The power of Influence and the multichannel customer
Customer journeys are becoming increasingly complex.
Not only are they across multiple channels with multiple touch-points, they are also spanning multiple devices.
Consumers demand experiential rewards from loyalty programs
Brands that are incorporating strategies to offer experienced based rewards in their loyalty programs are going to win and retain more customers compared to companies just offering discounts.
Start Me Up! A profile of OffOnHols
The online travel sector is hugely competitive, so it takes a lot of ingenuity to build a successful company from scratch.
The team behind OffOnHols.com are hoping that they can revolutionise the travel industry through affiliate marketing.
I spoke to co-founder Ian Vaughan to find out more…
How can brands make money from social media if they aren’t allowed to join in?
Social is becoming less social, with more users switching to private networks and messaging apps.
This begs the question, how can brands make money from social media if they aren’t allowed to join in?
Start Me Up! Acquire: starting a new affiliate business
In our regular Start Me Up feature we rarely feature new agency-side ventures.
However, with Acquire we’re making an exception and that’s because the affiliate management company’s co-founder is Tom Wright, 2013 winner of The Digitals Rising Star award.
We caught up with the co-founders to ask what it’s like to start your own affiliate business.
10 things affiliate networks can do to help content affiliates
This week I heard Helen Southgate, the MD of affilinet UK, speak at a performance marketing conference and say;
If affiliate networks don’t change they will gone in five years.
This isn’t another ‘death of’ post. The performance marketing sector is a £14 bn growth area.
There are pressures, though, and Helen isn’t wrong to urge change. I doubt anyone inside the industry would argue that there are no common demands that networks, agencies and in-house teams face.
One of those common issues is the feeling that there is untapped value in the large number of content affiliates available and a frustration this value is hard to reach.
Price comparison and the great energy debate
Last week Co-Op energy boss Ramsey Dunning made a very public attack on price comparison sites, citing them as misleading and pushing up energy bills.
Dunning stated that price comparison sites such as uSwitch, Moneysupermarket and Energy Helpline should disclose how much they make in commission from the energy partners.
While I of course advocate a continued development of greater transparency to consumers, I find it difficult to understand exactly what it is that Dunning is hoping such a move will achieve.
Strong mobile performance over Christmas and New Year: stats
With the staggering mobile growth that had been witnessed throughout 2013, it was widely predicted that consumers would turn to their mobile devices over the Christmas period.
John Lewis made a bold prediction pre-Christmas that it would see its share of mobile traffic exceed desktop for the first time on Christmas Day and they subsequently reported that these expectations were exceeded, with two thirds of traffic originating from a mobile device.
John Lewis was not the only advertiser that witnessed exceptional mobile performance, with a number of leading retailers also reporting on their mobile activity over the festive period.
Has referral marketing come of age?
Back in October we spoke with Nokia at the Festival of Marketing. The topic up for discussion was referral sales marketing and how it gives brands a new way of taking part in eccommerce without selling direct to consumers.
In this article I put forward the case for referral sales and why it could take over from brand ecommerce.
Making the most of affiliate marketing this Christmas
We all know that Christmas is a huge season for retailers, but it’s also a big deal for affiliate marketers.
Bloggers everywhere are starting to reveal their site content for the holiday season: what we should wear, what we could cook and what we must buy our children.
For content affiliate sites, seasonal content is perfect for advertising Christmas gifts and related products. According to stats from Experian Hitwise, online shopping over Christmas 2012 was the busiest ever, with almost 200m visits on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day alone.
This is only going to increase as we move towards December.
Voucher code sharing ruffles affiliate feathers
UGC within the voucher code space has been a contentious issue for quite some time prompting many a discussion at the IAB Affiliate Marketing Council and earning itself a reference in the Voucher Code of Conduct.
However, the affiliate industry to date has struggled to find any real consensus on how this area should be managed and regulated, and as a result one of the key players in the market has embarked on its own version of UGC within voucher codes with a ‘social codes’ platform.
How etailers can make the most of comparison sites this Christmas
Winter is here and the Christmas decorations are out in full force.
According to the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor, online sales over Christmas 2012 were up by almost 20% compared to the year before as almost 60% of people did most of their Christmas shopping online.
Now that consumers are increasingly using smartphones and tablets to shop, we will no doubt see an even greater surge in online Christmas shopping in 2013.