Affiliate Manager Marketing

As an affiliate manager you have the ultimate responsibility for the marketing and promotion of the specific program you’re working for. As a manager you will use the traditional affiliate marketing channels but also efficiently work to recruit and train other affiliates.

If you’re not clear on what affiliate marketing is here is a quick example – a person has a website on which they sell health foods. That same person can also advertise a health club membership for a nation-wide health club and earn a commission in the process. All sales are tracked in the background and so when you refer someone to the program and they make a purchase, you are credited for the sale. It’s like offline sales but online.

So with this in mind I hear the question asked, “what is required to be an affiliate manager?" Here are a few basics:

To become effective as an affiliate manager you will need to be the type of person who takes action and is a self-starter. It will be ultimately up to you to run the affiliate program on the whole so you must be able to take charge of the reins so to speak and move the program forwards.

A large portion of your marketing will include recruiting and training affiliates. As with any marketing endeavor this means you will need to utilize several channels to find prospects.

Once you find affiliates, training and keeping them motivated and happy to promote the program actively will also require a bit of time and knowledge. Your approach should be gentle yet persistent. You don’t want to put off an affiliate with constant demands of a barrage of emails pushing them to promote the program. Bulk emails to all affiliates are also not as effective as personal follow-up with several key affiliates.

For example, if you have a new tool or service that may help the affiliate’s sales you can send them an email and give them the details about the new tool and also ideas for using it. The more personal you can be with your affiliates, the better.

Also, keep in mind that your affiliates are making money so there is definitely “something in it for them” and most affiliates will be open to your suggestions.

As an affiliate manager you may also need to market the program yourself rather than solely depend on affiliates. There are many methods for doing this such as pay per click advertising, banner advertising, personal joint ventures and email marketing.

Your marketing as an affiliate manager, as with any marketing, will solely rely on the usage of several methods of advertising and a rounded approach rather than a “one size fits all” approach. The key is flexibility and consistency.