they'll recommend it to other top affiliates.

28 ways to win affiliates' loyalty and boost their sales
Most important of all, HELP your affiliates.
Give them all the tools they need to succeed. Provide lots of precise, detailed, "how-to" marketing info online. Keep them enthusiastic with tips in your affiliate newsletter.

Consider adding a toll-free number for affiliate support.

Put someone knowledgeable in charge of answering affiliates' questions – promptly, in simple English.

A classic example is Corey Rudl. Study how he does it. He was running an affiliate program before Amazon.com and he owes a lot of his $6 million a year revenue to the fact that he provides heaps of practical, helpful affiliate marketing advice. He has a huge number of loyal affiliates.

(I'll assume you're selling an EXCELLENT product and have a site that SELLS – a site with a high conversion rate. Without those, your program is dead.)

SHOW your affiliates how your top affiliates achieve sales.
Give your affiliates concrete examples. Show them step-by-step, with all the precise details they need, how your top affiliates earn a good living.

Pour special recognition on your high-earning affiliates.
Send them flowers, champagne or chocolates. Horrified at the thought of the cost? You'll spend a LOT more finding new super affiliates.

Create FRIENDSHIPS and win enthusiastic supporters.
The first time Ken Evoy phoned me from the other side of world for a friendly chat I was very impressed. That friendly phone call helped win my loyalty.

Phone calls can turn business relationships into lasting friendships. Turn your top affiliates into loyal FRIENDS. Remember, you don't just want a collection of affiliates. You want enthusiastic supporters.

You'll need to understand the difference between shallow flattery and sincere appreciation.

Encourage your affiliates to speak up. You'll learn what they REALLY think about your program, and you'll learn how to make it better.

PRAISE your top affiliate marketers on your site.
This serves three purposes. It teaches other affiliates what works. It rewards your top affiliates by sending them traffic. The public recognition increases affiliates' loyalty.

Recommend your top affiliates in DISCUSSION GROUPS.
Here's a way to build affiliate loyalty which won't cost you anything except a few minutes of your time but will have a dramatic effect on how loyal your top-earning affiliates feel.

Set those COOKIES fairly.
If a customer returns the next day, the next week, or even a year later and makes a purchase, the affiliate should receive a commission. Track your customers in every way possible to make sure the affiliate receives the commission.

This is vitally important. If your "return days" period is set at zero, many good affiliates won't even sign up for your program. The absolute minimum "return days" period should be 30 days. The longer the better.

Consider paying LIFETIME COMMISSIONS.

Imagine the power of saying to your affiliates, "They're YOUR customers for life. Sell once, earn indefinitely." That's a powerful drawcard which will keep your affiliates loyal and enthusiastic.

Pay your top affiliates BONUSES.
I received a pleasant surprise when veteran marketer Jim Daniels, author of Make a Living Online sent me $250 for being his top-earning affiliate one month. That helped him retain me as a loyal affiliate.

Pay special affiliates a special high commission.
You know that key affiliates in key positions of influence are very valuable. Pay them accordingly. Don't embarrass them by forcing them to ask for the special rate which they deserve.

Residual commissions and two-tier commissions also win favor with affiliates.

However, don't assume that a high commission ALONE will be enough. You have to get everything else right, too.

Let them buy at DISCOUNT PRICES
Give ALL your affiliates favored treatment. Either allow them to buy your products through their own referral links, or give them special discount prices. If you don't do one of these, you'll antagonize your own sales force.

Learn from your INACTIVE affiliates.
Do a survey of your inactive affiliates. Ask them what is wrong. Until you know WHY they're inactive, you won't know what to fix.

Inactive affiliates and under-performers could be next month's or next year's winners.

Learn from your BEST affiliates.
You'll probably receive a far more useful response if you ask your loyal super affiliates how to improve your program. Many of these winners will know the best features of the best affiliate programs on the Net. They'll be happy to give you useful tips on how to improve your program.

Make affiliates feel part of your TEAM
Find ways to build a sense of community. For example, you can use Yahoo! Groups to set up a free discussion list for your affiliates.

VISIT your affiliates' sites
Here's a good tip from Joel Gehman

"We have someone on our affiliate marketing team personally visit the site of every super-affiliate every month. All super-affiliates get a personal email with specific comments and suggestions. We offer tips on which links are performing best and propose new placements on the site for our links. We also try to broaden the depth of the affiliate's relationship with our program by suggesting new products or services for possible inclusion."

ADD new items AUTOMATICALLY.
Here's an excellent tip from "Mr Branding", Rob Frankel, author of the delightful book The Revenge of Brand X.

Rob has just added a new product, "The Frankel Tapes, Volume One". It's a six-tape, six-hour series, which Rob says is selling nicely from his site.

Affiliates don't have to do anything to start receiving $50 commissions on this new product.

"I think that automatically adding items without the affiliates having to register for them is a good thing. This is what I did for my guys," Rob says.

The tape set requires NO EFFORT at all. Everything goes through the same link.

PIGGY-BACK on the winners.
Some affiliate merchants provide excellent resources for their affiliates. Encourage your affiliates to sign up with those merchants and learn from their tips. You can even earn a commission when your affiliates make sales in those programs while learning how to help you – and saving you time!

IMAGINE you're an affiliate.
See things from the affiliates' point of view. Visit the Associate Programs Message Board and read what affiliates complain about. They're worried about lack of response to e-mails, late payments, bait-and-switch tactics, high payment thresholds, low payouts. Do whatever you can to avoid those mistakes, or your affiliates will dump you fast.

DON'T send them junk. Every time you contact your affiliates, sending them something USEFUL, such as new artwork, a search box, top-performing links, search engine hints, and other tips on how to maximize their earnings.

Now that you're imagining you're an affiliate, have another look at your affiliate agreement. Is is FAIR? Would YOU want a sign a contract like that?

NOTIFY THEM
Provide immediate e-mail notification when the affiliate makes a sale. This reinforces good behavior and encourages more sales. Give busy affiliates the option of switching off these messages.

Consider e-mailing affiliates a weekly report of click-throughs, sales and commissions.

Pay affiliates in TWO WAYS
Pay them per click AND a commission. For example, you could pay your best affiliates pays 5 cents per click AND 20% commission on sales.

Pay affiliates for POSITION.
Persuade your top affiliates to promote you "above the fold" on their main page. Offer them 5% or 10% more if they'll do this.

Pay them MONTHLY
Don't make your affiliates wait three months for a check. Pay them monthly – or even twice a month for your super affiliates.

Pay them PROMPTLY
After the end of the month, pay your affiliates as quickly as you possibly can. Imagine the powerful impression you'll make if YOUR check is the first one an affiliate receives after the end of the reporting period. Paying fast shows you care about your affiliates.

AVOID making silly mistakes
I know you're in a hurry, and so mistakes are understandable, but if you make too many silly mistakes, affiliates will dump you. See Silly mistakes affiliate merchants make.

Treat your affiliates as BUSINESS ASSOCIATES.
Respect them or they'll switch to someone who does. DON'T siphon off some of the traffic they send you to products on which they don't earn a commission. When referred customers arrive at your site, all money-earning links on that page should earn a commission for your affiliate.

DO provide real-time statistics. Serious affiliates need to know immediately whether their promotions are achieving results so they can test repeatedly, fix mistakes and maximize their sales.