Category: DIRECT RESPONSE

This week, we took a seat with director of business development at Digistore24, Alex Gunoe, to see what information he can give us about scaling a business internationally using affiliate marketing. We’ve been talking a lot about successful affiliate marketing lately, especially with our incredible deep-dive into affiliate managers last week.

For some background, Alex might be a little more relatable than you think. He got into this industry on his own personal business path. In short, he started out as the owner of a small gym and then worked his way into using direct response to promote and scale his own business, taking it from only in-person to e-commerce. Now, he works at Digistore24 and uses his personal experience gained from growing his business to a platform that can help any business owner reach the level of success he did.

Understand the intentions of an affiliate in terms of sales.

One of the biggest mistakes a lot of entrepreneurs think of when it comes down to an affiliate marketing strategy is thinking that an affiliate will only accept the highest EPC or PPC. On the surface, that does make a lot of sense. Why would anyone try to promote an item that gives them $4 earning per click when they could get $9?

Fortunately, it doesn’t really work that way. Higher commission is great, but what matters more is how an offer (e.g., coupon, ebook, tutorial, webinar) converts. The less an affiliate manager has to do to keep an offer going, the more likely they’re going to leave it alone and turn their attention elsewhere because it’s effortless money in the bank. And an offer with high-quality content will make that happen.

So for affiliate program beginners, don’t worry about pricing your EPC at the top to gain traction. Focus on making a reliable offer that will stand the test of time and building relationships with affiliates. And there are a lot of different types of affiliate sites out there specializing in different marketing channels with diverse commission rates. Digistore24 is a great one to check out, and you can also take a peek at Clickbank or Amazon Affiliates. Affiliate sales and referrals are driving businesses forward. It’s time you hop on that bandwagon.

How does a global affiliate network get a vendor to the next level?

For businesses like Digistore24, we were wondering if they and platforms like them prefer working with startups or tenured merchants—which was easier to bring into affiliate marketing.

Up front, Alex’s response was enlightening. He told us that because the world of e-commerce is growing increasingly crowded, venders of any age or industry see the need to get into the eyes of different target audiences. Direct response and affiliate marketing are two of the best solutions to that concern.

When starting with Digistore24, a client gets passed off to a growth manager who can help them gain the know-how for what it takes to create a killer offer and build the right connections. These are the two pillars for 10x sales and growth for any business model.

Honesty is also a much better tactic when talking to affiliates. Not everyone needs to be on the marketplace, some businesses only really need the education-side of things and the right connections with people who can get them into new markets. The marketplace is full of competition, and if your best offer isn’t really one that will stay on top for the long-term, then it might not be worth it. Instead, clients that fall into this category can benefit from staying off the marketplace and putting their efforts into growth management.

A personalized approach to business growth is the best approach.

We asked Alex about how Digistore24 pairs clients with affiliates: does email marketing match with email, or do they try to create more of a blend with content marketing, bloggers, influencers, etc.? Instead of approaching it in this binary sense, his company goes about this in a much more personalized manner. And that makes sense since all businesses have diverse needs.

For example, if a small business (or you) have a really amazing, aggressive email offer that is just incredible but it isn’t Facebook-compliant, they (or you) will be matched with email list owners. There’s no sense in creating a partnership between two people who can’t help each other.

However, that isn’t the end of the journey. That’s how a business owner can continue scaling their business with their current marketing platform. But they should still be able to expand, and that’s where a global affiliate marketing program can take them. After getting email in order, the next step is to convert that offer into something that does work on social media and going from there.

Keep in mind that it’s not so cut and dry. There are a lot of sacrifices and adjustments to make. Let’s say, for example, that you get introduced to someone who wants to take your daily sales volume from 50 to 300. That sounds great, but they ask for exclusivity. Are you willing to cut reposition your previous relationships to use this new one? In most cases, these are the actions you’ll have to take in order to reach that next level of growth you crave.

Just because you build it, doesn’t mean customers will come.

The same is true for affiliates. A lot of business owners think that because they put in the effort to create their business and set things up, they can simply enter the affiliate marketing space and suddenly get tons of new affiliates or new customers or new audiences or sales. That’s not how it works; you can’t drive traffic with no effort.

Don’t do this. Instead, you 100% need to invest in a good affiliate manager. This person’s sole purpose is to build relationships, nurture them, and get your business up 10x. You have to be willing to invest in this person.

A lot of small online businesses and startups claim they don’t have to resources to pay for an affiliate list manager. And that’s true a lot of the time, we aren’t knocking it. But there are ways around it. You can structure the role to be more commission-based, this way you only pay when they make you money. And good affiliate managers will want commission, anyway. They can make way more on affiliate commission than with a fixed salary.

