July 3

I’m NOT Reciping…Until You…

10  comments

That’s hard to tell people…

Especially when you’re an affiliate manager wanting as many people mailing as possible…

And a great way to do that, is to promise to give reciprocate mailings for their offer…

So when you tell people ‘no’ they get upset. But honestly, its USUALLY for the best…no matter how mad people get when you tell them no.

But you have to take care of your customers and prospects, you need to protect your business, and (DUH) maximize your profits.

What really got me thinking about this is a call I’m TRYING to set up with a company that would be a great affiliate partner for my clients…but the problem is they’re currently stuck in the ‘we don’t need to mail for anyone’ mindset. Raise your hand if you think they’re behind the 8-ball and missing out on HUGE business not working with my clients…yes I see all hands raised 🙂

But it’s still frustrating because I’ve been doing this for 8 years…have been blessed with success…and KNOW that working with the right people is the difference between a multimillion dollar company, and a struggling one.

So as someone who represents some pretty big names let me tell you what I’M looking for when I’m agreeing to recip for an affiliate partner…and you can bring up your standards and follow me 🙂

1. Taking Care of YOUR Customers…

You as the affiliate manager/list owner need to first and foremost think about your customers and prospects. So that means you’ll need to do some legwork to determine the quality of the product and marketing material. I know it’s annoying to watch the lead gen videos, and read the reports, but I can tell you that if you’re not interested…chances are your people won’t be interested.

And when you promote something sub-par to them…you’re lowering your standards and lessening your chances of sales to those ‘disheartened’ prospects.

So before you recip, ask to see all the marketing material, the product, etc etc. There are times when you can trust a company/affiliate manager so use your best discernment (previous material, previous successes, etc) when making that decision.

2. Take Care of Your Business…

Good golly there are a lot of short term thinkers in our business! They’ve convinced themselves that leads aren’t any good to them after 90 days in their marketing funnel…as if their marketing funnel is the STANDARD by which all lead life is judged!! Give me a break.

So when you’re planning on reciping for another company think about what effect that mailing will have on your list LONG TERM. Will you lose credibility because you’re promoting a signal service when you talk about how bad signal services are?

3. Maximize Your Company’s Profits…

Here’s a simple math problem…which is greater: 70% or 30%?

If you answered 30%, please close this window and go back to clown college 🙂

We have to understand that a company ALWAYS makes more if someone else is selling their products vs selling other peoples’ products. So it should be your goal to get others to mail for you and your company. If you have the upper hand in the discussion (upper hand = big list, high converting products, proven success, etc etc), then you as an affiliate manager SHOULD expect the other company to promote for you. No matter how great or big they claim to be…this is the internet…it’s the ‘show me’ state. And until you show me…you’ve gotta mail first because my clients make MORE when you sell their stuff. It’s that simple.

HOWEVER, you can monetize leads in your database that have not, or not YET, bought any products from you. It’s crazy to assume that your leads ONLY want to buy your stuff…and the reality is that they trust you enough to point them in the right direction…so why not earn some extra money by pointing them in the direction of something you’ve already checked out and approved?

There are times when you might send for someone knowing their product, although a GOOD product (that’s always the key), might not sell as well because of the marketing. Heck there are times when I’m a softie and want to help people who are GREAT PEOPLE out…that’s just me though, use your best judgement 😉

Did I forget something?

Do you not agree with one of the above points?

LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!

Cheers,
Brad

P.S. It also NEVER HURTS TO JUST ASK!! Just know with me…I’m looking doing the above 🙂


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  • Hi Brad. I do all that stuff…just don’t have a high ticket item yet. But working on a killer webinar with a $497 price that’ll be irresistable for peeps. I’ll ping ya when I get it hashed out.

  • Hey Brad,

    Nice article. Nice point on #1. When we first started out we didn’t have the biggest list but the fact that we would actually watch the promo videos before sending out and then wrote custom copy and that really raised the responsiveness of our list during the launches we participated with.

  • Hi Brad

    You’ve hit the nail on the head a few times with your article.

    Generally there are two other questions that I feel one should ask yourself?

