Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare and Amy Ely joined Kim Salvino of buy.at and to discuss affiliate tools and sub networks.
Topics Include:
A Tools Overview – understanding the different types of affiliate “tools” and where to find them
Pros & Cons – discussing how these tools can be helpful and also a look at the risks
Spotlight On Skimlinks & VigLink – how these companies work and what program managers need to know
Industry View – recent developments, new technology and international policies
Ultimately, the discussion highlights the importance of transparency, solid relationships, good communication and making the right decisions for your program.
Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare and Amy Ely joined Kim Salvino of buy.at and Liz Fogg of Team Loxly to answer a fundamental question for affiliate managers: What key steps should I take when launching (or relaunching) an affiliate program?
Key Steps Include:
Review the affiliate list – check your program’s placement on the site, understand how they’re promoting your program (and make sure they’re compliant with your PPC policy), ask industry contacts about their reputation, consult your network or OPM, review forums and search online for any positive or negative feedback about the affiliate
Evaluate the program terms – make sure you have program-specific terms in addition to network terms, ensure they’re clear and consistent, outline search policies on using brand name in the display URL, misspellings, brand + term bidding, and consider including terms for coupon affiliates to set expectations
Assess the creative – include a wide variety of fresh text link and banner creative in IAB standard sizes, create deep text links (deep linking should be a requirement!!), offer a well categorized, regularly updated data feed and provide content for affiliates to use on their site
Understand the competitive landscape – is your commission structure, cookie length, conversion rate and creative suite competitive?
Develop a communication plan – send out an introductory newsletter to affiliates and an announcement post in forums and social media, consider including a survey to ask what they need, determine when you’ll send newsletters and if you’ll echo communications through social media, provide your full contact details and be approachable, genuine, and responsive to affiliates
Walk through the affiliate’s shoes – sign up to the program an affiliate, identify how long it takes for network approval, understand the process for pulling creative, viewing reports, and more so you can identify pain points that may deter affiliates and consumers
Test, test, test – test your shopping cart in all major browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome), complete a test purchase to ensure tracking and reporting are working as expected, confirm that affiliate transactions across different networks track properly
There is plenty of additional information in this information-packed podcast. Enjoy!
Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney, Vinny O’Hare and Amy Ely discussed the benefits of working with an Outsourced Program Manager (OPM) and how to find the right one for your business.
Key Takeaways:
· OPMs bring experience, relationships, and expertise that can help grow your business
· Understand the OPM’s philosophy and approach – what networks and types of affiliates do they work with?
· Determine the levels of service offered and the right fit for your business – is it best to start off as a consulting relationship? Do you need full service? Will you co-manage or leave all the work to the OPM?
· Research the OPM’s involvement in the industry and their reputation – are they active in the community? Do they provide helpful and expert information over blogs, forums, podcasts, or through speaking at conferences?
· Make sure you agree with the OPM’s approach to recruiting affiliates – will they recruit via email, phone, social media, conferences, etc?
Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss ideas on engaging new customers gained from Black Friday sales.
Topics include:
Promotion ideas to recapture the attention and dollars of Black Friday / Cyber Monday customers
· Helpful data, creative and resources for affiliates so they can generate additional holiday sales
Key takeaways:
Consider time-sensitive promotions that encourage customers to keep returning to the site, such as daily deals or a “Countdown to Christmas” – great examples include eBay and Amazon’s daily and weekly deals
· As the remaining shopping days dwindle, alter promotions to feature gift cards and/or free overnight shipping
· Promote complementary products or add-ons for gifts they’ve already purchased, such as Kindle Edition books if the original purchase was a Kindle Fire
· Use Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales data to give affiliates top seller data and popular categories, then let them know if and when you will highlight or offer a sale on these products again
· Supply affiliates with shipping deadline dates and when gift card sales are strongest so they can plan and promote accordingly
· Recognize that holiday promotions don’t have to stop at Black Friday and Cyber Monday, give affiliates offers that run through the rest of December and into post-holiday shopping promotions – for example, encourage gift card spending after the holidays
Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss ideas on how merchants can create engaging and efficient affiliate newsletters
Topics include:
· Using subject lines, content and a format that is helpful and appealing to affiliates
· The pros and cons of using HTML vs text, personalizing messaging, and including tracking code
· The importance of understanding legal & illegal practices when communicating with affiliates
Key takeaways:
· Use subject lines that make sense – don’t title “monthly newsletter” when you can include key words that relate to the information in the email
· Consider addressing recipients by name and making the messaging personal
· List main topics at the start of the email to immediately engage recipients on points of interest
· Think about including code (that works!) when mentioning the great creative available for your program – if you have their attention, make their life easier by allowing for a quick copy/paste
· Don’t bother telling affiliates about sales that started yesterday and end tomorrow
· Engage affiliates beyond your program details, ask them what they need from you, share helpful industry stats, discuss topics with them on forums, in social media, etc.
