The Quickest Way to Increase New Customer Acquisition in the Affiliate Channel

[00:00:48] Jamie: Hello and welcome to the Profitable Performance Marketing podcast. I’m your host, Jamie Birch and founder of JEBCommerce, the award winning affiliate management agency.

[00:00:59] Today, you got me and me alone. No guests. We’re going to talk about the quickest way to increase new customer acquisition in your affiliate program.

[00:01:09] Before we get into that, just want to make sure you get over to jebcommerce.com/elements and check out our four new packages. We have different service levels now with complete transparency on what you get and what it costs. You can pick the package that works for you.

[00:01:24] So if you’re an advertiser looking to figure out how do we leverage affiliate marketing in 2024, and how do we grow our new customer base and how do we recruit new affiliates and all those kinds of things, we would love to help. So go over to jebcommerce.com/elements and you’ll learn all about our different service levels there.

[00:01:42] So today we’re going to talk about the quickest way to increase new customer acquisition in your affiliate channel. This is a common question we get advertisers wanting to increase the number of new customers coming through.

[00:01:55] When you start an affiliate program, you’re going to be really worried about revenue and that’s what you want to get, you want to get revenue. As your program matures, many of our clients use that program, that channel to generate new customer acquisition through it. And a lot of people look at the affiliate channel as the primary, or as one of its primary goals is new customer acquisition.

[00:02:16] What do we do when we need to do that? So I’m going to walk you through four or five, six steps on what we do and what you can do to increase new customer acquisition. Now we have many other blog posts that talk about this specific subject, so you definitely want to go to our blog and to our podcast.

[00:02:32] Here’s what I do: first, I identify all my affiliates who generate the most new to file conversions. I look at percentages. So who are my affiliates that generate the highest percentages of new to file acquisition?

[00:02:45] This presupposes that you have the ability to check that. Many advertisers don’t, they just look at the channel as a whole, and that’s why this is a really big mistake. You first want to make sure that you’re able to see by partner. One of the core foundational elements of affiliate management, what we do here at JEBCommerce, is we don’t manage the channel as this one megalithic thing. We do manage the channel as a whole, but we really manage each individual partnership and you need to as well.

[00:03:15] So if one of your primary KPIs is new customer acquisition, and how many of those conversions are new customers, then you really need to be able to tell which affiliates are producing those. It’s one of the key metrics that we look at by affiliate partner. You’re going to have a real hard time increasing your new to file a percentage if you can’t tell which affiliates are driving new customers.

[00:03:40] In fact, I would say remove that metric as a KPI, because you’re not going to be able to do a damn thing about it really, if you don’t know which partners are doing it. So if you can’t tell, then your only thing you can do to increase new customer acquisition percentage is to change that reporting, make sure you’re able to see it by partner.

[00:04:00] Now, there are a bunch of different ways you can do that. And if you guys. Want to hear about my thoughts on that, let me know at gethelp@jebcommerce.com and I’ll go into that.

[00:04:09] So first you want to identify those affiliates and then step two is to put them into two groups: those that generate a ton of sales, and those that generate high new to file rates, but their overall sales compared to the other group are pretty low.

[00:04:24] When you look at them, maybe they have an 80 percent new customer acquisition, new to file percentage, but they’re not in your top 10 affiliates or they’re not in your top five.

[00:04:34] You’re going to identify all your affiliates and what their new to file percentage is. You’re going to create two groups, those that are in your top revenue producers and those that aren’t. Now, the reason why is because you’re going to work with each of these groups a little differently.

[00:04:50] The group that has a ton of sales, you’re really wanting them to optimize the new customer rate. The ones who don’t, you want to get them to bump up what they’re producing. So, in the first group, you’re going to contact them right now. You want to express how impressed you are with their new to file rate. They’re new to file percentage, and you want to set up a time to discuss how together you could increase sales and new customer acquisition and help them achieve their goals along the way.

[00:05:19] The reason I don’t go into anything else, is because they already know how to generate sales. And frankly, they probably already know how to generate new customers acquisition for you than you do right now through their audience. So basically this is just creating a space for you two to get together, and talk about it. And these partners are really, really important. When you come to them and say, “what do you think? Let’s talk. I’d love to hear what thoughts you have.” That creates a really good trusting relationship, and that’s what you want here.

[00:05:47] And you do want to spend more time with these guys because they’re producing so much revenue. And unfortunately, when you’re talking about anything, those who produce a whole lot more of one thing will get we’ll get the bulk of your time and should get the bulk of your time.