Prepare your offer for international markets verbally and culturally.

International markets are a gold mine, especially with digital goods. Physical goods are still possible, and platforms like Digistore24 are well on their way to preparing you for physical fulfillment. But there’s a trick to entering. You need to make sure your offers translate well in whatever new market you choose verbally and culturally.

Let’s start with the verbal part of your offer. And we can even make the scenario easier: an American offer being used in the UK. It’s the same language so it should be easy, right? No. British English is very different from American English. They way words are spelled, phrases used, humor, cultural relevance—it’s all different. You need to be aware of the language used and literally translate your offer to match the new market. When there are grammatical errors in an offer or advertisement, it removes the authenticity of your company. People will immediately feel like they’re being scammed, leave your store, and never come back.

Second, you need to focus on culture. Offers need to be translated culturally, too. Some things simply won’t land, others might be offensive. Again, using an American offer in the UK. The new market isn’t going to care about FDA-approved supplements. They want to know if it has the CE mark. Be culturally aware of where you’re selling, otherwise you’re throwing away resources.

One simple way to make sure your offers are up-to-par in Europe or wherever you’re selling, you can hire someone local to review it. The best solution is the really hire someone permanently in that market to help you go over your offers, but not every company has the resources for that. If that’s the case, you can use freelance platforms to find someone local and pay them a nominal fee to glance over your material. They’ll quickly be able to tell you about spelling errors, irrelevant content, and what resonates with them.

Having a local bank account helps conversions.

When you’re expanding internationally, you will see significantly higher conversions when you have a local bank account. That’s because the bank account will be accepting the local currency, no currency converting necessary. That international transaction is now a domestic transaction, and that will help you scale.

In order to open one of these bank accounts you’ll need to incorporate which can be quite expensive. There are other ways to get a merchant account in another country without incorporating, and DirectPayNet can help you.

We are a merchant services provider that will connect you with payment processors that allow you to process foreign currency as if its domestic, without any hits to your conversion rate.

Affiliate marketing and digital goods are high-risk industries that require a specific type of merchant account: a high-risk merchant account. In order for your to expand 10x, you need to open this type of merchant account that will connect you with payment processors that allow you to process credit card, debit card, bank transfer, digital wallet, and even crypto payments with minimal risk.

Contact DirectPayNet to get started and get the international success your business deserves.

And don’t forget to check out Digistore24 to see how affiliate marketing works first-hand.

This past week, we sat down with Amber Spears and spoke with her about what makes a good affiliate manager, the difference between men and women in our industry, and predictions for the future. This will be a multi-part supplemental post of our podcast episode with her, so stay tuned for our future posts.

Amber Spears currently co-owns the affiliate marketing agency, East 5th Avenue, that not only helps scale on the agency side but also provides training in all aspects of affiliate marketing.

A Good Affiliate Program Manger – Is It Sales or Connection?

Our first question with Amber was whether her agency takes in teams that are already established so she can take them to the next level, or if she takes in folks starting from scratch to be a good affiliate manager. And her answer might surprise you.

Many Affiliate Managers Don’t Have Good Sales Training

Initially, Amber would take in existing teams and upload their performance. She still does this, actually. But more importantly, what she learned by starting out this way is that most affiliate managers don’t have good sales training. They are very good with people (creating partnerships with new affiliates; a people-person), but they aren’t good at selling. Having strong communication skills is important, but if conversion rates aren’t rising then it might not be your online marketing strategy that’s the problem.

This type of affiliate sales knowledge is important because a good affiliate manager needs to know about KPIs, quotas, high-level negotiating techniques, and prospecting.

With this type of existing team, it’s easy to make introductions to them for people who will become affiliates of theirs. But an introduction doesn’t mean sales—or maximized sales. In the end, the bottom line is what matters most. If an affiliate account manager isn’t impacting the bottom line positively, then they aren’t good at their job.

Self-Promotion Is Not Sales

What she’s found after doing this for so many years is that many desirable affiliate managers are really good at self-promotion, and that’s what makes them desirable. But it doesn’t make them good at their job. The same can be said about any industry, like copywriting, designing, developing—you name it.

A good question to ask yourself when hiring an affiliate manager like this is, “what is an appropriate amount of money to pay someone that’s well-known but doesn’t get good results?” Because in the end, you’re paying for clout, not knowledge or skill.

Solution: Train or Fire

There are two solutions to solve this problem: training your existing manager in sales or replacing them with someone who knows sales from the start.

Training takes time and effort, but you also need to account for that person’s willingness to be trained. A lot of the time, ego gets in the way of growth. Training can help both of you: the affiliate manager will be better at their job and you will see more profit. But this method isn’t always possible, whether it’s because they’re unwilling to learn or you’re unwilling to train.

