Industry Interviews
Affiliate Marketing Q & A with Sarah V. Bundy
Friday, May 8th, 2009 | Industry Interviews, affiliate marketing | 5 Comments
Sarah V. Bundy
As you may know, 49Above founder and leading director Sarah V. Bundy is an Affiliate Marketing expert. She is very well known and highly respected in the industry. Over the years, she’s made connections with high profile industry leaders and learned a great deal about affiliate marketing.
Because affiliate marketing is still relatively new, we’re always bombarded with questions about it. To answer some of the most common ones, we’ve interviewed Sarah V. Bundy:
What is affiliate marketing?
Very simply, it’s a form of online marketing, similar to having an online sales force, where affiliates receive commissions based on performance. By joining a merchant’s affiliate program, the affiliate promotes a product or service and receives a commission based on the desired action being completed, like a sale or form completion.
Only a small percentage of businesses are incorporating affiliate into their marketing mix. Why is this?
Affiliate Marketing is still either a new or unknown concept to many businesses. The businesses that have incorporated an effective affiliate program into their marketing mix earlier on are usually technically more advanced or more up to date with the trends of online marketing. They have done the research to see how they can lower their costs and increase their sales through a performance based marketing model and thus turn to affiliate marketing. Now, lots of businesses are starting to hear about how effective it is now and are looking for expert guidance or management, which is smart.
But it’s becoming more popular.
Yes. Businesses are seeing results from this very lucrative marketing channel. Their costs decrease as their sales increase leaving room for higher margins or more incremental sales. For any business owner, this is an attractive model to follow.
It’s also becoming mainstream, so the more businesses that find out about it, the more want to give it a try. The affiliate marketing industry, though still small, is growing. There are now several affiliate marketing conferences held annually worldwide making it easier for people to learn what they need to about getting involved in the industry.
How do you know if affiliate marketing will work for your business?
At lot of it will depend on your product, your price, how much flex room you have with your margins, your ability to deliver your products quickly and efficiently and the quality of your website. Affiliates want to join programs that have a high commission payout, a high average order size, good tools and an attractive conversion rate. They also want to be taken care of so having a dedicated affiliate manager is key.
Something else to consider is whether your target market IS online or not. You need to know where your demographic shops. If they’re not online, you might want to consider keeping your marketing efforts away from an affiliate program for now.
Will websites that sell only one product work for an affiliate program?
Yes, they can, it depends on the affiliate program and the product. Will every affiliate program work? Not necessarily. You will need top quality affiliates who know how to get results active in your program. If you don’t then it might be worth spending your marketing budget on other online strategies or seeing what you can do from an offline perspective. For the most part though, you could potentially have an affiliate program for anything.
How do you get started? Do you need external consultation?
If you don’t already have experience in affiliate marketing or know the industry well, I would recommend doing your research by talking to several OPMs (Outsourced Program Management Companies or Affiliate Managers), attending conferences or asking questions online. You can sign up for free affiliate forums where people in the industry hang out to work together,
keep up to date with industry events and issues and help each other. Otherwise, we would also be happy to help anyone who has questions.
A good forum to learn from is ABestWeb where you will find merchants, affiliates, networks and OPMs and Affiliate Managers to communicate with. Each manager has their own style. I recommend doing your research to find one you like, feel comfortable working with and that has a history of producing solid results.
When should you expect results?
An affiliate program takes time to launch and build. You need to build tools such as banners, text links, datafeeds, coupons and more while sourcing good affiliates to join your program.
Once these affiliates are signed up for your program it’s a matter of getting them set up, active and fully participating in your program. From there you want to continue to maintain your strong relationship with your affiliates, provide them with new information and tools to help them sell better. Also, look for fraud or misconduct in your program and help train the less experienced affiliates so they can get results too.
A realistic timeframe for launching a successful affiliate program is between two - four weeks.
It usually takes about 6-12 months for an affiliate program to really get rolling and become profitable, however you can start to see results within the first 3 months of the program being live. Just keep in mind that the returns are usually going to come around the six months mark.
Generally about 5-10% of your affiliates will generate about 90-95% of your affiliate sales revenue, but everyone is important and can contribute something. Also, you never know when someone who’s new ends up boosting their sales over the course of the year so they become one of the top perforating affiliates in your program as well.
My recommendation is be patient and keep recruiting top performing affiliates who want to work with you. Improve your program so it is more attractive and performs better for affiliates.
If the tools they need are not available to them then it’s the job of the affiliate manager to get them what they need fast, before they lose interest and move onto another program that’s not yours. Be consistent and focused, open to change and suggestions from your affiliates and keep pushing forward.
Why is choose 49Above?
The team at 49Above has been in the industry for over 10 years. We have great connections and have maintained friendships with some of the top performing affiliates in the world.
We understand the industry and we have a solid track record of producing exceptional results for the programs we manage. We have brought a 1500% increase in sales to one program and had a 98% close rate at a conference for another.
We love the affiliate marketing industry and try to be involved as much as possible, helping people understand the benefits of having an affiliate program, speaking at conferences, hosting Podcasts and we continue to work to support and make the industry better.
Additionally we offer great packages to our clients who are looking for an “all in one” online solution as we also specialize in Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing, Pay Per Click (AdWords) Campaign Management, Social Media, and Website Usability and Analytics.
We are the only company in North America that we are aware of who can service all of these strategies fluently in German, Spanish, English and Persian with more languages being added each year. This allows our customers to have an experienced and fully “all in one” marketing team who can reach growing markets which others cannot.
Most importantly, we are fun to work with, passionate and extremely hard workers. We take pride in what we do and bring that to the table with each of our clients we work with, no matter who or where they are. Our focus is on getting the best possible results for you.
To find Sarah online, visit her blog or follow her on Twitter.
Interview with Rob Duncan on Social Media and Linked In
Thursday, December 11th, 2008 | Industry Interviews, social network marketing | 4 Comments
49Above: “Hello and welcome everyone to our interview with Rob Duncan, who is not only a professional speaker on various business subjects but also the director of British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Applied Research Liaison Office. He has also written three books: one on competitive intelligence, one on team building, and he is now completing one on social media. Welcome Rob!”
Rob: “Thanks, it’s great to be here.”
49Above: “One of the things we wanted to talk to you about today since you have a lot of experience in it is the various reasons people would want to use social media and the strengths of social media, but also specifically using Linked In as a tool to help build a business. If you could please start out by telling us what Linked In is and why it matters.”
Rob: “Linked In is a social network very much like Facebook or MySpace. What’s different about Linked In is it’s geared specifically towards business professionals. So it’s not the type of place where you will find your friends are heading from one pub to another pub. It’s just not focused on fun, social friendly kind of things. It’s focused exclusively on business. For that reason it’s great for networking, building sales, making connections with people and helping out other people so that they help you out later on.”
49Above: “So let’s say I wanted to use Linked In to help build my business. How do I personally use it to help build up my status or my company name?”
Rob: “Well there are a couple of steps. First is to get onto Linked In, at www.linkedin.com, and sign up for a free account. What that lets you do is lets you build an online profile, which is a little like an online resume. The first thing you’d like to do to use Linked In as effectively as possible is to make that profile as detailed as possible. You want to include as much information as possible, and that could include your photo, all the places you’ve ever worked, which schools you went to, your interests, your hobbies, any associations you belong to, and what that does is it allows people to find you more easily.
For example, you may have studied at BCIT, and when someone does a search, your name will come up if you put that in your profile. That makes it much more likely that people around the world with similar aims, interests and aspirations are going to connect with you.
The other thing to do is be an open networker and that means being willing to connect with all kinds of different people, even if you don’t immediately see that you have something to gain from being connected to somebody. What I see with Linked In is a lot of different people doing little favors for each other. For example, you might want to meet someone who knows Donald Trump and I know Donald Trump, so you write to me and you and I haven’t met yet but we’re part of the same network so you ask me if I can introduce you to Donald Trump and I say, ‘Yah, sure that’s no problem”. Because I now trust you, you trust me and Donald trusts me, I can make that connection for you and that takes me only a couple of keystrokes. Now what that means for me in the long run though is that if I’m looking for a speaking engagement, and let’s say you live in Dallas, I’ll put that question out on my Linked In network and you’ll remember me as the guy who introduced you to Donald Trump and you’ll say ‘Sure, I can help you find a speaking engagement in Dallas. So it’s this web of little favors that you do for people. That’s really the best way to use Linked In.”
49Above: “You said that you could sign up for a free membership, and that’s awesome. What if I wanted to just check to see who was on there? Do I have to be a member to do that or can I just do a search? How does that work?”
Rob: “It depends. If the individual you are looking for has created what is called a ‘public profile’, then you can Google them. If not, then you have to be a member to see. Usually the amount of information you see is restricted unless you’re a member. So you might see their name and their title, but if you become a member you might be able to connect with them as a one to one connection because you’ll be able to see all their details including how to contact them. So if you’re trying to sell something or market something, there is really a vested interest in contacting them without any barriers.”
49Above: “Some people struggle to decide if they would like a public profile or a private profile because they don’t want to be invaded on. What would you suggest in regards to this concern and promoting your business?”
Rob: “There are two different ‘camps’ on Linked In. The first one is ‘I want to keep my network small and I want to restrict it to only people I know and only people I might see on a Friday night or I see on a regular course of business. So there are some users who use it as a rolodex of the people they know and their acquaintances. This is good for the 30, 40 or 50 contacts you might have an want to keep in touch with.
The other camp is go big, and I fall into the second camp, so I have kind of a bias. The people now who I am directly connected to are almost 1500 across the world. What that means is their friends of their friends now number almost twelve million. So when I ask a question on Linked In, it now gets seen by twelve million people, which is approximately half of the entire Linked In network. That works for me because if I want to ask a question about how to promote my books or how to find a speaking engagement or how to solve a particular innovation problem, it’s going to get seen by twelve million people. So I’m very much in the ‘go big’ camp and a proponent of building big networks, open networks and trying to give a lot to the network as opposed to seeing it as something I can take from.
49Above: “So what are some of the successes you’ve found from using Linked In?”
Rob: “Well one of the things as a writer is I’ve been able to get my books in front of very targeted audiences. My newest book is on competitive intelligence and there happen to be a couple of special interest groups on Linked In that are dedicated to competitive intelligence. In those groups, you’ve got discussion boards, so I was able to say “Hey, I’d like to introduce myself and I have a new book” and that went out to all the members in that group, and the result of that is I’ve had several book reviews. I’ve had several people review my book on Amazon, I’ve had a number of people purchase my book.
I’m also a professional speaker, so I’ve been able to get speaking engagements. Most recently, I even got invited to India to go and do guest lectures about innovation over there, and that was absolutely entirely due to the Linked In network, through somebody I would not have met otherwise.”
49Above: “That’s fantastic! So in your opinion then, what are some of the hidden features of Linked In that you use in order to get that kind of exposure and those kind of connections?”
Rob: “Ok, that’s a great question and before I get into that I just wanted to say that as an overall philosophy I think the best way to use Linked In is to look to give rather than to get. I think if you do that, if you connect with lots of people and you do them favors, there’s a lot of goodwill that comes back your way.
But back to your question, what are some of the hidden features that I really like. I already mentioned the power of your profile. The more detailed your profile is, the more rich it is, the better sense people can get of who you are. That goes for what kind of human being you are, the business you’re in and what kinds of leads and opportunities you’re looking for. That’s going to help you a lot. I think a lot of people make a mistake and make their profile too thin. The more you put into it, the more you’re going to get out of it. So having a good profile is one hidden piece of advice.
Another one is connect to a lot of people. There are a couple of ways you can do that. One of them is, when you set up your account in your settings, there’s a box you can click and it’s called “Open Link Enabled”. If you click that, it puts a badge on your profile that identifies with everyone out there that you like connecting with people, because not everybody does. So if you put that badge on your profile that gives permission to people to contact you and they can connect with you much more easily.
Another trick in terms of building a big network is using the special interest groups. One of them is called “Invites Welcome” and if you join that group, you get a badge on your profile that says “Invites Welcome!” and what that signals to people in that group is that you will connect with anybody within reason.
So those are two tricks you can use to build a bigger network. The bigger your network gets, the more value you can extract from it. In part of my doctoral research, there are actually some mathematical formulas that show that the usefulness of an online network is exponentially related to the number of members in your networks. So when you get up to the point when you’re getting 10-12-15 million people in your extended network, the utility you can get from that extended network is just massive. It’s unbelievable.
