17 points to design the best Affiliate Marketing Programs

Because of my work in the CRM, Nocode, and automation space, I get approached for affiliate partnerships. Program managers always ask what would make it easier for me to promote them. So I thought I would make a partners-friendly affiliate marketing program checklist for Program Managers at SaaS/B2C companies.

Wishlist of an affiliate & content marketer

I am a systems builder. I work with multiple SaaS tools. To improve the capabilities of the tools my clients use, I have to look for other tools that will help my clients achieve their goals. So I am always in a position to transparently pitch tools that would help my clients.

This made me an accidental affiliate and content marketer.

To be successful in this role, I need the support and resources from the brands I am promoting and plugging.

So here’s my checklist that lists what would help me pitch partner products easily.

What makes a great Affiliate Marketing Program Checklist?

All things Brand/Product

• Brand Assets (brand guide, logos, illustrations)
• A one-line description of the product
• A 200-300 word description of the product
• An expert listings/directory for eligible partners
• A community for partners and experts to contribute

All things Content Production

• Access to a full-feature sandbox account
• Branded screenshots
• Sample test datasets/databases
• SWAG
• Shared product roadmap
• Insider news about new feature launches

All things Affiliate Partner

• Custom links to track signups
• Generate multiple links for attribution
• Incentive for users to sign up using MY link (lifetime x% discount, or an extended trial)
• Competitive % commission structure (Pipedrive)
• Ability to manually add referrals
• Easier payment options (direct bank transfers, not PayPal)
• Excellent tracking and reporting
• Single point of contact and prompt support when things go wrong
• Ability to recruit sub-affiliates (Bardeen, Dedupely, Bonsai)

6 Affiliate Software Solutions to help you run your Affiliate Marketing Programs

• Tapfiliate takes care of all your affiliate and referral marketing needs. Sync Tapfiliate with Shopify, WooCommerce, and 30+ other integrations.
• Rewardful is an all-in-one SaaS affiliate and referral tracking software.
• Kiflo is designed for Partnership Teams to help recruit, onboard, engage, track, and reward your partners using a single and easy-to-use platform.
• Reditus is an affiliate management software focused on SaaS businesses. Check it out and learn how to grow your MRR without any upfront costs.
• FirstPromoter provides affiliate and referral tracking for SaaS.
• Partnerstack helps you recruit, engage, and scale your entire ecosystem of partners — from affiliates to referral and reseller partners.

Brands with the best affiliate marketing programs

I have listed some of the best exclusive deals, promo codes/discount codes, and extended trials by SaaS companies.
If you’d like to be a part of this page, please write to me at hello(at)amitsarda(dot)xyz with your best offer for my readers.

The following brands deserve a special mention:

• Coupler: offers my readers exclusive discount codes, recruit sub-affiliates, and generous lifetime commissions to affiliate partners
• Pipedrive: offers tiered % commissions based on revenue slabs to affiliate partners, and extended trials to my readers
• Glide Apps: offers affiliate partners lifetime revenue share, rewards for growing customer revenue
• Bardeen: allows affiliate partners to recruit sub-affiliates
• Dedupely: allows affiliate partners to recruit sub-affiliates
• Bonsai: allows affiliate partners to recruit sub-affiliates AND offers generous one-time commissions (minimum $50 for each paid customer)