Over 80% of the brands heavily invest in affiliate marketing programs to increase sales, generate leads, and raise brand awareness.
The key to a successful affiliate program is not recruiting a large number of affiliates, but working with the right affiliates who can influence purchasing decisions.
But, how can you know if a certain affiliate can drive sales to your business before you partner with them?
The answer is creator data. This way you can recruit affiliates who have experience in affiliate marketing (even the ones who worked with your competitors) and have similar interests as your target audience.
In this article, we share the most effective data-driven strategy on how to recruit affiliates and convert them into brand advocates. Let’s get started!
Why Recruit Affiliates for Your Business
Having an affiliate program is one of the most effective growth strategies for businesses across all industries. These are the biggest reasons why you should recruit affiliates:
- Increased sales and ROI: Brands earn 5% to 20% of the total revenue from affiliate marketing. The ROI of brands using affiliate programs is 1400% or $15 for $1.
- Generate online traffic: Affiliates can deliver organic traffic to your site passively. Studies show that affiliate links receive about 5 billion clicks per year.
- Cost-effective marketing: You only pay when you get results from the collaboration. Based on the desired action (it can be a click, a lead, or a bought product) the range for affiliate marketing costs can be 5%-25% in commissions.
- Expanded reach and brand awareness: Collaborating with different high-quality affiliates expands your reach as you tap into their target audience. Consequently, you increase brand awareness.
4 Most Effective Ways to Recruit Affiliates
The first step of learning how to recruit affiliates is finding creators with values and interests similar to your brand.
Nikola Sokolov, the founder of influencers.club, says the first step should be separating and defining the target audience. One mistake many companies make is going for highly targeted keywords to find more affiliates.
Sort your affiliates by categories. If you have different niches in mind, market them separately. This will give you access to different audiences and filter the best from each niche.
Explore your options before you start recruiting. Research the market, and define your keywords and once done,use some of the 5 ways mentioned below to recruit affiliates.
Use a creator discovery platform
You can discover affiliates by using creator discovery platform. These types of dashboards offer the most precise search options which means you’ll be able to easily find ideal affiliates for your brand.
Our platform has an extensive database of 100M+ creators searchable by 40+ different parameters. It’s very easy to use, and there are even filters specifically made for discovering top affiliates in every niche.
To start, you need to sign up for free and select filters to set criteria:
Note: We select YouTube as a default channel to search for affiliates because most affiliates promote products there. However, you can select Instagram or TikTok as default platforms to find affiliates there. Otherwise, our database of creators covers affiliates across 40 platforms including Patreon, Twitch, Discord, Facebook, etc.
Next, to creators who do affiliate marketing select creator is promoting affiliate links.
If you want to be more specific, you can select more filters, such Has Brand Collaborations, Discover creators who do live streams, etc.
Find the ideal affiliates for your brand
Search through a database of 100M+ creators and find and recruit top affiliates in your niche.
Join affiliate marketing forums
Affiliate marketing forums are online platforms that unite affiliates and brands. On these platforms, brands can browse affiliates, chat, and collaborate. Some affiliate marketing forums even allow you to promote your brand.
Some of the popular affiliate marketing platforms are Affiliate World Forum, Affiliate Fix, and affLIFT.
Apart from that, you can find affiliate marketing groups on Facebook or other social media networks. All you need to do is type affiliate in the search bar.
Convert your customers into affiliates
78% of social media users talk about brands they follow and brands usually have no idea about it.
Word of mouth is considered as one of the most trustworthy word of marketing tactic. This means, satisfied customers can be the best affiliates to your brand.
So, another way to recruit affiliates is checking your customer list or social media followers to identify customers with larger followings. Once you find profiles that seem like a good fit, reach out and send you collaboration proposal.
To speed up the process and learn more about your potential affiliates you can use the Enrichment feature on our platform.
Select the Enrichment feature in the menu on the left and upload your list. We will match your list with the creators from our extensive database of 100M+ social media profiles, and we’ll find all creators, affiliates and influencers among your list.
