6 Tips To Create Amazing Relationships With Affiliates

To help you build amazing relationships with your affiliates, we have come up with 6 tips that you can implement right away.

Your affiliates are:

Your brand ambassadors. 
The backbone of your business. 
The first point of contact that most consumers have with your brand. 

And people of such paramount importance can’t be ignored at any cost. As the captain of the ship, it’s your responsibility to build long-lasting relationships with them. But that’s seldom the case. Many vendors focus so intently on the ‘What’s in it for me?” side of the equation that they totally forget to build and nurture their relationships with affiliates. 

This is a grave mistake, and a missed opportunity. Remember - the right affiliates can grow your customer base and sales exponentially. You may even find an opening into new markets through the target audience of some of your affiliates, who you wouldn’t have considered in the first place.

So to help you build amazing relationships with your affiliates, we have come up with 6 tips that you can implement right away. 

Here they are:

#1) Give them all the resources they need

If your affiliates don’t fully understand your products or your offer, they’ll have a challenging time making a compelling case for your products or your brand when promoting. Additionally, affiliates are naturally quite lazy, so it’s important to make it easy for affiliates to promote, as well get resources like their unique affiliate tracking link or best-performing ad swipes.

#2) Pay them on time

Yes, a high commission is important for your affiliates. But they will value timely payouts even more. Infrequent and delayed payments are the top reasons for most affiliates to stop promoting. 

Pro tip: At the time of onboarding, walk your affiliates through the payment terms, including payout date, commission structure etc. This will help prevent any misunderstandings later on.

#3) Understand them better

Good relationships start with great understanding. Learn everything about your affiliates, their likes, dislikes, interests, passions etc. This will help you communicate with them better. You can also use this information to assign the best affiliate marketing products or offers to them. Try using the power of social media to gather important information about the affiliates. Alternatively, you can have a one-on-one session with them.

#4) Personalise your communication

This is applicable especially for vendors interacting with hundreds of affiliates. DO NOT send mass emails. Remember - every affiliate is a separate individual who is working hard to build up sales volume for you. The least they can expect is you interacting with them individually.

Some tips:

#5) Appreciate them verbally and monetarily

Humans naturally seek appreciation. Your affiliates are no different. Appreciate them when they are doing a good job, irrespective of how small or big their achievement is. If possible, do not restrict your appreciation just to words. Give them gifts to showcase how much their contribution means to you. 

Pro tip: Conduct regular contests to give your affiliates opportunities to make even greater commissions. You can also offer better commission payouts for your top-performing affiliates. If possible, showcase your top affiliates to create an ecosystem of healthy competition.

#6) Listen to their feedback

Good things happen when you listen to your customers. But amazing things will happen when you listen to your affiliates. Since affiliates are closely working with your products, brand, and your target audience, their feedback has tremendous value and can help you quickly grow your business. More importantly, implement their feedback instantly. It will make them feel valued. 

A successful affiliate program is built on top of a strong vendor-affiliate relationship. As a vendor, do your part to support your affiliates and keep the relationship strong. Ultimately, through a solid relationship with your affiliates, you stand to increase your earnings and visibility among your target audience. 

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