Merchants on AvantLink have the ability to create and adjust the automated welcome emails that go out to new affiliates who have applied and been approved to their program. We bring up the importance of these emails up in webinars and trainings quite often, as they are generally the very first touch point a new affiliate is going to have with a program after approval. We’ve even broken down the most important components of welcome emails by looking at a terrific real-life example from JensonUSA.
Now, merchants can embed ads from their program into these welcome emails, a new additional feature that should help activate new affiliates even further. The screenshot below is a real example of an embedded ad campaign in a welcome email for the AvantLink Merchant Referral Program:
Note that just like the Email Affiliates tool, any included ad in the welcome email includes a ‘Get HTML’ link accompanying the ad preview, allowing affiliates to instantly get the code for any advertisement they’re interested in using. Including ads will give new affiliates an immediate option to get started and engage with the program. Here is some methodology behind choosing the ads to embed in welcome emails:
- Select Only A Few: Don’t overwhelm new affiliates with every ad available. Select and offer one, two, or three ads max.
- Conversion rate: Include the ad with the current highest conversion rate.
- Adoption rate: Include the ad with the highest current affiliate usage.
- Seasonal ads: Offer an ad that corresponds with the season or next major holiday.
- Multiple ad types: The ability to include ads in a welcome email isn’t just limited to banner ads. Text ads and DOTD tools can be included as well. Give affiliates the option of getting a text ad or a banner ad from a welcome email.
To embed suggested ad campaigns in a welcome email, login at AvantLink.com and go to “Account> Edit Standard Email Templates>Application Acceptance Email“. From here the welcome email can be fully edited including inserting ad campaigns by use of the ‘Ad Campaign’ button found at the lower right side of the kitchen sink area (see screenshot below). To insert an ad into the email content, simply select an ad from the drop down list the ‘Ad Campaign’ button brings up. Whatever ad is selected will be inserted into the content of the email with a full preview of the ad as well as the ‘Get HTML’ option for affiliates.
We hope this new functionality is useful. As usual, we would love to hear any thoughts and feedback, either in the comments below or on our Twitter and Facebook.