Find affiliates in your customer list
Upload your list and we’ll find all potential affiliates among your customers, plus verified email for each one of them.
Create an affiliate landing page
Mark Forster, the founder of Legacy Payments, puts the affiliate landing page as a starting point for the affiliate recruitment strategy.
He says “We want this to have the ability to scale, therefore we are not going to rely on your network alone to advertise the commissions you’re offering. This is where we want to have a well-optimized affiliate sign-up page before launch.”
Aside from Mark, many big brands use this strategy to recruit affiliates. To motivate your customers or visitors to join your affiliate program through landing pages make sure you:
- Display the affiliate opportunities and benefits of the collaboration
- Add commission structure and affiliate payments
- Mention success stories
Ensure you include all these points in a visible place so that active affiliates visiting the landing page can find all the information. Finish with a CTA and wait for the results.
Here’s a breakdown of Amazon’s affiliate landing page to give you an idea:
4 Most Effective Email Outreach Tactics for Recruiting Affiliates
Personalized outreach email proposals are the best way to recruit affiliates.
Collab proposals don’t need to be emails necessarily. You can DM the creator if you have a good relationship with the affiliate. However, remember that DMs have a character limit and you must be short and concise.
After reaching out to millions of creators, we noticed that emails work best. It’s more professional, they have no character limit and you can present your brand and affiliate program in detail (attach files, send contracts, etc).
To do affiliate outreach effectively you can:
- Get emails of your targeted affiliates and handle the email outreach independently
- Get a team of 40+ creator sales experts to recruit affiliates on your behalf
- Craft an email copy and let our deliverability team send the emails (this is for large scale campaigns).
Or by reaching out using handy tools like Linked Helper, especially if you want to contact them through LinkedIn.
Craft an engaging subject line
Subject lines make or break the deal. They must be compelling and engaging enough to get the reader to open the message.
From our experience, there are a few things to help you with the formatting of the subject line:
- Keep it short: The subject lines must be 30-50 characters tops or 4-7 words. The most successful phrase our partnership team uses is “Collab Offer: {Your Brand} x {Affiliate Name}”. It’s clear and delivers the main purpose of the message. You can use this phrase or create something similar.
- Avoid emojis: Although some say that visuals help get the reader’s attention, we had more success without them. Typically, they are associated with phishing or scams or emails we all have once received such as “A Job Offer You Cannot Miss: Earn $10,000 today🤑🤑🤑”. But, if you really want to use emoji, make sure it’s appropriate and complements the context of the subject line.
- Use standard font and case: Professional offers have readable and standard fonts. Arial is one of the best fonts for emails. Also, pay attention to the case. You can start each word with a capital letter, but writing the entire subject line in upper case can end up in spam.
- Avoid overpromising words or numbers: Showing the benefits in the subject line is one of the best strategies to grab the reader’s attention. But, if you use overpromising words and numbers, or words that create a sense of urgency, they may end up in spam.
Create a Compelling Offer
Writing a compelling offer is another challenging part of the affiliate recruitment process. But, with the right approach, you can create an offer they cannot refuse. What we noticed shows the best results include the following:
- Personalized greeting: Always address the affiliate by their name. This makes it sound like you’re not forwarding the email to hundreds of affiliates, but it’s dedicated only to them.
- Implement what caught your attention: Research the affiliate and find interests, values or hobbies relatable to you or your brand and add them to your email. This is a great way to establish a friendly relationship and transition to the main offer.
- Be transparent: When you reach the offer part, be transparent about your collaboration expectations, deadlines, and budget. Add the benefits of the collaboration to enhance the message, and you’re all set. However, this should be brief. Leave the details for the next stage of the recruitment. In the first email, you should only highlight the main parts of the collaboration.
- Add a CTA: To complete the email, don’t forget about the CTA. This step subtly leads the affiliate to take the next step which can be to schedule a meeting or to get a detailed offer.
These steps separate your proposal from generic cold emails and help you stand out from the crowd. The more natural it sounds, the more likely the affiliate is to open the email. Therefore, edit until you feel intrigued to open it.
