Advanced Approaches to Affiliate Recruiting,

Training & Management

Heather Paulson, President, Paulson Management Group

Geno Prussakov, CEO & President, AM Navigator LLC

Evgenii “Geno” Prussakov

CEO & President

AM Navigator

Twitter.com/eprussakov

Definition

Affiliate manager –

Definition

Affiliate manager – one called to manage the unmanageable ones

Challenges

Affiliates are by definition unmanageable* love of independence

* no performance contracts* freedom to join and/or drop merchants* intolerance of top-down management

Challenges

Affiliates are by definition unmanageable

Affiliates differ in (i) types and (ii) level of development/maturity

Challenges

Affiliates are by definition unmanageable

Affiliates differ in (i) types and (ii) level of development/maturity

De-theorized affiliate management

Redefinition

Affiliate Management

Redefinition

Affiliate Management

Affiliate Leadership+

Affiliate Program Management

Contingency Approach

Contingent

“dependent on”

“conditioned by something else”

There is “no one universal solution… but the correct solution will depend on the unique needs of the situation” /Montana, P.J., Charnov, B.H. (2002) Management./

Contingency Approach

Affiliate Program Manager

StyleTraits

Behavior

TypeNeeds

MaturityTraining

TaskRestrictionsEnvironment

Affiliates Situation

Contingency Approach

More than 350 Fortune 500® companies report using it.

Guidelines based on characteristics of individual followers – specifically, on their readiness or maturity level.

Contingency Approach

“Maturity has two different facets”

1. Job maturity – “job-related ability, skills, and knowledge”

2. Psychological maturity – “self-confidence and self-respect”

/Landy, F.J., Conte, J.M. (2007) Work in the 21st Century: An Introduction to Industrial and Organizational Psychology./

Contingency Approach

Contingency Approach

Example (low maturity)

“Unable and insecure” = newbie (have the time, but lack education/training and psychological maturity)

It is appropriate/necessary to:

a) educate them b) provide them with specific instructionsc) encourage

Contingency Approach

Contingency Approach

Example (medium maturity)

Contingency Approach

Example (high maturity)

Conclusion

To achieve optimal performance, affiliate program managers are to adapt their leadership style to accommodate the affiliate’s level of maturity.

Such leadership approach should be projected into all ways of communicating with affiliates.

Heather PaulsonPresident

PaulsonManagementGroup.com

Twitter.com/heatherpaulsons

Finding the Right Affiliates to Recruit

The affiliates best suited for your program as well as your program offers are more easily pressed to be engaged then those that are not. Finding the right affiliates is “key” to engagement! So how do you find affiliates that WANT to be active with your affiliate program? First decide what type of affiliates you are after!

Affiliate Types Coupon Affiliates (SEO) - Paid Search Affiliates Niche Affiliates Blog Affiliates Email Affiliates Video Affiliates Data feed Affiliates Webmaster Affiliates Social media Affiliates

Finding the Right Affiliates to Recruit

Find the affiliates that are going to run with your affiliate promotional media and your terms of agreement as well as your offer need to be identified BEFORE you waste your time trying to activate affiliates who will not be able to run your program due to media or TOA constraints. YOU need recruitment tools that will help you locate the RIGHT affiliates.

Finding the “right” affiliates is key to success Syntryx.com has 1.6 MILLION affiliates available now DomainTools.com Hand Research – Google, Blog Lists, Social Media EmailAnalyst.com

Do you want more Super Affiliates?

Affiliates Can be Identified

1. Through Code

2. Through Click Domains

3. Through Links

4. Through SEO placement

5. Through WHOIS

6. Through Domain Names

Recruiting in Commission Junction

Do you want more Super Affiliates?

Recruiting in Commission Junction

CJ makes it easy to recruit affiliates!

Search for affiliates based on PID

“Push” your offer to super affiliates

Email them and let them know what you are offering them

Recruitment and Activation Process

1) Call the affiliates

2) Email the affiliate and introduce yourself and your program

3) Advertise in Paid Search

4) Advertise Affiliate Forums and Boards

5) Create an Affiliate Blog or Forum for your Program and optimize for natural search

6) Call the affiliates again with a “bump”

Now what do I do with all of them?

Where should your resources be dedicated?

Identify the Affiliate Marketing Clusters.

ARM – Affiliate Relationship Management

ARM (Affiliate Relationship Management) is the process of identifying, categorizing (clustering into groups), and communicating with affiliates in different performance levels across multiple channels within the e marketing arena. ARM can be expanded to include partner programs within the offline marketing channels. ARM processes can be created based on the program's criteria, or on the affiliate or partner program's revenue goals.

ARM – Process identified and the acronym coined in 2004 by Heather Paulson

Advanced Affiliate Relationship Issues

Search Engine Monitoring – Major issue brand and trademark poaching

Remedy – Get email alerts with iSpionage.com

Social Media Monitoring – Major issue Power Cloaker’s such as LinkBrander.com shortening affiliate URL’s that are being used in twitter and social media, affiliates phish a click to set cookie.

Remedy - Trackur.com, Filtrbox.com, Radian6, Twitter brand monitoring

email Monitoring – brand management and enforcement of offers

Remedy – email Analyst

Advanced Affiliate Relationship Issues

Example of brand arbitrage in Social media using affiliate link power cloaker

Advanced Affiliate Relationship Issues

Advanced Affiliate Relationship Issues

Q & A

Heather PaulsonPresidentPaulsonManagementGroup.com1-800-384-7760

Geno PrussakovCEO & PresidentAMNavigator.com1-888-588-8866