Time for another Affiliate Marketing Best Practices article, but this time it’s an article for merchants. Disclaimer: It’s been a while since I’ve managed an Affiliate program, so correct me if I need it. But I think the primary concepts and techniques for effective Affiliate management may just be timeless.

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Just as Affiliate marketing has evolved and matured, so has the roll of Affiliate Manager (AM). Today’s managers (and the merchants they work for) have to understand the process of building a quality program. And a process it is, especially if the program is new. It takes a lot more these days than launching in reputable networks. There is too much competition among merchants for the top Affiliates. Retailers, maintain a program that’s more compelling and higher converting for Affiliates, and you win. You attract the most talented marketers who consistently bring you new customers and large sales volume. But how can that be done? And what resources are available?

Over the years one thing that has remained the cornerstone of effective program management is consistent communication with Affiliates. So email your Affiliates. Email them collectively with big news or with a monthly newsletter. Email them one-to-one and support them, offer ideas, talk shop. Over time effective communicators build solid relationships and get honest, constructive feedback. Both of which empower Affiliates to drive more sales.

Options for program management include hiring in house, hiring a management firm or using a network. AvantLink recently rolled out a very competitive Managed Solution service level for merchants. And there is a strong proof of concept in what we’re doing. The fundamentals are rooted in business and branding strategy, and any web-based business can benefit from them. Especially web retailers with Affiliate programs, and Affiliate marketers themselves.

For communication, traditionally AM’s used email, instant messaging, and telephone. And more recently Twitter. That’s all good. But consider these additional channels for engaging Affiliates, link building and growing your Affiliate program brand; all at the same time.

1. Wordpress. Start a blog dedicated to your Affiliate program and nothing else. Distribute your monthly newsletters as blog posts, make a post about new banners, new products, and of course sales and promotions. Think critically about the subject line, and use a good link strategy. There are many reasons why you should use Wordpress for your blog, but that’s for a different article. Take a look at the Backcountry Affiliate Blog to see a working example.
2. ABestWeb. Sponsor a branded, sub-forum on ABestWeb.com. This is the largest Affiliate community on the web, and every inbound link from ABW is gold. Essentially, what you post to your Affiliate program blog, you can post to your ABestWeb category. Tweak the subject line a bit, and don’t re-purpose the content exactly from your blog. The extra 10-15 minutes you take to rewrite the article is well worth the effort. Check out Altrec’s sub-forum on ABestWeb to see an example.

The reality is that the best Affiliates won’t simply take your word for it. Especially if you’re not a nationally recognized brand. Any retailer can talk up how good their program is, and how well their site converts. Likely the first thing Affiliates will do before signing up with any program is Google “Merchantname Affiliate program” and see what comes up. So make sure there is more in the results than just the Affiliate program info page on your site. The more blog articles and forum threads about you, the better. But no thin posts or articles!

A couple of other examples of distribution channels AvantLink regularly uses includes the AvantLink category at the Rocky Mountain Affiliate Marketing Association’s (RMAMA) blog. We’ve also used PRWeb.com (see sidebar of blog) consistently over the years to get important news out. These articles also include very important links to our content. We try and take full advantage of any opportunity to pump out good news!

So to conclude, Affiliate managers who are competent communicators should align themselves with the distinct branding and content distribution channels discussed above. Not only will this open up more communication mediums (your Wordpress blog’s RSS feed, for example), but every bit of content being distributed will get picked up quickly by Google and the others. This is what builds your authority and positive brand in the Affiliate space.

Once prospective Affiliates get a sense that your program is an authority, and that someone is communicating effectively, it will in essence become a powerful recruitment or acquisition channel as well. The task of forming good, long-term and prosperous relationships just got easier!

Gary M

Note: Visit our Solutions page for more information on our Branding Package for merchants. With this package we offer merchants the distribution channels highlighted in this article, at a substantial package discount. The Branding Package may be utilized as a stand alone service, or encompassed in our comprehensive Affiliate Management Solution. Contact us for more information.

