The Free Toaster E006 - Operational Maturity [Affiliate marketing]
Today, we introduce the 4 levels of Operational Maturity in affiliate marketing for lenders. Weโll go deep on 101 and 201 levels. The 301 and 401 levels will be covered in our next episode.
Summary of the 4 levels:
๐ญ๐ฌ๐ญ - ๐ง๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐น
We're focused on the volume of leads and the cost of acquisition. The rest of the operation looks a lot like affiliate programs in other industries. There's not much attention placed on the quality of accounts that we acquire.
๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ - ๐ค๐๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ
We learn that not all leads are created equal and not all lead sources are created equal. We pay more attention to what happens to a customer post-booking.
How much revenue are they driving?
What are the delinquency rates?
What are the loss rates?
We start to think about the relationship between LTV and cost of acquisition.
๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ญ - ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐น๐ผ๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ
We learn that when we make a change to our business, the affiliate reacts in a certain way, and that in turn has a knock-on effect on our business. We also start to overanalyze why volumes dropped and why applicant quality is changing. We often get distracted by a lot of these questions as there are often no actions we can take as a result of our curiosity.
๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ญ - ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐๐
We learn that our success relies on delivering exceptional products and exceptional buying experiences for our affiliates' customers. Under this frame, we recognize that each affiliate's a little different. They all have different buying experiences, data assets, customer types, and integration capabilities. We try to reverse engineer our business to best fit each partner. We notice that we were overanalyzing the volatility in our programs, and conclude that our investigations were often unproductive.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Why maturity matters
(04:36) The 4 levels
(10:18) 101 deep dive
(17:56) 201 deep dive
(26:15) Wrap up and next steps
Where to find Carlos:
References:
A written summary of the 4 levels of Operational Maturity:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-carlos-caro_operational-maturity-affiliates-activity-7204481122464907264-f_hC
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If youโre interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.