Create Your Affiliate Program

Want more members inside of your awesome membership program?

Of course you do!

One of the easiest ways to add new members into your membership is by having your current members become affiliates for you!  

In case you’re new to what an affiliate is, an affiliate is someone who shares your work (or in this case, your membership) with their community using a unique tracking link. They receive an affiliate commission for anyone who signs up for your offer/membership through their link. 

Working with affiliates has one of the highest ROIs because once you set up your affiliate program, you only pay your affiliates when they refer a “sale” aka new member to you.

Your current members make the best affiliates for your membership for two main reasons:

1. They already know, like and trust you so would more than likely happily affiliate for you; receiving the commission would just be the cherry on top!
   
2. They can share about your membership from personal experience – so their “marketing” of your membership comes from a really authentic and genuine place.

If you’re ready to work with affiliates to grow your membership, let’s walk through what you need to do to begin your affiliate program:

Set Up Your Tech

The first step to working with affiliates is to make sure that you have your affiliate tracking set up.

The good news is, if you have your membership set up already, chances are you already have the tech you need for your affiliate program!

Most of the major course platforms (Teachable, Kajabi, MemberVault, etc) offer affiliate capabilities.  You’ll want to check your account directly.

If your membership site platform doesn’t offer affiliate capabilities, not to worry. There are some great affiliate options out there, such as LeadDyno and WP Affiliate. (I cover more affiliate options inside of my free guide here.)

One of the most common Qs I see in the membership space is “How much should I pay my affiliates?”

On a recurring membership, I recommend 20% – 25%.  Of course, there is no right or wrong answer here, but that commission rate is pretty standard for membership site owners.

What to Provide Your Affiliates

Once you’ve set up your affiliate program tech, you want to gather up the promo materials you want to provide your members who will sign up to be an affiliate for you.  

Things you’ll want to provide your affiliates:

Here at Create Your Affiliate Program, I talk a lot about, well, creating an affiliate program.

Today’s post is for those who already have an affiliate program created.

So if that’s you, be sure to read the entire post to make sure you aren’t making the #1 mistake I see that could be keeping you from being profitable with affiliates!

What is that mistake, you ask?

The #1 mistake I see people who already have an affiliate program make is that they are just giving their affiliates an affiliate link and hoping they’ll share it with their communities.

Y’all, hope is not a very good affiliate marketing strategy.

Instead of hoping your affiliates share about your offering with their audience, you need to set your affiliates up for success.

Here’s how to set your affiliates up for success:

Create a welcome email sequence for your affiliates!

This welcome sequence is a series of emails you send your affiliates to make sure they have and can find everything they need to share about your offer with their community.

{Remember: The big key to success with affiliates is making it easy-peasy for them!}

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Here’s the emails I recommend you include as part of your affiliate welcome sequence:

Affiliate Email 1 – Welcome Email

Welcome them to your affiliate program, re-introduce yourself, give them their unique affiliate link, provide them with ready-to-use marketing materials, and give them your affiliate packet if you have one created.

Affiliate Email 2 – Check In Email

Make sure they have everything they need; reshare their affiliate link and marketing materials.