If you work with affiliates to promote your business, now is the time to really motivate them to make those all-important Christmas sales. If you want to maximise motivation there are some key ways to do this. What doesn’t work? Let’s take a look. Focusing on ‘Highest Revenue’ Incentives Affiliate promotions that are focused on bringing in the highest amount of cash to your programme don’t work in the long run. Smaller affiliates need care and attention, the big ones can bring in the big money without any help or incentives. By focusing purely on cash value you miss rewarding the creativity and different ways to market your brand. Rewarding with the wrong incentives If your reward or incentive is too high value, it won’t be inclusive. A low barrier to entry ensures that as many affiliates as possible can enter your promotion. Whilst a holiday might seem great – if you need the revenue to recoup the spend, it’s going to be hard to look at softer metrics vs profit. Not recognising increased change Offering incentives to the most improved publisher looking at performance from one month to the next not only makes all your affiliates sit up and listen, but also includes lapsed or inactive affiliates – if they double their efforts they have a good chance at winning! Offering the same old incentives Affiliates work with 100’s of publishers across multiple networks. Just as you wouldn’t expect a sales team to be motivated by the same reward, regardless of the task or project at hand, affiliates also need the same consideration. Consider VIP experiences over items that can be purchased themselves. You might also look at flexible rewards such as gift cards. Post navigation Calculating the costs of your rewards programme “Recognition must be about reinforcing culture and values” argues expert panel.
