What do Casino affiliates want???

[Louis - Income Access]

I've worked in the affiliate industry for about 3 years, first in retail, then lead gen, and now for about a year+ in iGaming. I've managed programs across pretty much all the gaming verticals, poker, casino, bingo, games, betting, miscellaneous (The4thMarket??), and had some decent success doing so. Without coming across as arrogant, I like to think that I understand affiliates to some extent, and know how to write a recruitment email that gets the point across, without wasting anybody's time. For my efforts, I usually get a pretty good response rate, even if just a "thanks, but no thanks" kind of email.

But I honestly feel that I must be doing something TERRIBLY wrong with how I approach casino affiliates. My response rates, without exageration, are about 1/10 of what I would get for recruitment in betting, poker, bingo, etc...

Do casino affiliates get more spam then other types of affiliates? Do they really hate program invitation emails?

Or is there something I'm missing in the way I'm coming across?

Here's my basic template for a recruitment email (without getting into too much detail). As much as possible, I customize for the individual:

"Hi X,

Came upon your site in a google search for xxxx. You're ranking quite well, good job!

I'd love to speak to you in the near future about XXX's affiliate program, which I feel would be a great match for your site. XXX is known for .. [insert a few prominent USPs]

Right off the bat, I can offer you a boost in commission up to XX from the public rate of xx, plus I can get you an exclusive promotion to promote to your players. We're also very open to other custom strategies, so if you have some ideas, please let us know.

You can read more details about our program here (link), or if you prefer, send me your number and a good time to speak and we can chat about how to make it work.

Thanks.."

Are there some magic words that I'm missing?

Appreciate any insight from affiliates or other Casino affiliate managers.

[Dean_Leyland]

I don't think there is anything wrong with that, polite and to the point. As you say, its short and snappy so as not to waste their time.

I think recruiting affiliates in this manner is becoming more difficult across the board, affiliates are signed up to so many other programs that it's inevitable they will only take note of emails directly involving them rather than a sales type email.

<O</OI must admit, I have never personally found recruitment emails to be successful at all, whether that is because they aren't fans of Totesport or are just too busy to respond and want to choose who they join and when I don't know.<O</O<O</O

[DylanBaxendale]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this at all, as already mentioned. I think the key point is to make sure that you have a strong subject line as well. As mentioned, affiliates are part of so many programs already and it is very easy for them to ignore or even miss out on programs that are trying to make contact.

So in my opinion you need a great subject line to attract the potential affiliates attention as well as a good e-mail/offer.

[brean78]

Here's my basic template for a recruitment email (without getting into too much detail). As much as possible, I customize for the individual:
Are there some magic words that I'm missing?

Appreciate any insight from affiliates or other Casino affiliate managers.

Hi Louis

I can say this as I am currently in discussions with you on a few projects, so hopefully you wont get too offended. This email is as pretty much a carbon copy of every other program invitation out there. So yes the delete button will get hit a lot. Many casino affiliates I know, already know who they want to work with, so to offer them a pretty standard email offer is not really going to do much for them.

The pro-active step of coming to the forum and asking for advice is a good start. I think my advice would be to test a variety of emails and see what works. Other successful methods include picking up the phone and talking to people and meeting as many people affiliates as you can at the conferences. Although this may not always be an option, I don't know.

[Louis - Income Access]

you need a great subject line to attract the potential affiliates attention

Great point.

Any opinions out there on what a good subject line is?

Here are some I tend to use:
*Quick chat about a new XXXX campaign?
*New [casino] brand for xxx.com
*Partnership inquiry
*Advertising inquiry
*How can we partner with xxx.com?
*How can we be featured on xxx.com?

I still experiment a lot because I feel that different subject lines work on different types of affilliates, and also because I don't feel like I've definitively proven that one is better than another. Too many variables to really know what gets the response.

a pretty standard email offer is not really going to do much for them

Brean, glad you mentioned this. This is REALLY what I was trying to get at with the thread.

Any ideas on how I can really break through the clutter? Should I get more specific about promotional ideas or placements we would like?

Thanks

[DylanBaxendale]

Personalised subject lines work well, but a negative to that is they can look spammy. I would try avoid using e-mail address's etc. Using the site name works well, I know I feel proud when I see my site name mentioned.

By having your brand name in the subject line would also assist, as people would know straight away who they are dealing with. Spammers try avoid this so you click on the e-mail to see what content there is, but most people have become aware of this now and don't even open up e-mails if they don't have an idea of the content inside.

Income access would like to offer xxxxx 50% start up comm

I do very much like the comment from Brean about picking up the phone and communicating dirtectly. E-mails are a very important tool in the business world these days, but if you can call somebody instead it makes a big difference, that extra personal touch and service.