There is another hidden trick in Linked In which is to use the question and answer forum. Its probably the piece of Linked In that people underutilize the most. And what Q&A, as they call it, is a forum where you can ask and answer questions. So people in your network will ask questions such as “how do I market an affinity marketing business using social media?” If you see a question like that, jump in and answer it and while you’re doing that take the time to promote yourself and your business. You have the opportunity when you answer questions to put in web links. So it’s a perfect opportunity to send people out to your blog or to your website. So being active in the Q&A is a good way to get yourself known out there.
49Above: “So would you say those are your top ‘gold’ tips for using Linked In or are there any other essential must knows for using the network?
Rob: “I’d say the other one I would underline is “groups”. You’re allowed to join 50 of these special interest groups. For example, I belong to 50 of them and they relate to innovation, schools I’ve been to, places in the world that I like. I like New York, for example, and it lets you build these miniature cultures within Linked In that you can focus around special interests. I used the example of marketing my competitive intelligence book in the competitive intelligence groups and that’s another really powerful tool.
49Above: “That’s right. One question that I have come across from several different companies is ‘should I promote myself in Linked In as myself or as my company’. So do I go in as Sarah Bundy and talk about Sarah Bundy or do I go in as 49Above and talk about 49Above?”
Rob: “Well Linked In is interesting that way because it only lets you be yourself. There’s no real corporate page on Linked In unless you maybe pay for one but it’s basically built all around individuals. So what you have to do is go in as yourself and then promote the heck out of your business through things like your profile and your activity and groups and asking and answering questions.
49Above: “So it sounds like Linked In is your favorite social network tool”
Rob: “Yes, Linked In is definitely my favorite and I made a decision a long time ago that it was going to be my anchor. I do have presence in some of the other ones, like Facebook, for example, but my Facebook page basically points back to my Linked In page. I have a presence in one or two of the other ones just because it’s important to be where your market is but I don’t invest any time or energy in the others.
49Above: “So just as a final question, what would you say is the biggest piece of advice you could give to anybody who is looking to get into social media and social network marketing for the first time?”
Rob: “I would say it’s a brilliant, low cost, extremely effective way of marketing and as we head into difficult economic times, I don’t think you can get better value for the dollar than being involved in social media. As far as Linked In goes, my advice would be to get on it, get active, and give a lot to other people and you’re going to find that the payback comes back to you a thousand fold.
49Above: “Well we’d like to thank you, Rob, for coming on and talking to us about social media and your experiences with Linked In.
In regards to your books, your books on competitive intelligence and team building, where can people find those books and what are they called?”
Rob: “Ok, the first book is called ‘Haul Away – Team Building Lessons from a Voyage around Cape Horne’ and it’s available on Amazon or anywhere online through your local bookstore as well. The second book is called ‘Competitive Intelligence – Fast, Cheap and Ethical’ and that’s also available on Amazon. So if you go to Amazon and you search for ‘Rob Duncan and team building’ or ‘Rob Duncan and competitive intelligence’, you’ll pull up the books and you can buy them there.
49Above: “Ok great. And if people wanted to reach out to you, they could just do a search on Linked In and find you there, is that right?”
Rob: “Absolutely! I’d be happy to connect with anyone who would like to connect with me on Linked In.”
49Above “Alright, well thanks so much again, Rob, for being here and thanks to everyone for listening in or reading about our topic on Social Media and Linked In.
Welcome To Our Blog!
Monday, October 13th, 2008 | 49above Clients, 49above Updates, Industry Events, Industry Interviews, Website Usability and Analytics, affiliate marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, social network marketing | No Comments
Hello everyone and welcome to the 49above Marketing Inc. Blog!
We will be featuring all kinds of treats on these pages so please stay tuned to find out about program launches, industry updates, our thoughts and stories on Internet Marketing events and more!
Here you will learn all about our affiliate programs, affiliate marketing management, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, PPC, PPL, email marketing, social network marketing, tools and tips for conversions, website usability, analytics and pretty much anything you’ll want to know to be more effective in Internet Marketing.
We’re looking forward to having you visit our site. We’d love to hear your thoughts too so if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them on here. You can also check out our website at http://www.49above.com!
To your ongoing success!
_______________________________
Sarah Villeneuve Bundy
Leading Director and Co-Founder
49above Marketing Inc.
PH: 778.785.0080
sarah@49above.com
http://www.49above.com