Merchants can take Advantage of Falling Dollar though Affiliate Marketing

Every week the dollar seems to be falling further down against all of the other world currencies, including the Yen, Euro and Pound. The bad news this reflects: the rest of the world doesn't quite have the same faith in the U.S. Economy anymore, and also things will be getting a bit more expensive within the USA, and the power of the dollar decreases.  However, for merchants, the good news is that American products are now less expensive and are more attractive to consumers in other countries. Promoting visits to the U.S.A. is getting to be quite popular to Europeans with the thoughts of coming over for cheap holidays and shopping.

Our world is shrinking everyday from a business perspective.  I love this ad from the Financial Times that illustrates various landmark skyscrapers all existing on a "global island".

Business in America have a great opportunity now to start marketing their products overseas. If a merchant has never attempted to market products overseas, using an affiliate program is a good way to "dip the foot in the water." In the U.K. affiliate marketing is growing by leaps and bounds and more publishers are getting turned onto the advantages as opposed to Adsense. There are now 2 major annual affiliate events in the UK with the A4U Expo and the new Affiliate Summit UK.

Affiliate marketing (while lagging the UK) is also gaining more mainstream popularity with webmasters in Australia and New Zealand. There are certainly plenty of webmasters promoting sites in the US that are already familiar with affiliate marketing principles. These are the easiest to enter markets for Americans due to the language similarities. Other European and Asian markets however do offer potentially attractive affiliate markets. Affiliate marketing (through mobile commerce) is a HUGE industry in Japan. There is also potential in countries like Ireland, Germany, France,  Singapore and Korea.

They key: get assistance from a knowledgeable agent and/or network with experience in the region. AMWSO has enormous advantages since we are based in Asia with many staff members originally from Europe. Getting connected through a network can alleviate any international affiliate payment and tracking issues, leaving the merchant to contend with payment processing and shipping. Major credit card processing and Paypal eliminate 90% of international payment issues, and now with the various logistic and fulfillment services from companies such as UPS or even Amazon, storage and shipment of products can be localized as well.

The barriers for selling internationally are being lowered everyday. Consider dipping your foot into the water through performance marketing before your competitions locks down the market.

Affiliate Marketing and Appealing to Different World Views

Everything a person looks at, experiences or examines gets filtered through a specific world view. Seth Godin, in his book All Marketers are Liars emphasizes this issue (among other things) as a key point in crafting stories or messages that will appeal to potential customers. One of the key themes in the book, is that merchants should not try and appeal to a multitude of world views, or else they risk their message becoming too diluted, unfocused and generic.

Affiliate marketing can be a valuable tool in expanding a merchants reach to different types of customers with different world views. Just on the surface, consider that couponers know their visitors are hunting for discounts and deals, forums know their customers have in-depth interest in particular niches', and content/blog sites will of course appeal to various niche interests.  Recruiting different types of quality affiliates to an affiliate program allows a merchant to touch these potential customers, through the affiliate partners that they might not never have been able to reach when focusing on their core customer's world view.

For example, consider a trendy woman's fashion merchant. Logic would dictate they this merchant would craft their message to their core customer segment, woman interested in trendy fashions. Now, suppose we have a webmaster who runs a blog with a community of married men who are computer enthusiasts (aka nerds) (note: I would definitely be a member of this community). Right before Christmas time, these men are desperate and searching for advice and tips on gifts to buy their wives/significant others. The blog owner signs up for the woman's trendy fashion affiliate program, and offers this merchant up to his community. Just like that, the trendy woman's fashion site gets exposed to a group of men who wouldn't ordinarily be visiting this site, and who are looking for things to purchase.

Among the advantages of CPA marketing; measurable and clear ROI, it's important not to neglect the huge advantage of expanding the merchant reach to customers not ordinarily exposed to a merchant. Good affiliate managers will be on the look out for these types of affiliates and will be actively recruiting them into a program.

Text Links vs. Banner Ads

As an affiliate manager, I'm often asked, "Which convert better: text links or banners?" At first glance, the most obvious answer it text links. Glancing at a report or statistics will reveal that most of the time text links do convert better than banner ads.

However, there's more to the story than just that. I believe it has to do with how text links are used as opposed to banners that contribute greatly to the higher conversion / success rate. Consider for a moment how text links are employed as opposed to banners.

