The holidays can move at break-neck speed, so it is vital that your team knows what is going to happen at each point. Promotions might run for a day or even just a few hours. Your affiliates need to know when the holiday marketing campaigns change and what each promotion will entail.
The ability to keep them in the loop is incredibly important. No matter what, you need to ensure that your affiliates understand and are able to push out their promotions – whether you have something created and pushed out at the last minute or whether it is something that has been worked on for a long time.
Plan ahead
If you are at this stage of the year with next to no plans for your holiday marketing campaigns, you are in trouble. There is the potential for the right holiday campaign to bring in boosted revenues and sales compared to other points of the year – regardless of the niche you might be operating in.
You need to make sure that you plan your holiday marketing campaigns as far in advance as possible. Remember that there is a strong chance that your affiliates could manage more than one campaign. This will mean that your products will have to compete with others.
If you are able to get in touch early with a comprehensive guide to your marketing campaign for the holidays, you will be able to pass on all the resources they need to promote your offers successfully.
Plan a holiday pack
You need to ensure that you are doing a lot more than just sending out basic information related to what the offers will be. Create a holiday marketing pack that you send out to customers. This will contain everything from the nature of the promotions to when they should be going live.
From this, your affiliates will have everything they need to create vibrant and engaging promotions. Ensure that these are aligned with what you might be doing in-house too. For example, if you are offering a discount through in-house channels, you should make sure that affiliates can offer one of equal value.
Details for this should all be shared in the holiday pack that you have put together. Make sure that there is a deadline for this to be completed. You don’t want to be sending out constant amendments to your deals and hoping that affiliates pick up on them. Create one go-to resource with all of the details they will need, and rely on them.
Keep lines of communication open
It is vital that you make yourself open and available for your affiliates to get in touch with. If they need more guidance on some aspect of the planned holiday marketing campaigns, they need to be able to get in touch with you and receive an answer with a quick turnaround.
For this reason, it is crucial that you prepare yourself to be the point of contact for your affiliates. You need to be prepared to help them out in any way that they might need.
It could be a good idea to schedule in chats and catch-ups with your affiliates to specifically go through various aspects of your holiday marketing campaigns. If they do require a little more assistance, they will be able to ask for it here. Be aware that things might get a little more hectic the closer to the holidays and Christmas that you get. You might need to provide a lot more support than you initially anticipated.
Get changes sent out quickly
If your brand decides that they want to drop a flash sale with very little warning, you need to make sure that you can inform the affiliates quickly too. Leave things too late, and there is a high chance that they will not be able to promote the sale, meaning that there could be a potential loss of income for all.
Ideally, there should be no sales or promotions going forward unless they have been included in the original draft strategy. This time period can be difficult enough without introducing last-minute changes. If one does arise, you need to make sure that you give the affiliates as much time as possible to prepare.
This is the busiest time of year for online sellers, and affiliates can play a massive role in boosting online sales. As an affiliate manager, you need to make sure that you are offering significant support to your affiliates in this hectic time. Be aware that your promotions might not be the only ones that they are handling. If you are able to deliver support and the right guidance, along with some high-quality promotional materials, you should be able to keep them updated and in the loop regarding all changes your brand might face.
