Tips on getting merchant to offer affiliate programme

**purple** · 13-01-06

I am getting significant traffic for a niche area where the main merchant in the market does not seem to have a public affiliate programme. I have spotted some sites who seem to have a private arrangement.

I want to write to the merchant to see if they are interested in offering a private arrangements or a full affiliate programme. I am just not sure what to say to the merchant.

Have any other affiliates had luck converting merchant to affiliate marketing.
Can anyone give me ideas of what I should say to the merchant.

**Gavinio** · 13-01-06

A phone call will usually do better, I'd think!

Treat it like a proper pitch - suggest some prices, some profit margins, volumes and T's and C's. Show what their competitors do etc.

**purple** · 13-01-06

I tried phone and email I am going to do letter next, your ideas sound good.

**WillD** · 14-01-06

OK – merchants want to make as much cash as possible but merchants who haven’t embraced the affiliate world usually haven’t done so because:

A: They don’t even know about affiliate marketing
B: They have heard about it but are convinced its run by a bunch of spotty kids in their bedrooms and is not big enough to worry about
C: Brand – convinced that their brand will be de valued
D: its all a bit scary!
E: the ROI isn’t worth it.

Put together a decent business case, if it’s a “brand” orientated company (a bit flash etc) then make sure it looks good, i.e. pretty graphs, pictures & logos, I know this is silly but it works, especially with entrepreneurs! Be professional and persistent.

A: Explain what affiliate marketing is in simple terms (all the networks have good copy on this which I’m sure they won’t mind being used as long as you credit them)

B: Give them some examples/ case studies some merchants have done case studies at various conferences so I’m sure you can find some examples that are in the public arena with a bit of searching. (Try some of the more open merchants such as ASOS and Figleaves)

C: To combat the brand thing try to explain that if a prospect customer is on an affiliate site, they were there 1st so it must be ok to that customer. Also explain that 99% of affiliates will follow brand guidelines for PPC & creative as long as it’s sensible. As for the 1% who consistently ignores you, you can always kick them off your program.

D: Keep the document simple!

E: This one is a bit more difficult as it depends on the merchants Margin, AOV, conversion rats etc. and they will normally be unwilling to share this information, but if you put them in touch with a good consultant, (i.e. me!) they can always help.

**Mike George** · 15-01-06

Hi, I'm new here and I'll introduce myself properly elsewhere, but I wanted to join in this discussion.

I too have a niche site and I would like to get a couple of key suppliers in the industry to sign up with an affiliate scheme (preferably Affiliate Future).

I like the sound of the business case idea, which I think would work best as a paper document, backed up with a couple of example sites showing competitors' ads. I would guess the best approach is to ring the company's head office and get a contact name for somebody like head of marketing, and write to them direct?

And what about asking one of the affiliate marketing programmes to contact the company on my behalf? They are experts in selling the schemes, and they would be able to put more time and effort into it, and presumably they would know more about the potential target sites.

**WillD** · 15-01-06

In my experience (having been one) the head of marketing of most merchants is usually inundated by loads requests on a daily bases, personally I would find out the name of the web marketing exec. And contact them, once you have sold it to them - which are easier - they will then pass it up to the decision maker for you.

Will