Learn How the Heavy-Hitters Recruit, Train, and Retain Top Affiliates
Communicating with your affiliates is so very important in helping you to get affiliates to promote your product and we're going to explore some of the possible avenues. It probably goes without saying, but you want to be able to explain any changes or additions to your product and tell them about any new material available. You also want to get feedback from the people who are buying. Affiliates are getting questions and comments from their customers or potential customers and this is valuable information for you. Feedback can help you to fix your sales page so it's clearer and/or address concerns that people have before buying.
Keep in mind that you don't always know who your affiliates are. They may have been surfing through the ClickBank marketplace and found your wonderful product and decided to start promoting it. Your best bet here is to try and capture them through your affiliate page. When you list the tools on your affiliate page, you can also encourage the affiliate to sign up to get updates when new tools are available. Let them know that you are planning on having new email promos or brandable PDFs soon and if they sign up, they will be the first to receive these promo materials.
Here are some possible means of communicating:
newsletter - Instead of a rambling email, you can send the info in a tight, easy to read newsletter format. Your affiliates can quickly get what they need and get down to business.
blog - Set up a blog just for your affiliates and tell them to stop by often. Encourage them to leave comments and ask questions. This can be a great educational tool for all of you.
forum - If you feel you want to encourage even more participation from the affiliates, consider setting up a forum. Both blogs and forums require that you or your Affiliate Manager constantly visit to answer the questions in a timely manner.
Twitter - This is an excellent way to announce happenings to the affiliates. Perhaps you're starting a new contest that's time sensitive. People who don't visit your blog or forum very often would miss out.
email - Usually email is your first line of communication. Even if you use other forms of communication, you still want to remind them to check these other forms (blog, forum, Twitter, FaceBook, etc.)
Naturally, you aren't going to want to use all of these communication vehicles because you'll drive your affiliates bonkers, but do pick more than one. Some people spend more time on Twitter than checking their email, and vice versa. Regardless of which ways you decide to communicate, remember to include a call to action.