Affiliate recruitment email templates: for existing affiliates, and for people new to affiliate marketing
Most recruitment emails fail for one reason: they are written for the wrong reader. There are two kinds of people you will write to, and they need different emails.
The two kinds of people you are writing to
- People who already do this. Bloggers, review sites, newsletter writers, YouTubers and agencies who already promote software for a commission. They know what an affiliate link is. They want to know what you pay, how fast it converts, and what you will hand them so they do not have to do the work themselves.
- People who have never heard of affiliate marketing. Your users, the consultants and agencies who recommend you anyway, the person who runs a community your customers are in. They do not know what a commission, a cookie or a payout is. They need one plain sentence that explains the deal, and one thing to do.
Send the second group the first group's email and they will not answer, because they did not understand it. Send the first group the second group's email and they will feel talked down to. So: two sets of templates, below.
The one sentence that explains affiliate marketing to anyone
You get a personal link. When someone clicks it and becomes a paying customer, we pay you 20% of what they pay us, every month, for 12 months. It costs you nothing.
Put that sentence, with your own numbers, in every email to someone who is new to this. It answers the three questions they would otherwise never ask out loud: what do I do, what do I get, and what does it cost me.
Three things every recruitment email needs
- What is in it for them, in money. "20%" means nothing to someone who does not know your price. "$16 a month per customer, for a year" does.
- One thing to do next. Click one link, or reply with one word. Not both, not three.
- Short enough to read on a phone. If it does not fit on one screen, cut it. The reader decides in the first two lines.
The example we use below
All the examples use a made-up product, so the numbers are real numbers and you can see the arithmetic. Swap in your own.
- Product: Tallyframe, reporting software for finance teams (made up for this article)
- Price: $80 per month
- Commission: 20% of what the customer pays, for 12 months
- So one customer earns an affiliate $16 a month, or $192 over the year. Ten customers: $160 a month, $1,920 over the year.
If your own arithmetic does not clear roughly $10 per payment the customer makes, the offer is not worth an affiliate's effort yet. Fix the commission before you send anything; the commission calculator does the sums.
Part 1: people who have never heard of affiliate marketing
Template 1: your users, when the referral program goes live
Users go to the in-app referral program, not the affiliate program. This email tells them it exists. Keep it to the two rewards and one link.
Subject: Know someone who would use Tallyframe?
Hi Sam,
Quick one. If you know someone who could use Tallyframe, you can now invite them from inside your account. They get their first month free, and you get $40 off your next invoice once they become a customer.
One click, from the "Refer a colleague" button in your dashboard.
Thanks for using Tallyframe, Maria
What to change: the two rewards. Both sides get something; the reward for the friend is what makes people share.
Template 2: an agency or consultant who already recommends you
They already put your product in front of their own clients. The email says: keep doing that, and get paid for it. The plain-words sentence is in the middle.
Subject: You already recommend Tallyframe. Get paid for it.
Hi Priya,
You have set Tallyframe up for at least three of your clients this year, so this is an easy one: we now have an affiliate program.
In plain words: you get a personal link. When a client signs up through it and becomes a paying customer, we pay you 20% of what they pay us, every month, for 12 months. It costs you nothing, and nothing changes for your clients.
For your agency that is $16 a month per client. Ten clients over the next year is $1,920.
Join here, it takes two minutes and there is no contract to sign: [your invite link]
If you would rather talk it through first, reply and I will call you.
Maria
What to change: the number of clients you know they have, and the arithmetic. Say what you know about them in the first line; it is the proof you are not mass-mailing.
Template 3: a community owner, partner or friendly contact who has never done this
Subject: A small favour that pays you
Hi Jonas,
You run the Finance Ops Circle, and a lot of your members have the exact problem Tallyframe solves: monthly reporting that takes days.
I would like to offer your members a deal, and you a thank-you. Here is how it works, since it may be new: you get a personal link. Anyone who signs up through it and becomes a paying customer earns you 20% of what they pay, every month, for 12 months. If ten members sign up over the year, that is $160 a month to you.
Your members get their first month free with your link, so it is a deal for them, not an ad.
If you are in, reply "yes" and I will send you the link and a short blurb you can paste.
Maria
What to change: the community, the problem, the member benefit. The ask is one word, on purpose.
Template 4: the reply to "how does this actually work?"
Someone in this group will ask. Have the answer ready, as a list they can read in twenty seconds.
Hi Jonas,
Good question. Six steps:
- You sign up here: [your invite link]. Two minutes, no contract.
- You get a link that is yours. Nobody else has it.
- You share it wherever you like: in an email, on your site, in a call.
- When someone clicks it and later becomes a paying customer, our system sees it and adds 20% of their payment to your balance. Every month they stay, for 12 months.
