5 Foundational Pillars of Affiliate Program Success

Geno PrussakovCEO, AM Navigator (affiliate management

agency)www.amnavigator.com

Founder, Affiliate Management Days (conference)

www.amdays.com

888-588-8866 | Washington, DC geno@amnavigator.com | @ePrussakov

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The 5 Pillars

- 1 -Affiliate

Recruitment

2 Kinds of Affiliate Recruitment

Active PassiveYou reach out to them They find you

Active Recruitment

Source: 2013 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report

Active:

Direct contact: 42.4%Conferences: 8.9%

Source: AffiliateBenchmarks 2013 Global Affiliate Questionnaire

Active:

Network emails: 36.3%Blogs: 29.6%Aff. manager emails: 13.9%

Active Recruitment

Active Recruitment

5 Key Principles o Automationo Personalizationo Persistenceo Leaving Options Openo Education

1. Automation

au·to·ma·tionnoun \ˌo-tə-ˈmā-shən\the technique of making an apparatus, a process, or a system operate automatically

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Employ Tools to Perform Routine Tasks

E.g.: don’t just “google” it, but have Google Alerts deliver prospective affiliate’s info to your inbox!

Free & Inexpensive Tools1. SEO Quake (free)2. Backlink Watch (free)3. Open Site Explorer (free)4. Citation Labs (~$20 per 500-1000)5. BuzzStream ($29/mo - $249/mo)6. Raven Backlink Explorer ($99-$249/mo)7. iBusinessPromoter ($250-$500)

Paid Tools1. AffiliateRecruitment.com2. Linkdex3. Syntryx

Linkdex (sector/niche-specific)

Linkdex (advertiser level query)

Interrogating affiliate program-specific tracking domain(s), yielding lists of affiliate sites linking in

Personalized subject lines are 22.2% more likely to be opened.

Adestra July 2012 Report

Personalized emails had a 5.13% higher average open rate than the regular emails. …they also had 17.36% higher clickthrough rate.

2012 AWeber Case Study

A study by email marketing provider YesMail found that personalization increased their clients' response rates from 4.7% to 14.8%.

"The Quiet Revolution in Email Marketing" by Bill Nussey

2. Personalization

3. Persistence

Effectiveness of Following up:

Initial email: max. 4% sign up Follow-ups: ≈12% more join

Frequency:

1. A week from original email2. 1 more week down the road3. 2-3 months4. Half a year5. A year

3. Persistence

4. Leaving Options Open

Besides Primary Call to Action (“join our affiliate program”)…

Embed also a Secondary CTA into your affiliate recruitment emails!

5. Educating Them

Source: Technorati Media 2013 Digital Influence Report

Source: 2013 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report

Passive:

Merchant site: 51.3%Search engines: 38.6%Directories: 38%Word of mouth: 20.3%Support efforts: 14.6%

Passive Recruitment

Source: AffiliateBenchmarks 2013 Global Affiliate Questionnaire

Passive:

Support pages: 47%Network sites: 44.7%Search engines: 33.1%Forums & directories:

17.6%Word of mouth: 17.5%

Passive Recruitment

Passive RecruitmentWays to Get Found by Affiliates:o Program description (with visible link)o Program FAQ and/or support site/blogo Affiliate directorieso Social mediao Second-tier affiliateso “Subscribe to affiliate news” linko Press releases

- 2 -Affiliate Activation

Affiliate Activation

What % of your current affiliates are active?

…between 5% and 10%

Pattern to Follow:

1. Remind them of your program details 2. Include an activation promo3. Enclose performance-based incentive4. Pre-coded affiliate links (incl. coupons, feed, etc) 5. Detailed contact information

Start With Approval Email!

“What’s the maximum acceptable affiliate program application response time?”

Source: 2010 AffStat Report

Motivate Continuously!

Congratulations!

You have been chosen as a CSN Stores Affiliate Program Rising Star.

