Podcast: Download (Duration: 35:20 — 32.4MB) | Embed

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!

Find out more about Ring Revenue and Pay Per Call:
What is RingRevenue?
Advertiser Get Started Video

Contact info:
Drew Thorne-Thomsen
drew@ringrevenue.com

Find us on Twitter:
RingRevenue
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.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 31:10 — 28.5MB) | Embed

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

Learn more about buy.at:
Visit the buy.at blog
Facebook Fan Page
Twitter: @buyatUS

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.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 45:09 — 41.3MB) | Embed

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.

Where to Find Lindsay Viscount and Sarah Bundy:
Sarah’s LinkedIn account (bio)
All Inclusive Marketing website
All Inclusive Marketing blog
All Inclusive Marketing Twitter:
Sarah’s Twitter:
All Inclusive Marketing phone: (604) 560 2542

Find Us On Twitter:
Deborah Carney
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.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:12 — 58.8MB) | Embed

Affiliate and Consultant Eric Nagel joins experienced affiliate managers (OPMs) Vinny O’Hare and Deborah Carney in a very important episode of Merchant ABCs. Many merchants are not aware that if they don’t have an Affiliate Agreement in place they are giving affiliates carte blanche to do whatever they want to promote your affiliate program. Eric joined us today to help explain to merchants both new and existing why they need a properly created affiliate agreement. Affiliates want you to have an agreement so they have guidelines and so they know that your affiliate manager and company have thought about the many ways affiliates can promote the merchant’s site. Affiliates will also assume that once you have an agreement in place that you will enforce it appropriately.

Topics we cover are: Search Engine Marketing – both PPC and organic, Direct to Merchant Linking in PPC and social media, Domain names – including subdomains and subdirectories, Coupon site regulations, Loyalty site regulations, Email restrictions, Social Media links and posts, iFrames and other framing of the merchant site, Policy about adware, spyware, toolbars and other downloads, Prohibited Affiliate Website Content, Unacceptable Web Sites (Banner farms, PLR sites etc).

Find us on Twitter:
Eric Nagel
Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
Merchant ABCs
Team Loxly
Vinny O’Hare

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:20:38 — 73.8MB) | Embed

This should actually be the first podcast any company considering starting an affiliate program should listen to.

Karen Garcia of GTO Affiliate Management and Liz Gazer of Growthspurt Media Affiliate Management join Merchant ABCs Training Podcasts host Deborah Carney to discuss the realities of starting an affiliate program. Many merchants think it is an inexpensive channel that they can just put out an affiliate offer either in-house or on a network and the money will start rolling in. Below is a *basic* outline of what we discussed. This podcast contains so much valuable information that it will be made available in other formats, if you want to be notified when those formats are available, go to MerchantABCs.com and sign up for the mailing list.

Whether you are considering opening an affiliate program or already have one running, it would be helpful to you to spend the time to listen to three experienced OPMs (Outsourced Program Managers) that want to help you be sure that an affiliate program is a good addition to your company as a marketing channel.

CAN YOU AFFORD YOUR AFFILIATE PROGRAM?

What an Affiliate Program IS:
• A Cost Effective means of growing brand/sales online
• An effective way to reach segments of the market you might not otherwise be able to reach without a LOT more time, effort or money
• A real marketing channel, requiring all the same components as any other business channel you might employ to get your product to market and grow sales over time

What an Affiliate Program is NOT:
• Magic!
• Guaranteed to double or triple your sales overnight, or within a few weeks or even a few months.
• Something you can launch and leave running on auto-pilot – it needs daily management by someone well-connected, educated/experienced/seasoned and well-versed on the ins and outs of both business management and the ever-changing needs of affiliates
• Something you can launch and then NOT expect to pay for once the sales start rolling in

Affiliate marketing has always been and still is today, one of the most cost effective ways of growing brand/sales online – aside from the costs of actively managing the channel, this method of advertising is always performance based, meaning that you only pay out the commission after the sale has been closed – and usually, verified. Despite that, there ARE costs involved and being honest about whether or not you can afford them up front, can save you thousands of dollars, in the long run.

Examples of costs involved/what to expect:
• Monthly management fees – whether you pay someone in-house on a salary or outsource to one of the many qualified OPMs available to help you run your program
◦ varies depending on experience, reputation, etc.
• One-time network registration/set up fee
◦ varies by network from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand for set up
• Monthly network usage fee and/or network transaction fees
◦ % of sales or % of amount equivalent to affiliate commissions
• Email marketing/newsletter costs (if you hire an OPM this may be covered/included for you depending on your negotiated contract)
• Affiliate commissions as set by you – a % of sales
• Bonuses tied to volume or for promotions/seasonal lift
• Advertising the program in key industry locations online as well as offline and in person (conferences/tradeshows, etc.)
◦ Conference/tradeshow booths (the space, the booth, the materials, the staff) – optional but recommended for best results

COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY MERCHANTS WHO CAN’T AFFORD THEIR AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
• Being dishonest about what kind of funding exists for the program expenditures during early talks with a prospective or newly hired AM/OPM
• Expecting the channel to pay for itself within a few weeks to a few months of launching
• Pitting internal channel managers against one another (i.e. PPC vs. AM) for “last click” so they work AGAINST one another instead of WITH one another as a team
• Looking for reasons to reverse commissions and where there are none, invent them!
• Cutting commissions – especially before you’ve been around long enough to establish presence & instill any confidence in your affiliate market that you’re “one of the good guys” or “worth promoting”
• Shutting down the program after launch – few weeks or few months in, realizing this actually costs $$

Merchants who can’t afford their affiliate channel often resort to scheming leakage/diversion tactics – excuses for not paying commissions. Remember – Affiliates are SMART – they DO pay attention and they DO expect to be paid for their efforts. Would you continue to work for free if your paycheck was withheld? Make no mistake – the expense you save by making unnecessary/uncalled for reversals to commissions today, WILL cost you down the line. The affiliate who goes unpaid today, will not promote you tomorrow.

Suggestions for managing costs and expectations:
• Look at your profit margins carefully and be realistic about what you can afford to pay, right up front.
• Be honest with your Affiliate Manager/OPM about what you can afford and let them determine if it makes sense for you to move ahead or not
• The biggest mistake you can make is by over-inflating the amount you can afford to pay in early talks with a potential or newly hired AM/OPM (claims like “sky’s the limit, there is no ceiling on what we can afford, whatever it takes to make sales, etc.). Doing so sets you, your AM/OPM AND your affiliates up for inevitable failure.

KEY TAKEAWAY POINTS:
• Be transparent with your AM/OPM about what funding is like so they can determine whether you truly can afford to make this work – not doing so will only cost you in the long run when you have to cut your losses and pull out early after having invested heavily up front to get things running
• Remember the nest-egg concept – Long term investment garners long term sustainable results that will grow year over year with good management, proper funding and careful planning/analysis
• It can often take more than one advertisement in more than one channel to motivate a consumer to close the sale. Studies have shown consumers are exposed to an ad on average, approx. 7 times before they “tune in” to it. Expect that occasionally, some sales may track as having come through more than one channel (i.e. PPC/Affiliate) by the time the sale has been closed. Reversing an affiliate commission because it tracked as a PPC sale as well, is like stealing from Peter to pay Paul and is counter-productive to the mission, in the big picture.
◦ Example: TV/Print/Outdoor advertising. Hugely successful brands like Nike don’t cut billboard campaigns just because a customer who buys shoes says they saw a commercial on TV. They understand it costs money to make money. They understand the need for an intergrated marketing mix. Your online advertising channels are part of that mix. You may have to pay them both, in some cases. Chalk it up to the cost of doing business. If you can’t, you may not be able to afford your affiliate program.
◦ If MOST sales are tracking in multiple channels it may be time to reassess but unless the majority of sales are, see above – chalk it up to the cost of doing business.

• It’s not magic – it’s marketing. Goals should be S.M.A.R.T. – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. The R should also stand for REASONABLE. Give your affiliate program reasonable time to produce results – it can take up to a year especially if you are a new program starting from scratch.
• Know your own business strengths/weaknesses and once again – be transparent/honest with yourself and your AM/OPM so you can build on those strengths and find ways to overcome weaknesses which will in turn make you more competitive in the long run
• Competitive analysis – know what your competition is offering and expect to do your best to meet – if not exceed it.

Find us on Twitter:

• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Merchant ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about Karen and GTO Management:

GTO Management Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @GTOMan
Facebook Fan Page

To learn more about Liz and Growthspurt Media:

Growthspurt Media Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @lizgazer
Facebook Fan Page

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:00 — 56.8MB) | Embed

Karen Garcia of GTO Management and Liz Gazer of Growthspurt Media join Merchant ABCs Training Podcasts host Deborah Carney to discuss how many merchants treat the affiliate channel as the “red headed step child” of their marketing efforts. Building on what you learned from Merchant ABCs Training Podcast #17 with Sarah Bundy of All Inclusive Marketing, this podcast goes in depth on how you need to treat your affiliate channel to be able to grow it. Below is a *basic* outline of what we discussed.

Whether you are considering opening an affiliate program or already have one running, it would be helpful to you to spend the time to listen to three experienced OPMs (Outsourced Program Managers) that want to help you be sure you are giving your affiliates what they need to help your company be more successful.

YOUR AFFILIATES ARE A TARGET MARKET TOO!

• Today’s e-commerce marketplace is saturated; affiliates have a lot of choice

• It’s not always about how great your products/site/offers, it’s about the service and the total value experience you provide – to AFFILIATES.

