How to Get the Most out of the Holiday Shopping Season

Transcription

1 How to Get the Most out of the Holiday Shopping Season Learn How to Maximize Your Returns An Avangate Webinar Featuring Geno Prussakov October 30 th, 2012

2 Today s Speakers Geno Prussakov, CEO & President, AM Navigator LLC Geno Prussakov is a graduate of the University of Cambridge. He is the CEO & Founder of AM Navigator an award-winning OPM agency. As an affiliate program manager and consultant he has contributed to the online marketing success of Forbes, Nokia, Hallmark, Warner Music, Skype, Forex Club, and hundreds of small businesses. Prussakov has authored A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing (2007) and Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day (2011) which have trained thousands of marketing professionals. In 2011 for influencing change within the industry LinkShare named him one of Performance Marketing s Most Vocal Advocates, while Small Business Trends recognized him with an honorable mention in their 2011 Small Business Influencer initiative. Cristian Miculi, Affiliate Coordinator, Avangate Responsible for Avangate Affiliate Network, Cristian has been involved in the IT&C industry since First, for 3 years as editor at IDG Publishing Group, one of the leading technology media, events, and research companies. In 2008, he joined Avangate and has since focused on the software niche. Cristian acts as the marriage maker between software merchants and affiliates, helping them generate more sales through the Avangate Affiliate Network. In this role, he provides custom advice and hands-on support for affiliate programs and campaigns. 2

3 Who Are You? Other 10% Merchant 28% Affiliate 62% 3 3

4 7 Hands-on Tips to Get the Most Out of Holiday Season(s) Presented by: Geno Prussakov CEO & President, AM Navigator LLC Founder & Chair, Affiliate Management Days Tel.: (+1)

5 Sense of Urgency

6 1. Design Holiday Campaigns Mind 3 key constituents: (1) Holiday-themed affiliate creative

7 1. Design Holiday Campaigns Mind 3 key constituents: (1) Holiday-themed affiliate creative (2) Custom landing page (not just your homepage)

8

9 1. Design Holiday Campaigns Mind 3 key constituents: (1) Holiday-themed affiliate creative (2) Custom landing page (3) Compelling CTAs (consider embedding a promo)

10 2. Run Holiday-Specific Promos

11

12 Be creative!

13 7 Offers/Coupons To Run 1. Year-long Monthly Short-term - e.g. weekend 4. Holiday - e.g. to encourage "early bird" sales 5. Exclusive - true or vanity 6. Free Shipping - over certain amount 7. Deal of the Day

14 3. Offer Co-Branded LPs Three- to four-fold increase in conversions (from 8.56% to 23.21% for a cashback affiliate, 2.5% to 10.9% for a coupon affiliate) upon introduction of co-branded landed pages Affiliate Window % conversion increase, nearly 44% revenue boost, and 132% difference in new customers acquired Rakuten LinkShare - m. Creating co-branded landing pages to align an advertiser s brand with the publisher s brand increases the likelihood of a transaction or action Google Affiliate Network Affiliate Optimization Center

15 Generic Examples:

16 3 C s of Affiliate Co-Branding (1) Connect (affiliate logo, wording, colors) (2) Convince (exclusive promotion, urgency) (3) Convert (auto-apply promo, call to action)

17 Example:

18 4. Equip Affiliates with 2 Calendars (1) Planning calendar (2) Shipping calendar (not for digital goods)

19 Planning Calendar

20 Shipping Calendar from Overstock.com:

21 5. Employ Dynamic Creatives So that every time you update the creative on your end, the new/updated one appears on the affiliate site(s) without any effort on the affiliate s part.

22 6. Work Out a Post-Holiday Plan

23 7. Maintain Healthy Communication To effectively equip affiliates, it is not enough to provide them with tools, but to ensure they are notified well in advance.

24 Preferred Communication Methods - over 62% Website - 14% Social media - 12% Source: AffStat Report

25 Communication Frequency Source: AffStat Report

26 The 7 Tips 1. Design holiday campaigns 2. Run holiday-specific promos 3. Offer co-branded landing pages 4. Equip affiliates with 2 calendars 5. Employ dynamic creatives 6. Work out a post-holiday plan 7. Maintain healthy communication

27 5 Steps to a Successful Holiday Shopping Season Avangate Webinar, Oct. 30 th, 2012 Cristian Miculi Affiliate Network Coordinator cm@avangate.com

28 Understanding the Holiday Shopping Season Why, How, Who and When? Why should you put effort in a special campaign? How do you promote products as an affiliate? Who is your target audience? When should you start promoting the special campaigns?