All the members of this group have been able to bring in a significant amount of traffic to our sites over the last few month. We want to help you make sure those visits lead to sales and commissions! For the next month, April 1st - May 1st, the CSN Stores Affiliate program will be offering an exclusive promotion to the members of this Rising Stars group.

If in the month of April you can convert just 10 sales you will receive an additional $150 bonus on top of your commissions.

Example of Motivating Newsletter

To motivate others effectively, managers must have “a clear, unbiased understanding of the situation at hand, deep insights into the vagaries of human nature, the establishment of appropriate and reasonable expectations and goals, and the constructions of a balanced set of… incentives.”

Bronwyn Fryer, "Moving Mountains“ (Harvard Business Review on Motivating People, 2003)

Start with the truth Appeal to greatness Make them proud Stick to your values Provide constant & consistent communication channel Build trust Care for the little guy Set different incentive levels

How to Motivate

- 3 -Compliance Policing

Remember…

Do not call it a “violation” unless you’ve defined it as such in your TOS!

What to Police

o Trademark useo FTC disclosureso Coupon usageo Brand placement(s)

Trademarks TMs (and domains) as PPC keywords, TMs in domain names; … “misspellings and variations” wording

How to Police:

In Paid Search Campaigns:

• iTrademarkBidding – www.itrademarkbidding.com• Brandverity PoachMark – brandverity.com/poachmark• SearchMonitor – thesearchmonitor.com/affiliate_monitor• AdGooroo Trademark Insight – www.adgooroo.com

In Domain Names:

• CitizenHawk – www.citizenhawk.com• Typo Assassin – www.typoassassin.com.

BrandVerity PoachMark

FTC Compliance

FTC's Rules on Endorsements

In essence…• merchant-affiliate = sponsor-endorser relationships• relationship must be clearly disclosed by marketer• advertiser responsible for educating, equipping, and

policing compliance

What to Do:

1. Sub-clause of Affiliate Obligations clause in TOS

2. Provide affiliates with disclosure template(s)

3. Routinely analyze sites of top performers

4. Look into content monitoring solutions by BrandVerity and TheSearchMonitor to automate policing

Coupon Usage

Coupon harvesting or usage of protected coupon codes

Pseudo-couponing

Click-to-reveal “technology”

BrandVerity for Policing (on LS)

Protected coupon codes posted on affiliate sites

Brand Placements

Brand = your most valuable asset. Safeguard it!!

Linkdex for Policing (on SaS)

Filter on specific affiliate ID reveals 155 websites with their links

Linkdex for Policing (on CJ)

Filter on one of tracking domains for a single affiliate ID - 34 sites

- 4 -Communication

Global Problem

Global Problem

Communication Channel

Build a two-way communication channel (via all available means, including social media)

Source: 2014 AffStat Report

Communication Frequency

Source: 2010 AffStat Report

- 5 -Optimization

How to Optimize

o Replicate your own successes

o Employ best practices

o Spy on yourcompetition

Monitoring Competition

Competitive intelligence – “the process by which companies inform themselves about every aspect of their rivals’ activities and performance”

(Christopher West, Competitive Intelligence, p. 12)

What to Monitor: Technologies used Product/service features Price levels Customer-oriented promos, discounts, rebates Perceptions they create for their brand Means of creating perceptions online Affiliate program specifics (cookie life, locking

period, creatives, marketing collateral, etc) Types of affiliates used (and avoided!) Affiliate-oriented incentives (bonuses, contests,

tiered commissions, private commissions, etc) Affiliate program policies

Focus: Practical Application

“The real purpose of competitive intelligence is to learn and to act” …not merely collect data or “develop information”.

(Seena Sharp, Competitive Intelligence Advantage, p 101)

How to Spy on Your Competition:

1. Analyze their performance stats2. Become their customer & affiliate3. Create automatic monitoring

campaigns4. Do friend and follow them5. Employ traffic measuring tools

Beware of Misleading Metrics!

Example:

To Recap:

In Conclusion…

Give "old" stuff tools new life!

Thank you! Questions?