My rant of the day to Affiliate Managers

[Topboss]

I haven't had a moan for a long time, and after receiving yet another email from an Affiliate Manager that goes something to this effect, I decided to make a post:

Dear Heather,


My name is xxx for xxx and I noticed that you signed up with us but you are not currently earning any revenue from us. I want to take this time to find out what I can do to help you start making money with us right away. Please let me know when it is a good time to call you and the best number where I can reach you so we can discuss about the different ways that you may promote our brands. I am available through MSN, Skype, Email or phone so please add me to your contacts so I can answer any questions you may have or get any marketing material you need ready right away.

I appreciate your business and time and hope to hear from you soon…

Best Regards,

I have not mentioned the Aff Managers name so as not to embarress him, but what upset me about this email is the fact that this particular program has been promoted by me for the past 5 years, and although I don't make thousands of dollars in comm with them - I do get a regular payment every month and do have them up on many of my sites, and do get new players on a regular basis.
I responded to them as follows:

Hi xxx

Your email makes no sense to me.

I have been promoting you for years and earn money from you every month?

Albeit not a lot, but I do not understand how you can say I signed up but have earned no revenue?

Regards
Heather

Granted I did get an apology from the AM in question and he said something to the effect that it was an error and I should not have been on the "inactive" list. Fair enough, I accept that mistakes happen, but my gripe is that before they send out these mails - the AM's should at least take the trouble to go into the affiliates account to see their performance, before pressing send.
I also realize that a lot of these may be mass mailers that the Aff manager does not see before they are sent out, but the fact that it comes from the Aff Managers email address and is signed off by the Aff Manager - tells me that the Aff Manager is or should be aware of the content.

Bottom line - Affiliate Managers - please check your affiliates account first, before sending out emails to this effect!!!

[Buddy.]

I'm seeing the same thing, especially where online gaming companies are outsourcing their affiliate acquisition campaigns to 3rd party marketing companies.

[tryme]

I kinda agree with you Top Boss. However, I guess most affiliate managers are dealing with thousands of affiliates and therefore have to rely on reports and info that are automatically generated. So, I think that the affiliate manager in question was let down by the information he or she was given.

On a related point: I get a fair number of emails of this type. It's little or no surprise to me that these generally come from affiliate programs that just don't deliver in terms of keeping me updated with player promotions, tournaments and so forth.

Aside from my personal gambling affiliate stuff, I'm a director of a fairly new company in this industry and we know this : companies like WagerJunction and Bet365Affiliates convert nicely because they give us the tools, promotions and info to do the job.

If we don't get the information delivered to us then, frankly, it's bad luck for that program. No info - no promotions.

[TheGooner]

Agree with you TopBoss, I also recently received an incorrect generic letter, and it harms the program far more than if they'd simply not sent anything out.

Due to the large number of affiliates that EVERY program has - all these initial contacts are automated to a large degree. Letters are developed for two or three tiers of affiliates and then (if things are done properly) affiliates are sent the correct generic contact letter.

This automation and lack of hands on direct contact is a result of affiliate managers having to manage literally THOUSANDS of affiliate accounts - many of them inactive.

AM's can make a difference, if they were set to manage the top 5%-10% of affiliates, but the low barriers to entry means that there are so many small and part time affiliates within each program that the result is many affiliates are not being managed at all.

I'll agree with Tryme, I do best with programs that simply acknowledge internally that AM's cannot actually service affiliates any more in a timely manner, and have invested in providing a good affiliate tool to find and maintain banners, links and promotions without AM contact.

[Topboss]

Agree with you TopBoss, I also recently received an incorrect generic letter, and it harms the program far more than if they'd simply not sent anything out.

Yes Gooner - You are so right there - If I had not received anything at all - I would have carried along on my merry way and been none the wiser, but now I almost have a negative feeling about the Aff program in question and feel as though my efforts over the years have been wasted and gone unnoticed.

I also agree that so much is automated these days that the personal touch tends to get lost along the way...but the funny thing is that many Aff Managers contact me regularly to ask if there is anything I need, send me new banners and generally make my life so much easier by delivering the promotional materials to my inbox without me having to login and go and find them.

Perhaps some may see this as a lazy atittitude on my behalf, but when you are managing 150 sites - the ones that get priority are the ones that take the time out to help me build the partnership...