[00:06:01] Now, moving on to the low sales group. You can use this for the other group too, but create a special offer for them. Now, I would say it should be two things: it should be exclusive to each of those affiliates. You create one for each affiliate and it can be a different offer. And I would say it should be a vanity offer, so the coupon code should also be that affiliates name somehow, or somehow related to that affiliate.

[00:06:28] Another really good aspect is if you have the capability to create new customer only offers. So the offers that are only allowed to be redeemed by customers who haven’t shopped with you before, then that’s what I definitely want you to do. You’re going to get a lot more movement out of that.

[00:06:47] Okay, so now you got your offer for them. Now create a special commission incentive for them. Maybe it’s a point above or it’s a, “if you reach this much, you get this.” It could be a tiered commission level. It could be a cash bonus if they reach a certain level, but create an incentive for them to get back into the game and do more.

[00:07:06] Then create new creative for them. This is going to take a little more work, but optimization always does. Go to their website, see what creative they’re doing, walk around, check it out, see what competitors in your peer group are doing, see what’s going on and put together creative for them that fit their website already that you, “Hey, I was checking out your apparel page. It looks like you’re using this kind of stuff. So I put something together for you. It includes your new coupon. And here are the coupon parameters and here’s everything you need.”

[00:07:34] Then set up a time to discuss this with them. So in that email, include all your assets, include the offer and say, “Hey, I’d love to talk about how we can use these items and any others you know of, or that you need to increase the amount of new customer acquisition we’re getting through your site. Both of these are going to have a conversation. Zoom video is the way to go. A phone call is the way to go. You can only build a relationship so strong in texts.

[00:08:00] Now, what this does with this group is it shows that you already went through their site. They have potential. It looks like they need these things and here are those things. Now I’m giving you tools to use already giving you tools that I think you need. And let’s talk about what we can do more. So you may already see this group change without having to have that conversation, but you want to have these conversations. You want to get to know these individuals. That’s what partnership is about.

[00:08:27] After you’ve done that, you want to track this group’s progress, and the first thing you want to track is when you sent them this notice, and when did they respond, and if they did. If they’re not responding, you’re going to keep contacting them.

[00:08:41] Like this is a sales kind of function, what we do here. If they don’t get ahold of you after the first one, send it again in two days. I usually wait like 48 hours. I send the next one. I’ll wait another 48 hours to send the third and then I’ll wait a week to send the last one. But in between that third and the fourth, I’m going to connect with them on LinkedIn. Maybe friend them on Facebook. I’m going to try and find contact info to give them a call because I’m trying to help them earn money too. So you want to track the progress of this conversation, and then you want to make sure you’re tracking revenue and new to file percentage over time.

[00:09:15] I’m getting out another Google Sheet or another spreadsheet, and I’m tracking each of these guys individually, because in the end performance marketing gives you really good feedback right away, if you’re listening and you’re watching to it. So you want to know. I divided these affiliates into two group groups.

[00:09:31] There were four in the top group and 20 in the bottom group, and over this 30 day campaign, I was able to increase new to file percentage for 60 percent of those. And I built three new relationships. And so you get some performance, some results from that.

[00:09:47] That’s what I would do as the quickest way to increase new customer acquisition in your affiliate channel: those four steps. Identify your affiliates who are generating the most new to file conversions, put them in the two groups, work with each group differently, and then track their success.

[00:10:05] So that’s what we got for today. It’s a short one today, but I think pretty powerful. If you found this helpful, please share, help us get the word out about this podcast. Share it on LinkedIn, Facebook, and X, and anywhere else you find.

[00:10:19] Send it over to a friend who you think would benefit from this right now. Heck, send it to your boss. If you’re the boss and you’re listening, just know that there are really great strategies to reach all of your KPIs and this being one of them, and some of those may include some technical modifications.

[00:10:36] You may have to be able to do vanity codes and exclusives. It’s all a test. You’re going to test this stuff. You’re going to track it. You’re going to see how it goes. You may also need to integrate the ability to do one time coupons and coupons that are only redeemable by new customers.

[00:10:52] So there are some things, send this to your boss. And boss, if you’re wondering: “what is going on and how can we do this?” Email us at gethelp@jebcommerce.com. We’ll reach back out to you and help you with this subject.

[00:11:03] Hopefully this was helpful. Leave us a five star review on Apple Podcast, or Spotify whatever podcast player that you listen to. And if there’s another topic you’d like to hear about, just email us at gethelp@JEBCommerce.com.

[00:11:16] Well, thank you for listening to today’s episode of the Profitable Performance Marketing podcast. And if there’s anything you need, you know what email to use.

[00:11:25] Thank you guys.