How are loyalty and cashback affiliates delivering value in 2022? This and other industry insights.
This month, LinkConnector Co-Founder Choots Humphries participated in a panel discussion, alongside other industry experts, in the 2022 AffiliateINSIDER Summit – a much anticipated virtual conference hosted by AffiliateINSIDER Founder Lee-Ann Johnstone and featuring presentations on a broad range of timely affiliate marketing topics.
In this panel session titled Ecommerce & Retail – Loyalty + Cashback – Driving Incremental Value for your Business, Choots sat down with moderator Florian Gramshammer of Impact and co-panelists James Little of Top Cashback, Heather Peebles of Reward Gateway, and Brian McGuigan of Klarna/Piggy to break down the merchant benefits of working with Cashback, Loyalty and Rewards/Incentive affiliates.
Here are 3 key takeaways from their discussion:
The Benefits of Cashback & Loyalty: Affiliate program managers often ask how they should be leveraging Cashback, Voucher, and Loyalty affiliates to grow their brand reach and build customer engagement. They even question whether they should be working with these types of affiliates at all. Each of the panelists agreed that there is value to working with these programs, but it is important to understand what the brand is trying to achieve.
Choots Humphries suggested that brands start by looking at how their competitors are working with Voucher and Cashback affiliates, then use this information to build a strategy that works for them.
James Little
explained that Cashback affiliate companies can develop brands in their own right, and customers often come to them first when beginning their shopping journey.
Brian McGuigan
added that Cashback is a cost-effective way to build brand awareness and generate sales. Additionally, the customers who use Cashback sites are incredibly loyal and savvy shoppers who will not make a purchase without a deal.
Leveraging Browser Extensions: Browser extensions have been around for some time now; however, they continue to rapidly evolve and draw scores of new users every year. As such, the panelists were asked if brands should be leveraging this technology to help expand brand reach and customer sales, and how beneficial this technology can be.
Heather Peebles
pointed out that this technology can be a key asset because members and users often don’t realize that a deal exists until they see it in their browser extension(s).
Choots Humphries advised that if brands are serious about adding functionality for their loyal users, then they should absolutely engage with browser extension publishers to understand how they are using the data. At the very least, take the time to understand the benefits they can bring to your brand and bottom-line.
Brian McGuigan added that browser extensions are the future – an innovation that is created with the user in mind.
Final Thoughts: To close things out, the panelists offered tips for affiliate managers to gain maximum value from their relationships and shared their thoughts on what brands could be doing better in 2022.
Heather Peebles advised advertisers to spend time building a rapport with partners, to look beyond just the numbers, and to actively make improvements to their program throughout the year. Keep up with the constantly evolving affiliate marketing industry as complacency can sink your program!
Choots Humphries pointed out that this is an industry of relationships, and brands need to operate with integrity. They should always be transparent and expose opportunities with each individual publisher.
James Little stressed the importance of making sure your tracking/attribution methods are working properly – especially with your mobile app – and educating publishers on how your tracking system is benefiting them.
Finally, Lee-Ann Johnstone jumped in to add that affiliate managers should be open to collaboration because there are learnings to be had from each and every relationship. And don’t be afraid to reconnect with publishers that didn’t work out in the past. You never know what may have changed.
This session was one of many insightful learning experiences that were offered over the course of the 2-day event. In the end, this year’s conference turned out to be a tremendous success and a valuable crash course on the critical issues facing our industry. We are already looking forward to the next AffiliateINSIDER ELEVATE Summit taking place from June 15-16, 2022.
And if you are interested in diving further into this topic, or if you would like to learn how current affiliate marketing trends and issues can affect your program, contact a LinkConnector representative at [email protected]. We would love to share our industry knowledge and expertise with you.