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Slide 1: Dare to Be Different Affiliate Programme Brainstorming Naomi Brown Online Marketing Manager
Slide 2: Today’s Presentation • Background and statistics • The importance of programme USPs • Brainstorming new programme ideas: Research Development Implementation • Real life examples • Questions
Slide 3: Today’s Presentation • Background and statistics • The importance of programme USPs • Brainstorming new programme ideas: Research Development Implementation • Real life examples • Questions
Slide 4: About Me • Online Marketing Manager for Firebox.com (have managed affiliate programme for over 2 years) • Firebox is a leading retailer of gifts, gadgets and games. • 2007 turnover was 11.2 million, with about 15% (over 1.6m) through affiliates. • Affiliate programme one of the oldest in the UK, having been setup in 2000
Slide 5: The UK Affiliate Marketing Industry • Uk4profit.co.uk, a site that aims to list all the affiliate programmes in the UK, has over 3500 listed. • According to Affiliatelaunch.co.uk, over 90 new programmes were launched in August 2008 alone. • New entrants to the market find it increasingly difficult to stand out
Slide 6: Today’s Presentation • Background and statistics • The importance of programme USPs • Brainstorming new programme ideas: Research Development Implementation • Real life examples • Questions
Slide 7: Unique Selling Points • Crucial, given the size of the market • USPs for an affiliate programme are different from the selling points used to customers (service, price, range etc) • Common Affiliate USPs include: Competitive commission (higher or calculated differently) High conversion rates Compelling affiliate incentives Helpful and friendly affiliate management Unique affiliate tools
Slide 8: Unique Affiliate Tools • A different way to make your programme stand out • Cannot be quickly or easily copied by competitors • Big sales driver • Don’t have to cost lots of money to develop
Slide 9: Today’s Presentation • Background and statistics • The importance of programme USPs • Brainstorming new programme ideas: Research Development Implementation • Real life examples • Questions
Slide 10: Step One: Research What other people are doing: • Look at what your competition is producing • Can you improve upon it? Are they doing anything wrong? • Also look at what non-competitive merchants are producing in other industries
Slide 11: Step One: Research Technology: • What can your network support? (don’t always be limited by this though) • What new technology is popular on the web at the moment? (eg Video, Facebook apps etc) • Use forums such as Affiliates4u to see what’s being talked about
Slide 12: Step One: Research Your affiliates: • Ask them what they would like to see • What types of affiliates work best for you and what would be useful for them? (PPC tools, content)
Slide 13: Different tools for different affiliates Content: • Videos • Content units • Search Boxes • Gift finders • Games/ Flash-based interactive content • Article sources
Slide 14: PPC: • Live product feeds • Feeds of top/new products • Stock amounts in feed • Suggested advert text for products • Keywords in feed
Slide 15: Voucher/Reward sites: • Feeds of new deals and offers • Dynamic voucher code banners • Page peel creative (for offers)
Slide 16: Example: the Firebox Affiliate Video Player Research • One competitor already producing video • Video popular talking point amongst affiliates • Content affiliates perform well for Firebox
Slide 17: Step Two: Brainstorming You will need: • Research notes • A very large piece of paper • A pen or multiple pens • A quiet room • Some spare time Put everything you can think of down, then refine
Slide 19: Implementation • Talk to your technical and design teams about what’s possible • Write a clear brief for the tool • Set some deadlines • TEST- both with affiliates and network
Slide 20: Ideas for different industries Affiliate tools aren’t just useful for retail Mobile phones: dynamic tariff selector box Gaming/Gambling: live feeds of odds or prize funds Travel: flight search tools, dynamic hot deal boxes, travel information tools (live weather updates, flight news), video reviews for resorts Fashion: videos of catwalk shows, outfit selector tool.
Slide 21: Today’s Presentation • Background and statistics • The importance of programme USPs • Brainstorming new programme ideas: Research Development Implementation • Real life examples • Questions
Slide 28: Today’s Presentation • Background and statistics • The importance of programme USPs • Brainstorming new programme ideas: Research Development Implementation • Real life examples • Questions
Slide 29: Conclusions Points to take away with you • Your programme needs USPs, which should relate to affiliates not just customers • Unique tools aren’t difficult to produce and can be an excellent USP, whatever your industry
Slide 30: Questions?