Finding and approaching potential affiliates on LinkedIn?

[Orko]

Hey people!

I'm an affiliate manager at a network develops and operates its own offers.
I'm trying all kind of ways to recruit new affiliates. But how would you suggest me to approach affiliates on LinkedIn? It's not like their job title is going to say "Affiliate" and I don't want to recruit people working for affiliate networks but only individual affiliates.

Any ideas for that?

Thanks

 

[Graybeard]

...It's not like their job title is going to say "Affiliate" and I don't want to recruit people working for affiliate networks but only individual affiliates.

Job title: self employed, affiliate marketing (maybe)?
There is probably a lot of *stealthy* data in their current position and their recommendations also that may be give-aways

 

[Sashoy]

This is very tricky and for me it seems everybody on linkedin want to promote their offers and if anybody asks for offers then I categorise that post as a click-bait "He can easily find offers anywhere".
The best approach is to look working in "maxbounty" or any other big affiliate network. You will be surprised how many people write in their bio that they actually work in a network while they are just promoting offers.

The job titles should include: Affiliate marketer, publisher, CPA marketer, affiliate, etc...

 

[Orko]

This is very tricky and for me it seems everybody on linkedin want to promote their offers and if anybody asks for offers then I categorise that post as a click-bait "He can easily find offers anywhere".
The best approach is to look working in "maxbounty" or any other big affiliate network. You will be surprised how many people write in their bio that they actually work in a network while they are just promoting offers.

The job titles should include: Affiliate marketer, publisher, CPA marketer, affiliate, etc...

Sounds like a very good tip. Thank you!

 

[Mor]

Hey people!

I'm an affiliate manager at a network develops and operates its own offers.
I'm trying all kind of ways to recruit new affiliates. But how would you suggest me to approach affiliates on LinkedIn? It's not like their job title is going to say "Affiliate" and I don't want to recruit people working for affiliate networks but only individual affiliates.

Any ideas for that?

Thanks

I think you should mainly search for media buyers titles, affiliate managers, but in my opinion, going to these forums would be a whole lot easier. MARKTHUB on Faceobook, Telegram. Linkedin is a completing tool, but start going daily to the forums and the Facebook, approaching one by one would be a lot of work and doesnt insure you get the results you need. Go for bulk advertising and see what it does for you

 

[Hbkseanmichael]

I think you should mainly search for media buyers titles, affiliate managers, but in my opinion, going to these forums would be a whole lot easier. MARKTHUB on Faceobook, Telegram. Linkedin is a completing tool, but start going daily to the forums and the Facebook, approaching one by one would be a lot of work and doesnt insure you get the results you need. Go for bulk advertising and see what it does for you

would this be the same advice if one were seeking to recruit advertisers instead of affiliates?

 

[T J Tutor]

I'll title my post; "The Tale of Two Networks".

Just a few months ago, I was in a deep and highly targeted discussion with two affiliate networks in the same day. One was a fairly small network with under $15MM 2017 net earnings and the other quite substantial at over $40MM 2017 net earnings.

The smaller company is just 18 months old and is made up of 8 highly sophisticated white hat super affiliates and 4 staffers. The larger company is over 12 years old and made up of over 60 staffers and a traditional corporate structure.

Now before I go further, let's understand that in 2018, the IAB estimates (tallys not complete) that the industry will report as much as (or over) $100B in United States for Interactive Advertising Revenues. More than 21% greater than 2017.

Per IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau)
2017 full year highlights Internet advertising revenues (“revenues”) in the United States totaled $88.0 billion for the full year (“FY”) of 2017, with Q4 2017 accounting for approximately $26.1 billion and Q3 2017 accounting for approximately $21.8 billion. Revenues for FY 2017 increased 21.4% over FY 2016.

This industry is still growing at an incredibly fast pace!

So, back to the two affiliate networks.

I first had my appointment with the smaller of the two companies. We had scheduled a discussion over a possible partnership. We were on the group call for well over two hours.

Our initial discussions were fundamental details of intentions and direction of a possible partnership before moving on to more detailed sharing of structure and planning. In the first part of our group call we did have some discussions about their success and how they seem to have a 250% growth pattern in their short 18 month venture as an affiliate network, a growth pattern they were determined to increase significantly.

Here is the summary of that discussion and why they were killing it with affiliate signups and affiliate success stories.

• RECRUIT
• ENGAGE
• TEACH
• MONITOR
• RECRUIT
• ENGAGE
• TEACH
• MONITOR
• RECRUIT
• ENGAGE
• TEACH
• MONITOR
• RECRUIT
• ENGAGE
• TEACH
• MONITOR

AND SO ON, AND SO ON, AND SO ON.... (This is not unfamiliar to me, more on this later)

Get it?!

Later that day, I had a scheduled call with the other company, a larger company. I had two of their board members and a manager on the call. We were discussing advertising and metrics. They didn't feel they were getting the full potential they expected from some other platforms they had been involved with and wanted, hoped, they could achieve more with us. After discussing their affiliate signup funnels, their affiliate engagements, and affiliate support structure, I immediately saw a portion of why their growth had only matched the industry revenue growth, about 20% annually for the previous 3 years.

