What is Affiliate Swipe Copy? An Easy Guide to Swipe for Affiliate Marketing Programs.
Getting affiliates to join your affiliate program is one thing. But getting them to actually promote your offer… well, that’s a whole other ball game and one that swipe copy is a key player in.
Whether you have an online course, an eCommerce store, a SaaS subscription, or even a video game to sell, when someone signs up to your affiliate or referral program, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to actually promote your offer.
That’s where swipe copy comes in.
‘Swipe copy’, in general terms, is marketing speak for text templates that you can take for specific situations. (Not to be confused with a ‘swipe file’ which is a collection of content, ads, and copy that you found inspiring or wanted to save for later!)
But what is ‘swipe copy’ when it relates to affiliate marketing?
Let’s walk you through it!
What is swipe copy in affiliate marketing?
Affiliate swipe copy is pre-written content that you provide to your affiliates to help them promote your offer. This content can include things like email newsletters, social media posts, personal DMs, and more.
Affiliates can take the swipe copy you provide them, edit it to suit their tone of voice and the context they are sharing, and publish it for their audience.
(And if you’re an affiliate for someone else’s product: swipe copy is an umbrella term for the emails, social posts, blog posts, and other content that a brand provides to help you promote their offer.)
Examples of what to include in affiliate swipe copy
At ReferralPie, our team have written 75+ swipe copy documents for clients over the years including email swipe copy, social media swipe copy, pre-written blog posts, and direct messages for affiliates to promote our clients’ offers.
Let’s just say, we have a lot of examples to choose from! 😍
One of our favourites was for the Collaboration Magic bundle. Here is an example of parts of a swipe copy document we created for our client, Krista, in a Google Doc:
In this swipe copy document, we made sure to include:
A warm welcome to affiliates and how to get in touch if they have any extra questions.
Instructions for affiliates to best use their swipe copy
Links to any other relevant resources so affiliates can easily find other documents we created for them
Tips for affiliates on how to optimise their social media posts to promote the bundle
A variety of subject lines ideas for each email we provided (psst: you can also add preview text suggestions too!)
Highlighted areas to prompt personalisation and show affiliates where to put their affiliate links
It’s worth mentioning that every swipe copy doc can be different. Depending on the offer, circumstances, and the affiliates, you could have more of an intro, more tips & suggestions for affiliates, or you could simply have one email in a Google Doc.
This example is just meant to illustrate what swipe copy can look like, but it’s not the only way to provide swipe.
Key reasons to provide your affiliates with swipe copy
Swipe copy is often something that affiliate program creators can forget about or skimp on. However, providing your affiliates and referral partners with promotional assets is incredibly important if you want them to share your offer(s) with their audience.
Swipe copy:
Makes it easier for affiliates to promote your offer(s): Affiliates are more likely to publish content to share their affiliate links when they have swipe copy, as it means they’re not starting from scratch.
Ensures consistent messaging: By affiliates sharing pre-written swipe copy, you can better control how your offer is positioned to new leads, clients, and customers.
Supports your affiliates: By saving them time and providing them what they need, you are showing people in your affiliate program that you care & want to support them.
Can increase affiliate performance: High-converting swipe copy can help affiliates get more leads, sales, and bookings for your offers.
Use cases for creating swipe copy for your affiliates
We’d recommend having swipe copy for your affiliates to use as a starting point for their promotions but there are some specific instances where you might want to create different types of swipe.
You could provide swipe copy that promotes:
Lead magnets. Ask your affiliates to publish content that promotes on your lead magnets. This can be great if you want to harness your referral network to grow your email list.
Evergreen products. No matter what you sell, if you sell it 24/7 365 you should give your affiliates swipe copy to help them create evergreen content at a time that suits them.
Limited-time events or promotions. You might run quarterly or annual launches to your signature offer. Or perhaps you’re running a one-off event (like a virtual summit). In both examples, you’d want to write up some swipe for your affiliates to share.
Seasonal sales. If you run sales like Black Friday or even flash sales once in a while, it’s great to encourage your affiliates to promote with some swipe to get them started.
Types of affiliate swipe copy
Affiliate swipe copy can include all kinds of things including:
Broadcast emails or newsletter copy
Private emails (such as 1:1 introductions or recommendations
Social media captions (Facebook, Threads, Instagram, etc)
Posts to share in a free or paid community (Facebook Groups, Circle communities, etc)
Direct messages to share 1:1 introductions or recommendations
Pin descriptions
All with the intent of affiliates sharing with their audience, clients, and connections.
In a swipe copy doc, you can also include a list of content prompts for affiliates who want to write their own content from scratch, but need a nudge in the right direction!
Formats for providing swipe copy to your affiliates
You can provide swipe copy to affiliates through things like Google Docs, Notion pages, Canva Docs, or web pages. Whatever works best for you and fits in with your current content creation ecosystem.
But you should avoid creating swipe copy in something like a PDF; your swipe copy should be as easy as possible for affiliates to copy, paste, and publish on their own platforms. Copying text from a PDF can be formatted incorrectly when you paste it into something else!
What to do with swipe copy once it's created
When you’ve written affiliate swipe copy, we’d recommend emailing your affiliates with a link to the doc/page you created and letting them know they have new swipe to use to promote your offer(s).
We’d also recommend:
linking to any swipe copy documents in your affiliate onboarding sequence so new affiliates know where to find it
taking a short piece of swipe and pasting it directly into your welcome email for new affiliates to get sharing right away
using one piece of swipe directly in your affiliate communications so they can copy & paste directly from your emails (instead of having to click around and find the swipe themselves)
Get creating with our $0 affiliate promotional assets project plan
Swipe copy is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to providing promotional assets to your affiliates. To help you further, we’ve created a comprehensive project plan that details all the things you can create to help your affiliates and referral partners promote your offer(s).
This plan includes:
a list of everything you could create
a description & tag for each item
status & due date fields
and is available in a Google Sheet or Notion format for you to duplicate and use for your own affiliate program.
