“Bring a friend, and we will reward you with N% of the amount of his order!” - something like the classic proposal for digital business partners. Many people want to stimulate word of mouth in the hope of increasing their momentum. Here are just a few get really serious results. We will understand what, why and for whom.
Do you need affiliate program?
To immediately understand whether it makes sense to read the article, we will voice the categories for which this question is not applicable in practice:
- Low margin products . If you have high costs, and the cost does not allow “to thank” additional lead generators, then the affiliate program in the classic form is meaningless. There are 2 exceptions to this rule:
- a) You are ready to “spend money” in order to start earning in the future (after up / cross-sale).
- b) There is the possibility of intangible motivation. For example, invite a person to train.
- High workload for several months ahead. Everything is obvious here. If you stimulate the receipt of new orders in this situation, without being ready for the rapid expansion of production and administrative capacities, this will bring more problems than good. Failure, for example, to a close friend of a current client can have consequences.
- If the goal is to get rid of / delegate presale . Leads coming through the affiliate program are often far from signing the contract. Moreover, I would not even call them “hot”. In terms of temperature, they are sometimes close to “cold”. In such orders, there may be a sea of doubts, uncertainty about the choice of services / requirements, etc.
- When stability is needed. Affiliate programs are not a complete alternative to CPA. Although even large networks do not guarantee a smooth supply of leads.
For whom?
If you do not fall into the above categories, then continue, go to the point. Or rather, to the key participants in this process. The target audience of the affiliate program can be the most variegated. Applying the same approach for different types of partners is an unallowable error, which ultimately reduces the effect to a minimum.
- Customers Keep in mind that they are unlikely to ever become your full-fledged "agents". Yes, of course, the business owner is surrounded by your potential customers. But he will not offer the services of his contractors when meeting with each of them. This is at least unethical. And even if he is wildly pleased with your product and service, do not flatter yourself. The maximum that you can count on is recommending you in the best case when someone you know will want to order a website / application / Internet marketing. And then, if a person comes up with your affiliate program, and he will generally have a mood to talk on a similar topic. Therefore, I recommend making clients super-loyal "lawyers" - they will bring you much more profit as advocates.
- Employees :
- a) Active . “Everyone in the company sells” - that's what the business saying goes, right? What if your cleaner next month will bring a hundred or two leads? Aside from jokes: not using the potential of people who work for you is stupid. Only work in this regard can be either spontaneous ("There will be an opportunity - bring the client"), or systemic (read - an additional opportunity to earn for those who are ready not just to sit exactly in an office chair). About system - we will discuss in more detail below.
- b) Gone . Parting with the majority of employees can not be avoided. And if you said goodbye on a positive note (yes, including, therefore, you need to part without a negative), then you can offer your former colleague to continue periodic budgeting from the company's current account, if it is useful.
- Partners :
- a) From adjacent areas . For example, software developers. Your target audience may coincide with them, and then it makes sense to talk about a “mutual” affiliate program.
- b) Contractors . Suppose you are an agency without its own staff of performers in certain areas, therefore, you outsource them to subcontracting production, which has corresponding strong competences. And this team is not ready to work with certain orders. I hope, of course, how easy it is to find a common language with them? The same story is relevant from the reverse side: subcontractor → agency.
- Other It is difficult to give the name of this category of partners, so I will describe it as follows: there are people who have no direct relation to your business who are interested in additional income. Most likely these are those who have not gone far along the career ladder. Perhaps even very "green" unemployed candidates, which no one offers good salaries. But they have energy, free time and the desire to earn. Do not harbor unnecessary illusions: they will never replace a full-fledged sales department. But some benefit from them can be learned. And this is about the "system": you need to chew everything, teach and motivate.
How to create an affiliate program
Serve it under different sauce. The main thing - from what ingredients.
First, determine with a view to:
- Expansion of cooperation with a specific target audience.
- Formation of an agent network.
- Increase awareness.
All three options may suggest the presence of similar conditions and descriptions of the essence of the affiliate program, but the approaches are completely different.
Consider a few examples:
The client is given an additional discount of 10%, operating according to the principle of “name who brought you to us”. Classic. Moreover, everything is serious - the relationship between the agency and the partner is fixed by a special agreement. Interesting positioning - looking for partners with whom they will "close the gaps in the matrix of each other's services."
