We hear it being repeated time again: affiliate marketing is a relationship industry. But how do affiliate program managers build the relationships? One way is by attending events like the upcoming Affiliate Summit, or other affiliate gatherings where you can meet affiliates face to face; another one — by participating in affiliate marketing forums where you can really build develop some good relationships (if you take the time to really contribute). But if you are already running an affiliate program, and have existing affiliates you want to motivate to work more fervently on your program, there is yet another: much more personal, and considerably less frequently utilized way — compile a list of their birthdays, and write up personal congratulations to each when the day comes…
It so happened that today two well-known affiliate marketers have birthdays: Daniel Clark and Joe Sousa (happy birthdays, gentlemen!) A few days back, Daniel tweeted (highlighting mine):
Simple (yet obviously powerful), isn’t it? But how many of us are doing it? I haven’t been doing this. You live, you learn.
As a merchant I love making things personal. That said the biggest obstical I have found is not being able to get my hands on the personal email and address of many of my affiliates. I have an initial deal to get this info in the welcome email once approved, but after that trying to get it is like pulling teeth. Any Ideas??
@Geno – great topic. I am always looking for more ways to further the relationship with my affiliates.
@Jared – Ask them. Just send an email through the network and ask them for their address. I’ve had great luck with this. Another way is checking out their websites for contact info. After that, not much to do….anything further could be digging too deep and could be a turn off. If they want, they’ll contact you. While I agree this isn’t ideal (I’d like to have all my affiliate’s emails too), those who want to build a relationship will respond.
@Patrick – Glad you liked it. 🙂 I did too.
@Jared – Yes, some networks believe affiliate contact information to be their proprietary information, and that doesn’t help in the above-suggested method. You can ask them in one of the newsletters to give you their birth dates by email, saying that you want to personally congratulate each one of them. Those that want it, will share the information with you.
Another great way to obtain birthday information (as well as an easier way to make personal contact with affiliates in your program) is to create a Facebook fan page for your affiliate program, and invite your affiliates to join it.