As an affiliate, you need to work hard to build your relationships with operators. That means having a good focus on customer loyalty. It’s not all about getting quick deals. The best partnerships are fruitful both ends and making them so, takes a bit of time.
The best customers are loyal customers. When you have a customer’s loyalty – it will make things run more smoothly and produce better results.
The Key to Building Loyalty
Remember that as an affiliate, the operator is your customer and you need to ensure that they trust you. In order to maintain a healthy relationship, you need to be honest about what you can deliver. Don’t ever promise results that you can’t achieve in order to get a good deal.
You also need to make sure that both parties know exactly where they stand. It’s always a good idea to set up some kind of outline agreement so everyone is aware of the expectations at the start of a deal to be managed effectively.
Having regular catch-ups to discuss results and possible improvements that can be made to your campaigns is a good pro-active way to show your affiliate manager that you are invested in working with them. Make sure you share your innovative ideas with them and look to optimise as much as you can.
Responsiveness is important in the iGaming industry. People like attentiveness and as long as you make the operator feel heard – you have a much better chance of continuing to work with them. Even an acknowledgment is better than no response whilst you look into their query.
Some numbers around customer loyalty…
We’ve put together some key facts to let you know what customers find most important in terms of service management:
- 82% of customers feel that a response time of 30 minutes or less is very important if their correspondence is relating to marketing
- 60% of loyal customers will use their preferred companies more, this means if they are launching any new brands or networks – you are more likely to be on their list of people to work with
- If a customer has an emotional relationship with you, their lifetime value is 306% higher – and they are much more likely to recommend you
- A 25% increase in profit has a direct correlation with a 5% increase in customer retention
The message is simple – if you make your operators feel like they are a priority they are more likely to work with you in a positive way and continue to do so as their own brands progress. Innovative marketing is key to any success as an affiliate, and this becomes much easier when you have the right relationships in place with your operators.
If you are interested in hearing more about how you can nurture your affiliate and operator relationships, then make sure you check out our Digital Marketing Forum, part of the SBC Betting on Football Conference, where you can hear from some industry experts taking place on the 21 March.
