As digital marketing continues to develop and expand, marketers will need to diversify their efforts and leverage alternative channels to reach their target audiences.
On day two of Affiliate Summit West 2017, two industry veterans shared their expertise in the navigating the widening world of viral and social marketing. LinkConnector’s VP of Sales and Marketing, Tara McCommons, and Nick Andrews, CEO and Founder of Revitrage led ASW17 Session 12D, Viral & Social Marketing, where they took an in-depth look at this topic.
Nick shared his successes in broadening his reach through new products and services—not dependent on Google—such as Reddit, Twitter, and Kickstarter. He presented two Reddit case studies, one where an affiliate marketer earned $4.3M in one day when a Black Friday Deal went viral on the Reddit platform.
After running thousands of viral and social promotions, Nick has begun to decompose the Twitter algorithm. He shared strategies, such as direct linking, high follower count and a high tweet count with matching engagement metrics, that have been highly effective.
Tara presented a progressive new technology that is enabling affiliate partners (beyond coupon affiliates) to earn commissions based solely on a unique, private coupon code. This is Coupon Code Attribution, or attribution without a click or cookie. This technology enables customer acquisition in ways never before possible (e.g., through Reddit, Twitter, Pinterest and more).
With nearly half of all purchases occurring across multiple devices, Tara next presented the importance for merchants to track across all platforms and devices. Cross Platform Tracking (CPT) is enabling tracking touchpoints all along the purchasing funnel.
As digital marketing continues to realize more and more players and saturation of mainstream channels, Tara and Nick emphasized the importance of marketers incorporating viral and social marketing into their overall marketing portfolio. Not only are these cost effective alternatives to Google, but marketers also have the opportunity to directly engage with new and existing customers—and in a very short period of time.