Now that you’ve learned how to build an affiliate program from scratch, you might be wondering – what is the best way to reach out to potential affiliates and influencers?
This step should be approached strategically and with an open mind. Learn and implement changes quickly as you go. We’ll walk you through the key steps to effectively reach out to affiliates and manage all of the responses to successfully grow your affiliate program.
Before You Start Outreach
Before you begin reaching out to potential affiliates, it’s crucial to clearly define:
1. Your Affiliate Offering
What you plan on offering to your affiliates will shape your email outreach copy, negotiations, and closing contracts. You should have this strictly defined before reaching out to potential influencers and affiliates. Discuss with your team:
- Your Commission Structure: Decide on the commission rates you’ll offer. Whether it’s a flat rate per sale or a percentage of the sale price, your commission structure should be competitive and attractive.
- Your Product or Service Focus: Know the products or services you want to promote through affiliates. Focus on items that are popular, have good margins, or are unique to your brand.
2. Identify the Type of Affiliates You Want
Understanding what affiliates align with your brand is vital. Thoroughly understanding the type of affiliate you want to attract is the first step to being successful with outreach.
When selecting affiliates for your program, consider the platform’s content longevity and audience engagement. Bloggers and YouTubers are ideal for long-term SEO benefits, while platforms like Instagram offer shorter content lifespans. Choose affiliates with a balanced follower count, ensuring they are influential yet approachable and not overly expensive.
Prioritize engagement over size, as highly engaged audiences, like those of micro-influencers, often yield better results. Focus on affiliates who produce long-lasting content and align with your brand’s values and audience. This careful selection ensures that your affiliate program effectively reaches your target audience and meets your marketing goals.
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Reaching Out to Affiliates Successfully
Email outreach, especially if done manually, is a time-consuming tasks. If your team has ambitious goals, you are highly incentivized to make the most out of that outreach. You want to optimize your outreach strategy and efforts as much as possible to make sure your team has the best chance of success.
Here’s our best advice to implement when reaching out to influencers and affiliates.
1. Crafting a Compelling Outreach Message
Your initial contact with potential affiliates is crucial. The outreach message should be:
Personalized: Address each affiliate by name and reference specific aspects of their content that align with your brand.
Clear and Concise: Clearly state the purpose of your message, highlighting the benefits of your affiliate program.
Value-Oriented: Emphasize how partnering with your brand can add value to their content and benefit their audience.
2. Utilizing Different Communication Channels
Email Campaigns: Create a professional and targeted email campaign. Use email marketing tools to track opens and responses.
Social Media Engagement: Engage with potential affiliates on social media before sending a direct message. This can make your outreach feel more organic.
Affiliate Networks: Utilize affiliate networks where influencers and bloggers actively seek partnership opportunities.
3. Offering Attractive Incentives
Competitive Commissions: Offer attractive commission rates compared to other programs in your niche.
Exclusive Offers: Provide affiliates with exclusive deals or early access to new products to promote.
Marketing Support: Offer resources like promotional materials, product samples, or custom discount codes.
4. Demonstrating Credibility and Trust
Showcase Success Stories: Share examples of successful partnerships with other affiliates.
Transparency: Be open about your program’s terms and conditions and how you track and process affiliate sales.
5. Establishing a Relationship
Build Rapport: Show genuine interest in their work and audience. This can lead to a more committed and long-term partnership.
Regular Communication: Keep potential affiliates informed about new products, changes to the program, or marketing campaigns.
6. Follow-Up and Responsiveness
Timely Follow-Ups: If you don’t hear back, send a polite follow-up message. Persistence, without being pushy, can pay off.
Quick Responses: Be prompt in responding to any queries or concerns from potential affiliates. This shows that you value their interest and time.
7. Tailoring Your Approach
Customize Proposals: Tailor your proposal based on the affiliate’s content style, audience demographics, and platform specifics.
