This is a fantastic opportunity to share your opinions and viewpoints with your peers so make sure you take part.  The deadline is on Friday and completing the census only takes ten minutes.  So grab a coffee and take part – you get a free copy of the report if you do.

Two years ago a similar report was compiled which provided unique insight into affiliate marketing, the time has now come to revisit the subject.  The online world moves so quickly that the research is sure to bring different topics and new perspectives to the forefront of the industry; mobile is now on the scene and video has developed as a leading proposition within affiliate marketing.

We’ll be discussing the findings at the A4U Expo in London in October, along with Andrew Firmin, affiliate manager at Argos. So you can hear more about it all there – questions are always appreciated as well.

Argos Affiliate Hub V3

Here at Commission Junction we realise that communication is a vital element of any affiliate programme.  Not only do we endeavour to be transparent and work efficiently with our clients, but also to maintain great relationships with our affiliates.  We have therefore introduced a range of ‘affiliate hubs’. The hubs are co-branded affiliate resources offering a one stop solution for programme tools, creative and FAQs. They also provide a direct link to the merchant and Commission Junction team, just in case publishers have any questions or queries.

These have been so successful that we’ve dedicated even more time to expanding them – we’ve just launched the Argos affiliate hub V3.0.  We’ve expanded on the existing features and have worked hard to make sure the platform has all the information an affiliate might want.  It includes promotional material, affiliate news, industry insight and a useful links sections with plans to expand this out even further with V4.0.

The Argos Hub has also got its very own blog; allowing affiliates to follow future developments as well as keeping up to speed with marketing plans directly from the Argos. It’s fair to say the hub has become more than just a platform; it’s become a resource centre.

If you’re planning on heading to the Expo please do come and visit us, we’ll be at stand 36.  We would love to meet you for a chat or even just to say hello.

Wait, there’s more!  Florian Gramshammer, UK country manager for Commission Junction and Andrew Firmin, affiliate manager at Argos, will be speaking at the conference.   Pop along at 11.00-11.45 on the 19^th to hear them discuss how retailers can use their affiliate programmes as a resource, integrating and complimenting activity with any advertising push.

Florian and Andy will also be on a panel with Chris Johnson from A4U talking about the eConsultancy Affiliate Survey and discussing results of research conducted on this year’s affiliate landscape.  This is at 13.00-13.45 on 19^th as well.

It’s the perfect time to purchase your tickets to ensure you don’t miss out on such a great event. If you’re an avid microblogger, you can also receive further news by following the event on Twitter, @A4UEXPO.

Click here to go to the website and book, and don’t forget CJ clients get 10% discount on tickets and can register with the code: CJCLIENT10.

We hope to see you there.

When asked to provide a topic this one seemed fairly self-evident. We were sure that not only would it be relevant but that we would have tons of information from which we could draw. It was also clear that based upon past and current performance Argos would be the ideal partner to talk through this. I’ve also done presentations with David Harding in the past so I was confident of it running smoothly.

The presentation followed a set framework. We would discuss current economic conditions and then we would correlate the Argos/CJ efforts back to suggestions on how to beat that particular trend through affiliate marketing. 

Market Conditions and discounting :First we discussed the market conditions in the UK and how they were impacting businesses. Without too much detail (as I am sure most of us understand the key trends), one key point of note is how discounting has impacted business and how Argos sought to turn that into their advantage. Primarily, many business have been discounting broadly where Argos have been discounting tactically to move inventory or take advantage of particular affiliate business models and their ability to target particular demographics.

Excellent Communication: This of course led us to the first of two key drivers of the programme: excellent communication. Argos has made it a point in the past eighteen months to engage at a greater level with the affiliate community and become ‘less anonymous’. Their broad-based communication strategy encompassed: one-to-many, one-to-one, and face-to-face channels.

• One-to-many: This was mainly newsletters and community advertising/marketing and was typically directed at increasing the reach of the programme and casting a broad net to pull in affiliates.
• One-to-one: For larger affiliates in targeted demographics/channel segments, the communication became much more focused and direct, specifically tailored to their needs and with an absolute focus on relevancy
• Face-to-face: Argos sought to engage with affiliates on a more intimate and direct level which CJ was happy to facilitate.

All of these communication initiatives drove greater affiliate loyalty and enabled Argos to target their needs in the appropriate direction. Optimisation was so successful that Argos currently has an active publisher base of over 42% and 37% of publishers actually drive sales. All of this on a programme with over 7,000 publishers.

Internal Management – The final pillar of success for Argos is the effective internal management of their programme. As we all know it is critical not to turn programmes on and off. ‘Blown budgets’ kill programmes. It negates hard affiliate work and drives down volumes even when the programme comes back up. By selling the affiliate marketing programme internally and treating it as an effective point of sale, Argos has been able to drive volumes forward without having to put on the breaks. The keys to winning the ‘internal sales pitch’ for the Argos affiliate team were:

• Working with a network which provides ample metrics to support any incrementality scrutiny
• Effectively using the affiliate channel to move inventory on a tactical basis.

Overall: Whilst affiliate marketing can’t offer a magic tonic for what ails many businesses out in the marketplace it, is clear from looking out there in the community that many affiliate programmes can underperform in an underperforming market. Times of distress are the exact times that you need to increase your reach and consider new business models – not close down avenues for growth. Affiliates are customers and need to be sold to, not just for their own selves but also so that they can share their learnings with their users. Finally, merchants must learn how to sell the affiliate programme internally – the budget should be forth coming, the margins correct and the ROI communicated outwards and upwards to key stakeholders. That way growth does not become an issue.

In summary, it really comes down to communication, incrementality, margins, budgets and reach. Getting all these facets in harmony will ensure that an affiliate programme can sell to the three target audiences that count – the affiliates, the customers and the internal organisation.