Peter Rowe, Managing Director of affilinet UK, offers advice and tips for success and increased sales
Edited by Jennifer Denby
Cross channel planning crucial for campaign success
A successful affiliate marketing campaign that truly integrates with other channels depends on transparency. This calls for plans and knowledge to be shared by all relevant parties to ensure everyone is singing off the same hymn sheet. Working relationships are most fruitful when the networks and affiliates are able to work closely with the client and gain a solid understanding of their plans and vision. Understanding business marketing calendars and objectives means that networks can adapt short, medium and long term planning to offer better support and secure additional placements on affiliate sites for clients – all of which means the client enjoys better results.
Integrating plans and sharing synergies between SEO, SEM, Display and offline advertising with your affiliate channel, whilst challenging, can also add significant value. In a challenging market a fully integrated digital campaign can really make the difference.
Transparency therefore becomes paramount to knowing when campaign peaks will take place and what shape they will take. If viewers see a good deal on a product on TV there is likely to be a subsequent high volume of searches for that product. Notifying publishers of this type of activity in advance means they can build their own campaigns to support that peak in interest and encourage conversion.
Sale, sale, sale!
Although the temptation is undeniable in the rush to augment sales in the run up to an individual campaign peak, try to avoid going discount crazy. This phenomenon has been prevalent in the past 18 months with retailers cutting prices in response to external factors such as the recession. However, a discount overload can risk potentially degrading the value of the brand and, rather than increasing revenue it can also negatively impact margins unless it is done very judiciously.
It is instead preferable to adopt a more targeted approach to promotions, where offers are only available via limited affiliates. Choosing a select number of voucher code sites that can use a free delivery promotion, for example, will make the offer more exclusive and avoid widespread brand devaluation.
Building relationships with affiliates
Affiliates tend to produce better results when clients communicate with them. Retailers should look to educate publishers whenever they are introducing new promotions in case they can be used to further support the business. Letting affiliates know if campaigns are, for example, time specific or online only will ensure that the maximum business benefit can be drawn from any particular campaign.
On a similar note, communicating to existing affiliates will allow retailers to refine and test their approaches and ideas. Although it requires more initial investment, clients who are willing to test and try new activities will ultimately get better results. The same logic applies to affiliate partnerships. We all know that it is easier to stay with the tried and tested, keeping the standard affiliates on board but by being flexible firms can get new partners on board and increase revenue too.
Innovation
When the economy is suffering there is a temptation to put innovation on the back burner until the good times roll back into view. We would argue that the more forward thinking companies are those investing in research and development now, viewing a weak economy as a prime opportunity to take a step forward.
The online market is already crowded and will only become more so. As a result, innovation and differentiation will become ever more important – companies who are addressing this now will do better than those that rest on their laurels.
2009 was a difficult year for the retail sector but, by implementing these small changes now; improving communication, taking a good look at what works, investing in and testing new approaches as well as ensuring that the affiliate channel is fully up to speed with your business plans, 2010 will see the sprouting of those much anticipated green shoots.