BEST PRACTICES | JUNE 2007

Prepping for Symposium

LinkShare is gearing up for our best Symposium yet. We’re putting the finishing touches on presentations and preparing the discussions that will make this year’s theme of innovation and collaboration relevant to your business. And while we’re sure this insight will help you drive your business forward, as anyone who has attended symposium in the past will tell you, that’s only one half of what the event will offer. The other side, and what I’d like to talk about in this month’s Link, is making the most of your networking experience at Symposium. And the best way to prepare for the premier affiliate marketing event is to set the same goals that you do for your affiliate marketing program: Acquire Affiliates, Activate Affiliates and Optimize Affiliates. Lets take a look at applying these goals to a live event.

Acquire Affiliates
The differentiators between good events and boondoggles comes down to incremental revenue to your program – and one of the most direct ways to drive incremental revenue is by acquiring new affiliates. Target these affiliates by:

  • Talking to your account manager about who will be in a attendance. Together you can create a target list of affiliates to meet with at the event.
  • Prepare a sell sheet of your affiliate program and bring copies to hand out. A business card is good but a full-blown sell-sheet is better. Remember to outline your value-prop to your customers, talk about your baseline offer, your AOV and the type of affiliate payout new partners can expect. Be sure to include advantages you have over your competitors and design the sheet with recruitment in mind – affiliates want to know they are going to be treated like a partner in your program.
  • Start a promotional offer. Symposium is a great time to prep a private offer to close that affiliate you’ve been looking for. Once you make contact with a new a affiliate you can often seal the deal by having a private offer that you can bring to the table.

Activate Affiliates
Every affiliate program has an inactive segment of affiliates. And like the affiliates-to-acquire segment, you can start a target list of inactive affiliates by reviewing your program and working with your account manager to set a target list of affiliates to meet. Remember, since these affiliates are already in your program you have some additional tools to work with.

  • Send a newsletter to this inactive segment inviting them to meet with you at the symposium. This initial communication can be a good way to open the door to negotiation and showcase your commitment to the affiliate channel. It’s also a great time to get your best converting creative in front of these affiliates so they can see what is new with your program.
  • Be ready to ask questions to the inactive segment to learn how you can improve your program. Ask the affiliates what is working for them if your program didn’t. This can help in establishing priorities when it comes to what to do next when you get back to the office. At the same time, preparing some information on your ideal customer demographic and some best practices on merchandising your products (sell-sheet part 2) can help turn this affiliate segment around.

Optimize Affiliates
There is almost always room for growth in affiliate marketing. You should plan on spending some time with your current partners at Symposium to find that growth opportunity. The best preparation here is a good understanding of how these affiliates perform in program now and where you like them to be.

  • Bring your sales and activity reports. A quick reference of the past 3 to 6 months performance can ground a conversation between you and your top partners. Consult your account manager for ideas on building trendcards. You can also zero in on performance with the growth and drop rank report available in analytics
  • Perform Site Audits. Reviewing your placements on your top partners can help you talk about other opportunities for growth. Sure, everyone wants to be on the homepage, but approaching affiliates not only about homepage placement but also, category, email and search placement can get you a leg up on your competitors. As discussed in the activation portion, you should also be asking questions to try and discover other distribution channels available to your partners.

With these organized strategies and goals to acquire, activate, and optimize the affiliates you network with, you can make this LinkShare Symposium 2007 YOUR best ever! See you in New York!