How best to sign up new affiliates

[shytobuy]

Hi,

I'm wondering how to achieve more affiliates on our program - I personally go out and locate sites that are good that I would like to be on our program, and I even locate where exactly they could expand and do better.

Frankly, I hardly ever get responses from these 'potential' affiliates, it's like people don't want to make money lol.

Is it how I word it? I've had a better response from shorter, straight to the point emails, but I find that when I write them, I feel like one of those nigerian fraudsters because it's like.

'' Hi, I'm the affiliate account manager at ShytoBuy, and would love for you to join our affiliate program and make 10% commission on all sales you send us! ''

Or something similar....

Just for info - previously, i would send more fact filled emails ith info about conversion rates, average order values etc, and got no response at all, ever lol... (perhaps that was therefore, too spammy).

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi shytobuy,

One of the keys to affiliate recruiting emails is to personalize them after really looking at the site. It takes more time but should net better results.

Affiliates get recruiting emails all the time and largely ignore them especially if it looks like the manager didn't put any energy into looking at their site or customizing the email for them.

So check their site, put their site name in the subject of the email (XYZ.com business proposal or something like that) and then say something like: I was looking at your site at xyz.com and noticed you are promoting green widgets. I couldn't help but think our XYZ line of products would be the perfect addition to your site and could help you generate a new revenue stream.

XYZ.com could earn 10% on ?. (add your short pitch)

 

[RyanatCredit]

Also, don't always resort to email...sure, some people don't like to be called, but getting someone on the phone allows you to convey excitement about the program

 

[unitminer]

For us worked very well to put peel banner on each page of our website with text "Earn $50 now" or something similar ... we payed $50 commissions just for signup to our affiliate program to every new affiliate.

If you will define correctly minimum payout in your affiliate program, you are sure, that you will not loose money and new affiliates are motivated to signup.

Our advantage was, that on our website is coming next to a lot of customers (merchants looking for affiliate software) also a lot of affiliates... so it was easy to attract them with special signup bonus.

 

[joemo]

email marketing is the best choice for affiliate program, you can write your offer directly to webmasters, they can accept it or not, theres always some % of positive responses if you have fair offer

 

[yogi1981]

As we all know, affiliate recruitment is one of the hardest thing and every merchant want every affiliate want to work for them and every affiliate think that every merchant is spammer.

There are many other ways to get affiliates. Sending them direct emails by finding their contact details from WHOIS records etc. is not advisable. I have few suggestions:

> Spend Time: it is not important that you have to send 1000 emails and get 10 sign up but what matters is send few and try to convert them. First, personalize your email. Make them feel that you tried a bit to know about them and their business and you are really interested in helping them making money.
> If possible, avoid to send the emails to the contact details which you get from WHOIS. First try to contact them through email address provided on their website. If it is not there, try to contact through the contact form. Then use WHOIS data and if needed make them a call.
> Try to find what other websites are owned by that particular person. Try to search for his FaceBook / LinkedIn / Twitter / MySpace and join them. Send your details from there.


In short, try to be closer and closer to affiliates and they will follow you.

I also suggest to create branding for your program too. Be active in forums, write blogs, keep updating website, show your promotional material to your prospective affiliates etc.

 

[johnben1444]

Am a nigerian an i agree with the things you said. The fear of been hit by a scam has led to a lot of setback for us.

But the truth is there are still people making money from affiliate business and even a few nigerian is part of them.

You need to devise a new way. Maybe make your mail more business like and professional. You don't sound too professional in your mail. Find tips on how to construct business mail.

 

[Renee]

Personalising the email is the biggest and best way to get a response, just as so many have already mentioned.

The issue is that affiliates get so much spam already, so the first thing you need to do is make your email stand out from the other spam. As Linda suggested already, putting their website in the subject may be a good idea, but I would probably steer clear of that just because it may get your email into the junk folder.

Generally the best response rate comes from adding something like "Hey John, its Renee aff mgr"

There is personalisation in there, and you're telling the person who you are and that you're an aff manager.. usually that at least gets them to open their email because it at least shows you've done enough research to find their name.

The second thing I do is tell them what I found on their site in the email and why i emailed them, usually because I noticed they are not promoting any of our brands.

The sales part is then up to you and what you write will depend on the product your program offers. One thing I will definitely do before contacting them is to research what my competitors are offering them and offer something better, even if just for a restricted time period (like 1 month) or so.

One thing I definitely try not to do is make my email sound like a generic "fill in the gaps" email. I try to be as friendly and personable as possible. I also ask the person if we can have a chat on the phone to discuss, and generally if they don't want to talk on the phone they will just reply..

Of course you're always going to get the ones that don't reply and it could be due to your email going to spam or they are just not interested...

If you think your email may have gone to spam, one thing you could try is to just send a totally blank email to their email address saying
"Hi John,
I just wondered if you had received my last email as I didn't get a reply? Renee"

About 80% of people who haven't replied will respond to that saying "I'm sorry I didn't, can you please resend"..

Hope that helps

Good luck!

Renee