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Communication is the key, as with everything. Good affiliate managers send you an email once in a while to check on you. Poor affiliate managers (ex Pinnacle sports) you never hear about and forget they exist. A good affiliate manager pushes his company to be affiliate friendly and provide good tools (again Pinnacle comes to mind as being terrible).
Well, of course who you represent has a huge influence on how you are seen.
Obviously it has an impact on how well you can do your job, as well as whether people even want the property on their site.
Beyond that, responsiveness is a huge factor. If questions don’t get answered quickly, by the time I get a response I have decided on some other property and moved on. That makes it unlikely you will end up on the originally intended spot, I am unlikely to go back and undo what I have decided on.
That applies both to mails and message boards.
Ease and speed of navigation on the affiliate site. If it takes me a long time to find a banner, I’ll quick grab one elsewhere.
Most affiliates lead busy lives, and prompt replies are the most important thing. Also, find out what affiliates like – the phone, messenger or email. See if they want to stay abreast of certain types of promos and send them ready to use banners when you have a new promo.
Given you represent a property the affiliate wants to promote, the easier you make this the more likely you end up in good spots and the fresher your ads will be.
It is also good to make bare bone facts about your properties and about the promos available, so affs can write their own reviews or blogs or whatever without hunting down the basic information.
Being helpful and posting here a CAP can also go a long way. Let people get to know you.
Yes, I think communication is the most important thing.. It’s almost impossible to communicate too much (well, it can.. you don’t have to call me every week)..
One thing I would really like is that if I send an email I’ll get an email back within a few hours. Even if it’s only a quick email back telling me you’ve read the email and will get back with a final answer in a few days.. I hate waiting for replies!
Another things that’s important for me is an affiliate manager who is also able to help out if there is a player with a problem.. So I don’t like affiliate managers who are just talking with affiliates, but can’t help if a problems is bigger than the affilaite side of a casino..
I agree. Communication is key. It’s also good if the affiliate manager has a level of authorisation too rather than having to go through lots of red tape when questions are asked.
H O N E S T Y !
if you can do that, i’ll give you free traffic!
communication is very important, but for me…
It’s All About Attention To Details.The affiliate managers that do this, those are the one’s that I want to work with over and over again.
Great and insightful comments guys. Gaining partners that are honest and keep the lines of communication open will always ensure a great working relationship and are the easiest to work with; this creates great relationships that last.
From an Affiliate Manager standpoint, I will say that I always try to provide, communication in a timely manner, honesty, and attention to details.!
I know not only myself but the other affiliate managers that work with me, all strive to provide this on a daily basis, and I think another important aspect of being an effective affiliate manager is understanding! Not only understanding the industry, but each and every affiliates needs and wants when dealing with us or our programs.!
For me its:
1. Responsive to my requests
2. Proactive in communication
3. Honesty
4. Contacts me to discuss things, but doesnt always focus on “above the fold placement” in every conversation. Its ok to just talk without a heavy pitch guys.
5. Supports CAP and our events (ok so I have a vest interest, I still think if a program doesnt support affiliate communities and enguage in public conversation then something is wrong)Some affiliate managers make the mistake of being extremely aggressive, at least in my experience. And affiliate managers who don’t reply to emails for a week or longer are a real bummer too.
So good affiliate managers communicate quickly without being too aggressive.
I love an affiliate manager who goes the extra mile!
When sending emails with announcements about upcoming promos, etc…and having a banner already for me in the email ..tags included is the FASTest way for you to get your banner placed on my sites. Fast , easy, and done in two minutes! i love it, i hate it when there is a banner to look at, butyou still have to go to the site to get the links.
also, getting paid when said. i have tooooo many managers stringing me along with excuse after excuse and sometimes they are so full of bull crap its not funny. Listen, just be honest, if there is a problem, and payments will be late, just say it…..then i can adjust my bills accordingly….its the worst having someone tell you…tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow…over and over..
New ideas, being open to new ideas, from an affiliate is great, we know our players better than anyone, and if we think a promo will work or won’t work, please take notice.
Thanks for caring!
trips
Speaking from an Account Managers point of view, I feel that not only timely responses, accurate information and honesty should be attributes, but equally, a personality and genuine interest in the welfare of their affiliates. To me, my affiliates are not just a portfolio of websites, but are a collection of people striving to develop their businesses. And if I can act in a way that will help, then I will.
There’s an odd thing about Affiliate marketing though (and having had Affiliate, Consultancy, Affiliate Network and now Account Manager hats on at diferent stages in my 7 years in the industry), I find that it is much easier to build up these relationships if Affiliates are also responsive to me. Thats why I try and encourage all my affiliates to add me to their MSN – plenty of people dont work in the same time zone as me (I am in London), but we work in a 24hour global industry, so if you need to talk to me in the eveing or weekends, then at least I can be contactable (obviously I am not connected “Matrix-like”to the web all day everyday, my skin would go all wierd, but you know what I mean!)
As an example, I have sent out over 200 emails this month asking for information about the sites that my affiliates run, and received 16 responses. Obviously, these affiliates are the ones that I have built relationships with quickest, and as such some of them are now working on projects or promotions that they wouldnt have done.
This “non response from affiliates” approach isnt unique to the gaming side of the industry, and I fully understand why Affiliates would want to keep details of how they deliver their traffic, who they promote and at what rates secret. However, at the end of the day, I can only work with the information I have – and if you dont give me information I can only provide a service that is on a par with what would be expected as an Account Manager. And I am not asking for the earth here, just the basics.
So, to me, the key to being a good Affiliate Manager is actively taking an interest in the people who you work with and for. Honesty, timely reponses and everything else come as a result of that.
Did that sound a bit ranty? Wasnt meant to!
Neil Mitchell
Account Manager
Blackpool Club Casino
MSN – [email protected]
email – [email protected]
old skool – 020 7838 9399ps – If anyone is going to Cyprus for Spring break, then *please* hunt me down (pm me for mobile number) – I am not hard to spot – I’ll be the one who looks like Wolverine from Xmen trying to avoid being rolled back into the sea by GreenPeace
Yay!
Communication -is key
Honesty- Don’t promise me a % for life and when you think I am not looking lower my commission rate (HINT: if your reading this you know who, now you know why your banners are all GONE!:flush:)
Reliability-
Genuine- Don’t be fake or act as if your my best friend just to make a deal
Integrity-
Authority-Like Simmo’s said it drives me crazy to have an affiliate manager come to me asking for more exposure and when I start asking question I get the run around or the…let me ask and see what I can do.
Endurance- This is needed for the party events that CAP rocks out during the best industry conferences around!! :capmiami:
I think almost all the affiliate managers around ROCK! Keep up the great work ladies and gents:hattip:
