There are many ways of contacting affiliates...
If you've researched this subject to pick up tips from other affiliate managers, you'll know that, along with finding new publishers, contacting affiliates is one of the toughest parts of managing an affiliate programme.
Once you've identified some new publishers, you'll want to reach out and recruit them. Within the Publisher Discovery app we provide email and some of the social details we've found in each website. You may find this article on identifying the website publisher useful.
Emails
It may seem obvious but worth stating that no two affiliates are the same - or respond to emails in the same way. It's worth noting that some larger and busy affiliate publishers receive several thousand emails a month, so response rates are likely to be low.
There is still benefit in email for recruiting mid to long-tail affiliates - the direct approach, particularly when personalised and suggesting how they could best feature your program on their own site.
The video below shows how easy it is to find an email address in the app - and click to email:
Where there are several names in the list, it's worth double checking in Linkedin to see which name shows up as the affiliate contact - rather than an editorial or tech contact.
Social Media
Using social media links to reach out to prospective affiliates can be a great way to get under the 'email radar' and strike up a communication.
Some of our users set up a specific twitter or facebook profile for affiliate communications - such as @brand_affiliates or similar. This enables two things: first it gives a communications channel specifically for affiliate partners, separate to the corporate brand channel; second it provides a useful way of notifying a publisher that you are interested in them.
Its also worth remembering that the affiliate will get an email notification that they are being followed (or liked) by your brand, which will pique their interest even before you contact them. Even without an immediate response, you can then build a better understanding of how the publisher works across different social channels.
Corporate Contacts
For some larger publishers, and for more traditional media groups, you will need to engage with their main commercial contact for affiliates. In this case Linkedin can be a useful resource - look for the publisher or publishing group - you may well find the right person by clicking the "See all 172 employees on Linkedin" button and looking for 1st and 2nd connections. If you're active, then you may well have several common connections and a chance to reach out and engage with them.
Wider Reading
There are lots of practical blog guides on how to contact affiliates, how to construct a compelling email message and best onboarding techniques. We would recommend reading widely - and taking in some of the sessions at conferences to perfect your own technique.
Here's our blog post as well, which you may find useful and see the Vertical sector pages to see relevant affiliates to your market: Finding Affiliates >
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