Ultimately, if you want a professional email or still struggle to write a compelling message, feel free to use our free email templates.
Highlight Success Stories
You can use social media channels to promote the success stories of your top-performing affiliates. A testimonial is a powerful strategy to grab the attention of other affiliates and get them to join your affiliate program. You can post the testimonials on your stories, feed or use them on your affiliate program page.
Additionally, you can implement them in your email marketing. Support them with the financial structure you offer, metrics of your performance, and other benefits relevant to the affiliate
Affiliate Activation: The Final Step of Recruiting Affiliates
The final step of recruiting affiliates is making a connection, giving them the tools to succeed, and motivating them to actively promote your brand.
When affiliates accept the collaboration, the key to having a successful affiliate program is activating the affiliate partners. This is a process that motivates them to effectively promote your brand and increase their conversion rates.
With affiliate activation you are building a group of passionate brand advocates ready to deliver impressive results. So take the time to create a comprehensive activation strategy and watch your brand reach new heights. Here’s how to do so.
Onboarding process
To recruit affiliates successfully provide a helpful and welcoming onboarding process. To do so, offer them:
- Brochures
- Manuals,
- High-quality images
- Other documentation to introduce your product better
Make sure the materials are informative and cover all questions a newbie affiliate may have at this point.
Training and resources
Offering training sessions, manuals and educational guides on “how to succeed as an affiliate” helps your affiliate partner specialize in their role and deliver the best results. There are many cost-effective online courses for affiliate marketing covering various topics online.
Also, industry events, online webinars, or affiliate marketing conferences can be extra helpful for their professional and social growth.
By sending them the products you want them to promote
You can significantly improve their selling ability if your affiliates know your products well. Therefore, sending them the products you want them to promote should be a part of your activation strategy.
This approach not only gives affiliates first-hand experience with your product but also fuels their enthusiasm, leading to authentic and engaging promotions.
Engagement and motivation
Keep your affiliates posted about the latest news in the company to make them feel like a valuable part of the team. You can use newsletters or communication channels to engage with them. Additionally, offer performance bonuses and exclusive offers to increase their motivation and establish grounds for long-term collaboration.
Conclusion
About 8 out of 10 brands have affiliate partners promoting their brands. But, as you can see affiliate recruitment is a complex process that has several stages, and each comes with its challenges.
Yet, if you follow the steps above, we guarantee you will have positive results.
Or, you can let us recruit affiliates on your behalf. We’ll dedicate a team of our creator sales experts to work on recruiting affiliates for your brand. From finding ideal affiliates for your brand, to reaching out to recruit them and even affiliate activation, we can handle all.
Want to recruit affiliates?
You’re in the right place! Schedule a quick call with our team to discuss you goals and our strategy to help you achieve them.
FAQ
To define your niche, brands go over several touchpoints. First, they define their target geolocation. Then, the interests and values of the affiliates, and finally the demographic base like age, education and experience level, gender, etc.
Set KPIs. They can be a number of recruited affiliates, affiliate activation and retention rate, conversion rate, and number of generated sales and revenue.
Ideally, you can use affiliate tracking software to track affiliate sales and other relevant performance metrics, Analytics Tools for traffic and conversion metrics, CRM Systems and Performance Marketing.
To have a successful affiliate program, look for affiliates who:
- Can influence purchasing decisions
- Have a similar audience to your target customers
- Are relevant to your brand and niche
- Align with your brand values and image
- Are experienced in promoting products or services.
Commission rates depend on the affiliate program, the experience of the affiliate, the audience, etc. They usually vary between 5-30%, but to make sure you offer a fair commission, you must analyze what your competitors offer.
All contracts between a brand and an influencer for affiliate marketing must follow the requirements of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can learn more about it here.
Provide enhanced marketing support, early access, and product samples. Recognize top performers, maintain regular communication, offer flexible payment options, create exclusive deals, and collaborate on content. Continuously seek feedback and adapt strategies to maintain motivation and drive sales.
