A strong affiliate marketing strategy is a great way to bring attention to your brand and its services, but the wrong affiliates can cause more harm than good. Here are some personalities you should avoid when seeking out affiliates and ways you can improve your company’s strategic approach.
New Affiliates and Personalities to Avoid
- The Try-Hard Type
We’ve all known someone on Facebook — perhaps an aunt or fellow mother in town — who was selling products from a multi-level marketing (MLM) company. Every post is about the products they’re selling, and they consistently talk about how incredible, amazing, and life-changing their products are. This is not the person you want as an affiliate; you want someone who presents your product and brand in a natural way — marketing is as much about subtlety as it is about being seen.
- The Person Who Sells Rather Than Helps
Have you ever had a person really try to sell you on a product, telling you over and over and over about the qualities and traits of said product and brand? Pretty off-putting, right? Find an affiliate who understands the importance of selling your brand messaging, not just your products. Your affiliates should be informing their audiences about how your company can help and why you should become part of their daily routine.
- The Overly Curated Social Media Handle
We often hear the term authenticity mentioned when it comes to social media and marketing — the way people seem relatable, real, and human. When looking for affiliates, you want someone people can relate to, not someone whose profile is highly curated. Think of finding someone people can invest their emotions in — perhaps a vlogger who is simply themselves rather than trying to be a particular image; while someone like Kylie Jenner might be incredibly famous, consider staying away from social media types with accounts where photos are photoshopped or face-tuned to excess and whose lives are unlike the average person’s.
- The Nonchalant, Uninterested Marketer
Your affiliate should care about your brand, speaking from the heart with conviction and presenting your services in a wholesome, relatable way. Some people looking to become one of your affiliates might be looking for a paycheck more than representing your brand. Stay away from affiliates who show little care for how they represent the business of others, as it speaks to a level of disinterest and disrespect for others.
How to Protect Your Affiliate Network
- Don’t Just Hire Any New Affiliates
Finding an affiliate is rather easy, as almost anyone is interested in making money, but you want to make sure you’re finding the right affiliates. Go out of your way to entice former customers to apply to your program, relying on people who know your brand well. Furthermore, find social media personalities whose interests align with your brand’s niche.
- Keep Your Affiliate Network Authentic
Hire those you trust to represent your brand well. An affiliate shouldn’t be faking their interest in your company — faux marketing is easily seen. You should rely on people who truly care about your business, brand, and products. They should want to represent your brand, solely because they are interested enough to do so. With this care comes an authenticity that cannot be garnered otherwise. This is how you’ll end up with affiliates who speak about your brand passionately, truly selling their followers on your services.
- Keep Track of Your Affiliate Program
You should trust your affiliates, but you should also keep an eye on how they’re performing. Affiliate tracking software is a great way to keep track of an affiliate’s performance while also determining how well your program is doing on its own.
The data you receive might tell you that one type of affiliate is performing far better than another, or it might show that a certain type of affiliate campaign is working better with some affiliates while it fails for another. This information can be employed to ensure you’re keeping the right affiliates around, all while learning about the ways you can help your affiliates perform their best.
The Bottom Line
An affiliate marketing strategy is a great implementation to bring attention to your brand. By utilizing authentic, personable affiliates, you can attract potential customers who may even become long-term customers. Some of them might even become future affiliates!
If you’re looking to create an affiliate marketing strategy or are wondering how to attract the right affiliates, considering reaching out to one of our experts here at Refersion to discuss your options.