Feedback Mechanism: Allow room for feedback and suggestions from potential affiliates. This collaborative approach can lead to more effective strategies.
By expanding on these elements, you can create a more robust and effective strategy for reaching out to potential affiliates, ensuring a higher success rate in forming beneficial partnerships.
Email Outreach Examples
Here are some email examples our team at Vivian Agency uses for outreach. Feel free to follow a similar format and test it out!
Influencer Collaboration Email Template
Hi Name! I am writing to you from - Company Name -, a family-owned pet products company that offers premium quality natural dog foods, chews, and treats that parents trust and dogs love! Since we share the same audience of dog lovers, we believe that we could build a mutually beneficial partnership. Our products are loved and sell really well so our partners earn high recurrent commission. Some of our top partners include - insert names here -. This is how we could collaborate: - Earn a - insert your commission - on the sales made, with a X day cookie tracking time. - Receive X free products of your choice, special offers for your audience, and great marketing materials. - Get help and support from the team whenever you need it. Most of our customers stay long-term, which means passive revenue for you. Let me know how this sounds! If you would like to discuss this opportunity in more detail, I would be happy to jump on a quick call. You can find all the information about the program and join the - Company Name - family here: add link. Thanks, I look forward to hearing back from you! 🙂 Cheers, - Insert your name here -
Lead Follow Up
Following up with your leads is just as important as the first outreach. We usually follow up 5, 7, and 10 days after the initial email. Oftentimes, people forget to respond to an email or don’t have time, but that doesn’t mean they’re not interested in considering your offer.
Some of the email followup templates you can use:
Hi Name! Have I been contacting the right person to discuss a partnership? We are interested in a mutually beneficial collaboration since we share the same audience of dog lovers. Our products are loved and sell really well so our partners earn high recurrent commission. - Company name - is a family-owned company that offers premium quality natural dog foods, chews, and treats that parents trust and dogs love! With over 25 years in business, - Company name - is highly trusted and loved by its clients. As our partner, we will give you a X% commission on all the sales made with the personalized affiliate link we will provide. We will also provide a discount code for your audience, marketing materials, and free products to test. Let me know how this sounds! If you would like to discuss this opportunity in more detail, I would be happy to jump on a quick call. You can find all the information about the program and join the - Company name - family here: - link to your affiliate program landing page - Thanks, I look forward to hearing back from you! 🙂 Cheers, Name
Hi Name! Are you still interested in partnering with - Company name -? I understand that you are busy, but it would be great to hear back from you if you have a moment. Thank you so much! You can find all the information about the program and join the - Company name - family here: - link to your affiliate program landing page - Cheers, Name
Managing Correspondence and Leads
At Vivian Agency, we use Pipedrive – a fantastic CRM tool that helps you manage your affiliate outreach and responses. It’s one of our most trusted tools to handle leads for multiple affiliate programs we run simultaneously.
Here’s how you can use it:
1. Organizing Leads
Create a Pipeline: Set up a dedicated pipeline in Pipedrive for your affiliate program outreach. This allows you to track where each potential affiliate is in the recruitment process.
Custom Fields: Use custom fields to record important information about each affiliate, like their niche, preferred platform, and audience size.
2. Tracking Communication
Email Integration: Connect your email with Pipedrive to keep track of all correspondence with potential affiliates.
Activity Reminders: Set reminders for follow-ups to ensure no potential affiliate falls through the cracks.
3. Analyzing Performance
Reporting Tools: Use Pipedrive’s reporting tools to analyze the success rate of your outreach efforts. This helps in refining your approach and targeting more effectively.
4. Seamless Follow-Ups
Automated Workflows: Automate follow-up emails for different stages of the affiliate recruitment process to maintain consistent communication.
By defining your affiliate offering, identifying the right affiliates, using effective outreach strategies, and leveraging Pipedrive.com for lead management, your affiliate marketing program is getting the best possible start.
For more insights and guidance on building successful affiliate marketing programs, check out our blog or schedule a call!