29 Why should you create special campaigns? Important rise in spending during the Holiday Shopping Season 2011 U.S. Online Holiday Shopping Season Reaches Record $37.2 Billion for November-December Period, Up 15 Percent vs. Year Ago 2012 estimated growth: +16.8% vs 2011 (emarketer.com)

30 How do you promote products as an affiliate? Get into s, SEM and daily deals

31 Who is your target audience? Holiday shopping season is all about consumer products Think about what the average person would buy when you choose the products you want to promote during the holidays Based on the location of your audience, do a little research about the holiday shopping season in their country Use the sales data you have from previous holiday campaigns

32 When to promote the special campaigns? Early November through December and mid January US & Canada starts with Black Friday (Nov. 23 rd this year) and goes until New Year s Day. UK & Ireland mid November through January Europe most territories have January sales Having a global audience? Some holidays have different dates on various territories (e.g. Mother s Day in US - May, UK - March) Create a promotions calendar and generate buzz around your campaigns

33 5 Steps to a Successful Holiday Shopping Season Make the most of it following these guidelines 1. Choose the products to promote and establish a promotional calendar 2. Ask the merchant(s) for help when promoting their products 3. Use all available sales channels 4. Stay in touch with the evolution of your campaign 5. Generate post-holidays campaigns

34 Choose the products to promote Use the most appealing ones to your audience Check your data from previous promotions and see what yielded the best results Research the competition you have for those products from other affiliates on SEM, social media Get the promotions & shipping calendar from merchants See what merchants can help you with in optimizing the conversions: creatives, landing pages, etc. Think on a long run: take into account recurring revenue opportunities (especially for software & SaaS products) Affiliate Benchmark Survey, 2012

35 Ask the merchants for help Differentiate your offer from others Get exclusive / vanity coupons from merchants Use holiday-specific creatives for your campaigns and landing pages Increase conversions by sending your traffic to dedicated co-branded landing pages If possible, ask the merchant to send you a free sample, so you can blog about it and bring original content to the table. Know your strength ask for special terms if you have the sales to prove it: free shipping, free products, discounted cross-sells, etc. Ask the affiliate network for guidance facilitating communication with the merchant, exploring platform possibilities

36 Use all available sales channels Reach out to all your users Optimize the pages where traffic enters your website. Let everybody know about your holiday promotions Appeal to social media users this will also help you with WOM on your promotions Do you have a subscribers list? Send them an with holiday promos! Don t forget to follow-up! Engage communities with niche products that fit what they are looking for Affiliate Benchmark Survey, 2012

37 Stay updated with your campaign performance Monitor your campaigns and tweak them every few days Look for variations of the conversion rate for these campaigns. Are they way off what you re usually getting? Give your users the chance to rate / offer feedback on your campaign Test different landing pages / creatives for a short period of time (a few days) and then go with the best performing one(s) Test various placements for the campaigns on your website For campaigns, check the open and click rates. Do a follow-up on those who have not yet opened your initial message. Be aware of SPAM regulations Worst case scenario: replace the product(s) being promoted

38 Generate post-holidays campaigns Get more incoming sales traffic Even if it s not in the calendar, check with the merchants if they have something planned for the January February time frame Renewing the products line is a great opportunity to run a stock clearance campaign Don t forget about the other winter shopping opportunities: Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), Valentine s Day. Offer relevant products for each one of these holidays. Link a campaign to an event related to your website / community: e.g. your blog is now 4 years old here s a sweet exclusive deal for all readers

39 Want more advice? Additional resources for affiliates Geno s blog: Avangate blog: ABestWeb Affiliate Forums: WickedFire Affiliate Forums: A4U Forums:

40 Who Is Avangate Avangate is the agile ecommerce solution provider trusted by small and midsized Software and SaaS companies to grow their revenue worldwide 6 Years in Online Commerce Growth of 80%+ 2,500+ Customers Powerful Software Oriented Affiliate Network: 33,000 Strong Software& SaaS Affiliates Headquarters in Redwood Shores, CA Offices in the Netherlands, Romania, Taiwan, Russia

41 Avangate Clients Software & SaaS - Security, Multimedia, Utilities 2,500+ Companies

42 Avangate Affiliates Software & SaaS Specialized Affiliates 33,000+ Strong Affiliates

43 Happy Holidays! Happy Selling!!!

44 Q & A

45 Thank You! To download great industry resources both for merchants and affiliates or to find out more information on Avangate and SkyCommerce, please visit Avangate Inc. Redwood Shores CA., USA Tel: (650) Avangate B.V. Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tel: