Drawing Out Your Affiliate Program Marketing Plan

One of the best things an affiliate manager can do for their affiliate program is to maintain consistent and regular communication with their Publishers.

Affiliate managers often say to me, “I don’t have enough to say to put out a monthly newsletter.” But you do!

Advertisers have much more to talk about than they sometimes realize.  And more importantly, it’s information that will make a marked difference on the program’s bottom line.

Take an hour to sit down and draft out an editorial calendar. By having a marketing plan in place for the year, affiliate managers will be more organized and ready to put out meaningful and rich communication to their Publishers.

The goal of planning out the year is to provide an overall marketing package that managers could provide to their Publishers that will spark interest and action.

Personally, I like to create a marketing plan with the following items: Theme, Marketing Tools, and Publisher Bonus.

Promotional Calendar Example - click for larger version

Theme

The monthly theme is going to be the overall message or item that brings together all marketing tools provided for a given month.

Look for events that could tie into the product line such as movie and video game releases, sporting events, product launches, product sales seasonality, fashion shows, pop culture events, and even holidays.

If ever at a loss for a theme, there is surely a holiday in any given month that could be played up as a creative way to present Publishers with fresh new marketing tools.

For example, below are some events and holidays the will occur in the next two months alone.

• March 2 – Read Across America Day
• March 2 – Dr. Seuss Birthday
• March 2 – Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax Movie Release
• March 8 – Purim
• March 11 – Daylight Savings Time Begins
• March 16 – 21 Jump Street Movie Release
• March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day
• March 20 – First Day of Spring
• March 23 – The Hunger Games Movie Release
• March – National Nutrition Month
• March – Nation Women’s History Month
• 1^st Week of March – Save Your Vision Week
• 3^rd Week of March – National Poison Prevention Week
• March 9-11 – Short Track World Championship
• March 10-16 – Girl Scout Week
• March 26^th – April 1^st – Figure Skating World Championships

• April 1 – April Fool’s Day
• April 1 – Palm Sunday
• April 6 – Titanic 3D Movie Release
• April 7 – Passover
• April 8 – Easter
• April 13 – The Three Stooges Movie Release
• April 15 – Income Taxes Due
• April 22 – Earth Day
• April 25 – Administrative Professionals Day
• April 27 – The Pirates! Band of Misfits Movie Release
• April – Cancer Control Month
• April – Alcohol Awareness Month
• 3^rd Monday in April – Patriot’s Day
• April 4-8^th – Track Cycling World Championships
• April 7-10^th – Women’s Ice Hockey World Championships

Marketing Tools

Utilizing the theme selected for the month, create some new creative or highlight creative that coincides with the theme. This could mean providing a storefront of related products, creating new ad banners, publishing consumer coupons, or uploading related text links.

Publisher Promotion/Bonus

Provide Publishers with an incentive that will entice them to generate more sales for the program. Don’t be afraid to get creative with the bonuses and offer promotions in addition to the common cash for sales bonus.

If each month’s promotion is unique, it can help keep things interesting. Some examples of monthly promotions could include:

• Product Sales promotions – Sell X number of specific product, earn Y promotion
• Sales from a specific creative – Generate X sales from a specific creative, earn Y promotion
• Placement – Send URL with placement of X, qualify for/ or earn Y promotion
• Personal competition – Any Publisher that increases their conversion rate by X percent earns Y promotion. Or generate X percent more in sales for this month earn Y promotion
• Rollover Promotion – Hit X target in sales for current month, earn increase of Y commission for all sales next month
• Tangible rewards – Qualifying Publishers earn gift card, specific product, gift set, product every month for a year, etc.
• Experiences – Large ticket items that could include a whole marketing plan in itself. ex. Trip to London for Olympics

Keep Track Of Successes

Always keep a record of how much interest monthly promotions generate. This will serve as a useful guide for creating the next year’s marketing plan. The data on which creatives, promotions, coupons, get the most activity  can be used to recreate similar promotions in the next year. And promotions can be dropped that were not as well received.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Sarah Beeskow

Sarah Beeskow is the Sr. Manager of Merchant Development for ShareASale.com’s Client Services Department. She is responsible for providing strategic guidance and educational resources to Merchant partners that can be used to optimize and grow their affiliate program.