Affiliate Marketing Bringing Sexy Back
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Internet Retailer published a provocative article in their July issue, “Gaining sex appeal, affiliate marketing is receiving more attention.”
Affiliate marketing—using one site to drive traffic to another—has long been viewed as a cost-effective way to drive online sales and customer acquisition. But it never has captured the attention of retailers in the same way that sexier marketing tools such as e-mail and search engines have.
That may be changing as retailers discover that an affiliate program can be leveraged to enhance results of an overall marketing campaign. Retailers with successful affiliate marketing programs are aligning their overall e-commerce marketing objectives with their specific affiliate-marketing strategies, says Chris Henger, vice president of affiliate marketing at DoubleClick Performics Inc., an affiliate marketing company.
Spot on advice in the article from Chris Henger, vice president of affiliate marketing at DoubleClick Performics, and Kerri Pollard, vice president of client development at Commission Junction.
Plus some sexy numbers from the AffStat 2007 Report.
- Posted in Affiliate Opinions
21 Comments
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On July 3 @ 2:28 pm posted[...] CostPerNews, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed or email alerts. Thanks for visiting!Over on Shawn Collins’ AffiliateTip blog, there’s an interesting discussion in the comments of a post on Internet Retailer’s [...]
I think that the actual truth is that affiliate marketing (at least as we know it) is on its last legs. The fact is that relatively few affiliates generate revenue in any program. It takes too much talent to drive traffic organic, and the low margins of affiliate programs make paying for traffic infeasible in most cases.
As the search engines get smarter, the authoritative sites are going to rise to the top, and few affiliate sites can possibly be considered authoritative.
There are opportunities on social sites for affiliate marketers, but as that arena gets too crowded, that too will pass.
reply to this commentI’m not sure how you know it, but I know affiliate marketing to be in a constant state of evolution.
Yes, those in stasis will always be passed by. Those who are figuring out how to monetize SMS, video, etc. will rise to the top.
reply to this comment“Affiliate marketing—using one site to drive traffic to another”
I like that… will have to use it in my Affiliate Summit presentation.
That definition works for widgets, videos, RSS, etc which is where affiliate marketing is headed as the web page continues to meet its marketing demise.
reply to this commentAffiliate marketing has been doomed starting in 1999 when CJ started dropping the PPC format.
Can’t you tell its all about to die any day now. Ha ha ha ha
reply to this commentI have to agree with Shawn on this one. There are few things in the business world as sexy as Affiliate Marketing. It is an absolutely brilliant business model.
I am a believer, and I am never more than an arms reach away from my copy of ‘Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants’
Sure we may have suffered some blows in recent history, but I have no doubt that we Affiliate Marketers WILL continue to evolve and find new and exciting ways to slip in the backdoor and cream our competition!!!
Love the Blog Shawn, keep it up with all of the good work and advice!
reply to this commentI am involved with Affiliate Marketing, and know quite a bit about the industry. But I must say, it is not sexy at all. In a best case scenario, it is barely a neccesary evil. I agree with Greg above. I think in the future, it may be outdated, and not even a part of most companies plans. Only those that can Transformers into something else will survive.
reply to this commentIt’s not a matter of having to transform in order for affiliate marketing to survive. It’s a matter of realizing what affiliate marketing actually is at its foundational level.
Marketing in general is when one person or group of people tell another person or group of people about a particular idea, service, product, sound, taste, touch, or smell in an effort to get them to use that particular thing or experience. Affiliate marketing will succeed in the future because it’s so relationship focused. Relationship means everything to future marketing.
Affiliate marketing as we’ve narrowly defined and described it (html web pages or perhaps blogs on a rare occassion) is but one iteration of what affiliate marketing actually is and has the potential to do for businesses.