- We pay out your balance every month through PayPal, or by bank transfer if you prefer.
- You have your own dashboard where you can see clicks, signups and what you have earned.
Maria
What to change: your payout schedule and threshold, which you set in your program settings.
Part 2: people who already promote software for a commission
Skip the explanation. They will judge you on three things in the first two lines: what you pay, how fast your product converts, and whether you did your homework on them.
Template 5: an affiliate who promotes your competitor
Use when the recruit finder shows a site linking to a competitor with an affiliate link. They have already decided your category is worth writing about.
Subject: Your reporting-tools article, and a second commission
Hi Dana,
Your "best reporting tools for finance teams" article ranks for the search we care about, and I noticed it links to a competitor of ours with an affiliate link.
We are Tallyframe: same category, $80 a month, and we pay 20% recurring for 12 months. One referred customer is worth about $192 to you over the year.
The ask: add Tallyframe to the article as an option. I will send you a 150-word section, screenshots and a comparison table you can drop in, so it takes you ten minutes rather than an afternoon.
Full terms are on our program page: [your program page]. Reply and I will send the material today.
Maria
Template 6: a publisher whose article you are missing from
Use when an article already ranks, or already gets quoted by AI answers, and you are not in it. Pay for the work upfront, add the commission, and write the draft yourself. Never pay upfront for visibility with no defined outcome.
Subject: Adding Tallyframe to your "Finance reporting tools in 2026" piece
Hi Marco,
Your "Finance reporting tools in 2026" is the piece people find when they search for finance reporting software, and it is the one ChatGPT quotes when asked the same question. We are not in it, and we would like to be.
A fair deal: $250 upfront for adding a Tallyframe section, which I will draft for you, plus 20% recurring for 12 months on every customer who comes through your link. Readers who become customers pay us $80 a month, so that is $192 per customer on top of the upfront.
Terms and your link are on our program page: [your program page]. If yes, reply and the draft is with you within two days.
Maria
What to change: the upfront amount. It buys a defined piece of work, a section in a named article, never "exposure".
Template 7: a newsletter operator
Subject: A slot in Finance Ops Weekly, paid two ways
Hi Lea,
Finance Ops Weekly reaches the finance teams we sell to. I would like to sponsor one send and make it worth more than a one-off: $300 for the slot, plus 20% recurring for 12 months on every reader who becomes a Tallyframe customer through your link.
I will send a 60-word blurb, a 200-word version and an image, so it drops straight in. Readers get their first month free with your link, so it reads as a deal, not an ad.
Program page with the full terms: [your program page]. Reply with your next open slot and I will send the material.
Maria
Template 8: the partnership request inside the Reditus network
Affiliates in the vetted database receive your request in their dashboard and accept or decline with one click, so the message is short. Bulk sending is limited on purpose; write each one for that person.
Hi Dana,
Your audience is finance and ops teams at mid-size companies, which is exactly who buys Tallyframe. We pay 20% recurring for 12 months, $16 a month per customer at our $80 price, and I can give your readers their first month free. If you accept, I will send the assets and a bonus for your first published piece.
Maria
Template 9: the one follow-up
Three to five days later, two lines, then stop.
Hi Dana,
Floating this back up. The short version: 20% recurring for 12 months, I write the content, you paste it. Want the material?
Maria
What not to write
- Do not open with who you are and how great the product is. Open with them.
- Do not put "earn commissions" in a subject line. Spam filters skip it, and so do people.
- Do not quote a percentage without the money it turns into.
- Do not attach a PDF. Link to your program page.
- Do not send the same email to both groups.
Where the emails go out from
- Your own network: from your own address, with the invite link from your Reditus program.
- Outreach to publishers and competitor affiliates: the first touch from your outreach tool, on a separate sending domain, and every reply answered by a person within a day.
- Vetted affiliates in the network: a partnership request from inside Reditus.
- After they join: the automated onboarding emails take over, and the first one should carry the offer for their audience.
Frequently asked questions
Do I really need to explain what affiliate marketing is?
To your users, partners and most agencies, yes. They have never had an affiliate link. One sentence does it: you get a personal link, when someone becomes a paying customer through it we pay you a share of what they pay, and it costs you nothing. To bloggers, review sites and newsletter operators who already promote software, no. Skip straight to what you pay and what you will hand them.
How many follow-ups should I send?
One, three to five days after the first email, two lines long. After that, stop. People who did not answer twice are not going to become active affiliates because of a third email, and a reputation for chasing costs more than the reply you might get.
Does Reditus send these emails for me?
Reditus gives you an invite link to put in your own emails, and inside the network you send partnership requests that vetted affiliates accept with one click. The outreach emails themselves go out from your own email address or your outreach tool. Once someone joins, the automated onboarding emails in Reditus take over.