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Hear Me though…

Not just a priority though that you pass onto someone else. In my consultancy business, I deal mostly with bootstrapping, guns-blazing, no-guts-no-glory entrepreneurs who are carving spots in the world for themselves, as opposed to your large megacorporations.

I prefer to deal with the owners themselves, rather than some board of directors. I want to get into the trenches with aspiring entrepreneurs and business builders. It’s there where all the excitement is.

So, when I say make affiliate management a priority, I mean you. You make it a priority. Yourself! Take control of it! Be the affiliate manager that you ultimately want to have! Even if you know absolutely nothing about the dark arts of affiliate management or you’re daunted by the overwhelming Affiliate Management SaaS that you’ve chosen.

Trust me, it can be learned. Whatever the hurdle is, it can be surmounted. The point is, if you’re not making it a priority yourself, no one else is going to. Or, they certainly won’t care about it the way you will.

Affiliates can sense it when you don’t care about them, or when you’re sloughing them off onto some lower-level person who will ultimately get caught up in the red tape and policies of your company. They’ll run for the hills, or simply stop promoting you. That means you don’t make the affiliate revenue you were counting on, and everyone winds up losing.  You don’t make any money. Your affiliate doesn’t make any money. And the customers who would have come via that affiliate don’t get the benefit of your products. It’s incumbent upon you to take ownership of this yourself.

If you ever find yourself saying the words, “I shouldn’t have to do this…” you should immediately take stock, because your company is going to head quickly into the toilet, or is already circling the bowl.

Good affiliates bring a lot to the table and they know it. If you’re not pursuing them like a lover, you will lose them, or never get them in the first place. If you’ve magically found your way into a good relationship (as my company had with several affiliates) once you realize what you’ve got, you need to ensure they feel loved-up constantly.

Because… and hear me on this… They. Will. Leave.

That is a sad day, my friends.

In my recon work for rebuilding The Affiliate Team from scratch, I got several replies from former affiliates and the message was clear:

“I stopped promoting you because I felt unappreciated.”

Now, that was the message they were delivering, but those aren’t the words they used. Instead, they said things like this:

• “I was always being pushed from person to person.”
• “I felt like there was no support.”
• “I could never get anyone to reply to my emails.”
• “I felt like I was always chasing you for payment.”

Newsflash: Anyone who has gone into the business of making themselves an “influencer” – and yes, Affiliates fall into that category… are people who are likely driven by ego more than the rest of us. 

That’s not a critique. That’s a helpful bit of information. 

I am not driven by ego [much]. Instead, I’m driven by results. I would rather you treat me like trash and make me LOTS of money than for you to tell me constantly what a genius I am and bring me nothing but pennies.

As an employer, I don’t care what you think of me. I care that you bring me [and my clients] results.

But, this is not so with affiliates and influencers. Frequently, they would rather be told what a good job they did rather than receive their check on time. (But, please, for your own sake, do not change your policies to be the sending of a congratulatory email so that you can pay a week late.)

My point is that you’re dealing with a group of people who want to feel appreciated for what they bring to your company. None of them have to work with you, or anyone for that matter. That they choose to is actually somewhat a chore because they didn’t get into the Influence Game so that they could go and shill themselves out for companies like yours. 

Subsequently, you need to ensure that if they’re working with you, they feel deeply appreciated, and pursued like someone pursues a potential lover.

You might think yourself rude. You might be struggling to cope with your ego at not wanting to reach out for a third time to someone who is very clearly leaving you on Seen in the Instagram DMs. But, let it go. Drop your ego at the door, and just remember: How often do you get busy? How frequently could you do with a top-notch assistant jumping into your office or your face and reminding you about something that’s important to you, but not necessarily urgent?

Right. Me too. So, you’re not being rude, but know when the cut-off is. There’s a way to jump to the top of someone’s inbox or DM list without coming across as anything but helpful. It’s the helpful, squeaky wheels that get the grease.

So, invest in a good quality CRM and ensure you’ve got follow-up tasks in place after every interaction with an affiliate.

In Affiliate Marketer <> Affiliate Manager relationships, you are the hunter, they are the prey. Chase them, and chase them, and chase them some more.

I’ve made five figures appear out of thin air because I followed up one more time than I thought was polite to do so. Same goes for getting responses from influencers with 250k-1M followers.

It’s worth it.