Top Tips from Affiliate Marketing Leaders
I am sure you have asked yourself or have been asked this question more than once this year – How do we increase sales in 2020?
To answer this question, we asked industry leaders in the affiliate marketing channel how they plan to increase sales amidst ongoing changes.
These are the top tips from experts at Groupon, LinkConnector, Publisher Discovery and JEBCommerce.
Consistency
Katie M. at Groupon said, “I would say always and forever consistent marketing is a key driver for sales. A PPC campaign is a no brainer in this market to support consistent marketing without breaking the bank.”
Communication
Tara M. at LinkConnector said, “Communication: Reach out to your affiliates and ask what they may need to take their performance to the next level. Communicate top selling products and promotions (existing and future ones …recognizing the many holidays / seasons approaching in the 2nd half of this year). Communicate your availability to talk with them directly about areas for growth.
Diversity
Affiliate Diversity: These changing times have uncovered new customer demographics; merchants should revisit promotional types they may have previously undervalued (e.g., Search Engine Marketing, Coupons, Loyalty) to develop new sources of sales growth with affiliates, added Tara M. from LinkConnector. “
Technology
Chris T. at Publisher Discovery touched on the use of big data and machine learning in analyzing and understanding marketing analytics. The accelerated increase of data from affiliate revenues to relationship analysis and potential new partnerships will revolutionize affiliate marketing ROI.
“Most networks deal in billions or trillions of data points; effectively mining that resource can bring rich rewards in increased understanding of existing revenues and relationships – and applying these learnings to driving increased revenues, said Chris T. at Publisher Discovery.”
Actionable Strategy
JEBCommerce knows consumers are becoming increasingly complex and the market is a beast to navigate. To help ecommerce retailers increase sales we put together these 5 actionable steps.
Get additional exposure with top affiliates through flat fees or cpa increases.
This allows for your brand to garner placements that are not normally offered. You will have to shell out some spend, but your brand will be visible to a whole new audience leading to more sales and more new customers. Make sure to ask for make goods before setting any flat fee placements up.
Provide the strongest offers you can to drive as much traffic and revenue as possible in the affiliate channel.
This may mean exclusive offers for specific affiliates or a generic offer exclusive to the affiliate channel. Providing a strong offer will help drive sales to your brand over a competitor and may lead to new customers that come back year after year, knowing that you have their best in mind.
Make sure you are working with all the different types of publishers.
Diversify your publisher portfolio. Your affiliate channel should have a strong presence with a wide variety of publishers: loyalty, content, coupon, comparison, media companies, deal sites, sub-affiliate, tech, or etc.
Each option has large followings and targets a specific type of audience, you are missing out on.
Are you working with a site/cart abandonment solution?
If you are not using a cart abandonment solution you may be missing out on revenue from customers that go to your site, but then leave prior to making their purchase. If you need help in this area please reach out and we can put you in touch with UpSellit, Cybba, or VE Global.
Affiliate Marketing Management
Managing an affiliate marketing program takes a lot of time and the ROI deserves your full attention. Especially in an economic downturn when every marketing expense needs to be watched closely.
Add experienced, award winning, and extremely successful affiliate managers to your team with no long term commitments, HR expenses, or long on-boarding times.
