Buddy up with your affiliates to get the best results

Take inspiration from buddy films to get the best from your affiliate programme

I often say that affiliate marketing is a people-led business, and that the better relationships you can build with your affiliates the more you (and they) will get from the partnership. I love an analogy, so I have looked at some of the fundamentals of building good, solid partnerships with inspiration from some of the best partnerships out there. From Wayne and Garth, the stars of Wayne’s World, to Donkey and Shrek, there are some great lessons to be learnt from these classic ‘buddy movies’.

1. Be honest

Honesty is the best policy. With affiliates you need to be honest with what you can and can’t do. Don’t commit to something and cancel at the last-minute. Do this too regularly and you will find affiliates are less keen to work with you. If you are not keen on working with them, tell them the reason why. This gives them the opportunity to make changes, or provide information that might help you to adjust your view. If you are always honest with your affiliates they will trust you more and are more likely to be honest in return.

Take inspiration from: Shrek. Donkey is never afraid to tell Shrek when he’s acting like an Ogre.

2. Act on feedback

If you are going to be honest, ask for the same from the affiliate. But then make sure that you act on the feedback or you might find they are less likely to keep giving it to you. Every good buddy film has an authority figure that won’t listen to the hero. Quite often there are obvious things they are missing but they will not listen to the feedback. It can be the same with your affiliate programme. There might be obvious things that are impacting your programme. For example, have a number of affiliates complained about your feed? If so, perhaps the tools you have given them are not helping them and it’s time to show that you value their feedback.

Take inspiration from: Jaws. Ok, not strictly a buddy film! But how many times can the mayor ignore Chief Brody’s warnings that there might be a Shark in the water without acting?

3. Have common goals

If you want to get the most from your affiliate relationships make sure that your goals are aligning those of your affiliates. You might think that this is merely a case of - you pay per sale, so the more you earn the more they earn - but for some programmes this might not be the case. Do you work in insurance and want to get higher premium customers? Are you paying more for these customers or one flat rate? Are you able to offer a bonus if they drive a higher percentage of these customers? What are you doing to help your affiliates strive for the same results as you?

Take inspiration from: Die Hard with a Vengeance. John McClane and Zeus Carver have no interest in working together, but stopping a bomb from blowing up a school pulls them together.

4. Harness their best qualities

With any partnership there might be things that you don’t like about each other. Perhaps the affiliate is slow to respond, or does not have space for your new creative. Perhaps you have a great new feed but they don’t use feeds on their site. As before, be honest and see what you can do to improve these issues but also focus on what they can bring to the relationship. Do they have a creative flair for building campaigns that achieve your objectives? Do they drive customers with a high average order value? If so, look at how you can help them to do more of this and focus less on what they cannot do.

Take inspiration from: Lethal Weapon. When first paired with Martin Riggs, Roger Murtaugh is concerned about his maverick, risk-taking nature. What he finds is a loyal friend with skills that save his life on many occasions.

5. Have fun

An important part of any good partnership is to enjoy working together. All the great buddy films have their lighter moments. From comical exchanges between Shrek and Donkey, to the manly banter of Riggs and Murtaugh, if people enjoy working with you, they are likely to do more of it. Be professional but not afraid to take an interest in a person and develop unique relationships with different affiliates.

Take inspiration from: Wayne’s World. Wayne and Garth have their own phrases, mannerisms and world which makes their friendship unique and one they wouldn’t want to be without.

Summary

Relationships rely on people giving honest feedback which is acted upon. Making sure that you have goals in common and harnessing affiliates’ best features will ensure that you both achieve targets. Finally, make working with you enjoyable and you will find people are keen to do more of it.