So, as we move into a mobile/social/connected/relationship based future, affiliate marketing will become an essential component of a marketing program where a company or business is looking to get its message to the ever increasing fragmented niche and local communities that are the result of a once monolithic consumer culture that is now crumbling at the tools of technology.
reply to this commentAffiliate marketing is no more than commissioned selling for the internet age–it’s been around for generations. Like an annoying telemarketer, affiliate marketing can be nothing more than an obstruction in your life, a time-suck; or, in the proper hands, affiliate marketing can provide value to the consumer. Can anyone here say with a straight face that every program they’ve been affiliated with has been a paragon of information? More than once I have created affiliate sites that go beyond and give improved information than that given on my advertiser’s site.
reply to this commentWHAT – EVA! I don’t mean to insult anyone’s intelligence, but if you can’t recognize the ’sexiness’ of Affilliate Marketing, its probably pointless that I even try to explain it. Its right in Shawn’s book, Chapter 2, page 35 …. ‘You Can Sell Anything’. This is why it IS SEXY, its not bring sexy back, it’s always been SEXY!!!!
Maybe this will help, OK, I think we can all agree that if Internet Marketing was NSYNC, then hello, Affiliate Marketing would totally be Justin, why? Because he is FABULOUS!!! He is sexy and can sell anything he puts his pretty little smooth face on.
Ok, then Lance Bass, well he would be Viral marketing because well, he never shuts up, he’s always like, look at me, look at me, Im so progressive, Im breaking down barriers, lets talk about me, look at my webpage blah blah blah
Next we have interactive marketing starring JC Chavez, its cool and flashy its fun, can be annoying sometimes, but is mostly right on target and blowin us all up.
The you have email marketing coming in as Joey FATone. Why Joey, because he is so annoying, just like SPAM, hey, I didn’t sign up for you, go away! I dont need Viagra, I don’t care about this hot penny stock! I came here to see Justin and JC anyway.
Wrapping up the group we have Chris Kirkpatrick as Search Engine Marketing, its like, been around forever, why are you like forty years old and still working in a boy band. I’ll tell you why, because who do you think was making all the deals behind the scenes, doing all the hard work day in and day out, having to put up with a bunch of cock teenagers who caught a lucky break without paying their dues, I’ll tell you who Chris Search Engine Kirkpatrick.
reply to this commentGlad somebody got my Justin Timberlake reference.
Anyhow, shouldn’t SEM get it’s own boy band?
Not sure if it would be 98 Degrees or the Backstreet Boys.
Danny Sullivan does bear an uncanny likeness to Nick Lachey.
reply to this commentI would love to be educated about affiliate marketing if there is something I am missing. Here is how I see the landscape.
1) SEO — Very few affiliate sites have a hope of getting much traffic through SEO because of authority. This is becoming more and more the case. SEs will continue to evolve so that the main site is ranked above affiliates (if they are ranked at all). The only affiliate sites that have a hope of ranking are going to be very heavy on information (not just a few articles–real useful information), and that is a big job outside the scope of part-time affiliates.
2) CPC SEs — More and more affiliate programs are outlawing CPC for the easy sales (trademarks, etc), and when allowed, the tight margins in affiliate marketing do not justify paying the required bids to gain traffic. At Vitabase, we have to sit on the sidelines in most CPC situations because it is not profitable, and for our affiliates, it is more so since their margins are not as good as ours.
3) Social marketing — A new study by JupiterResearch suggests that social marketing is not generating new sales. Yes, it is possible to go out and evangelize in blogs and forums with affiliate links, but that is frowned on, and as more and more people do it, people are going to put less and less confidence in what they read on those sites.
4) Other online advertising — There are few opportunities available that are even close to profitable for us (the main company) much less our affiliates (again because of tighter margins the affiliates work with).
Even though Amazon had the first big affiliate program, it still accounts for a small percentage of their sales. That is the case with most medium to large companies (I know of few exceptions).
So, I maintain that affiliate marketing is getting harder, not easier, and if you want to make money, it is closer to a full time effort than something you can dabble in. By money, I am not referring to a few hundred dollars a month but enough money to actually make it a career.
Please tell me where I am wrong and where you think affiliate marketing is going to evolve. I want to know and I want to help our affiliates.
reply to this commentI think this depends on how you define an “affiliate site”. Are you counting social networks, comparison shopping, rewards, coupons, etc. How about video, which became a whole lot more in play with Universal Search. And mobile sites when people search from their phones?
