Referral/Affiliate growth

Hi Glenn!

For Zlappo, I use Rewardful, they're a verified Stripe partner, and it has been working out fine so far.

It integrates deeply with Stripe, so anytime you make a sale, it tracks the commissions due, and so does it whenever you make a refund, in which case the commissions are no longer due.

I've run my referral program for a year now, and here are some pointers from my own experience:

Advertise a high commission rate, anything from 35-50%. It incentivizes affiliate marketers to sell your products on your behalf. They're always shopping for the best deals around to focus their efforts on.
If possible, commissions should also be continuous/recurring, meaning they should be paid month after month, so long as the referred user's subscription is continuous.
If you're worried about paying out affiliates indefinitely, you can limit the commissions to the first 12-18 months. It's still a big incentive for them to sell your product.
Always always ensure that your commissions are due after your refund period is over. If you pay out commissions before your refund period expires (depending on what your refund policy is with your customers), you're going to be in a world of hurt.
1 big affiliate/influencer is worth 50-100 small affiliates with little to no audience. Do your best to sign some of these bigger partners. The only thing that really created an inflection point in my MRR was to sign up bigger partners and influencers.
Provide as many graphics, videos, images, screenshots, ads, testimonials, etc. etc. to aid your affiliates in their efforts to promote your product/company.
The easiest way to advertise your affiliate program is to put a huge button in your app itself that says "Earn Recurring $$$ -- Click here."
The most effective way, as opposed to the easiest way, is to cold DM/email potential partners and influencers who will most likely use your product AND sell it on your behalf. However, they must love your product first and foremost, since their reputation is very important and they only want to recommend products they believe in. I also find that there must be some sort of synergy/fit before this can work. E.g. Since I sell a Twitter growth tool, I partner with an influencer who sells courses on how to build a Twitter audience. We came up with a bundled plan where the buyers of his course can get exclusive access to my app -- in return, I pay him a commission for referring users to me.
Find out if your affiliate software will process and pay out commissions automatically. My affiliate software unfortunately doesn't allow you to auto-pay them once the commissions are due, which would be preferable, and the manual payment of commissions becomes very unwieldy and even nightmarish after a while. Currently, my affiliates cash out commissions manually whenever they become due. (However, there's an added benefit of improved cash flow on your side if affiliates cash out manually/individually, so that's really up to you how you want to implement it.)
Be ready for affiliates to "hijack" your brand somewhat. Affiliates will run search ads so that people searching for your brand will click on their affiliate links instead of your #1 organic link, for instance. Hell, I even had an affiliate register a similar domain name, GetZlappo.com, just to redirect traffic to his affiliate link. So prepare a policy on what affiliates can or can't do in the promotion of your brand.

I hope you find these useful, just let me know if you have any questions, I'll be happy to share what I know from my experience.

Say something nice to Glenn…

10
Hi Glenn!

For Zlappo, I use Rewardful, they're a verified Stripe partner, and it has been working out fine so far.

It integrates deeply with Stripe, so anytime you make a sale, it tracks the commissions due, and so does it whenever you make a refund, in which case the commissions are no longer due.

I've run my referral program for a year now, and here are some pointers from my own experience:
1. Advertise a high commission rate, anything from 35-50%. It incentivizes affiliate marketers to sell your products on your behalf. They're always shopping for the best deals around to focus their efforts on.
2. If possible, commissions should also be continuous/recurring, meaning they should be paid month after month, so long as the referred user's subscription is continuous.
3. If you're worried about paying out affiliates indefinitely, you can limit the commissions to the first 12-18 months. It's still a big incentive for them to sell your product.
4. Always always ensure that your commissions are due after your refund period is over. If you pay out commissions before your refund period expires (depending on what your refund policy is with your customers), you're going to be in a world of hurt.
5. 1 big affiliate/influencer is worth 50-100 small affiliates with little to no audience. Do your best to sign some of these bigger partners. The only thing that really created an inflection point in my MRR was to sign up bigger partners and influencers.
6. Provide as many graphics, videos, images, screenshots, ads, testimonials, etc. etc. to aid your affiliates in their efforts to promote your product/company.
7. The easiest way to advertise your affiliate program is to put a huge button in your app itself that says "Earn Recurring $$$ -- Click here."
8. The most effective way, as opposed to the easiest way, is to cold DM/email potential partners and influencers who will most likely use your product AND sell it on your behalf. However, they must love your product first and foremost, since their reputation is very important and they only want to recommend products they believe in. I also find that there must be some sort of synergy/fit before this can work. E.g. Since I sell a Twitter growth tool, I partner with an influencer who sells courses on how to build a Twitter audience. We came up with a bundled plan where the buyers of his course can get exclusive access to my app -- in return, I pay him a commission for referring users to me.
9. Find out if your affiliate software will process and pay out commissions automatically. My affiliate software unfortunately doesn't allow you to auto-pay them once the commissions are due, which would be preferable, and the manual payment of commissions becomes very unwieldy and even nightmarish after a while. Currently, my affiliates cash out commissions manually whenever they become due. (However, there's an added benefit of improved cash flow on your side if affiliates cash out manually/individually, so that's really up to you how you want to implement it.)
10. Be ready for affiliates to "hijack" your brand somewhat. Affiliates will run search ads so that people searching for your brand will click on their affiliate links instead of your #1 organic link, for instance. Hell, I even had an affiliate register a similar domain name, GetZlappo.com, just to redirect traffic to his affiliate link. So prepare a policy on what affiliates can or can't do in the promotion of your brand.
I hope you find these useful, just let me know if you have any questions, I'll be happy to share what I know from my experience.
simplisticallysimple

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5 years ago
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1. 2
  
  Great answer Jay! Thanks for being a Rewardful customer! Automated payouts are on the roadmap. :)
  
  bradycassidy
  
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  5 years ago
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2. 2
  
  Awesome post! Do you do any work with your affiliates once they are signed up in terms of keeping them up to date with product improvements?
  
  Glenn
  
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  5 years ago
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  1. 1
    
    Vast majority of my affiliates are also my customers, so yes they are aware.
    
    I have an updates notification in my app that lets them know whenever a new feature is added.
    
    simplisticallysimple
    
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    5 years ago
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2

Hey @Glenn, Brady here from Rewardful. If you send me an email at brady [at] getrewardful.com, I'll send you over a webinar I did a few months ago that walks you through all this. It's purely educational and doesn't have any pitch of our platform.

bradycassidy

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5 years ago
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1

I'm just about to do this myself, so I'll be keeping a close eye on this thread :o) I'm using Stripe and % commission. Look forward to hearing the 2s and 4s of people who've been there.

jaymie

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5 years ago
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