This presentation is from Affiliate Summit East 2013 (August 18-20, 2013) in Philadelphia, PA). Session Description: Mature affiliate programs require different strategies to achieve ever increasing goals. Learn some new ideas from some old pros to take a well-established program from great to even greater.

1. Affiliate Summit East
2013

2.  John LoBrutto
◦ 1&1 Internet
 Rick Gardiner
◦ iAffiliate Management
 Mike Allen
◦ Shopping-Bargains.com
 Jeannine Crooks
◦ Affiliate Window

3. Station Manager
Sales Manager
Technology Director
US Sales Director
Head of Global Distribution
Director Business Development
Director Affiliate Partnerships
President

4. The dining with dead people question ?
SMART CREATIV
E
OUT OF BOX

5.  Act like you are new to the program
 Think how you can change your
perspective
 Develop a Business Plan or Sales Plan
 Get out of the grind and look at things
fresh

6. Start with a full review of metrics
Overall program performance
Commission review (is it working & competitive)
Competitor Analysis (who is gaining Market)
Are you competitive? (incentives/ creative/ tools)
Program reviews (have networks pull GAP reports)
Demographic changes
Review creative strategy
Talk to your product managers!!!!!!!!!!
Add Widgets and other new tools to sell
Ask your pubs!!!!
Golden nuggets (small opportunity in big numbers)

7. Identify channels
 Find product specific publishers
 Add coupons & promo codes
 Use the Loyalty/Rewards channel whenever possible
 Add your products to Employee Rewards sites
 Is your Product feed working?
 Sort through potential Lead Generation partners
 New Markets – Latin America/ India (English speakers)

8. Identify new trends
 Have you joined the Daily Deals trend?
 Look at Retargeting campaigns
 How about Internet Radio (new markets)
 New ideas to find the next big things
 New technologies to maximize optimization
 Don’t get bogged down in the old ways!

9. Manage your program like Art!
Program management requires a talent in identifying all the
leverage points
SEM has much quicker results, but a similar art
Analyze your ROI on Brand Identification too, not just the
time period of a placement.
Every publisher can be optimized, you need to find what
works
Really get to know your partners and their business
Clean up inactive publishers in you program, but try to get
them back first

10. Business Plan/ Sales Plans
 How many develop and follow a plan?
 How many develop strategies to support the plan?
 Review everything! Outline everyone’s duties, responsibilities,
milestones, review KPIs!
 Keep what works, but do not be afraid to take risks
 Make a list of “Can’t do’s” and identify the cause or barrier
(corporate policy, network limitations, etc.)
 Trust your plan, follow it, update

11. Churn & Optimize (No Secret)
 25% of your active pubs will disappear each year
 About 10% of your Top 20 pubs will drop off
 Keep adding publishers (15 a month/ 3-4 a week)
 Churn is part of our business, don’t think your performers will be
there, keep finding new ones
 Pick up the “Golden Nuggets” all around you and optimize

12. How can we have fun!
Plan customer events
Plan team building events
Get to your Networks and meet face to face!
Be a great Account Manager and spoil your accounts!
Face time is important for sales, yet almost non-existent in our business,
find a way!
Shake things up on purpose
It might be time to add a new network or leave a network
Change duties and responsibilities of the team
Review your process and make sure it still works!

13. Develop Out of Box ideas
 Talk to your competitors:
◦ Get to know your counterpart
◦ Share ideas, industry trends, get ideas
◦ Good for networking, good to get out of your box
 Get an outside firm to propose improvements to your program
(Hint: take the good ideas)
 Get your partners to think out of box too!
◦ 1&1’s new Mexico programs (rev-share model)
◦ Hats off to the OfficeMax - GoDaddy partnership!

14. Designated logos, trademarks and brands belong to their respective owners.

15.  Data. Perhaps even BIG Data
 Different Growth Tactics
 #SUCCESSes &
#EPICFAILures

16.  Polling your affiliates
 Understanding your
affiliate mix
 Identifying affiliate traffic
sources
 Identify new affiliate
segments

17.  By Status
◦ Inactive, Active, Sales, Performer
 By Category & Sub-Category
◦ Blogger, Coupon, Deal Curation, Loyalty,
Review, etc.
 By Traffic Source
◦ Display, Email, Organic, SEM, Social,
Video, etc.

18.  Efficiencies vs. Inefficiencies
 Alignment with business objectives
 Terms & Conditions

19.  Program Structure
 Top Affiliates
 Terms & Conditions
 Network Ranking

20.  Complimentary Products
 Brand Synergies
 Target Audience Overlap

21.  Global Expansion
 Test Different Models
 Find New Opportunities

22.  Improve ROI
 Brand Synergies
 Target Audience

23. Rick Gardiner, iAffiliate Management
+1.612.216.1833
rgardiner@iAffiliateManagement.com
linkedin.com/in/rickgardiner

24. Affiliate Summit East
2013

25. GOOD BETTER BEST
Adopt “old faithful”
methods
Banish “loser”
irritations
Customize “carrots”
of motivation

26.  Create open-door policy
 Establish personal
relationships
 Maintain trust - always
 Give tailored content
◦ Vanity codes or exclusives
◦ Seasonal data and trends
◦ Unique information
◦ Industry news
 Offer commission enhancements

27.  Missing program
information
◦ No terms specified
◦ No search guidelines
◦ No contact info
 Inadequate communication
 Lack of updates
◦ Stale offers and promotions
◦ Outdated imagery
◦ No deep links

28.  Errors
◦ Broken affiliate links
◦ Invalid coupon codes
◦ Expired ads
 One-size-fits-all incentives
 Assuming it’s all about money
 Ignorant requests (SEO/PPC, etc.)
◦ “No-index” page; change title tags
◦ Negative match unrelated campaigns

29.  Dropping all coupon sites
 Overselling their program
◦ Always expecting premium
placement
◦ Pushing low performers
◦ Not enhancing poor landing pages
 Bemoaning “lack of performance”
 Insisting we add them
 Comparing to industry “whales”

30.  Personal relationships
that span years
 Trust that is reciprocated
 Understanding our value
proposition
 Bending rules when able
 Tailored content that is
truly exclusive
 Creative incentives (not just money)
 Trackable coupon codes
 Providing special affiliate tools

31. GOOD BETTER BEST
Adopt “old faithful”
methods
Banish “loser”
irritations
Customize “carrots”
of motivation

32.  mike@shoppingbargains.com
 Twitter: @mta1

33.  Be a partner
 Assist both
merchants &
affiliates
 Remove road
blocks

34.  Regular GAP
analysis
 Constant survey
of new affiliates
 Data analysis & trends

35.  New functionalities
 Adapting to new
technologies
 Develop what both
the merchant and
affiliate need

36.  Share information
about both merchant
and affiliate
opportunities
 Synergies with other
merchants

37.  Get to know your
merchants
and affiliates
 Keep things fair

38.  John LoBrutto
◦ John.LoBrutto@1and1.com
 Rick Gardiner
◦ rgardiner@iAffiliateManagement.com
 Mike Allen
◦ mike@shoppingbargains.com
 Jeannine Crooks
◦ Jeannine.Crooks@AffiliateWindow.com