How to Get the Most out of the Holiday Shopping Season

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.

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Who Are You?

Affiliate 62%

Merchant 28%

Other 10%

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

Sense of Urgency

1. Design Holiday Campaigns

Mind 3 key constituents:

(1) Holiday-themed affiliate creative

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)

2. Run Holiday-Specific Promos

Be creative!

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”

Generic Examples:

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)

Example:

4. Equip Affiliates with 2 Calendars

(1) Planning calendar

(2) Shipping calendar (not for digital goods)

Planning Calendar

Shipping Calendar

from Overstock.com:

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.

6. Work Out a Post-Holiday Plan

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

Communication Frequency

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

[email protected]

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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

Happy Holidays! Happy Selling!!!

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Q & A

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