This company had originally been founded by a consortium of advertisers who had some great success for a few years before selling off the business to a well known advertising firm. They, in turn, hired an executive team for operations and created a new company and persona for the network.

They did quite well, even exceeding the expectations of their parent company. They were quite pleased that they not only met and exceeded their goals for each year, they never had a year of loss. However, in our call, they were anything but pleased with the fact that there were facing challenges, every year, in acquiring and keeping affiliates. Newbies, average affiliates, and super affiliates. Their retention rate was less than 10% of new publishers. Yet, they still maintain a steady industry average annual earnings increase. They should be very pleased, right? WRONG!

They feel the prickly feeling on the back of their neck from their parent company now. A parent company that has since discovered there are loads of networks, especially those shadowy private networks you will never know, that are experiencing 200%, 300%, and even 400% annual growth. THEY WANTED THIS!

We went into great depth on that call, and a subsequent call, about what it takes to accomplish what so many of these other networks do to reach such high growth rates and earnings. When taking a look at what they had done when advertising on other platforms to acquire affiliates, guess what was missing!

• RECRUIT
• ENGAGE
• TEACH
• MONITOR
• RECRUIT
• ENGAGE
• TEACH
• MONITOR
• RECRUIT
• ENGAGE
• TEACH
• MONITOR
• RECRUIT
• ENGAGE
• TEACH
• MONITOR

AND SO ON, AND SO ON, AND SO ON....

You see, I've been in this community for 7 years, as well as others for decades. I've been in multiple fields of business since the late sixties (yes I have long teeth now). In all of my years, one of the most important aspects of every business I have owned, operated, and/or managed has been this:

• TRAIN
• MOTIVATE
• DELEGATE
• INSPECT

See the similarities to the smaller company above. The larger company does this for their staffers, but never thought to add this to their affiliate support!

Orko, my apologies for such a long winded response. I know it looks like I've hijacked the thread too by not addressing LinkedIn within this post, but the truth is, your overlying issue is lack of successfully acquiring and keeping affiliates. As per your statement; "I'm trying all kind of ways to recruit new affiliates.".

Have you tried luring them with a program that promises to either:

• 
  
  
  • ENGAGE
  • TEACH
  • MONITOR

or

• 
  
  
  • TRAIN
  • MOTIVATE
  • DELEGATE
  • INSPECT

If not, know this, THAT'S WHAT THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SUCCESSES ARE DERIVED FROM!

In my experience, there are two significant places for you to recruit affiliates (they do not include LinkedIn). First, communities like this where you can have a platform designed to make engaging the affiliates easy. Secondly, the conferences all over the world is where you can put on your "salesman's" hat and speak to some of the most significant affiliates from all over the planet and sell them on working out a deal with your company to come and play in your pool.

My 2¢ (long winded & and opinionated)

 

[Orko]

Thank you T J for your 2 cents
Your post was very enriching and I believe that now it's time to apply all that.
I'm certainly trying to find them in places like this forum and we've indeed developed a unique platform with our offers where affiliates can sign up easily.
Conferences are a good idea, but right now it's probably too early to travel and meet new affiliates in personal.
Any other suggestions for social groups and platform other than this amazing forum?

 

[T J Tutor]

Thank you T J for your 2 cents
Your post was very enriching and I believe that now it's time to apply all that.
I'm certainly trying to find them in places like this forum and we've indeed developed a unique platform with our offers where affiliates can sign up easily.
Conferences are a good idea, but right now it's probably too early to travel and meet new affiliates in personal.
Any other suggestions for social groups and platform other than this amazing forum?

I'll have some videos uploaded in the vendors private forum in March teaching the best methods to benefit the most in AffiliateFix and how to garner the attention from the members. Keep an eye out, this will be announced to the vendors by email.

 

[Graybeard]

Secondly, the conferences all over the world is where you can put on your "salesman's" hat and speak to some of the most significant affiliates from all over the planet and sell them on working out a deal with your company to come and play in your pool.

Travel and shake hands with industry people

 

[Judyye1991]

Hi Orko,

You can also try to download the apps for the big conferences and communicate with people though it also takes some time. I found what they have suggested are all quite helpful too.

 

[Orko]

Hi Orko,

You can also try to download the apps for the big conferences and communicate with people though it also takes some time. I found what they have suggested are all quite helpful too.

Thank you Judyye, do you have an example of these apps?

 

[Mor]

Thank you Judyye, do you have an example of these apps?

Each conference creates an app for its specific occasion. If it's one of the big conferences, they have an app for the event. Affiliate world for instance that does a few major events have this. Look it up, you could really benefit from this

 

[StatusCakeAffiliates]

Good affiliates are like gold dust and not easy to find.
I'd recommenced to be as targeted as possible when recruiting affiliates for your specific vertical.

 

[Kiwi Searches]

Is it best to use service that has affiliates already for you to use? Or would be better to email directly to the company asking them to engage in the program?

I am also looking for a place to start recruiting but not sure what is working best right now.