    – Is the person asking for a recip someone that has supported you in the past or can themselves recip?

    – Would it be of strategic advantage to you to recip? Ie a few categories that you discussed could apply here eg
    Reputational issue with own customers will be advanced or damaged,
    Potential successful long term relationship with the affiliate asking?

    (to name just a few)

    Each case to be judged on its own merits so to speak

  • Brad…good post. One thing to note is that just because you don’t mail for someone doesn’t mean you think their product is crap or you don’t think they are a good friend in the business.

    Like you mentioned, there’s a balance. If you were to mail for every single friend of yours with a good product, you would be jeopardizing your own client.

    Sometimes you simply have to pass, even if you KNOW it’s going to be great and profitable. For example, if you or your client has a long term vision, you may have to pass on short term profits to achieve the greater goal.

    You can always try to reciprocate for a buddy in other ways than mailing. It may not be “equal” in return, but something is better than nothing.

    For example, maybe you can mail to only 15% of your list. That’s still better than nothing. Just be honest and tell them.

    Or maybe you can reciprocate by providing them an introduction to another great partner of yours. Sometimes that ends up being more valuable in the long run.

    And maybe all you can do is provide some good feedback.

    Either way, I completely agree that saying “no” to reciprocating an email blast is often times necessary in our industry. What’s important is that you don’t take it personal and still willing to help it in other ways.

    For all we know, five years from now email may no longer be the best means of distribution.

    • Solid points all around Ken. Agree, not promoting a product shouldn’t always be seen as a product slight. HONESTY is the key. Amazing how people will say they’re doing a full blast…then only send to a small portion only to tell the truth when called out! And yes there are other ways to work deals, including steak dinners, fruit baskets, high level intros, and ‘atta boy’ comments on someone’s blog 😉

      Thanks man!

  • Good topic to discuss, Brad. One thing that keeps from from cross promoting others is a)I only want to work with those that, like Amazon, have a last-cookie model, so that the most-recent email that produced the sale gets the commissh, which is not what a lot of trading aff pgms do. Otherwise it becomes a protected monopoly of large-list early lead capture lists that get most of the commisshes even if other affs produced the actual sale. I like what major IM launch gurus do, which is have bonuses tied to specific offers, as a way to double-check whose lead produced the sale.

    The other concern is that in testing, I’ve found many people don’t mail their whole lists even though they claimed they would, so of course they get blacklisted. It’s important to seed your lists w/anonymous emails to find out exactly who is mailing when they claim to, and set up individual anonymous seed email accounts for each jv partner, so you get transparency and see what’s actually happening. Many people are dishonest or less than forthright when it comes to what they promise to do, vs actually deliver.

    And final concern is feeding one’s leads to someone who will shortly cross promote a direct competitor’s product, is not wise. I’ve done millions in sales with zero affs, could’ve done more with them, but too many shenanigans, lack of transparency and other concerns have kept me from working with others via aff launch models. Valid concerns, proven via testing over 14 years I’ve been in the biz. Open to ideas/comments.

    -ken

    • The last cookie vs first cookie will ALWAYS be a heated debate. One thing to think about with the last cookie and ‘offering bonuses’ like the big IM guys do is that our trading audience really aren’t internet marketers. If they see us pushing to ‘buy through my link for a bonus’ that might lead to questions about our thoughts on the products or our interest in just ‘selling’ them. I try not to copy the IM guys too much because they do have a much different audience then we do in the trading niche…however they do have good ideas and most test them 🙂

      Honesty is always an issue and you’ve really gotta trust someone to work with them.

      Cross promotion with other companies is always going to be an issue. However we can’t assume that just because someone is on my list that they’re not on anyone else’s and that lead won’t buy anything but my stuff…ever :)…but the fear of someone promoting a competitors product right to the leads you just sent them is a concern. You should just ask about future promos and who else is on their schedule to see if there’s a chance of conflict.

      Great comments as always Mr. Calhoun 🙂

  • thanks Brad, makes sense – you make some great points as always… thanks for keeping the dialogue open, it’s helpful

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