To improve your affiliate program, it’s essential that you think like an affiliate. You can do that by studying your affiliates just like you would your audience. You need to know in relation to choosing an affiliate program, what are their criteria for promoting a product their audience will want to buy? Then you need to ensure your program fits their criteria.
If you already have an affiliate program, go to your website, and with brand-new eyes, document the path you take to find, sign up for, and use your affiliate program. Is it easy to log in? Is it easy to create an account? Do you see all the terms of service and rules up front where they can easily see them and mark them read? How easy is it to find the links, tools, and education that you’ve created for them? Do they understand how to use it?
Sometimes it can be hard to see things with new eyes when you created it. Sometimes you forget what you didn’t know once you know more. For this reason, you should also ask someone who doesn’t even know about affiliate programs and how they work to try it out.
Ask a friend or family member to go sign on to your site and see if they can figure out how to sign up for your program and use the tools and promote your products based on the information you’re providing within your affiliate account and nothing else. After all, you want them to figure it out without your help even though you will help.
Even though they’re not your audience, they can point out things that are confusing since they are going in blind. This can help you see things through new eyes and make it all easier. You should also ask your affiliates by sending them a survey. A survey that asks them questions about what’s inside your affiliate dashboard/account will go far in helping you know if they’re seeing it. Plus, the questions you get can also inform the changes you choose to make to make it better.
You want to make it super easy for them to promote you. If it’s not practically cut and paste easy, they’re not going to be as likely to do it. They’re not going to create graphics for you. They’re not going to create sales pages for you, they’re not doing your work for you. All they are going to do is promote you if you make it simple for them to do and if your product matches what their audience needs. That’s up for them to decide of course.
Ensure that in the backend of your affiliate’s dashboard or account that they have all the tools and resources necessary to promote you if they’re a super affiliate and if they’re a total newbie. The things they need may include:
- Product Education – What do your products look like, what audience do they serve, and what type of quality can they expect from your products and customer service.
- Affiliate Education – Some people want to be affiliates but don’t know how. Training someone who becomes a super-affiliate is a satisfying experience you don’t want to miss out on.
- Dashboard Training – Some people don’t know how to use the system that you’ve chosen to be your affiliate platform. Do an overview video and include that overview, so they know how to get to each aspect of the backend.
- Terms of Service Training – You don’t want your affiliates to promote you in dishonest or hyperbolic ways, so you must include what you do and don’t want in your TOS training materials. This can be a FAQ or even another video.
- Promotional Materials – Graphics, content, and anything else that your affiliates may need to promote your products and or services should be included and pointed out to your affiliates in the backend.
- Financial Information, Reports, & Stats – Your affiliates should be able to look at stats to find out if they are getting lots of clicks and sales. Most programs come with this but make sure you show them how to use it. This is an excellent time to explain how you’ll pay them and when.
- New Opportunity Highlights – Do you have a new launch coming up in a couple of weeks? This is a great idea to remind your affiliates of your plans and how they can start their promotions now with educational content about the problem you’re going to solve with the product.
If you want affiliates to promote you and to be proud of supporting you, this is the bare minimum that you should do. Of course, you can do much more if you choose.
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