Building an Affiliate Flywheel: Partner Principles #18

Hello!

April Showers are bringin' some May Flowers!

Back in Austin and the green is getting greener with more rain. It is nice but we are ready for spring/summer.

Highlight of SF was seeing my mom in Sonoma County!

To review:

We are on step 2 of how to build and affiliate marketing flywheel:

1. MarTech foundation
2. Partner Principles
3. Economic Alignment
4. Partner Diversification
5. Active management
6. Growth is never done

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What do you need to have strong Partner Principles? 🤔

1. Trust
2. Communication
3. Collaboration
4. Clear Agreements
5. Empathy
6. Connection

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Time To Dive In 🧠

1) Trust 🤝

Amazon Leadership Principles are a good reminder of how trust is central to so many if not all business relationships. It is a great reminder.

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Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.
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[[— Amazon Leadership Principles] author]

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Do you think Brands would have better outcomes if they approached partners in this mindset?

You bet it will!

Trust checklist for brands

• Pay what was agreed ✅
• Pay on time ✅
• Track accurately ✅
• If tracking brakes provide communication, status, and make good. ✅
• Have clear affiliate terms and conditions in plain English ✅ (DM if you need help)
• Clear Promotional policy terms ✅ (Paid Search, Social, other channels)
• Responsiveness to support agreement ✅

Trust checklist for affiliates ✔️

• Deliver value in the form of valid, bona fide actions (unique visits, leads, downloads, purchases)
• Willing to share non-proprietary information on promotional methods. For example partners can provide referring URLs but maybe not exact targeting method within Meta Ads / specific on page or linking SEO strategy for ranking
• Responsiveness to support agreement

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2) Communication 🗣

It sounds super obvious but it is hard to OVER communicate. In particular when you are managing hundreds or thousands of partners or trying to build a program from zero.

Similarly partners need to be providing updates and value and check in with the advertiser brands that are compensating them. A good practice to maintain and grow the partnership.

Communication Checklist:

• Clear (using plan language and not jargon, friendly but not flowery, being blunt and not adding too many conditions or trying to overstate / oversell)
• Concise (being too verbose can decrease understanding)
• Timely (appropriate lead time and within agreement terms / speed helps and it matters)
• Call To Action (tell me what to do / don't make me think)

Advertisers/Brands:

• One to all partners communication - (newsletter) / entire program
• One to segment of partners communication - ideal for program changes, updates, terms, incentives, contests, and bonus opportunities (missed by medium to large brands without active affiliate management)
• One on one communication (Critical. Might be the lifeblood of an affiliate program)

Affiliates/Publishers/Influencers:

• Feedback: this offer is converting really well, or its not - how do we improve / double down on what is working as a team?
• Site/Landing Page discussion: Affiliates are not your internal product team, but they can be super helpful if you allow them to be. They might make optimization recommendations that are material to your business and mutually beneficial.
• Offer: Coupon / Deal / Value Prop / Pain Point. Discuss and use following as a lever: vanity code (attribute to partner), exclusivity (what partners can use it), what customers can use it). Make sure your affiliate network enables smart code usage and attribution.
• Payout/Commission: Be reasonable here. Many brands understand that compensation and competitive commission is key to a good brand-affiliate collaboration, but crying wolf and being overly aggressive here can also not be a good strategy. Strike that balance of value creation with compensation. Brands that are trustworthy, have the right people working on it, and have a healthy financial position will always compensate partners, in particular if its on a cost per sale basis.

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3) Collaboration 🤝

This is where the differentiators begin to emerge.

It's where the fun is!

Negotiation - might have to dedicate a post to this topic alone.

Do you get to negotiate with Google? No. If you like this part of it then affiliate marketing might be up your alley.

In person meeting, whiteboard sessions, emails, zooms, slack, FB groups, in person at an affiliate conference or on site with a brand advertiser, regardless of medium, collaboration is where most brands fall short.

• Creative Brainstorm sessions
• Affiliate making creative assets within program terms & conditions and brand guidelines and getting feedback from the brand
• Co-branded landing pages
• The eBay Bring-A-Trailer is my favorite example of this and we have discussed in this newsletter (#10 to be exact)
• Negotiating a bonus in the event that certain valid revenue targets are met

This is where partners can truly be an extension of your brand.

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4) Clear Agreements 🔎

Affiliate agree to the following in well-established affiliate programs. if these are clear, understood and mutually agreed to then you will be in a good place. I also recommend having clarifying emails zooms or phone calls to negotiate terms and ensure confidence and clarity and that these are clearly understood between partners where necessary.

• Network agreement. For example, you agree to not promote brands on unlawful, harmful, threatening, harassing, defamatory, obscene, or violent content is a significant part of this and the networks take active measures to remove some of the fraudulent or partners in violation of the terms of the agreement between Affiliate and Impact/CJ/Rakuten/AWIN, etc.
• Advertiser Agreement - by joining an advertiser brand program and affiliate agrees to follow their terms and conditions. (this is not legal counsel and recommends ensuring legal review if you have additional questions on your contracts and agreements)
• Creative usage
• Brand Guidelines
• Service Level Agreements
• Other key elements might include
• Obligations of both parties
• Termination
• Modification
• Payment
• Access to Network Tracking Platform
• Promotional restrictions
• Grants of licenses
• Disclaimer Representations and Warranties
• Limitations of Liability
• Indemnification
• Confidentiality
• Miscellaneous  
• Promotional Methods
• What paid marketing channels they are promoting your brand
• Google
• Meta
• TikTok
• Other
• Specific Paid Search Terms
• ™ Bidding
• ™ + term bidding (potentially for select partners)
• Practice areas and HOW they are promoting your brand
• SEO
• Newsletter
• Email / outbound
• Paid Search
• Paid Social
• Display/Programmatic
• Mobile App Store
• Video
• Organic Social

What a beast of a list.

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5) Empathy 💞

This is a big one. As a brand are you not only following best practices but are you putting yourself in the affiliate partners' shoes at times?

Do you know enough about them and their business to be able to emphasize their challenges, costs, and needs?

While this is a business and we understand you are not best friends, being thoughtful and considerate is an excellent business practice and can aid in crafting mutually beneficial contracts, payment terms, commissions, and benefits for both parties!

Brands that disregard this can lose partners to competitors who are willing to care.

• Get to know them (kids dogs' names, asking about their spouse/partner, asking about their hobbies)
• Put yourself in their shoes
• Think win-win and long term (What is good for your affiliates can often be good for your brand)
• Of course, actions need to be: valid, attributed accurately, profitable, and incremental and show a ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) or MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)

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Ah yes, and the 6th and FINAL piece of the Partner Principles edition of the Affiliate Marketing Flywheel IS…

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6) Connection 📞

I might overemphasize this.

But this is what I LOVE about affiliate marketing.

It’s human.

We crave connection.

I know I know. Sounds kumbaya.

But it is real and it works. Meet them at Affiliate Conferences. Befriend them. Yes you are in business and you are holding each other accountable, and it’s not often not forever, but I have firsthand seen some beautiful friendly fun business bonds forged in affiliate relationships that can go beyond affiliate marketing.

I have written the importance of community and connection here and discussed the book Tribe

This does not hurt in scaling your program, earning your business more money, increasing your brand awareness, and hitting your goals.

Who knows you might make some fun collaborators or friends along the way!

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Why Does This All Matter?

Without these things, you don't really have a viable affiliate, partner, or influencer program. You have a set-it-and-forget-it approach which is where >60% of programs operate and fail.

Don't be them.