The size of the commission is tied to the type of service. From client budgets of clients who sit on the subscription, the studio pays bonuses of up to 6 months. They calm him down, saying that non-payment of interest is punishable under the contract by a 5-fold fine, and in general, the manager conducting statistics on the partner follows all matters.
The proposal is not sharpened for a specific group, but the variations of cooperation are spelled out - the usual “agent” with remuneration and commissions (the actual client remains “in the hands” of the partner, as he continues to communicate with the customer even after signing the contract). Well, the guys promise some support, which is also important.
Payments up to 20% (moreover, they promise a “growing” commission), referral system and joint sales. Standard.
It seems in places everything is good, but at the same time something is missing.
What should ideally be described under conditions other than the above:
- Example of calculations: how much a person needs to make an effort to get a conditional 1 rub.
- Cases: for how long the partners made the first sales, how much they earned. Until you tell a specific example / story, it will seem that everything promised is a fairy tale. Or vice versa: false high expectations will arise, and the partner will be upset when he is soon convinced of their unreality.
- Requirements for applications. If you don’t work with any particular type of projects / budgets, fix it right away, and not when a customer has come to you on the recommendation, just taking time and effort on the presley.
- Sales statistics: the average conversion in the contract (do not be surprised, many people think that it is 100% - hence the misunderstandings and disappointments), a change in checks, etc.
- Possible situations: what will happen if a partner has led a lot of leads, and his commission is still at “0”. Will there be a check with the proceedings? Or somehow compensate for his efforts?
- Instructions. That very point about “systematization”. Suppose a person has a desire to generate leads for you. But there is no understanding how to do this. What do we have to do? To educate:
- Product (what it will offer).
- Central Asia (whom to recommend).
- Pricing (how much).
- Sites and ways to find potential customers (where and how).
- Standard questions and objections.
Of course, the manager may not have so much temporary resource to explain all this personally to each partner. Output: prepare a video / text instructions, do not regret one-time invest in its development, to save in the future.
Implementation
By the way, before the “first” there should have been the item “Preparation”. What else needs to be done before the start of the implementation of the affiliate program:
- Predict and lay costs.
- Prepare sales: explain that a new type of applications can start coming soon, which need to be processed appropriately (even the same briefing can be adapted under the recommendations on recommendations - for example, to recognize expectations related to someone who recommended you as a contractor). Surely familiar stories, when the client wants to "exactly the same site as his friend"?
- Create a ground for identifying the best partners and immediately think about how you will cooperate with them. Example: you have determined that from Vasiliy come the highest quality leads that bring decent momentum. What should be done? The minimum is to think about additional motivation. Maximum - to consider its role with certain functions in the state (up to the invitation to the business, if you have a small team that clearly lacks the strength and enthusiasm of one founder).
Only after that you can run affiliate program.
Whether it will be a separate landing on a subdomain, or you will make a cool presentation, is a minor question. Much more important is how to present "sell" affiliate program.
If everything is simple with an old acquaintance (sometimes it’s enough just to get interested in the following call: “My friend, you can earn an extra penny. Let's have lunch at the cafe at 13:00? I’ll tell you everything”), then for your future agents with whom there aren’t yet a certain history of relationships, such a scheme, of course, will not work.
What are the tools to attract partners:
- Jobs on job-sites (just do not be fooled by people, promising salaries). By the way, in such a way, sometimes they even sell low-cost or no franchise at all.
- Profile events that your colleagues come to with a similar target audience, such as seminars, business breakfasts, etc.
- Publishing content on near-digital sites. Tell us how you managed to organize a system that allows freelancers to earn money with the help of their circle of friends.
If you feel that there is strength for something more ambitious, then you can even think about creating a base of non-core applications. Of course, to implement this, you will need to cooperate with other businesses that have a stream of leads that interest you. Perhaps it will be a closed community operating on the principle of a “Unified product base for a typical entrepreneur,” which will include 1C nicknames, system administrators, printers and other players in your area.
Summary
It must be admitted that the effectiveness of affiliate programs, organized in the old manner, is low. But in general, the partnership model of cooperation is playing an ever-increasing role in business every day. No agency / production can survive, being in a vacuum closed from the rest of the world, because it is based on B2B relations.
And the one who thinks broader wins, thinking about 2-sided benefits, and uses non-standard approaches - for example, refuses the usual interest and moves to other formats of motivation (exchange of leads, invitation to big projects, etc.).
Therefore, the call-to-action is as follows : build partnerships, regulate their rules and plan activities, weighing all aspects!