By: Erica Anderson, Director of Marketing at Paysafe’s Income Access.
Erica Anderson is the Director of Marketing at Income Access. Erica’s role focuses on developing the marketing strategy for the Income Access brand.
Holding over a decade’s industry experience, she also oversees the company’s in-house affiliate management team and its suite of digital marketing services. Income Access manages close to 20 affiliate programmes.
Finding new business partnerships can be daunting and that is especially true for affiliates trying to find new brands to connect with. To simplify it, here’s a list of things affiliates should be looking out for. It can sometimes be overwhelming to find new brands, but this piece should be able to help!
Does the New Brand Have a CRM Strategy and How Does it Work?
This can seem a little obvious, but if the brand you are looking to work with does not have a well-drawn out customer relationship management (CRM) strategy, it might not always be a great fit.
When diving into this, it is important to ask questions about how often they send player-focused emails and whether they segment these communications. An ideal situation would be one where they are sending out relevant information to their players frequently and tailoring communications to each player type. A VIP user shouldn’t receive the same update as someone who hasn’t deposited in two months!
From there, it’s also a good idea for you as an affiliate to sign up with their brand, engage with their products, and see how their registration process works.
What Are the Requirements to Promote?
Different brands operate in different markets, and it’s paramount to consider the legal requirements to promote in certain jurisdictions as an affiliate.
Although reviewing the terms and conditions of the brand’s affiliate programme can seem daunting, it is also incredibly important. There are a lot of brand guidelines and technicalities to go over, which are essential to understand so as to not be caught off-guard and to ensure that you are following the rules.
What Kind of Reporting and Timely Data Do They Have?
No matter the strategy you employ as an affiliate, having strong reporting and timely data is paramount, as getting accurate information daily, or ideally even more frequently, will allow you to make precise changes at a quicker pace. Simply put, you need to have accessible real-time data that allows you to look at affiliate and player data to adapt accordingly.
In our experience, reliable, timely and accurate statistics are imperative for any successful partnership between an affiliate and an iGaming brand. Without a trusted and reliable software platform that can provide this information, it can be difficult to adjust quickly enough to be efficient.
What Are Their Commission Plans?
There are a variety of commission structures, so it is crucial to understand which commission plan your prospective new brand will offer. Depending on the market you are planning to operate in, certain commission plans may be more common, so you can often research ahead to understand what to expect. Some commission plans may not always make sense for your traffic and the ways you promote in your market.
Asking questions about commission requirements is also recommended to be prepared for anything that may come up.
What Products Does the Brand Offer?
Depending on the gaming verticals you focus on promoting, it will be important to understand the kind of products the brand offers and whether that will work with your audience. To break it down as easily as possible, here’s a look at some examples. For instance, if your audience is primarily mobile-focused, you will want to ensure they have products that are smart phone and tablet-friendly. Another way to illustrate it is if your audience is focused on casino games and you’re approached by a lottery operator, you’d want to ask if their brands also feature online video slots and table games as well.
It’s additionally suggested to inform yourself about which other affiliates work with the brand and which products are successful for them.
Are They Properly Localized?
Is the brand you’re planning to work with fully localized for your audience? Each brand has multiple elements to it, so it’s vital to investigate whether they complement your audience. For example, you will want to consider asking if they offer CRM and promotional material in the local language and whether they do any localized or offline campaigns.
Another key area to address is the currency and payment methods offered to players. These options need to match the region, as users will typically be looking for local payment methods available in their market. Most users have strong preferences in these cases, so a tailored, localized approach is ideal.
Tying it All Together
As we mentioned, finding partners can be tricky, but if you can focus on these questions, you’ll be able to spend your time efficiently and find the brands that really fit your audience. Additionally, it’s critical to look for brands that have a dedicated team of affiliate managers and which are focused on growing their affiliate programme over time.
To tie it all together, here’s an example of an affiliate looking to connect with a brand in Portugal. Following these ideas, they would need to be sure that the brand they are connecting with have local language CRM in Portuguese, payment methods commonly used by their population, reliable and timely data, along with understanding if the commissions fit the way they acquire traffic.
If you can understand where a new brand stands in relation to this assessment, then you will have a clearer idea of whether you are looking into a partnership with a future – or not!
