Now you have your route you want to take and your 20 potential partners you'd like to approach, we're going to work on how we instigate our Affiliate Marketing campaign by contacting potential partners. Remember to work at your own pace there's no rush as long as we're always moving forward...

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SELL YOUR BRAND NOT THE PERKS

Whichever route you decide to take it is important to remember the best form of marketing is word of mouth. Why is this? Because that person is invested in your brand and excited to talk about it, leading to their audience sharing the excitement to become a potential customer. This is what we want to replicate when working with Affiliate partners, you want them to be excited in your products/services so that excitement is transferred to their audience.

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TEMPLATES ARE GREAT BUT GET PERSONAL

If you're following our plan we know we've just asked you to list 20 potential partners which was a lot of work, so having a template is a great idea to speed things up in the process, however DO NOT COPY AND PASTE ENTIRE MESSAGES! we cannot stress this enough! First impressions are so important and if you're not willing to do the work in the introduction to your potential partners how can you expect them to put in the effort to be invested in your brand?

• Don't use the partners handle (this is their @name) either do a little digging and find out the person you need to contacts actual name or it's good to keep it vague like 'good afternoon' or 'hey how's it going?'.
• Contact them how they wish to be contacted. If you're looking to work with to an influencer they will usually mention how to contact them. Other routes may not be so obvious but 'read the room' don't Direct Message an instagram account that says 'email us for enquiries' alternatively don't try to email some one that prefers to communicate through social media (usually a younger audience).

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SPEAKING OF TEMPLATES...

Your message to potential partners need to use your brand language and be 'on brand' for how you would usually communicate, so rather than write a template for you we have a few key things to include when writing your email/DM template...

Your Name - Introduce yourself to start a personal relationship with them.

Your Brands Name - They may have never heard of you so write your actual Brand name along with your social handle if contacting through a direct message or your website if you're contacting them through an email.

Why Them? - "I came across your page and thought you'd be good to work with" may be popular but we've received that message through one of clients channels three times today and have no interest in working with any of them. Be personal in why you think they would be a great partner, are their photos incredible? do you like the way they communicate? Do they already share many similarities with your brand? Differentiate yourself from other businesses contacting them.

What are your Requirements? - If you have any particular or irregular requirements for the partnership it's best to put these in the initial message to ensure you're on the same page however if there's nothing specific it's more important to establish a good relationship first and foremost.

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CONTENT NOT ADS!

You can spot a forced ad a mile away on social media, You'll be following someone, getting used to their content then all of a sudden you see this strange post on your feed and you're surprised to see it's from that account. Have a look at the caption we bet it's prompting you to buy something. You do not want this to happen if you're the business paying for this partnership.

Give your partner creative control over marketing your product/service but make sure you are able to sign off on the content before it is published. This way you can ensure the post is on brand for you but it doesn't feel like a forced advert to their audience. Highlight this when approaching affiliate partners and show them that you want to build a relationship not just use their audience and reach.

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MEDIA KITS

Also known as Media Packs, Press Kits, Press Packs, you get the point but what are they? Accounts that are experienced with monetising their social media channels will have one of these and you should always ask them for it. It is a document, usually a few pages long, that gives you all the information you require to make a decision on whether the account is right for you to work with.

Here's what to look out for in a Media Kit...

Information About Them - The first section of a media kit is usually all about the account it'll be an overview of things you may already know about them from research but the impression you may have from looking at their channels could be a coincidence so it's good to see how they see themselves.

Audience Size Per Channel - Traditionally audience size mattered, now not so much as the engagement is what we want, however it's our measurable. You're looking for how many followers the partner has per channel (accounts that put an accumulative number here often do so because they're hiding low numbers on a particular channel). You're also looking for the location of their audience and how many of their audience are in each location.

Audience Demographic - Similar data to what we have just seen however the demographic is going to go into much more detail and cold be the decision maker in the relationship. Things to look for here are...

• Age Range
• Martial Status
• Gender
• Profession
• Hobby's & Interests

Not all of these will be relevant to your needs, however it will give you a good understanding of whether this account is right for your business.

Analytics & Data - This information may only be relevant if you are to also feature on their website/blog, however it will also be extremely relevant if you are planning to put any money into Facebook ads to help promote your partnership in any way. This is also where you can expect to see YouTube channel viewership. Here's what to look out for...

• How many site visits do they receive per month?
• How many unique visits do they receive per month?
• What type of content is driving this traffic?
• Where it's from (it may be good traffic but is it only there from paid posts?)
• Who is visiting their website?
• How long do visitors stay on their website?
• Do they specifically visit the site for the reason they were sent or do they browse various pages?

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Even without a Media Kit this info is extremely useful and available to them through Google Analytics so they should still be able to provide it if they have a website or blog.

Engagement - A ratio of how many likes, saves, shares, comments etc. they get per follower. This will show truly how invested their audience is in their content and will show you if they are worth the investment or right for your business.

Previous Campaigns - A useful section for how they have handled previous relationships with Affiliate partners. Look for if the posts gain the same traction as their usual posts do, if the posts are 'on brand' for both the business and the account and did the previous businesses leave a comment or review as to how well the relationship converted for them?