Bear in mind that margins vary for different verticals. In general, only specific types of affiliates work well for each vertical.
What is your basis for this statement?
reply to this comment“I think that the actual truth is that affiliate marketing (at least as we know it) is on its last legs.”
I can’t take anybody who posts that seriously. It’s like an audition for a Jeff Molander podcast. Get on over to Abestweb.
reply to this commentOh, I got the reference. But was not sure that Affiliate Marketing could be called “Sexy”. And after reading Cowls and Shawn’s post, I am thinking I should find another blog!!!!
Comparing Online Marketing to a 90’s boy band is interesting, but not accurate. I am sure Cowls LOVES Cher, Madonna and Search Engine Marketing!!!! So 1980’s!
I knew Nick Lachey, and trust me, you are no Nick Lachey.
reply to this comment” I can’t take anybody who posts that seriously. It’s like an audition for a Jeff Molander podcast. Get on over to Abestweb”.
That is not necessary. I have worked with Jeff, and he is excellent. I am sure you do not have his qualifications. Did you know that Molander served as Internet Program Director for the American Marketing Association/Chicago and is an active member of the National Retail Federation’s Shop.org, the Direct Marketing Association and the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association.
Yeah, that is what I thought Johnny Boy!
reply to this comment> “I am involved with Affiliate Marketing, and know quite a bit about the industry. But I must say, it is not sexy at all. In a best case scenario, it is barely a neccesary evil.”
What do you do in the industry?
> “That is not necessary. I have worked with Jeff, and he is excellent. I am sure you do not have his qualifications.”
Not sure how belonging to a bunch of associations unrelated to affiliate marketing establishes somebody as somebody to be reckoned with in affiliate marketing?
reply to this commentWorked with him Clint or are him
Thankfully the knowledgeable people in this industry don’t share the Chicken Little views.
reply to this commentAffiliate marketing is here to stay.
What most people miss and or never even think of are the methods available to affiliate marketers. All it takes is one good relationship with a merchant and a bundle plan can be extremely lucrative.
Before some of you step up to the platform to scream (bundle) a bundle can be as simple as adding a flyer with your special code to an existing shipment.
You get a bundle all the time.
You open this box of goodies you just bought and here is a flyer about some other great junk you may want to buy…. YA its AFFILIATE MARKETING.
I prefer to leave off all the other advantageous ways affiliate marketing is profitable, but if you’re only looking at HTML and/or a BLOG as an option fro affiliate marketing then you need a wake up call.
reply to this commentSandra made a smart, articulate comment. Although her opinion differs with mine, I still respect every point in her email.
Unlike the clown duo of Carla and Johnny Boy. The knowledgable people in the industry like to make references to Chicken Little, Justin Timberlake, 98 Degrees. I would never put Nick Lachey in the same sentence as Affiliate Marketing. Nick is here to stay, AM will not have the longevity of a Mr. Lachey.
In my position, one of the departments that reports to me is Marketing. And as Affiliate Marketing is one that we are involved in, a try to keep up-to-date with the latest trends. As well, in my dealing I have met with Jeff. He has actually met with my group, and we had dinner at his beach house. It was a lot if fun, and the food was great.
reply to this commentChicago has beaches? I must have missed them last time I was there.
“I am involved with Affiliate Marketing, and know quite a bit about the industry.”
“In my position, one of the departments that reports to me is Marketing.”
? So you don’t really know it since you have somebody else reporting to you about it, you’re not involved in the day to day.
“In a best case scenario, it is barely a neccesary evil”
Guess who said the same exact thing?
http://www.revenews.com/jeffmolander/archives/001708.html
So it’s either:
A. You’re Jeff and your attitude isn’t with the knowledgeable majority in this industry and it’s come to having to make up aliases to find someone that shares the same views or
B. You are in fact somebody else and : “He has actually met with my group” I can see where the attitude came from. Reference my first post in response to what you said:
“I think that the actual truth is that affiliate marketing (at least as we know it) is on its last legs.â€
So you or anybody else with that attitude can say it all day long but when the people who actually buy it, smarten up, they’ll remember where it came from.
reply to this comment