PlusOne - Musings of a marketer

I have written here before on the topic of online merchants and their perception of the role of affiliates.

Even today, I received an email from a large insurance group with the subject line “Advertising Enquiry” and the body of the email talked about inviting me to join their pay-per-sale affiliate program.

Advertising is about creating awareness. It is about branding. It is about getting your logo seen.

Sadly all too many merchants think that doing this will induce people to click on these graphic ads and follow-through and make a purchase.

Some even put their phone number in the graphic.

WHY would ANYONE want to promote this merchant when there is as much chance that the consumer will pick up the phone rather than complete a purchase action online so commission is payable.

The situation does not change on the main site either. Clicking through and the phone number is featured prominently in several locations on each page.

While on this subject of phones, with the increase in broadband meaning phone lines are freed up (and VOIP), the easy for people to use the phone to undertake transactions has never been better.

As an affiliate, I always think twice about being involved with any merchant who has their phone number prominently displayed on the pages. If they MUST, then they need to implement a system where the affiliates ID is clearly displayed and the person answering the phone uses that as part of any processing of orders.

It can be done as this affiliate-friendly site shows:

Click through and visit the site and see where-ever the phone number is listed, the source id is included. The operators cannot complete the order unless that source id is entered into the system. This is how it should be done on all sites where phone orders are a great conversion technique, but the referrer - the affiliate MUST be recompensed.

Which brings me to why an affiliate program is not an advertising program.

An affiliate has a vested interest in the marketing of the merchant’s goods/services. In this regard the merchant and the affiliate have a relationship - a partnership. It is a symbiotic relationship where each benefits from the actions of the other.

In the case of the Extreme Driving businesses, they evidently could not care less if the affiliate receives any recompense for driving qualified traffic to the site.

A good affiliate is worth thousand, if not tens of thousands of dollars to a merchant. Yes, 95% of affiliates are not, but often the responsibility to educate the affiliate starts with the tools provided by the merchant.

In the world of bricks and mortar, resellers, agents etc are exposed to a number of company supplied sales seminars, sessions and conferences.

Even in a place like the hardware chain Bunnings here in Australia, suppliers like paint equipment manufacturer Wagner have staff who travel the stores training staff so as to leverage more sales.

So why don’t online manufacturers/suppliers do this, even if online? The bottom line is because they don’t yet recognise the value in doing so. Sadly neither have the affiliate networks who are in a prime place to educate both merchants and affiliates.

So affiliates and merchants both need to realise that you are in a relationship - where the failure of one impacts on the other.

How merchants can lift their game

• Stop being lazy - yes, lazy…because most merchants are lazy and not willing to put in the extra effort to help affiliates implement innovative ways to promote their goods. No wonder so many deliver such appalling click-throughs.
• If you must have phone numbers prominent of your website, have a system that displays and captures the source of the customer.
• Don’t relay on graphic ads, and if you have them, put a compelling offer on it - do not treat it as a branding exercise (unless you are willing to pay per display).
• Supply innovative text copy that can be used on web sites, newsletters and blogs.
• Talk to your affiliates - see what they need and even offer them some guidance
• If you don’t know how to do this, get advise or hire in a consultant to get things moving.

How affiliates can lift their game

• Stop being lazy - yes, lazy…because most affiliates are lazy and not willing to put in the extra effort to best promote the merchant’s goods.
• If the merchant is lazy and only supplies crappy banner ads and few word text links, email/ring them and tell em what you think will work better.
• Watch the statistics - see which merchants get good click-throughs and THEN those that convert well. If they are not converting, dump them and try another.
• Put the effort in and put merchant’s copy and links in places that are contextually correct - plonking them on so called resource or links pages just won’t work.
• Write - wtite some copy and do some preselling. If you start the juices flowing, then the merchant has a much greater chance of converting to a sale.

Remember - selling goods on the internet via a merchant/affiliate arrangement is a relationship. By supporting each other you can both grow.

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