Using this tactic, RealtyShares grew its affiliate program 9x YoY | Marketing Shots

Hello, awesome marketers and founders.

This is Luv, and here’s your Marketing Shot 🙂 

Businesses treat affiliate marketing like a transaction:

1. Find influencers

2. Offer a commission per conversion

3. Hope for results

But what if there was a way to make influencers want to promote you before you even ask?

RealtyShares cracked this code with one of the most underrated persuasion techniques: strategic flattery.

Influencers and bloggers receive countless partnership requests. Most get ignored. Why? Because these emails feel like a one-sided deal-“Promote us, and we’ll pay you.”

But people don’t just want commissions.

They want recognition.

They want to feel valued.

The Strategy

Instead of cold-pitching influencers, RealtyShares took a different route.

Step 1: Give before you ask
Before reaching out, they wrote blog posts featuring top influencers in their industry, celebrating their expertise and positioning them as leaders.

Step 2: Create reciprocity
When influencers saw their name featured, they naturally wanted to share the post. This built goodwill before any partnership conversation.

Step 3: Make the ask (when they’re already hooked)
Once influencers were engaged, RealtyShares invited them to their affiliate program. Now, it wasn’t just another pitch, it felt like a mutually beneficial relationship.

Using this approach and tracking performance through the Ambassador platform, RealtyShares scaled its affiliate program 9x year over year.

That's a wrap for today!
Thanks,
Luv
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