Incentives for affiliates joining your program
As I mentioned in my last post on how to recruit software affiliates, an important part of the recruiting process is the reason you give them to join your program. It may very well be a successful program with high commission rates, but sometimes this isn’t enough.
When trying to convince an affiliate to join your program (especially if it’s an important affiliate), nothing works better than something to welcome him with.
It’s not mandatory in any way, but like Geno Prussakov noted in his “Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” and from what I’ve experienced so far, an affiliate is easier to convince in joining a certain affiliate program if you offer her an incentive.
This incentive can be anything you can think of:
- a special commission for a limited time period
- a life-long special commission
- a bonus on the first confirmed sale (usually a fixed amount)
- the ability to use certain features – like generating their own discount coupons, getting credit for product renewals (if your software uses that business model)
You should pay attention to the amounts you offer. Before coming up with an affiliate recruitment campaign, you should make some calculations. Taking into account your product price and all the associated costs for you, find out what your biggest commission offered to the affiliates can be. Then, when you offer your new affiliates a commission based incentive, don’t give them the maximum, even if it’s life-long.
Keep at least 10-15% of commission head room in order to differentiate your affiliates later, based on performance or whatever criteria you have. Affiliates love to be surprised with an increased commission – it’s something psychological. It will also stimulate them into being loyal and working better with your software product.
Even if you implement a performance-based commissioning scheme, you must not forget about the so-called “idle” affiliates, the ones that don’t sell / haven’t sold something in a long time. You should find out what their issues are and try to help them in order to get back on track.
That about wraps what I had to say about recruiting affiliates. Should there be any other elements I missed, which you encountered in your experience of working with affiliates please share them with us!
Tags: Affiliate Marketing, affiliate network, Software Business
June 20th, 2009 at 7:27 am
[...] incentivize your affiliates and give them reasons to perform better. You can do this right from the affiliate recruiting phase, but it’s most important you incentivize your current affiliates. Try to give your best [...]
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
[...] incentivize your affiliates and give them reasons to perform better. You can do this right from the affiliate recruiting phase, but it’s most important you incentivize your current affiliates. Try to give your best [...]
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:28 pm
[...] Avangate Blog evaluates why programs with high commission rates don’t necessarily mean a successful program unless coupled with strong affiliate incentives. Founded by Bob Walsh, Avangate Blog is a great resource for software vendors on the Internet that focuses on how to sell software, ecommerce solutions for software vendors, internet marketing for the software industry, and reviews of important events. [...]
June 24th, 2011 at 3:33 am
Interesting article Cristi and obviously from a different perspective than from most newbie Affiliates. Most would see this from the point of view…… the shoe is on the other foot. When you start out as an Affiliate you are keen for people to just accept your application.
No doubt as you gain more experience and sales you can then be a product of your own success and be in much more demand.
Thanks for your perspective.