Affiliate Communication: Building Relationships
May 12th, 2008A successful affiliate programme is often derived from building strong rapport amongst merchants and affiliates.
Affiliates can be viewed as an extension to your sales force so it is important that they are provided with the correct material and training in order for them to promote your affiliate programme in the best possible manner. Regular communication with affiliates will help to develop faith in you as a merchant; in essence they will potentially become more responsive and will work more proactively to promote your brand and contribute to the success of your programme.
Communicating to your affiliate base with updates such as product changes, availability of creative and new commission structures will also have a positive impact on your programme.
As a network we encourage communication between merchants and affiliates in order to establish healthy working relations. By opening channels of communication affiliates may be able to put forward suggestions or requests that you may not necessarily have thought about but would be beneficial to both parties.
Key Communication Methods
- Emails through the Affiliate Window News Manager
- Affiliate Window Newsletter
- Telephone
- Face to face meetings
Engaging affiliates through competitions and incentives in a creative manner will help to establish loyalty and interest. As a merchant this shows affiliates that you value their efforts, therefore encouraging them to promote your programme.
For example IWOOT held a great affiliate incentive; they took 5 winners of a competition on a ski/ snowboarding holiday to Whistler, Canada. This essentially built relationships amongst their affiliate base.
Remember, ‘It’s good to talk…’
Sourced from the Affiliate Window Merchant Newsletter: 7th May
