Strengthening Affiliate Marketing Relationships
19-04-2017
Dale Carnegie’s classic best-seller, How to Win Friends and Influence People, teaches us that the sweetest sound in any language is a person’s own name.
He confidently claimed, “A person’s name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.” It’s difficult to find a better way to capture a person’s attention than by calling out his or her name. The name is a person’s written and spoken identity.
When it comes to relationship marketing (marketing that focuses on long-term customer retention), it’s best practice to engage the customer by his or her name from the very beginning. This immaculate attention to detail will make your customers feel welcomed and supported, resulting in great things for your business in the short and long run.
If you want to see immediate positive feedback, exercise the following:
Affiliate Marketing Tip #1: Email Them by Name
Personalised emails aren’t hard to do at all, especially with free services like MailChimp, Outlook, and even Gmail. Though easy to do, we bet that most of the emails in your inbox are addressed to the general public—not specifically to you. Such a minute detail like personalised names could make a profound impact on the potential buyer. Why not take that extra step to be personal and show your customer that you care about their involvement in your business? Compare a mass email addressed to the general public, versus one that begins with, “Hey, [Your Name]!” Which one are you more likely to open? We think so, too.
Affiliate Marketing Tip #2: Let Them Know Your Name
This one is just as important as the previous, but in a slightly different way. Names are so powerful that even learning your name could greatly convince a customer of your care for them. Studies reveal that recipients are more likely to trust a personalized sender than a generic one, like no-reply@company.com. HubSpot found that emails sent from “Maggie Georgieva, HubSpot” got more click-throughs than emails from just “HubSpot.” This shows just how convincing a name can be. People have a better time connecting with other people, rather than with organisations or companies in general. So, the next time you send an email, don’t be afraid to use your real name!
Affiliate Marketing Tip #3: Follow Up Often
This is the one thing that companies either overdo or don’t do enough. It’s hard to strike a balance between following up with your customers and assaulting their inboxes. For us, we prefer to keep the follow ups consistent but few and far between. Once or twice a month is more than enough to remind your audience that you still want to do business with them. You can read more about email nurturing campaigns here, but the gist of the article is to be consistent with your follow up. That’s what relationship marketing is all about: maintaining the relationship with your clients. Be available for them to contact and be fresh with your content. Most of all, be personal!
Affiliate Marketing Tip #4: Run Surveys
Surveys are great for engaging your readers because it accomplishes so many tasks at once: gathering information, letting your clients know you care about their experience, and creating opportunities for actual two-way communication to happen. It’s true what they say: relationships are a two-way street. Run your surveys, make appropriate changes according to the results, and then send your clients a personalised follow up letting them know that you’ve implemented the changes they suggested. Be careful, though! Surveys that are user-friendly involve very minimal questioning. In fact, we suggest including the estimated time of completion to motivate your recipients to take the survey, and then adhere to that estimated time.
If you implement these four tips, we can almost guarantee that your relationship with your customers will improve. People like to be catered and supported. The core of relationship marketing is to keep a consistent flow of communication. This means personalising all of your messages so that your customers will feel deeply valued.
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