How to Get the Most out of the Holiday Shopping Season · How to Get the Most out of the Holiday...
Transcript of How to Get the Most out of the Holiday Shopping Season · How to Get the Most out of the Holiday...
How to Get the Most out of the Holiday Shopping Season
Learn How to Maximize Your Returns
An Avangate Webinar Featuring Geno Prussakov October 30th, 2012
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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.
Today’s Speakers
Cristian Miculi, Affiliate Coordinator, Avangate
Responsible for Avangate Affiliate Network, Cristian has been involved in the IT&C industry since 2005. 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.
7 Hands-on Tips to Get the
Most Out of Holiday
Season(s)
Presented by: Geno Prussakov
CEO & President, AM Navigator LLC
www.amnavigator.com Founder & Chair, Affiliate Management Days
www.affiliatemanagementdays.com
Tel.: (+1) 888-588-8866
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @ePrussakov
1. Design Holiday Campaigns
Mind 3 key constituents:
(1) Holiday-themed affiliate creative
(2) Custom landing page (not just your homepage)
1. Design Holiday Campaigns
Mind 3 key constituents:
(1) Holiday-themed affiliate creative
(2) Custom landing page
(3) Compelling CTAs (consider embedding a promo)
7 Offers/Coupons To Run
1. Year-long - 1-2
2. Monthly - 2-3
3. 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
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 - http://blog.affiliatewindow.com/?p=1789
66.45% conversion increase, nearly 44% revenue boost, and
132% difference in new customers acquired Rakuten LinkShare -
m.www.linksynergy.com/share/pdf/linkshare_case_study_smartbargains_072310.pdf
“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”
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)
4. Equip Affiliates with 2 Calendars
(1) Planning calendar
(2) Shipping calendar (not for digital goods)
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.
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.
Preferred Communication Methods
Email - over 62%
Website - 14%
Social media - 12%
Source: AffStat Report
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
5 Steps to a Successful Holiday Shopping Season
Avangate Webinar, Oct. 30th, 2012 Cristian Miculi
Affiliate Network Coordinator
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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?
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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)
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How do you promote products as an affiliate? Get into emails, SEM and daily deals
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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
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When to promote the special campaigns? Early November through December and mid January
US & Canada – starts with Black Friday (Nov. 23rd 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
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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
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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
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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
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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 email 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
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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 email 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
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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”
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Want more advice? Additional resources for affiliates
Geno’s blog: www.amnavigator.com/blog
Avangate blog: http://blog.avangate.com
ABestWeb Affiliate Forums: www.abestweb.com
WickedFire Affiliate Forums: www.wickedfire.com
A4U Forums: www.affiliates4u.com/forums
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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
Who Is Avangate
Avangate is the agile eCommerce solution provider trusted by small and mid-sized Software and SaaS companies to grow their revenue worldwide
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Avangate Clients
Software & SaaS - Security, Multimedia, Utilities… 2,500+ Companies
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Avangate Affiliates
Software & SaaS Specialized Affiliates… 33,000+ Strong Affiliates
Avangate B.V. Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tel: +31 20 890 8080
Avangate Inc. Redwood Shores CA., USA Tel: (650) 249 - 5280
[email protected] www.avangate.com
Thank You! To download great industry resources both for merchants and affiliates or to find out more information on Avangate and SkyCommerce, please visit www.avangate.com