Q: What is the best way to build trust in developing affiliate marketing programs?
A: The simple answer is to operate in a stand-up fashion. Do right by your affiliates and trust will build up over time.
There are many ways you can do right or wrong with an affiliate program, and those decisions can benefit or haunt you for a long time.
Paying on time is essential. Pay late once and you’ll be seen as unreliable.
Provide full contact information to your affiliates. Don’t sign your communications with some generic thing like “The Affiliate Team.” Affiliates are taking a leap of faith in promoting your affiliate program and if you’re a phantom, you are putting a hurdle in front of their trust.
On that note, when they do contact you, respond quickly. I belong to a lot of affiliate programs, and I test their response rates periodically. Some are quick, most get back to a simple question days later, and others never bother to respond.
Guess which ones I am more inclined to promote.
Also, own up to mistakes. Sometimes tracking breaks – it’s an unfortunate by-product of technology. If and when it happens, don’t bury your head in the sand – own up to it when you find out and figure out how you can make good on the lost revenue of the affiliates for sending traffic to a black hole due to your error.
Just operate your affiliate program ethically and proactively and trust will come.