New brands and merchants are launching everyday. That means the same goes for affiliate and influencer marketing programs. This is especially true because new brands find the easiest way to make noise in such a crowded market is through partnerships with customers, affiliates and influencers.
Who’s this article for?
This article was written for brands or merchants falling into 1 of two camps.
- Brands or merchants launching an affiliate program from scratch in 2026 or have it planned for 2027
- Brands or merchants failing to get tracking on their affiliate program, whether it was launched in 2026 or in 2020
It’s never been easier for brands and merchants to leverage tools to perform marketing activities, like building out a strong bench of affiliate marketers. That said, it’s also never been easier to get things completely wrong.
Strong affiliate programs are more about process than tech
You read that right. And yes, you are on the blog of a tech company. But I’d be the first to shout from the mountaintops that software alone isn’t going to solve your issues with building a successful affiliate marketing program
What the software does
Software make it easy to automate steps in the process. Tracking orders, handling registrations, communicating with affiliates, issuing payments…these are areas where software has made the process easier. The emphasis, though, is it made the process easier, it didn’t replace the importance of the process.
What the software doesn’t
Software and automation can speed up the tedium of good process, but it doesn’t replace good process. For example: AI-powered, email spamming…I mean cold outreach…is everywhere. If it worked well, you wouldn’t need to recruit affiliates. Just email millions with automated personalization powered by signals indicating a high likelihood to make your brand millions…
If you are reading this a chuckling to yourself [like I am while writing this], it’s because you know this doesn’t work.
Software can make the messaging process easier, but you still need to curate your list, ensure alignment, and reach out to them as a person because the fit is genuinely strong. And when they reply, you engage in back and forth, set up a virtual meeting, etc.
Establishing good process in 2026
Recently, we worked with a partner of ours, Bryce from T1 Affiliates, to assemble a launch checklist for building an affiliate marketing program from scratch in 2026.
Bryce has built affiliate marketing programs from $0 to $10M. How? By embracing process. That’s not to say it is rigid or generic. Instead, it’s about understanding the why that drives engagement and success from affiliate partnerships and ensuring the technology a brand leverages supports this.
Don’t just recruit affiliates…Activate them
In the affiliate marketing program launch checklist, one of the initial areas brands tend to get wrong is the focus on recruitment and the ignoring of activation.
Don’t get me wrong. Recruiting is essential. Brands and merchants need to ensure a constant pipeline of partnerships to navigate changes in performance or alignment from their existing partners. But most brands assume affiliates activate themselves, so they fail to engage with them after they’ve been brought into the program.
Ignoring the activation process almost always ensures very little value will come from the partnership.
Why activation is priority number 1
Activation fosters a stronger relationship between the brand and the partner. It ensures greater alignment on the product, the offer and the incentive. It ensures both sides understand the goals of the other.
When brands properly activate their newly minted affiliate partnerships, the clicks and the sales get a lot easier.
What else should brands prioritize?
For the sake of brevity of this post, I’m going to push you towards a tremendous resource the Refersion and T1 Affiliates teams put together. This guide provides the process for launching an affiliate marketing program in 2026 and the why. It’s 9 pages of experience powered value. Plus, we’ve made this checklist directly importable into the project and task manager of your choice.
Download the Affiliate Marketing Program Launch Checklist here.
