I have an established, successful business--how do I find good affiliates?

[ContentDoneRight]

Hi AF Team!

Thanks in advance for your insights and suggestions.

I'm a copywriter-turned-entrepreneur who's looking to expand my business using strategic partnerships. The big obstacle I'm facing is how to find (legit) people to promote the service. Can you help me think this through?

Quick Background

• I'm an Ivy League educated writer whose written over 50,000 web pages/blogs and a few hundred books.
• After stumbling into the entrepreneurial world in 2013, I grew my freelance writing career into a real business. We now have about 60+ freelance writers across the US. These include accomplished doctors, lawyers, and journalists published in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. We have about 50-60 active clients, and I'm hoping to grow this roster.
• We've gotten a ton of business in the past from referral sources--one company sent us 90+ different clients over the course of a few years. And much of the marketing I do involves contacting businesses with complimentary services (e.g. consultants, web designers, etc.) and developing partnerships.
• Our core product is a 6 month blogging package that sells for about $5K. Most clients renew, so the lifetime value of a single client can be quite high.

Thoughts on the Affiliate Program

• I am open to suggestions about what would constitute a fair/great compensation package. My intuition is to start with something like a 10% revenue share for the lifetime of a referred client and also maybe a $25 appointment setting fee--for a qualified prospect who actually shows up for a sales call. For our core package, that would work out to a little less than $500 for a converted lead. (Or more if that client stays longer than 6 months.)
• I/my team can create bespoke assets for those willing to mail for and promote us. What I'm missing is the audience! We can write email copy, newsletter blurbs, and what have you--in any style/tone needed. I have a lot of experience with direct response and have trained under the greats, like Rich Schefren, Justin Brooke, and Todd Brown.
• Our service is skewed towards helping attorneys, but we can write in many B2B verticals. And since I'm a business owner, I feel very comfortable chatting with and selling to other business owners.
• On the downside, since I'm just starting out with this process, I don't have many technical assets in place. For instance, there's not (yet!) a dedicated page on our website explaining our affiliate program. And while I can create personal tracking links with Calendly--to identify who's actually booking appointments with us--the affiliates will have to have some degree of trust that I will track everything and compensate according to our arrangement. I pride myself on good ethical behavior, and we'll eventually have better tech stuff in place to attribute, but this may be a sticking point for some.
• On the positive side, ours is a legitimate company with a great product (and a smart and friendly team to support our clients). And I really want affiliates to succeed--I am here to mentor and support people as needed, so that we all win.

Questions

• Given this background, do you have suggestions/criticisms? I have no ego about this--just want the process to work.
• Where on this forum or elsewhere can I recruit people who might be open to promoting us? (I'm assuming the affiliate and I should have a zoom or phone call first to suss out the details.) And do you have advice about how to approach folks?

Thank you!

Adam

 

[T J Tutor]

You need to read this post!

 

[ContentDoneRight]

Lovely--thank you, TJ! Your comments make sense. I plan to register as a vendor here (just to start) and then begin outreach. I know I will need to pitch, to sort the wheat from the chaff, and to train up the people who could be a good fit. But that's the easy stuff. The hard part for me has been simply to locate actual individuals to start up conversations with...

 

[T J Tutor]

The hard part for me has been simply to locate

Once you start recruiting, really indulging the recruitment aspect of your efforts, you will find that many of those that are closely connected to other affiliates will help to spread the word. Additionally, don't forget there are loads of affiliate marketing groups on social media.

 

[ContentDoneRight]

Wow. That's cool to know--thank you!

 

[Albertomax1]

Hello @ContentDoneRight

Welcome!!!

I've had success in my affiliate recruiting by running ads on the
appropriate platforms and reaching out to affiliates directly with
email marketing.
...

 

[MarkTwels]

While you work on creating a dedicated page and improving tracking technology, your commitment to ethical behavior should help build trust. Starting with a few trusted affiliates can be a good way to begin.
Your willingness to provide mentorship and support is a big plus. Affiliates appreciate knowing they have someone to guide them.
To find potential affiliates, consider checking out affiliate marketing networks like ClickBank and ShareASale. You can also reach out to influencers in your niche.
On a personal note, I've been thinking about opening. If you'd like to discuss that or have any more questions, feel free to reach out.

 

[sinov]

Wow. That's cool to know