Platform Pick 10: Business, Legal, and IT Prep

Introduction

Now that you’ve narrowed down your platform choice, it’s time to make sure everything checks out from a business, legal, and technical perspective. This step involves bringing your top pick to your specialists—compliance, legal, finance, IT, and product teams—so they can confirm that it aligns with your goals and requirements. This is part of a series on how to pick the right platform for your needs.

Platform Pick 1: Win Stakeholder Support
Platform Pick 2: Create a Checklist
Platform Pick 3: Create a Feature Comparison Table
Platform Pick 4: Define Your Needs Clearly
Platform Pick 5: Hunt for the Right Platform
Platform Pick 6: Send Out Requests for Proposals
Platform Pick 7: Demos with Vendors
Platform Pick 8: Check Pricing and Value
Platform Pick 9: Choose Your Top Favorites
Platform Pick 10: Business, Legal, and IT Prep
Platform Pick 11: Integrate and Test it
Platform Pick 12: Rollout

Ready? Let’s dive in.

Assess Business and Technical Needs

Take your top platform pick to your compliance, legal, and IT teams for a quick review. You’ve chosen your winner based on the vendor’s provided information. Now your specialists can take a closer look and confirm that everything checks out before moving forward. Plus, it gives them a heads-up to start preparing for any work related to integrating the new platform.

Occasionally, a blocker may arise – like a compliance issue where the vendor claims GDPR compliance but stores data outside the EU – potentially disqualifying the winner. This is perfectly normal. It’s better to catch these issues now rather than waste time with multiple reviews earlier in the process. By focusing on your top pick first, you save your team from reviewing all the top 3 or 5 contenders unnecessarily. If a blocker does appear, you can quickly shift to your second-choice platform with minimal delay.

• Product: Review which products you’ll promote, decide the promotion method, and determine the compensation model.
• IT: Check the integration from a technical perspective by mapping out all the requirements and features you need.
• Compliance: Confirm processes for adhering to regulations like GDPR or local advertising laws.
• Legal: Draft both General Terms and Conditions for your affiliate program and any other Specific Legal Contract.
• Finance Team: Validate commission structures and ensure the proposed payouts align with budget expectations and profitability goals.

Define What You Want to Promote

You need a clear idea of what you’ll promote through affiliates. You may have multiple products, each with unique requirements and business models, that need to be carefully considered and factored into your analysis.

Identify Products or Services

Start by listing the products, services, or offerings you want affiliates to promote. Think about:

• What products or services do you offer, and are you planning to promote all of them through your affiliate program, or just a select few?
• Which products drive the most revenue or have the highest potential?
• Are there any new services you’re looking to grow through affiliate channels?

If you offer multiple products, you might consider integrating them into your new affiliate platform gradually, starting with the most promising ones.

Pro Tip: Even if you choose to integrate products one by one, conduct the business analysis for all of them beforehand. This ensures the platform can support the unique requirements of every product from the start and you won’t be surprised later.

Match Offerings to Affiliate Types

Think about how your affiliates will interact with these products:

• Are you promoting clicks, leads completed sales or any other type of conversion?
• Will affiliates drive traffic to your website, use API integrations, or embed forms?
• Choose the payout model that best fits your strategy and decide if you’ll offer different commissions for specific products or actions.

Pro Tip: If your business provides services but doesn’t currently use Lead generation or API integrations, be extra selective when choosing your affiliate platform. Chances are, you’ll need these features in the future – whether it’s a strategic decision or a necessity to accommodate a major affiliate bringing in traffic.

Develop or refine your go-to-market strategy and carefully review the payout structure for each product to ensure it aligns with your affiliate goals and market dynamics. Analyze every conversion goal in the customer journey, calculate the average commission for each goal, and decide which model works best for your go-to-market approach.

Product	Tier	Goal 1	Goal 2	Sale	Revenue share	GoToMarket
Product 1	Public	8 $	24 $	60 $	20%	Revenue share
	Mid	10 $	28 $	100 $	140 $	Revenue share
	Top	11 $	30 $	120 $	160 $	Revenue share

Outline How You Want to Promote It

Plan Technical Integration. Will affiliates use:

• Links: Traditional and easy to set up.
• APIs: For seamless lead sharing or advanced functionality.
• Embedded Forms: To collect leads directly on affiliate websites.

Dive into the technical aspects of how the program will function:

• Integrations: List the systems that need to connect with your platform (e.g., CRM, payment gateways, lead management tools).
• Tracking Methods: Decide whether to use cookies, S2S tracking or a mix.
• Data Security: Ensure the platform meets security standards for handling customer and affiliate data.
• Scalability: Plan for growth—ensure the system can handle increased traffic, leads, and affiliate activity.

Determine how traffic and conversions will be tracked (e.g., cookies, S2S tracking or combination). Consider how this setup will grow with your business. Think about flexibility for adding new affiliates, products, or commission structures in the future. All of this will require some input from your IT team, so make sure to go over everything with them to ensure it all works smoothly.

Pro TIP: Document Everything. Organize these requirements into a clear document. This will serve as a guide for internal teams and help you confirm alignment with your business goals.

Present Your Plan Clearly

Share your business analysis document with these teams, including:

• What you plan to promote.
• How you plan to promote it.
• The business and technical requirements you’ve outlined.
• Any specific concerns or questions for each team to address.

Be Open to Adjustments

Expect feedback and be prepared to revise your plan. This step is as much about refining your strategy as it is about validation. Teams may identify gaps, risks, or opportunities you hadn’t considered.

Align on a Final Plan

Once feedback is incorporated, ensure all teams are aligned on the updated strategy. This collective agreement will make the integration of a platform more streamlined and efficient.

What’s Next?