The festive season is a massive time for customers, vendors, and affiliates alike. There are many opportunities for affiliates to pursue in this crucial period. However, this needs to be done carefully to avoid burnout or failed campaigns.
Part of the role of the affiliate manager will be to prepare affiliates for busy periods such as this, plus give them the support they need to meet their targets and run successful campaigns. How do the affiliate managers manage to keep their affiliates happy in this crucial time? Let’s take a closer look.
Prepare in advance
Holiday campaigns need to be planned well in advance of the festive season. You need to sit down and work out what your program’s seasonal promotions will be well in advance of the holiday period. Ideally, everything should be finalised by autumn.
This will then give you plenty of time to inform your affiliates as to what the campaign will entail. Keep them in the loop regarding the start and end of promotions, and provide them with all the materials they are going to need to create a dynamic and interesting campaign.
The more you can do in advance, the easier it will be to manage campaigns in this crucial and somewhat difficult time. Your affiliates will value transparency and support in this difficult time, so the more you can deliver to them in advance, the better. Handing over plans and materials for a massive festive campaign a few days before it is due to start will never end well.
Know which affiliates will work best for you
How well do you know your affiliate pool? You need to make sure that you are providing support to all of your affiliates, but you also need to have a clear idea of how you can support the ones who will bring in the most leads for you.
The most trusted affiliates in your program are the ones with the potential to bring in the most leads. During the festive period, things can be rather erratic. You need to make sure that you work with affiliates who will be able to create a more stable and smooth flow.
On top of this, it is important to remember that everyone has Christmas campaigns. You need to make sure that you work with the affiliates who you can be certain will make your program’s campaigns stand out in the wide sea of competition.
Create a unique reward system
You will likely already have a reward system in place to help manage your affiliates, and to encourage them to always work to the next level. It can be a good idea to expand on this and create some unique goals during the festive period, so your affiliates feel further motivated.
This will cost more, so should only be done if you have the budget to do so, but it can help to boost the productivity of your affiliates. Since this is over a relatively short period, it could deliver some great results for your brand!
Make sure that there is a strategic plan behind the changes to your reward system. For example, affiliates might be able to boost their payout per conversion quite significantly if they reach a certain level of conversions.
Remember that you also need to advertise when this boost to the rewards scheme is running! Make sure that it is prominent on your program’s website, and send round messages to all of your affiliates to inform them of the options open to them!
Keep communication lines open
It is no secret that if you want happy affiliates you need to be prepared to communicate with them and nurture that relationship. This is certainly true during the festive season. You need to ensure that you are not leaving affiliates in the dark. They might have questions that they need to ask you if they are to achieve the most success.
You need to ensure that you and any other affiliate managers in your program are able to answer all questions and concerns as quickly as possible. The festive season is hectic for all, but clear and frequent communication should help you to get through it with minimal issue. Neglect communications, and your affiliate could end up missing out on some vital sales and conversions, which in turn means that you will miss out on a chance to collect profit.
The holiday period can be a big stress if not handled correctly. As an affiliate manager, you need to make sure that all of your materials are prepared as far in advance as possible. You should also ensure that all of your affiliates are prepped for the season ahead, and that they know that they will be well-rewarded for their efforts. This is a difficult time, but if handled correctly it will be very rewarding for your program and your affiliates.
