6 Tips for Adding Affiliate Links to Your Offers Like a Pro
May 03, 2023
Imagine this: You have a solid offering (or group of offerings) and are seeing steady sales come through, but you're quickly realizing that the need for scalability is on the horizon. After all, marketing your offers is a full-time job! So, why not leverage other peoples' audiences to get your offers seen by more people? This is called an affiliate program and if you have an online business you're looking to grow, you just might need one.
So why launch an affiliate program for my offers?
It's important to understand how much work goes into obtaining warm (or hot) leads. Years and years and YEARS of dedication, creating content, being consistent and ultimately gaining the trust of your community is what it takes. So called 'overnight successes' are simply people that have been working very hard behind the scenes, and in no way happened overnight. It was the result of tons of work that took a ton of time.
When you launch an affiliate program you are leveraging the warm leads of those individuals who have a strong know, like and trust with their communities, instantly. So let's take a look at how you can get affiliate links created for your own offers and in turn, leverage the power of affiliates.
1. Determine your commission structure
When deciding what to pay your affiliates for referrals, you'll want to take a few things into consideration. Consider what your offer is. Do you offer a physical product, digital product or service? Each one of these takes a different amount of time investment and monetary investment. Look at your margins (if you have a physical product) or the amount of time it takes you to create (digital product) or your personal time allotment (service provider).
Secondly, I suggest following your intuition. I don't like to set some magic formula for coming up with a commission rate, but rather what feels good and right to you. If you were in their shoes, what would be enticing for you? What type of payout would motivate you to refer the product or service to your community? Sit with a number for awhile, and see if it feels good. I've seen successful payout ranges anywhere from 10% to 50%, as well as flat dollar amounts that do really well.
Overall, make sure that what you are providing them in exchange for their referral is both attractive and profitable for your business. And remember, 50% of something is better than 0% of nothing.
2. Find and recruit affiliates
So where do I go about finding affiliate to promote my offers? There are a multitude of places you can start, and likely you have more opportunities than you think. You can start with your small circles of current clients, previous clients and networking groups. Next, I recommend widening your net to larger facebook groups, and putting the offer out there publicly to your social media following. And finally, you can open it up to a vetted application process so anyone can apply. (I also have this handy guide for you that gives you 25 ways to recruit affiliates. It's free and will get you started right away!)
When you reach out, you'll want to make sure that you are clear on a few things. You'll want to let them know that your intentions are for this to be a mutually beneficial relationship. Focus on what's in it for them. Second, do your research on their audience (if you don't already have some insight) to make sure that they are in alignment with your audience. The perfect affiliate relationships are offers that complement (not compete with) each other and have the same, or very similar, customer avatars. Third, let them know what policies are set in stone and which are flexible. For example, where are you willing to negotiate and where aren't you? You'll want them to feel seen and heard. After all, affiliates can essentially act as an extension of your brand.
3. Create high-quality marketing materials
One of the main reasons why affiliates don't promote certain brands is due to lack of creative assets. They either aren't accessible, or don't exist. Make sure they have options for graphics, as well as everything they'll need to properly market your offers. You'll want to make sure you are providing the following (at a minimum) to your affiliates:
- Sales Page
- 2-4 banner ads
- Email swipe copy
- Pinterest Pins
- Sales Video
- Coupon Code(s)
- A Variety of Text Links
- Lead Magnet(s)
- Product Data Feed
- Access to Your Program/Product/Offer
When you are creating this material, make sure that it's on brand. Again, they are acting as an extension of your brand, so you'll want to remain easily recognizable. Feel free to keep it simple. Most affiliates don't require anything fancy, but they'll want your expertise to make sure that all of the creative assets they are using is conveying the appropriate message in order to best convert their community into paying clients.
4. Train and support your affiliates
Another way to support your affiliates is by providing them with the necessary training and support in order to succeed. This includes access to promotional materials (as we previously discussed) as well as access to customer service and technical support. In addition, I recommend having general affiliate marketing knowledge readily available. Some affiliates will be perfect partners for your offer, but they don't know how affiliate relationships work. You'll need to provide them with this knowledge as well as some brief best practices. By giving your affiliates the tools they need, you're setting them up for success and increasing the likelihood that they'll promote your offers effectively.
Regular communication with your affiliates is also essential to ensure their success. This includes providing regular updates on new products, promotions, and marketing strategies, as well as answering any questions or concerns they may have. This is where you'll distribute their links directly into their inbox as well as within their affiliate dashboard. Send them a general link (to your homepage or primary offer) as well as to your offers in all steps of your funnel. Some affiliates will love having top of funnel (ie free) resources to get customers into your world, and some will want to send them directly to the sales page for your high ticket offer. By maintaining regular, open lines of communication regarding everything in your product suite, you can build a strong relationship with your partners, fostering a sense of loyalty and trust.
5. Monitor and optimize your program
Once you have affiliates onboarded, setup and trained, you can then begin to look at how their actual links are performing. You'll be able to track and monitor how many visits (or clicks) each link had as well as how many of those clicks converted into sales. You'll be able to see what links were more popular with your affiliates, and which of your offers are converting the best. This is the best way to improve and scale your program.
Continue to monitor and test out link options. Most often, the more options the merrier. Affiliates like to have plenty of opportunities to pick and choose where they want to lead potential customers. If you are an e-commerce business, offer them deep links, or links that lead directly to a product, instead of more general links. The closer the link is to a checkout page, the higher chance that a warm lead will purchase. If your partners are pitching to a cooler audience, your affiliates will want top-of-funnel products, such as freebies or very low cost offers. Provide these options for your affiliates as well.
If in the process of monitoring your links, you are finding that some aren't being used or aren't converting at all, swap them out! Don't leave the door open for any missed opportunities. You have the power to create a well-oiled, functioning affiliate program based upon the data that you have at your fingertips. Make sure that you are testing, tweaking and testing and tweaking some more.
6. Create a positive affiliate experience
In this world of online business, it's nice to have relationships that are genuine and meaningful. Affiliates are great for this. The ball is in your court to jumpstart conversations and networking opportunities to see if you'd be a good fit to partner together. You will get out of the relationship what you put in. Take the time to get to know your affiliates and connect with them to see how you can best support them.
Properly supporting them will not only allow you to create new offers and assets that serve your community at the highest level, but it will allow your affiliates to better promote your product or service. Creating a positive experience for them means that they are more motivated to promote your offers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, affiliate programs can be a powerful way to leverage the audiences of others to promote your offers and increase sales. When creating your affiliate program, it is important to determine your commission structure, find and recruit affiliates, create high-quality marketing materials, and train and support your affiliates. By providing your affiliates with the necessary tools and resources to succeed, you are setting them up for success and increasing the likelihood that they will promote your offers effectively. Remember, creating a mutually beneficial relationship with your affiliates will help both parties thrive in the long run.
Want help launching your affiliate program? At your service! Book me for a day and let's get your affiliate program up and running in less than 24 hours. See if we are a good fit by scheduling a discovery call!
