How do you prepare your Affiliate Program for the Christmas Season How to prepare your Affiliate Program for the Christmas Season
Despite the current economic downturn the holidays at the end of the year are the perfect occasion for SaaS and software companies to increase sales and boost the brand's recognition.
With the affiliate marketing channel estimated to account for one-third of the online purchase within the US as well as Canada the affiliate program you have is definitely worthy of your consideration.
Here are some tips on what you should be doing to make the most of affiliate programs during Black Friday and afterward.
1. Align Affiliates with your Other Marketing Channels
It is essential to bring all your channels of marketing on the same page so you can work with your partners to promote a single image of your brand.
If your internal marketing team plans to offer the sale of 25% on the product you sell during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but your affiliate audience is told to promote the 20% discount and you're missing out on tons of deals.
Even more, you risk eroding the trust of your affiliates and discouraging affiliates from spreading the word about this offer and potentially different offers to come.
Affiliates must be able to access your current holiday discount, if there isn't a better deal. The incentive for affiliates is to make promotional content and helps reinforce the fact that they had a special relation with the brand.
It also encourages their audience to follow their links and use the affiliate-specific coupon codes so that the affiliate gets credit for each sale.
Note: Ensure that Affiliates have access to
- Every holiday-specific brand messages and images
- Special holiday discount affiliate links
2. Make Holiday assets to cover Your Entire Network
If you have a healthy variety of affiliate types they'll require diverse tools and resources for success. Keep this in mind when planning promotions for the holidays.
As an example the content affiliates you have might only require the information to build their own resources Your coupon and sale sites are likely to respond well to a custom coupon code.
Things like reviewer guides as well as custom links, provide details for offers are great ways to beginning, but make sure to look back at what affiliate types have asked for in the past and do the best you can to provide that to them without them needing to request it so that they can get going quickly!
The takeaway is: What holiday assets do you need to supply to each different affiliate type within your network?
3. Make the most of the strengths of Your Network
When you are putting together your holiday promotion strategy, you may discover areas that your in-house marketing resources aren't as good as you'd like them to be. Your company may have an incredible email marketing engine or excel in paid search, however you're likely to have at least one aspect of your marketing plan that you'd like to enhance. This is where affiliate networks can come in.
You might want to give special attention to the affiliates that match where you internal resources may be most ineffective. There is also the possibility of having to identify specific influencers, or websites based on your needs at present.
Equally important is understanding how you can leverage the strength of your network. For example, if you have incredible social media influencers in your network that specialize in reviewing, you can request them to write posts that promote the Black Friday lead generation campaign. Or you might create special seasonal product descriptions, offers specifics, and brand-name links to affiliates who have a solid email lists to include in their newsletters.
Knowing the areas where your team is weakest and where your network is the strongest can assist you in making sure that you've given them the specific resources they need to maximize their impact.
Learn from the experience: Find weaknesses in your internal resources that will negatively impact your holiday plans and prioritize the affiliates that will fill in the gaps.
4. Plan Far, Far Ahead
Many online sellers find that this is the most busy time of the year. This is particularly applicable to affiliates. The majority of affiliates are involved in more than one campaign So your product will be competing for attention against other products and offers to the affiliate.
If you communicate early with affiliates about upcoming offers and providing the most details and information as is possible, you boost the chances to get their attention and greatly improve the odds of them promoting your offers.
Planning Tip: Set an embargo date for information to be distributed about your holiday offer so affiliates have time to plan and coordinate offers to go live when they want to!
5. Do not overlook the post-Black Friday Celebrations
Alongside other than Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals, Q4 is also focused on the Christmas season and sharing even more information in the most successful affiliates of your affiliate program.
Though this can usually be transformed into a bonus based on performance or an increased commission for the period of sales driven between Christmas and New Year's but you could also be creative and work together on a special project like an offer for a subscription or license to their blog followers and Social Media followers.
Tips for Planning: Give your affiliate a bonus according to their performance. With bonus tiers, you can increase payout to follow-up actions on your monthly earnings.
Are you looking for additional assistance in building your affiliate network? Take a look at our whitepaper on how you can drive affiliate activities. You'll learn how to create an affiliate-related checklist, a communication timeline, and an engagement strategy. Also, read a case study detailing how one software company used to increase the number of affiliates it had. Download it here.