The Painful Truth

• YOU might think your product/website/business is the best thing since sliced bread (and it may well be!) but to Affiliates, unless you’re offering them something different than your competition is, you’re just another merchant. With your Affiliate Manager or OPM, you need to strategize on how you plan to differentiate yourselves. The best way is by providing your Affiliates with a total service experience that is both interesting & rewarding

• Just like you need to be concerned about your total customer experience, you need to worry about the total affiliate experience – put some thought into what kind of “feel good” factors you can offer that might set you apart from your competition.

Cardinal Rules of Affiliate Loyalty

Loyalty is hard to come by in an industry dominated by dollar signs. Affiliates need to be kept:

▪ Educated & Informed – What/Where/When/Why/How
• Product knowledge/Pricing Changes
• Customer service policies (shipping, returns, etc.)
• Distribution Channels
• Promotional Campaigns (on site, seasonal, coupon, etc.)
• Unique Selling Proposition & Brand Positioning (what makes you stand out amongst your competition?)

▪ Engaged
• Newsletters
• Promotions
• Contests
• Communication – timely, relevant, to the point & consistent
◦ Keep your program top of mind – Affiliates often have hands in multiple projects /merchants at once – a friendly touch base can instill confidence & encourage them to bump you to the top of the priority list
• Request feedback and accept suggestions/constructive criticism positively. Be flexible to make additions/changes where need be

▪ Motivated & Inspired
• Training & Support
• Timely responses to inquiries and requests
• Get to know them, and touch base regularly with encouragement and positive feedback about their efforts.

▪ Empowered
Affiliates are like your online sales team – only they don’t work for you exclusively. Empower Them. Make them feel like they’re a PART of something. If they have a sense of ownership they are more likely to be loyal to your brand and promote you above or in place of your competition.
◦ Provide the tools necessary to help your affiliates make the most of their promotional efforts (coupons, banners/text links, video, widgets, data feeds, etc.)

▪ Rewarded
• Commission structure should be competitive
• Leave room for incremental increases either as part of a bonus structure based on performance volume/sales, on an individually negotiated basis (i.e. For better placement, exclusive terms, etc.) or ideally, both.
• Timely payments
• Flexibility – custom creative in some cases where requested
• Keep the reversal rate as low as possible – remember, if affiliates are confident they’ll actually receive proper payment for their efforts they’ll be more likely to increase ad spend and time/effort allocation for your brand

Find us on Twitter:

• Deborah Carney (a.k.a. Loxly)
• Merchant ABCs
• Geekcast.fm

To learn more about Karen and GTO Management:

GTO Management Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @GTOMan
Facebook Fan Page

To learn more about Liz and Growthspurt Media:

Growthspurt Media Outsourced Affiliate Marketing Manager
Twitter: @lizgazer
Facebook Fan Page

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 47:13 — 43.2MB) | Embed

Sarah Bundy of All Inclusive Marketing joins Merchant ABCs host Deborah Carney to discuss why your company should have an integrated marketing plan that includes affiliate marketing as one component of many. Below are the outlines of what we discuss and links to Sarah’s sites that have more complete notes. Even with the notes, you really will want to listen to this podcast, even though it is a little longer than our average podcast.

5 Steps to Writing an Integrated Marketing Plan
By creating a strategic online marketing plan, you put your best foot (and brain, and dollar) forward in ensuring you achieve the best success for your new online presence. Here is a brief outline of what AIM usually covers in their integrated marketing plans for their clients.

1. Situation Analysis (research of the industry and online sales potential)
a) Product Description and Overview
b) Market Analysis / Potential
c) Identification of Target Groups
d) Selection of Primary Target Groups

2. Competitive Analysis
a) SWOT
b) Suggested Value Propositions

3. Positioning and Main Messaging
a) Suggested Brand Positioning
b) Suggested Main Messages (according to selected target groups)

4. Online Marketing Channel Strategy
a) Marketing Channel Analysis and Selection
b) Keyword Analysis
c) Competitive Analysis (narrowed down) with Competitive Edge
d) Customer Retention Strategy
f) Channel Rollout Plan (Setup and Execution)

5. Financial Analysis
a) Sales Projections
b) Budgets
c) Timelines

The 5 Decisions Every Customer Makes before they Buy (in this order!) are:

1. About you
2. About your business
3. About your product
4. About your price
5. About the time frame in which you can deliver.

These 5 decisions are almost ALWAYS made in this order and by almost EVERY customer. This decision process remains true whether you’re buying a car or a piece of pizza.

Where to Find Sarah:
Sarah’s LinkedIn account (bio)
All Inclusive Marketing website
All Inclusive Marketing blog
All Inclusive Marketing Twitter:
Sarah’s Twitter:
All Inclusive Marketing phone: (604) 560 2542

Find Us On Twitter:
Deborah Carney
Merchant ABCs
Geekcast.fm

Leave us some comments on points you agree or disagree on or how your company utilizes

Thanks to Geekcast.fm for hosting our podcasts, check them out for lots of other great podcasts about affiliate marketing and marketing in general.