Incentivising your affiliates effectively has got to be one of the hardest things for an Affiliate Manager to do. The purpose of any affiliate incentive should be nice and simple, so for those Affiliate Managers who seem incapable of working it out, the aim of any incentive should be:

To entice affiliates to do more.

Now there’s two key points to that simple statement, which merchants get wrong time and time again:

1. “entice your affiliates” – Sorry, but offering up £100 cash just isn’t going to cut it – Affiliates are busy people, and you need to really grab their attention. Affiliates are also fairly wealthy, entrepreneurial types, so offering them a the “chance” of a relatively small sum of money is going to get you very little response. If I want an extra £100, I’ll work a little later. Either way, I know it’s gonna be £80 by the time I’ve paid corporation tax on it, and I’m not likely to personally see any of it because it will end up being re-invested in my business.. boring!

So I don’t want cash, and I’ll tell you now – I most definitely do not need another bloomin iPod – It was fine as an incentive three years ago, but everyone who wants one should really have got off their arse and bought one by now. If you haven’t got one, you don’t want one that bad. Unfortunately, it still seems to be the merchant’s incentive of choice at the moment.

So what do I want? To put it simply, I want something that is for me, rather than my business. I’ve got a few quid in my pocket too, and tend to buy stuff that I really want, so you’ve got to think a little differently. For me, the best incentive is something “money can’t buy” – VIP Football tickets, exclusive gig tickets, private access to the Big Brother House, etc. Holidays are a good one, and they don’t come much better than sending one of your affiliates to Tokyo, unless of course you’re jetting several of them off to Vegas, and giving them supercars to race across the desert in.

So, Mr. Affiliate Manager – When putting together your next affiliate incentive, please ask yourself the following question: “Would the affiliates write to Jim’ll Fix It and ask for this prize?” – If the answer is “yes”, then you’re onto a winner!

2. Get your affiliates to do more.

Q: What do you think happens if you have an incentive that offers a “Dear Jim” qualifying prize to “the top affiliate in September”?

A: What normally happens is whoever your best affiliate was in August (which is probably a cashback site or heavy PPC’er) will win, having done nothing whatsoever to increase his sales. All the smaller affiliates will know they stand no chance of winning and will also do nowt. And you’ll be out of pocket. Or out of a job if you’ve screwed up big time and given away the annual promotions budget!

Yet I would guess around 75% of all affiliate incentives are run on this basis, which is ludicrous. It shows a complete lack of understanding on behalf of the Affiliate Manager. Especially when there are loads of better ways of running an Incentive:

• Everyone who puts up a link/some creative gets a prize draw entry
• Everyone who makes 1 sale gets a prize draw entry
• Everyone who makes xx sales gets a small “Dear Jim” prize
• Everyone who makes xxx sales gets a large “Dear Jim” prize (much like the Free Cruise I enjoyed earlier this year)
• Everyone who increases their month-on-month sales by x% receives a small “Dear Jim” prize (You’ll need to really do your maths here to ensure you’re not offering a £200 prize to someone for increasing your profits by £175 – I’ve only seen this worked well once, where the incentives were offered privately, on a case-by-case basis)
• Everyone who increases their month-on-month sales by x% gets a prize draw entry

I don’t have a particular favourite out of all the above. Some will entice me more than others based on how busy I am – If all I’ve got to do is chuck up a link, no problem, I’m in. But if I’ve got to formulate a plan to increase sales which will involve creating a bespoke landing page or mini-site, PPC campaigns etc, then I may not have the time.

Bad Examples

No offence meant to any of the companies featured here, but for me, these are some affiliate incentives that just did not work.

DRL “Sales League” – Up to £600 – I’m pretty certain I’m not the only affiliate who has read the blurb about this promotion, and is still none the wiser about how it actually works. I’m sure it seemed the best idea someone’s ever had, but it’s far too complex, and most affiliates are far too busy to waste time trying to figure out how they might win “up to” £600 over the course of a year.

Apparently the promotion was so popular last year, that they’re doing it again this year! Funny then, that looking back at the updates from last year, there was only one affiliate showing any interest in how he was doing.

Sorry guys, but this incentive is pants on two counts. Cash doesn’t entice, and confusion doesn’t get me doing more.

Bingo Bliss – “Free Flight” – Someone obviously thought this would be a great joke. Offer affiliates a “Free Flight” in return for putting a link up. Sounds like a great incentive, and a brilliant way to get new affiliates to have a look at your program.

But of course, there was a catch. The Flight in question was not your traditional “aeroplane” flight, but a flight that you stick on the end of a dart. Yes, feel the anti-climax. Of course, when this was revealed it not only killed the promotion dead, but pissed off several prominent affiliates and probably damaged the reputation of the agency. Whoops!

The initial offer certainly enticed, and if they’d delivered what they appeared to be offering, they would also have had lots of affiliates doing more. Once the “true” offer was revealed however, the incentive fell flat on its face.

As we enter the busy Christmas period, the incentives are bound to come thick and fast – Buyagift have already announced that their follow-up to the Vegas/Supercars/Helicopter prize will be announced later this week, and I can’t wait to see if they can manage to top last year’s incentive – One thing’s for sure, whoever wins the buyagift incentive should be wearing a “Jim Fixed it for me” badge, or should that be “buyagift fixed it for me”?

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