At this time we thought it would be appropriate to get into detail on our new Managed Solution service level we now offer merchants. We know what works, and what doesn’t, in terms of program management. Here are the key points and information on this full service management and branding package we offer…

Earlier this month we announced that as of July 1st we were providing Affiliate program branding & management services for two Active Sports, Inc. stores on our network. These two stores are The-House.com and Proboardshop.com, and both are high-converting sites selling popular brand name outdoor gear and apparel. It’s been so far so good, and you can bet the sales volume for both programs will continue to improve.

This is namely because the cornerstone of this unique proposition utilizes a branding strategy with proof of concept to not only effectively brand a program as the authority in their category (which naturally attracts and retains the highest volume Affiliates), but also provides an array of communication and distribution channels for sale details, coupon offers, promotions or otherwise general Affiliate and business news related to the program. This is all the content that is exactly relevant and important for Affiliates to have at their fingertips in a timely fashion, and on a regular basis!

Merchants, when you contract with AvantLink to handle day-to-day Affiliate program management and branding, you’ll be assigned a dedicated, experienced and focused program manager. The emphasis will be on incremental and consistent growth in AvantLink, and you won’t be pushed to any other network where you’ll invariably shell out thousands more to get started.

The keys to bottom line growth in the Affiliate channel include dedicated management, regular communications, program branding, and of course patience. Despite what you may have heard otherwise, building a strong Affiliate program for your business is a process, and it will take time. Especially if you’re starting from scratch.

Below are the two main elements included with our Managed Solution…

• A Dedicated Program Manager – An experienced individual with dedication to your bottom line success in AvantLink. This person’s management role will be a pro-active one with emphasis on the distribution of optimized promotional and news content through several high profile channels. Your AvantLink program manager will…
  • Review and approve Affiliate applicants, screening them for suitability and offering our expertise in properly integrating and using our tools.
  • Provide branding for your Affiliate program(s) through the posting of campaigns, specials and other vehicles (see below).
  • Manage the campaign and collateral materials in the merchant interface.
  • Discuss strategy and campaigns ideas on a regular basis.
  • Provide day-to-day relationship management for affiliates.
  • Manage correspondence with affiliates.
• Full Branding Package Utilization – A package with proof of concept that offers branding and communication opportunities above and beyond what managers can otherwise find in the network. We’ve partnered with Haiko de Poel, Jr., owner of ABestWeb.com, to offer merchants a substantial discount on several ABestWeb service levels. As well as access to some of the one-off services in AvantLink. Distribution channels that come with the Branding Package include…
  • AvantShare Branded Merchant Affiliate Program Blog – $500 value
  • AvantLink Featured Merchant Homepage Placement – $250 value
  • ABestWeb Sub-forum of a Category – $1,500 Annual Value
  • ABestWeb Merchant’s Blog Inclusion – $1,000 Annual Value
  • ABestWeb Run of Site Banner Rotation – $1,500 Annual Value
  • ABestWeb Recruiting Email – $800 Annual Value

For pricing information on our Managed Solution drop us a line. We’re also happy to answer any question you may have on the unique value proposition of what we’re offering. You certainly don’t want to spend too much on program management, or otherwise adding your program to multiple networks. Both of which can put you in a very challenging position in terms of seeing an acceptable ROI for your Affiliate marketing efforts!

Gary for AvantLink

We’ve added a new merchant tool in the account admin interface that allows program managers to view a spam analysis for their Affiliate email messages. We included this functionality as part of the “Email Affiliates” tool so merchants can better gage whether or not messages they are distributing to their Affiliates will be caught in various spam filters.

Merchants, you can find this spam analysis tool by following these steps:

1. Login and click on ‘Tools’ from the main menu.
2. Click on ‘Email Affiliates’ from the tool list.
3. Notice the ‘View Spam Analysis’ button at the bottom of the form.

Once you configure an email message you can view the spam analysis by clicking that button. Results from the analysis will look something like this:

Your message appears unlikely to be filtered as spam (score: 4.10 out of 5.00). Scoring details:
+1.30 – BODY: HTML: images with 2800-3200 bytes of words
+1.70 – BODY: Message only has text/html MIME parts
+1.10 – HTML-only message, but there is no HTML tag
Higher scores indicate a greater likelihood of this message being categorized as spam by your affiliate’s mail servers.

Note that you can also retrieve previously sent emails and run an analysis on those as well. Email your account rep if you have questions, or feel free to comment here.