Another Q4 is upon us, and as this crucial shopping season closes in, it’s not just merchants who are hard at work planning and preparing for the annual onslaught. While the digital landscape evolves, so do the strategies that affiliates employ to navigate the bustling and often choppy waters of the fourth quarter.
LinkConnector launched a new feature making it easier for our affiliate partners to create custom deep links to pages on approved merchant sites. A new ‘Shortcuts’ option on the 'Get Links/HTML' page (Campaigns > Get Links/HTML), allows affiliates to quickly create a deep link or get the most popular link for a merchant’s campaign (typically a...
If you’re a performance marketing professional or enthusiast in search of your next podcast fix, look no further than the Profitable Performance Marketing podcast presented by JEBCommerce CEO Jamie Birch—a treasure trove of inside information and regular discussions with some of the top minds in our industry.
We recently caught up with Newchic’s affiliate marketing team to find out what’s been working for their affiliate program during these challenging times and to learn more about their upcoming summer sale, which launches on July 1st.
As COVID-19 has upended our worlds and forced us into a new normal, we unquestionably recognize the importance of human connections and adaptability in these unprecedented times—two defining features of affiliate marketing.
This state of crisis that has become our reality has redefined ecosystems, shifted consumer shopping behavior and altered stages of growth—quickly beckoning the need for eCommerce retailers to adjust their online advertising spend and strategies.
As digital marketing initiatives are being constrained or paused due to budget cuts, online retailers are leveraging the cost-effective value of affiliate marketing ever more so to help reach today’s consumer and fuel online revenue growth.
Here are some examples demonstrating how affiliate programs are empowering growth for online retailers amidst the coronavirus pandemic:
Employing Customer Ambassadors: Underscoring the human connection factor, retailers are emphasizing the opportunity for their customers to earn money by referring their community of friends and peers to purchase from the retailer’s online store. A retailer’s customers are effectively becoming a 100% commission-based online salesforce for retailers.
Matching Talent to the Environment: Just as sports coaches adjust game time strategies to external factors like weather, injuries and opponents, affiliates are essential players in these changing times—a powerful combination of entrepreneurship and innovation that helps drive growth for retailers in ways now deemed necessary. Retailers that previously eschewed Coupon affiliates are now placing them in the starting lineup; recognizing the importance of giving consumers a cost-savings in these tough economic times. Search Engine Marketing affiliates are given priority for their peripheral vision expertise in helping retailers become discoverable for search results potential customers are now seeking.
Communicating Value Add: The affiliate marketing industry is a guiding beacon for the importance of communicating and sharing ideas and strategies to help our ecosystem respond to, and rebound from, setbacks. Affiliate managers are utilizing LinkConnector resources to communicate top-selling products, inventory availability, promotional offers and shipping times to their affiliates, who then communicate (within their promotional context) these important details to consumers. Similarly, affiliates are making their resiliency known by highlighting innovative ways which they can quickly pivot to give merchants exposure to relevant customer demographics in need.
Driving Orders in Surging Categories:
Wade Tonkin of Fanatics leads a LinkConnector sponsored AM Days workshop.
Affiliate Summit West 2020 (#ASW20) just wrapped in Las Vegas, with over 6,000 affiliate marketers in attendance. One of the outstanding additions to this year’s conference was a series of AM Days (@AMDays) workshops which proved to be an exceptionally valuable experience for everyone involved. On day one, LinkConnector sponsored the session Identifying and Recruiting Targeted Content Partners – a hands-on, interactive session targeted toward affiliate managers, brands, and advertisers.
Wade Tonkin, Senior Affiliate Manager at Fanatics, led the training, sharing tools and tips to help advertisers identify the right partners for their brand. He also covered effective outreach strategies to engage and recruit content partners who can drive significant incremental sales. Attendees left the session ready to map out successful recruiting campaigns that will have an immediate impact on ROI.
AM Days events never disappoint. Founded by acclaimed marketing guru Geno Prussakov, these workshops and conferences consistently feature the most knowledgeable experts in our industry. The events provide invaluable networking opportunities and take the audience, step-by-step, through useful tools, tips, and techniques that they can readily bring home and put into action. The AM Days events attract big brands like Zappos and Shutterfly, providing affiliate marketers with unique access to high potential partners.
LinkConnector is proud to be a longstanding AM Days supporter. After this amazing series of workshops at #ASW20, we can’t wait to see what Geno has up his sleeve next.
“LinkConnector has been heralding AM Days as a ‘must-attend’ conference to our merchants since its inception 10+ years ago. Geno’s workshops deliver education and training for affiliate marketing managers to grow and sharpen skillsets needed to launch or advance their company’s affiliate program. This hands-on education plus the in-person networking with peers and industry trailblazers continue to make AM Days a conference we are proud to support and sponsor!”
LinkConnector will be heading to the Paris Las Vegas Hotel on January 27-29 for Affiliate Summit West, the leading performance marketing event in the world. Are you planning to attend? Let's meet!
In this season of gratitude, LinkConnector gives thanks to our amazing network of collaborators and supporters.
The Affiliate Summit West conference (#ASW19) wrapped last week where over 6,000 digital marketers from over 70 countries gathered at Paris Las Vegas Hotel for all things #performancemarketing. LinkConnector was honored to once again exhibit and be a part of this must-attend industry conference.
On day one of the conference, LinkConnector’s Tara McCommons moderated the panel session, Leveraging Influencers in a Performance Marketing Arena to a packed room of attendees. On the panel were affiliate managers Nick Goodling of Bollman Hat, Charity Gerke of U.S. Elite; and Kimberly Cashwell, marketing manager of FMTC.
These three affiliate marketing leaders shared misconceptions, strategies and tactical advice on how they’ve leveraged the power of social media influencers to drive revenue and elevate brand reputation.
NG: Influencers are an extension of a brand’s marketing arm. Affiliates concentrate their efforts more on ROI, traffic and conversions.
CG: Influencers have a positive impact on a merchant’s brand. Affiliates are less concerned with the intangibles.