FREE REPORT: “3 Common (And COSTLY) Mistakes That Will Prevent Your Affiliate Program From Growing – and How You Can Fix Them!”

Growing an affiliate marketing program can be challenging, and several common mistakes can hinder its success. 

Here are 3 of the most common mistakes people make when trying to grow their affiliate marketing program:

Mistake #1: Using introduction emails that are too lengthy

Think about this for a second…what do you do when YOU get a lengthy email from someone you don’t know. TLDR…more like TL Just Delete!

Many affiliate managers think sending out initial 6-10 paragraph emails makes sense. They pack them with conversion rate stats. EPC numbers. Tons of links to this and that. And on and on. 

STOP. 

You don’t know these people. And you think reaching out to them cold with an email that reads like some user agreement makes sense? 

And you tack on “Oh, would you like to join our affiliate program?” at the end?

Good luck! 

Keep your initial contact email super short. You simply want to determine if they’re open to having a chat. Ask them if your brand is a fit for their audience…that is where the conversation starts. 

Mistake #2: Not working with smaller affiliates

This is a mistake MANY affiliate managers make. 

They only hunt for whales. The big affiliates. 

Their thinking (erroneously) goes like this…”I’m not going to work with some minnow who’s going to make like one sale a month.’

It SEEMS to make sense… track down big affiliates and bring them on. Make a big splash. That kinda thing.

NEWSFLASH: It rarely works. UNLESS you have some sort of relationship. 

The bigger affiliates likely don’t need YOU – especially when you’re just starting out. Even if they like your product, they want upfront sponsorships.. 

If you want your affiliate program to grow, set your sites on the smaller affiliates. They are hungry and ready to strike at opportunity.

Sure, they won’t make a big splash right outta the gate but, when you realize it’s a numbers game, you begin to see why it makes perfect sense. 

If you bring on 100 affiliates from a small list of 700, they’re going to make you about one sale – give or take – every four months. 

So, three sales annually. 

They’re going to send you about 25-30 opt-ins from your first launch effort. Maybe 35 registrations for your evergreen webinar. 

In other words, they’re not going to grow your list all that much. You might be tempted to think it doesn’t seem worth it.

Fast forward four years. 

Let’s say of those initial 100, thirty quit. Gone. So they didn’t help yu grow.

However, another 30 are going to double in size. 

They might make two or three sales for you. And their going to send you about twice as many webinar registrations. 

They’re going to grow steadily. They’re going to get their own partners. 

Five of them will literally grow by 10 to 25 times. Some will hit 100x. They’re going to hit it big. They turned a small list into 50,000 email subscribers. Their podcast takes off. 

Now, even if this happens with only two, three, or four of those original hundred, they will be loyal forever. They will remember that you worked with them when they were a little guy. 

Do not make the mistake of avoiding small affiliates. 

Here’s a little bonus of working with small affiliates. They give you a testing ground. You can fail or make mistakes with them and learn stuff with minimal impact.

Mistake #3: Not investing enough in relationships early on

I see this alI the time…affiliate managers who did not work on building better relationships with existing and prospective affiliates. 

Heck, even I was guilty of this in the beginning.

I had a great personality and was pretty good on the phone. 

Did I really need to work at strengthening and building relationships with people who MIGHT become affiliates?

I’d think…it could be a year or more before they finally agreed to promote. 

Boy…was THAT a mistake!

It took about two years before I realized how much this mistake was costing me. 

Luckily, it didn’t take longer than 2 years!

The takeaway? 

Invest first and THEN seek out mid-larger size affiliates. 

It’s very unlikely you’re going to go out and bag an industry leader to be an affiliate. That’s just not going to happen. 

Start with attracting small and medium-size affiliates. You simply don’t have the resources and luxury of being able to invest in those A-lister  relationships that could take 5 years to develop.

Here’s a formula you can use…

In the beginning, spend 70% of your time on getting new relationships. Reserve  20% of your time for investing in existing relationships.

Use the remaining 10% to look for potential relationships. 

As your business grows and you become more experienced, you can spend 40% of your time on finding new relationships, 40% on nurturing existing relationships, and 20% searching for new opportunities. 

As your affiliate program grows, the amount of time you spend trying to get new relationships will go down compared to the amount of time you spend on your current relationships.

Here’s the good news: it’s about 20 times easier in terms of time and effort to keep a relationship than it is to get a new one. A text here. A congratulations email there. Just a consistent effort of little “touches”. 

Avoiding these 3 mistakes requires careful planning, ongoing communication, and a commitment to optimizing the affiliate marketing program based on feedback and data.

I offer a limited number of 60-MINUTE CONSULTATIONS each month where I provide strategies to help clients attract more affiliates.

Let’s get your affiliate program attracting the right kind affiliates who can help you grow your program!

Book your spot on my calendar TODAY and l