How to grow an affiliate program?
We have a subscription based instagram growth service that helps users grow their followers using automated engagement methods. So we're in the phase of our project where we have consistent customer growth advertising on multiple networks, but we're now looking into setting up an effective affiliate program.
Because we're using recurly as our subscription management platform, we've integrated Leaddyno as our third party affiliate program. It's been very useful so far tracking conversions etc. But we're not growing our affiliate program as we expected. We're currently marketing our affiliate program to our customers giving them 50% of the first month's sale, but only a small percentage are actually signing up for it and an even smaller percentage are being effective with it.
I'm looking for some suggestions on how to effectively grow this aspect of the business. I've been reading a lot on Reddit and luckily one of the articles I read turned me onto indiehackers.com.
My next step is to create an email drip campaign teaching people how to refer their friends etc. Any help is appreciated such as where to advertise it, post it, etc.
I grew up in the affiliate industry and spent about ten years at affiliate networks / affiliates before striking out on my own. I've done everything from launch a major sportswear brand in emerging markets to manage the biggest telecoms programmes in the UK to run my own scrappy affiliate sports nutrition site.
A few thoughts from me...
1). It sounds like perhaps you're conflating the idea of an affiliate program with a referral program. Some of the positioning here will come from the type of users that are the majority of your audience - you mentioned you've primarily reached out to your existing audience. Are they Instagram users and influencers who aren't as B2B focused? If so, might a "Refer a friend" program have more cut through as an idea for this audience (using the same tracking and payment tools), while you retain your "Affiliate program" for a more affiliate-focused audience? In my experience, a heck of a lot of individuals are hazy about what the word affiliate actually means, even if they work in digital marketing. I'd suggest finding a quick and scrappy way to test out which message works better for your audience to validate this assumption (AB test Facebook ad? Attest survey?)
2). If you're targeting established affiliate companies, I'd suggest a highly targeted approach. Establish the top ten guys you'd want to refer traffic to you. This might be based on Instagram reach, search term coverage, blogs (as mentioned below), etc. Bear in mind these guys will get literally dozens of email invitations every day. Never send a generic email - never ever ever. I used to automatically filter these into my bin. Write a targeted note specifically outlining why you've chosen them and why it's a good idea for their business to work with you (not for your business for them to help you out... why should they care..?) Also I'd really seriously consider communication forms outside of email. Twitter / LinkedIN / Instagram DMs might get much much more cut through
3). Your monetary incentive is everything. Research what your competitors offer. Understand how your conversion fairs in comparison to theirs - sign up to their programmes and actively promote them to find this out. The majority of affiliates who aren't working on a major brand campaign are highly metric focused, so to win their attention you need to deliver a better return per click than the other guy. If in doubt, ask - most affiliates will happily share insights on how much they're getting paid in an effort to improve your commercial structure
Hope that helps
Jules... that was great feedback. We actually call it our "partner" program on the menu bar button but push it as the "affiliate" program in other locations of the website so I definitely appreciate you pointing out the differences and building it based on what we feel will be more useful... having our customers refer friends, or focus on a couple big affiliates to push it.
Off the top of my head:
i) Reach out to bloggers with huge followings and offer them a free license to review the software on their blog. (Especially mom bloggers as they tend to have more engaged readers)
ii) Find blogs reviewing "instagram automation tools" and reach to the editors to include your software (or give them a free license to review it)
iii) List the app on Appsumo (Not really an affiliate program but can grow your customers tremendously)
Good luck!
Great ideas for sure... I appreciate the info.
a bit off topic, but I've been looking into Leaddyno for a client. How do you like them so far?
Are you finding no traction through the leaddyno network of affiliates? I would assume that thats the place to start finding people who you don't have to sell twice (meaning, they already know about the leaddyno platform you just gotta get them slinging on your behalf)
Where are people currently going to discover services like yours? Are people selling courses on udemy? is there a top10instagramgrowthtools.com? Write to these people who are already cultivating an audience and let them know that you've created a way for them to keep getting paid
Leaddyno is a solid program especially since we have a 7 day free trial so it tracks the affiliate sale once the trial is over and the customer has paid. But if you're looking at their "network" of affiliates, it's pretty much non-existent. Haven't seen anyone active in there and it's loaded with a bunch of shopify type content throw up sites.
Thanks for the other suggestions... I'll definitely look into some websites that feature top growth tools and instagram growth methods. We just found a guy on youtube who has a ton of traffic and paid of a link on his video. We shall see. Thanks for the info.
We use Tapfilliate.com because we wanted to pay our affiliate out on a recurring basis (as long as their referred customer was still paying).
Their documentation is pretty rough so we have to spend a lot of time guessing on implementation. Still trying to get it to work right but it's working.
I don't really do any promotion of it (other than it being listed in the web app) and our customer to affiliate ratio is 10:1
It doesn't drive a ton of revenue. The top affiliate really do most of the heavy lifting but it does help with exposure.
I still don't think there is a great affiliate marketing solution for us bootstrappers. COUGH COUGH.... calling all Indie Hackers!! :)
You know... affiliate marketing is a business by itself, hence a big chapter. The MAJOR benefits come when you are IN to marketplaces where hungry affiliates are waiting to see new offers to promote and your site is perfect for Internet Marketers and affiliates, so I'd suggest you to check JVZoo.com. No matter what affiliate program you're using right now, you can utilize additional venues, like JVZoo, WarriorPlus.com too, Paydot.com
What I am telling you here is to create different landing pages, one for each marketplace, ie one page that sells the service via JVZoo, another one via W+, another one via Paydot.com etc.
Then create a "JV page" and add your launch at muncheye.com so to get the attention of the "hungry affiliates."
And you will see the sales coming.
FYI I am a Premium affiliate at JVZoo with over 7K sales there so I am paid to teach what I am telling you here. ;)
What is your website?
www.socialshark.com & www.socialshark.com/affiliate is the affiliate program.