Bring Your Affiliate Program Back to Life: Chapter 1

It is your first day of work as the Marketing Manager at your new company. As you are getting your desk set up, the boss comes in and asks you to look over the company’s Affiliate Program. She would like you to find out what state the account is in, and let upper management know by the end of the day if it is something the company should continue pursuing.

You had done your research before being given the job and were aware that they once had a healthy, active program on the ShareASale network. The account has not been managed well lately and has low profitability at this point. You know the benefits of a strong Affiliate Program, so you flip on your computer to learn how you can work with ShareASale to rebuild the account and find success.

You will want to check if the program is set up as an Auto-Deposit Merchant. This is key to your recruitment strategy and successful program management. Having this setting turned on assures Affiliates that your account will always be funded and that their links will remain active, as there is no fear of dipping under the zero-dollar threshold. This is a huge plus for them when it comes to choosing Merchants, especially in a keyword or category search where some Merchants have similar traits. A simple setting like Auto-Deposit can swing the odds in your favor. 

Next, take the time to review your Program Agreement in your Edit Settings page. This section is your official contract with your Affiliates. Any restrictions you may have will need to be explicitly laid out here. Without these, legally speaking, there are no restrictions on how Affiliates may promote you or your links. Make sure you write detailed policies such as your social media, coupon/deal, trademark, PPC bidding rules and more as needed.

Let the Affiliates know that if these policies are broken in any way, it will be cause for removal from your Affiliate Program. Learn more about setting up your Program Agreement and your Compliance Strategy by clicking the link below.

Finally, make sure you utilize the Search Keywords list found on the Edit Settings page. We allow you to use 255 characters and you will want to make use of all of them. Save characters by not pluralizing, use exact matches on phrasing and break up less relevant phrases with a comma. Make sure you include phrases and keywords that best represent you and your business. Most importantly, keep it simple! 

We’ll cover what you need to do to create a compelling program bio that will entice potential Affiliates to join your program. We will also be showing you how to setup an auto-reply email that will not only save you time, but will provide useful information to all approved, pending, and declined Affiliates.