Lessons from a Recent 7-Figure Affiliate Launch

What does a 7-figure launch look like? What type of planning, preparation, and execution are required to have that kind of success? The answer is — a lot! Today I am going to share with you the Top 3 takeaways from a recent affiliate launch we did for a client.

Launch Results

Anyone who knows me well knows that I don’t share private client information here. But, in generalities, let’s just say it was awesome.

We nearly doubled the size of the affiliate launch from the previous year!

Here are my top 3 takeaways from the launch.

1. Affiliate Recruiting – Followup A LOT

In the past, when we were recruiting for a launch, we would send 2-4 emails total inviting potential affiliates to promote the launch.

If you didn’t respond to one of those emails and tell us you were in or out, we didn’t bother you anymore.

For this launch, we followed up a lot more.

We sent 16 (yes sixteen…) emails to potential affiliates over the course of 6 months. So if you didn’t respond to our first email, we sent you #2, if you didn’t respond to #2, we sent you #3 etc.

We also sent 8 emails to people that DID respond but said they weren’t sure if they were going to promote.

I know that sounds like a lot, but here’s what I know about affiliates – they are busy people. And busy people require a lot of followup.

Affiliates have a million things they are doing and often emails get buried or missed, so we followed up.

A lot.

Those additional follow-ups resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional sales for this launch.

2. Use Video – A LOT

I recorded 12 different videos throughout the launch over the course of an 18-day launch.

TWELVE!!

What we discovered is that these videos were a great way to convey information, answer common questions and engage our affiliates.

In addition to these 12 videos, Mark, from my team, used Facebook Live videos to announce contest winners throughout the launch.

There is a difference between reading an email from someone and seeing someone on video.

We used video more during this launch than we have every used it before…and our affiliates loved it.

I would highly suggest using video to interact with your affiliates.

3. Create a Community for Your Affiliates

For all of our launches we use Facebook Groups to create a community for our affiliates.

That part isn’t new, however, the way that we used that group during this launch was innovative and worked VERY well.

We were blown away at the benefits that our affiliates got from that group.

We used the Facebook group to announce contest winners, share the videos I mentioned above, motivate and excite affiliates and just to create a camaraderie among those promoting the launch.

One of the biggest benefits of the group was completely organic.

Affiliates began posting in the group, looking for help and support and GIVING help and support.

And not just smaller affiliates. Every one of our top 10 affiliates from this launch, at one time or another, posted a video, commented on a post or shared some sort of encouragement for other affiliates.

There is a reason that they are the top affiliates, they are willing to help and encourage others.

If you had been in the Facebook Group, you would have seen multiple posts from top affiliates giving FREE advice and encouragement that was easily worth thousands of dollars.

For each launch we do, we begin with a playbook — best practices that we always do, but we also leave room for new ideas and experiments. In any given launch, new ideas and innovations comprise probably 20% of what we do.

In that way, we are always learning and growing, adjusting and changing.

This launch was no different.

Many of the things we learned or tried have since become part of our launch playbook. That’s what you ALWAYS want to be doing.

Following your playbook, but constantly innovating.