· Include contact details at the close of each email
· Test before you send! Test before you send!!!
Helpful statistics:
· In a recent survey of 7,000+ affiliates from Affiliate Benchmarks, they listed weekly as the most preferred frequency of affiliate program newsletters
· Further, affiliates listed direct personal email, newsletter email, and network email as the top three preferred ways to receive information from advertisers they work with
Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Topics include:
· Important information affiliates need to promote your Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals
· Considerations when designing a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal
Key takeaways:
· Plan and send Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals at least 4-6 weeks in advance so affiliates have time to prepare.
· Communicating with your affiliates is very, very important. If your deal details won’t be available far in advance, tell your affiliates if you’re planning to run a deal at all – this way they can prepare their sites. If you send them a deal a few days before or on Black Friday, you’ll likely be out of luck.
· Don’t try to pass off a standard promotion (ex. Free shipping on orders over $50) as a Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal if it’s something you already offer regularly. Your customers and affiliates will find out and be disappointed if you’re trying to pull the wool over their eyes, and might take their business elsewhere.
· If you’d rather not discount your entire online store, offer a special on one or a handful of items to drive traffic to your site, and keep the remaining items at regular price.
· Ensure you have ample stock of the products you’re featuring for the deal, and if the stock runs out, be prepared to redirect the page to a similar item with a deal.
· When sending affiliates (and/or your network) deal details, we strongly recommend providing all of the following information:
Merchant ABCs host Deborah Carney joined Kim Salvino and Amy Ely of buy.at to discuss Q4 planning, including tips on how to effectively support affiliates and generate the greatest revenue from this channel during one of the most lucrative times of the year.
Topics include:
· Important information affiliates need to effectively promote your program in Q4
· Great Q4 holidays (beyond Black Friday) to consider for promotion opportunities
· Activities to avoid during Q4 that may cause your program to lose affiliates
Key takeaways:
· comScore 4th quarter sales reached $39 billion in 2009 and $43 billion in 2010 – presenting a huge revenue opportunity this year
· The largest online sales day in 2010 was Cyber Monday and the peak week was December 5-12th
· Plan out a promotional calendar and the dates you’ll provide relevant creative to your affiliates
· Send a list of best sellers, new Q4 products, and (for PPC affiliates) suggested keywords
· Update data feeds daily and consider “changes file,” top sellers, and category specific sub-feeds
· DO NOT plan major site updates or affiliate network changes in Q4
· If your gift cards are commissionable, let your affiliates know, if they aren’t – why not?
Drew Thorne-Thomsen from Ring Revenue, joins Merchant ABCs hosts Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney to discuss the Ring Revenue service. Pay per call has been around for awhile but it is getting more traction as more affiliates are looking for ways to monetize offline advertising or other untraditional types of advertising and pay per call gives affiliates, networks and merchants a way to start tracking those sales. In addition to the call tracking, there is also a corresponding link that can track. Plus if you think your program is too small or you don’t have a call center, there are other options for you to accept trackable and commissionable call.
