March 10

Affiliate Manager – What Makes a GREAT One?

2  comments

What Makes a GREAT Affiliate Manager?

Being a great affiliate manager is a question I get on a weekly basis…and I’m PRETTY sure I’ve discussed it before privately, but never on a public forum like this.

Affiliate Manager

 

If you want to have a GREAT affiliate program you need to have a GREAT affiliate manager. And not everyone you know, or have heard about, falls into the ‘great’ category. Some are just lucky 🙂

Here are the things that I think every great affiliate manager needs to have or be…

1. Relentless Networker

You need someone who knows EVERYONE! And not just everyone…everyone who knows EVERYONE.

Your affiliate program will never be successful unless the person you hire to run your affiliate program is connected with everyone and has the relationships to turn those connections into leads and sales for your program.

They know everyone, but also know how to WORK WITH everyone. Now, some deals just cannot be made, and that’s life. But being able to compromise and improvise in order to drive leads and sales is part of what a great networker can do.

Trying to train someone NEW to run your affiliate program is doable (Nathan T is a great exception to the rule), but if you want to jump start it and get it rocking …you need someone with experience.

2. HONEST

Man this is a big one.

Affiliate marketers are smart…and by smart I mean VERY smart. I can’t count how many affiliate managers have fallen by the way side because they weren’t truthful in their dealing with affiliates.

They ‘fudged’ the numbers…made excuses on why leads were disappearing…disregard refund numbers…etc etc.

I know several affiliate managers who are still employed but NO ONE trusts them.

How do their affiliate programs do? Meh…but no one respects them and everyone only sends because of a recip…and once that recip dries up, they’re done.

So you need to have an HONEST affiliate manager who will be your public voice to your marketers. If things are great, tell them.

If they’re bad…TELL THEM! Honesty goes a long way.

3. ALWAYS PRESENT

This seems like an obvious one. Your affiliate manager needs to be present to be great…well DUH!

By present I mean always working the phones, emails, Skype, etc etc…EVEN WHEN A LAUNCH ISN’T HAPPENING!

And they need to be 100% accessible and respondent during a launch and AFTER a launch.

So many affiliate managers are MIA to affiliates not in the top 10 during launches…so much so that those affiliates never return, or worse, tell others how they were treated.

When ANY affiliate emails/skypes/calls a GREAT affiliate manager, that affiliate manager is getting back to them ASAP!

Present AFTER a launch…that’s a big one. If a launch goes bad a lot of affiliate managers just kinda slink away…no more daily emails…no post launch updates…just DEAFENING SILENCE!

Great affiliate managers talk to ALL affiliates 🙂

Those are a few of the KEY factors in a great affiliate manager…

WHAT DO YOU THINK?!

Best,
Brad

P.S. Another factor is a GREAT product and conversion process
from the company they work for. No one can successfully run
an affiliate program when the product is junk and the conversions
are bad…

So really, GREAT affiliate managers require commitment from the
company they serve 🙂

P.P.S. A great affiliate manager CONTROLS THE MESSAGE!


Tags

affiliate manager, affiliate marketing, Brad Stafford, traders news media


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  • Great one Brad – and you’re certainly ‘qualified’ to speak on it 🙂 Your ‘Present AFTER a launch’ point is good – if a launch underperforms just address it – I mean, it’s not like the affiliate isn’t aware of it anyway. But if it’s not addressed it just leaves the affiliate wondering if it was just them – if they were the only ones who underperformed – or if their links weren’t working correctly, or they weren’t cookied into the system correctly – or even worse, if there is fraud or whatnot going on. Just let us know – we can handle it 🙂 – we all know that some launches might just wind up being duds…

    • Dan you’re on point man and I’m grateful for your feedback! It’s true…being HONEST clears all those questions up, and communicating really makes a difference! Hopefully those reading who aren’t present after a launch start being honest 🙂

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