Building successful affiliate partnerships isn’t just about sending cold emails and hoping for responses. In this episode, Lee-Ann sits down with Leanna Klyne, Affiverse’s Head of Agency and an 18-year veteran of affiliate marketing, to reveal the exact five-step framework their agency uses to build lasting partnerships that actually convert.
This isn’t theory – it’s the battle-tested system they use daily to connect brands with high-performing affiliates, and they’re sharing it all, from LinkedIn profile optimisation to why your first email line is make-or-break.
Talking points include:
How to segment onboarding experiences by affiliate type and generation (Gen Alpha, Gen Z, and Millennials don’t communicate the same way).
The five P’s flywheel: Profile, Pitch, Publish, Productise, and Partnerships and why each stage builds on the last.
Why 120+ daily emails mean your cold outreach needs to hook affiliates in the first line or get deleted.
Perfect Your Profile Before You Pitch
Your LinkedIn banner is prime real estate, yet most affiliate managers leave it blank. Leanna emphasises that trust-building starts before your first email lands in an affiliate’s inbox. When publishers research you and they will your profile needs to immediately communicate how you help, not just your job title. She recommends pinning relevant posts to your profile, crafting a headline that speaks to value, and remembering that every like and comment on a publisher’s content is a micro-interaction that builds familiarity.
One affiliate manager’s rule? If they can’t figure out what you do and why it matters within 10 seconds of landing on your profile, you’ve already lost them.
Stop Wasting Words in Your Outreach
The average professional now receives 120+ emails daily, which means your pitch has seconds to survive the delete button. Leanna’s advice is blunt: skip the introductions. Your name and company are already in the sender field don’t waste the first two lines repeating them. Instead, lead with relevance and value, keep it under two paragraphs, and always include a clear call-to-action. She also tackles the question every affiliate manager asks: how many follow-ups are too many? Her answer: three to five is the sweet spot, up to seven if you vary your approach across different channels. Beyond that, you’re no longer persistent you’re spamming.
Productise Your Partnership Experience
Getting affiliates to join your program is only half the battle. Leanna shares a recent client win where they segmented influencer onboarding by age group, creating distinct communication flows for different generations. The result? Dramatically improved activation rates. The lesson: one-size-fits-all onboarding is dead. Whether it’s Telegram for Gen Z or email for older millennials, meeting affiliates where they already communicate makes the difference between a dormant partnership and an active revenue driver. She also stresses the importance of getting your sign-up form right from the start ask enough to segment effectively, but not so much that you scare prospects away.
Listen to find out more about:
- The exact tools Affiverse uses in their agency (hint: reach out on LinkedIn for the “MoFo tools list”)
- Why Leanna keeps partners in her database for years, and how one four-year-old relationship just delivered results on a new program
- The Nike approach to becoming an industry voice: just do it, and post consistently
Key segments of this podcast and where you can tune in to go direct:
[13:25] The cold email problem: breaking through 120+ daily emails and why your first line is everything
[19:48] How to become a trusted industry voice through authentic publishing and thought leadership
[38:33] The one action to start today if you want to attract affiliates instead of chasing them
Our thanks go to Mate Affiliates as this season’s sponsor. Would you like to talk about sponsoring our podcast, or gaining a brand mention? Take a look here.
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