A little background on Drew:
Drew Thorne-Thomsen, VP of Customer Development at Ring Revenue - Drew is responsible for partner development and support, as well as new business development. Prior to joining RingRevenue, he was CMO at Trident Marketing, where he was responsible for customer acquisition for several Fortune 500 brands. Drew drove millions of phone calls to their own performance call centers through traditional and non-traditional marketing strategies. Before that, he spent nearly a decade at Commission Junction, where he launched and developed CJ Media and CJ PayPerCall. Drew spent six years on the United States Alpine Ski Team and competed at the World Cup level. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Some of the main points for Merchants:
- Pay-per-call is delivering millions in new revenue for merchants
- Access increased distribution channels online, offline and mobile
- Phone sales typically worth 1.5-2X online sales.
- Define caller quality criteria
- Pay only for quality calls
- Visit RingRevenue to find out more: www.ringrevenue.com
We would love for you to leave comments and let us know if you are using Pay per Call or what questions you have about it. We will be scheduling a webinar for later in the month and would love to have questions from you!
Merchant ABCs hosts Deborah Carney and Vinny O’Hare joined Kim Salvino, Amy Ely, and Jeannine Crooks of buy.at to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of running programs on multiple networks.
Topics include:
· Managing creative, promotions, and information across all networks
· Considerations: Ts & Cs, setup and monthly fees, tracking, network quality measures
· Identifying network benefits: different affiliates, tools, verticals
· Actions that negatively and positively impact program growth
Key takeaways:
· Avoid confusion – be consistent with promotions and communications across networks unless you’re running separate tests to gauge performance
· Be strategic when beginning a new network relationship – consider the added value vs. added time and effort to manage another account
· Grow 2-3 relationships vs. joining every network – this will enable program managers to work effectively with each relationship vs. reactive program management to simply keep up
· Avoid network hopping – affiliate marketing is a marathon, not a sprint; don’t upset affiliates by repeatedly closing on one network and opening on another
Find us on Twitter: Vinny O’Hare Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly) Merchant ABCs Geekcast.fm
Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.
Affiliates, in the comments, let us know if you will work with merchants on multiple networks, and why or why not.
Merchants, in the comments, let us know if you are on multiple networks and if they perform equally.
This podcast outlines what conversion optimization is and covers the most common questions associated with how conversion optimization works. Lindsay Viscount and Sarah Bundy from All Inclusive Marketing discuss with Deborah Carney of MerchantABCs the most essential “need to knows” about conversion optimization and how it works.
An ecommerce conversion rate is one of the most important KPIs to understand and maximize when it comes to online sales. With all things being equal, if your conversion rate increases, your website sales will increase. Conversion rate impacts every channel, from your SEO to your affiliate marketing program and is a main determining factor of each channel’s success.
Here is a quick overview of the questions discussed and some of the suggested answers provided by the All Inclusive Marketing team:
Q: What is conversion optimization?
A: The process of testing and improving the conversion rate of a website. Making sure that the website is generating as many sales, leads or whatever the goal of the website is as possible.
Q: Why is conversion optimization so important for ecommerce sites?
A: Generally with an ecomm website, you want your website to be your best salesperson and when you are directing customers to your website, you want it to be able to close the deal. If your website isn’t performing at the potential that it could be, you could be losing out on large amounts of revenue daily. Especially if you are spending $$ on advertising, you want to make sure that you are getting a generous return on ad spend.
Q: What things are taken into consideration when developing a strategy for conversion optimization?
A: Website goals (primary and secondary), page goals (moving traffic to where you want it to go), target audience, the product, current landing page and trends, sales pitch, and common objections.
Q: What are the most important pages to optimize and why?
A: Home page – this page usually generates the most traffic to a website
Category page – to move traffic to the product page
Product page – close the sale
Each step of the checkout process – once you have closed the sale you don’t want to lose it during the checkout process. Measure drop off and identify issues
Q: What are some of the key elements that you test with A/B testing?
A: Long page vs short page
1 page vs multiple pages
Product imagery
Color
Content – keyword usage, language, simplicity, headlines
Call to actions – buttons, wording, placement
Tune in to hear more detail and specific examples on conversion optimization and how this strategy can help your web sales, by some of the leading conversion optimizers in the industry.
