Communication is the most critical part of marketing. Some would even say that it’s the entirety of marketing. Getting your message across to a reader as quickly and efficiently as you can is crucial to your business.
Generally, communication and marketing are both controlled by one evil word: budgets. It costs money to spread the word. No matter what you’re putting together, it won’t mean a thing if you can’t communicate with your audience.
Thanks to the rapid rise of social media, you no longer need fear the accounting department. You can leverage your company’s social media account or create a separate account for your affiliate program and just start spreading the news. Of course, if you’re trying to pass on information about your affiliate program to your publishers, your best course of action is to let your affiliate management agency manage your account.
Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or even Google+, letting your agency run your social media accounts can not only ensure maximum exposure but it can certainly drum up new business for you. Let’s face it, publishers generally sign up for a lot more affiliate programs than just yours. They usually sign up for a handful or in many cases, hundreds of programs. What that equates to is a regular avalanche of email filling their inboxes. It’s pretty tough to stand out in the crowd when everyone’s pushing their latest offers to the same set of eyes.
Definitely keep sending out emails, but supplement that by using your social networks. Tweet out your best current promotion. Put up a different Facebook status update daily, showing off a new product category or any important company news you’d like to share with your publishers.
By going through Twitter or Facebook, you not only have a chance at hitting publishers who most likely glossed over your email, but you have a real shot at some of those publishers sharing or re-Tweeting your information to their followers. In other words, let your publishers help spread the word!
There are tons of ways your agency can manage your company’s Facebook profile. Perhaps they’ll set up a private group for affiliates only, or keep it open to everyone. Let affiliates ask questions. Use status updates to push out the latest program changes, announce new product lines, or even offer up the latest creatives. Facebook isn’t the leading social network for nothing; there are so many tools at your disposal.
A good affiliate manager will be as interactive with his affiliates as possible, and engaging with Facebook followers is a surefire way to do just that.
Unlike Facebook, Twitter is all about brevity. It’s not the best way to push out lengthy new promotions. Instead, your affiliate management agency can promote the promotion itself and include a URL to a blog post or even Facebook update with more information.
Another great Twitter Tool is having your agency host a Twitter Party to discuss your overall program or possibly any new features. It’s a great way to get instant group feedback, as well as pull in new affiliates.
Google+
The new kid on the social block is starting to build a serious following. While your agency can certainly use Google+ to push out the newest creatives or offer up any specific messaging, the best use here is to host regular Google Hangouts. Let affiliates come together to ask various questions or have your agency offer some tips and tricks to the entire group in terms of how to use various marketing tools or how best to promote your company.
Think the most visual social network around is just for posting recipes and puppy pictures? Think again. Your agency can create various pin boards to show off a variety of useful resources. Everything from hot new products worth promoting to specific new promotional creative you may want to use on your site.
However you choose to socialize with your affiliates, letting your agency handle it will save you an enormous amount of time, as well as maximize the potential upside.Your agency knows how best to market your products to your affiliates and get the most action out of them. So let them add to their marketing toolbox by handing over the social media keys.