Replacing your existing manager with someone who may not be as well-known is a great solution, even if it’s a bit troublesome in the beginning. You can hire someone that’s more affordable. They may not know the ins-and-outs of affiliate management, but they do know sales. And here, there are two ways to hire someone new: find someone with a real-world, positive sales background that has years of experience, or find someone who tests well and fits the job description.

Testing here refers to Kolbe scores. Amber and her team have administered over 100 different Kolbe tests of the top performing and lowest performing affiliate managers. From that, they came up with a clear indicator of what type of person will thrive in this position. Either a person that actively performs well or has the aptitude to do so.

Going back to the first option (training), there’s another inherent issue that repetitively comes up. When you send your affiliate manager to events and meetings without a holistic understanding of how the e-commerce business works, they’re more eager and willing to jump ship. For example, if they’re making $70k while generating a $5 million sale, they don’t understand the difference in those numbers. A lot of success for a sale comes from the offer and its performance, not the pitch.

We’re not saying you should go out and fire your affiliate program management marketing team, replacing them with someone in sales. We’re bringing to light some of the things you should keep an eye out for so you can either find someone who will better fit the position or train yours to perform better. Both are viable solutions, but dependent on the retailer business and the individuals involved.

Connections Are Important, Deals Are Better

During our sit-down with Amber, she spoke a bit about a new and ongoing project of hers: Traffic Tribe.

Removing the Fluff

Many businesses, business owners, and workers in the industry (and every industry) panicked last year when COVID started shutting things down worldwide. Birthed from this, Amber started Traffic Tribe. It’s a bimonthly call that created a community of folks in affiliate marketing and direct response digital marketing.

There was a realization that they could maintain business, stay profitable, and eliminate the panic by taking our high-ticket stuff, bringing it down to a price that businesses can afford, and create a community from it with support and knowledge coming from every member.

The first step was removing the fluff. Whenever you go to a meeting or a convention, you spend a lot of time making connections with affiliate partners. But what you really want to do is make a deal. With Traffic Tribe, she created a platform—a virtual convention—that removed the fluff of schmoozing and went straight into deal-making.

Good Relationships That Don’t Make Money Are Bad Relationships

And that’s what an affiliate marketing manager’s job is: to make deals and bring in the cash. If your business has great relationships that don’t convert, then your affiliate marketing program manager isn’t doing their job well. This position is designed to drive the business forward, and that’s done through making deals and making money.

Speaking of relationships, they also ensure affiliate network managers have a good relationship with themselves. This position can often lead to loneliness and isolation, so they have mind training exercises to make sure each member is mentally and emotionally prepared to drive business forward. Otherwise, this role is very lonely and taxing and will lead to failure eventually. Training for affiliate managers on these calls also involves improving the pitch, negotiating, and asking for traffic. It’s a community to lean on and learn from.

Women in Direct Response and Affiliate Marketing

From one woman business owner to another, Amber and I also touched on what that means for the industry and what we can learn to improve the statistics here.

Creating Community Among Women

As we spoke about affiliate manager and sales, it also came up that men run the show in this industry. Women are notoriously worse at asking for business out of being too shy, second-guessing, and worrying about the other end. But—maybe more importantly—women are terrible at sharing business with other women.

What men in the affiliate marketing industry do is share business, swap it back and forth, and make it more of a hang-out. They strengthen their relationships with one another by doing this. Instead, women stay isolated. There needs to be community for women in the industry like this and the only way that’s going to happen is if we create that community ourselves.

Leverage Relationships

Another thing women can do to be more prominent in the industry that also acts as a sign of changes is leveraging relationships with men in various affiliate marketing channels. Men don’t ruminate on whether they’ve sent too many texts, if the recipient read the email, or if they did well on a call. They simply move on and continue until the connection is made and they can leverage it. That’s what women can do for themselves in the industry.

Leave the stigmas behind—why is she so aggressive, etc.—and start being confident in your role. When you’re confident in your position, you can share your business with fellow women and men, and work to scale your business without making it personal.

Scaling Your Affiliate Marketing Business Requires a Merchant Account That Can Handle Your Volume

Stay tuned for our second part of this interview where we go over industry changes and future outlooks.

For affiliate managers to do their job well, your business needs a payment processor and acquiring bank that forgoes the flat-rate fees and gives you customized processing designed for high-risk, high-ticket business. Performance marketing campaigns, content marketing (social media, bloggers, referrals, etc.), and SEO (search engine optimization) all lead prospects to your online business’ landing page where you need them to sign up and start spending.

DirectPayNet is the merchant services provider to give you this power in payments, so you can scale your business.