Presenting Your Best Self – 4: Reply Emails

For our fourth edition of “Presenting Your Best Self”, we are going to discuss the Approve Reply email.

In each Merchant account, there are three reply emails that can be created that will be automatically sent out when an Affiliate:

1. Applies for the program
2. Is Approved into the program
3. When an Affiliate is declined from the program.

You will find these emails in your account settings. Go to the My Account menu tab, and click the icon for “Edit Settings”. The reply emails are listed just below your search keywords.

The welcome letter, or email that the Affiliates receive when they are approved into your program, is one of the most important pieces of communication that the Affiliate will receive from you. It is their first introduction to your program and a great opportunity to provide the Affiliate with tools they can use to get active right away.

Your welcome letter can be created with an HTML editor and copied into the space provided in the ShareASale interface. I prefer HTML simply because it allows the Merchant to include a product image or two and gives more flavor to the email. Plus, what you create for the welcome letter can serve as a template for other Affiliate newsletters you send out. But certainly, this is not a requirement and plain text will do the trick just as well.

The goal of your welcome letter is to move your Affiliates into action. Sometimes Affiliates may join a Merchant program but then leave it on the back burner if they are not presented with a strong introduction to the program. In my opinion, a good welcome letter will include the following components:

1. A brief opening paragraph (a few sentences) welcoming the Affiliate to the program.
2. Re-state the value the Affiliates will receive with their partnership with you (commission rate, cookie duration, bonuses, any other affiliate tools you provide)
3. Provide links to some Affiliate marketing tools such as banners, products, coupons or text links
4. Provide other tools Affiliates could use to start marketing right away such as some content about your products, consumer demographics, website conversion rate, seasonality, testimonials, etc.
5. If applicable, current Affiliate promotion such as first sale bonus
6. Contact information including name and email of the person the Affiliate can get in touch with should they have any questions.

Use the links below to easily direct Affiliates to the page on their interface where they can locate your tools. Just swap out the YOURMERCHANTID with your ShareASale Merchant ID number to make the links active.

Link to your Datafeed
https://www.shareasale.com/a-downloadproducts-bulk.cfm?merchantID=YOURMERCHANTID

Link to your Coupons
https://www.shareasale.com/a-dealscurrent.cfm?merchantID=YOURMERCHANTID

Link to your Creative Inventory
https://www.shareasale.com/a-getmerchantcode.cfm?merchantID=YOURMERCHANTID

If you wanted to feature a specific coupon or a specific banner, you could also use the newsletter macros in the reply email so Affiliates will be able to simply copy and paste the creative directly from the email. Macros will also enable you to have the reply email personalized to the recipient. Some examples of macros you may want to include in your welcome letter are listed below. Just remember to replace the XXXX with the ID number of the creative you are using in the macro.

• If you would like to include the Affiliate’s first name: !!FIRSTNAME!!
• If you would like to include the Affiliate’s ShareASale UserID number: !!USERID!!
• If you would like to include the banner code for a specific text link or .jpg/.gif banner: !!BANNERIDXXXX!! (in an HTML email, the actual banner image will be displayed)
• If you would like to include the Affiliate tracking link for a specific deal/coupon: !!DEALIDXXXXLINK!! (Please note that this will create a text link using the title of the deal. This macro generates HTML code, so if you are sending an HTML email, the actual link will display.)
• If you would like to include the Affiliate tracking link for a specific product from your datafeed: !!PRODUCTIDXXXXLINK!! (This macro generates HTML code, so if you are sending an HTML email, the actual link will display.)

For more information on how macros work, click HERE

If you have any questions or if you would like to see a sample HTML welcome letter, please email us at shareasale@shareasale.com.

Presenting Your Best Self – Part 1
Presenting Your Best Self – Part 2
Presenting Your Best Self – Part 3