Ever hear the expression “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know?” Well, by building a relationship with your affiliate manager, you can gain a number of benefits, including (1) personalized support that’ll help you optimize your campaigns, (2) access to special promotions and commissions that you wouldn’t otherwise know about, and (3) a chance to influence the features of the affiliate program.

Building the Relationship

All business transactions are made possible by trust. For example, as an affiliate, you sign up with a program because you trust that they are going to pay you for your referrals. But trust is just the by-product of relationships. In the case of an affiliate program, you trust that you’ll get paid because that program has a relationship with other affiliates in the marketplace. And that relationship is usually sufficient for you to trust that you’ll receive commissions on any sales you refer them.

Getting Special Affiliate Promotions

Now consider the expression “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” By building a relationship with your affiliate manager, you are that much more likely to get access to special promotions and personalized support because they will learn that you’re not the kind of affiliate to abuse terms and conditions. That trust will, in turn, make them more likely to offer you special promotions when they’re available.

Personalized Affiliate Support

Since the affiliate program makes money when you make money, affiliate managers that know you will often take the time to provide you with tips and advice on how you can improve your campaigns. In addition to getting to know you, your affiliate manager will also get to know your channels (e.g. sites, newsletters, etc.), and will be able to provide feedback on what you can do to optimize your efforts across these channels. They’ll also think of you when an upcoming promotion is particularly suited for one of your channels.

Gaining Influence as an Affiliate

Have you ever had an idea on how an affiliate program can improve? Well, when you have a relationship with your affiliate manager, not only are they more likely to listen to you, but they’re also more likely to pass your suggestions on to those in a position to consider them. There’s never any guarantee that you’ll get what you ask for, but you never know when it’ll help speed up development of a function or feature that you’ve always wanted.

Business Relationships

All in all, building a strong relationship with affiliate managers just makes good business sense. Just as there are hundreds of affiliate programs out there, there are also thousands of affiliates. If you work hardest for the program that helps you the most, then why wouldn’t an affiliate manager work harder for you if you take the time to actively collaborate with them.

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An accomplished writer, blogger, and speaker, CT Moore is a new media strategist who helps brands reach their business goals by building and optimizing online revenue strategies. By day, he is an account manager for the interactive marketing agency, NVI.