Let's first take a look at how text links are commonly used. The greatest use of text links comes from product data feeds. These product data feeds employ the specific product name as the text link. Of course, any shopper who is looking for a specific product, sees the product name, and then clicks the link will have the highest possible conversion chance. If a visitor knows what they want, and has already made up their mind that they WILL be making a purchase, then closing the sale becomes a far less challenging task. I discussed this a bit further when examining effective affiliate landing pages.

Another common use of text link: they are placed into the body of a webpage. Content is built around the text link. It much easier to built a value proposition, or tell a story when you have content build around a link then it is to tell that same story with just a banner/picture with a short tag line.

In comparison, consider how banners are commonly placed. Either at the top of a web page, or along the sidebar. Experienced web surfers have already trained themselves to know, banners placed in these spots (especially the leaderboard banner across the top of a page) are trying to sell them something, It's quite easy to automatically tune out to those messages.

The common perception: text links lead to information, banners lead to a sale pitch. Now, this is not to say that banner cannot be an effective tool in promotion. Just don't expect to put up a page and slap a bunch of banners up and expect to have any success. Build up some content, tell a story through that content that appeals to your visitors wants.

Strategies for Conversions through Effective Affiliate Landing Pages - Part 2 (Directing Visitors Who Want to Buy)

In Strategies for Affiliate Landing Pages Part 1 we discussed the idea of a value added landing page, talked about two types of site visitors, and discussed strategies for designing a landing page for early buying cycle visitors. Now, I'd like to discuss strategies for those buyers who know exactly what they want to purchase.

You can usually identify these buyers by how they are arriving at your site. If they've used exact product names, or very specific keywords, then you can generally assume that they have already narrowed down their choice to this specific product. Now it's all a matter of directing the visitor to where they can make the purchase.  Your job as an affiliate is not to convince them to make the purchase, this must be accomplished by the merchant. If you are promoting a specific merchant, then you should already know that the merchant is able to convert visitors to customers.

Visitors who have arrived at your page from typing in a specific product name, or model number, are expecting to see that product clearly on your page. Header, title, bolded, make it very clear to the visitor that they have arrived at the correct place. K.I.S.S., or Keep It Simple Stupid. Don't clutter up the page with unnecessary distractions, banners, etc. Be concise and clear, keep sentences short, paragraphs short, and even use bullet points. Emphasize promotions or coupons that a merchant has available, and make the value proposition clear.

If you have a comparison on the page of the product from a few different merchants, highlight the value proposition for each merchant. Guarantees, free shipping, return policy, etc. The visitor knows what they want to buy, now they need to be directed on where to buy from. Give them the information to make a quick decision, and pass them to the merchant to close the sale.

And finally, but critically important, make a very clear, very easy to identify, call to action:  Click here; Buy here, Buy now.

Don't be afraid to test and try different things.  Try two different pages and alternate them. Does one convert better?  USE it. Good affiliate marketing takes effort, so don't be afraid to put forth the effort and build a couple landing pages and test them.

Recap:

• Product name/keyword featured on the page.
• Keep it simple.
• Emphasize coupons/discounts/promotions.
• Provide short value propositions if different merchants promoted.
• Clear, visible, distinct call to action

If you have any other tips or advise, or want to share successes, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

Strategies for Conversions through Effective Affiliate Landing Pages - Part 1

Well there was a lot of hubbub that came out of he Affiliate Summit and Jason Calacanis' keynote talk. He called affiliates to the table, especially those with what he termed "thin landing pages." The warning that he sounded, is that some bad affiliates are polluting the well for everyone.

Granted, deceptive landing pages, cookie stuffing, deceptive redirection, misleading offers, etc., are polluting the well, however thin landing pages really are just poor business execution. Affiliates aren't paid on clicks, they are paid only when the sale is made, so if affiliates do not send pre-sold or targeted traffic to a merchant, the affiliate isn't going to be making any money.  As more people get into the affiliate business, and start building value added sites, these thin landing page sites will get driven off the map. This is a natural progression, the cream will rise to the top.

Now, how do you as an affiliate ensure that you are part of the cream that rises to the top? It's not a secret sauce, and it's not rocket science. One need only add some value to the buying cycle.  There are essentially two types of buying traffic, people gathering information and in the early stages of the buying cycle, and those who have pretty much decided and looking to make a purchase. Each visitor has different needs that must be met. You can get an idea on what type of visitor will be arriving at your site, based on where they are coming from and the keywords they are using to reach the web page. Let me provide an example, I run the program for Baghaus handbags. Now if someone arrives at a site using the keywords, "Celebrity Handbag", I know they are generally early in their buying cycle, and just shopping around for ideas or information. However, if they hit the site using a very specific handbag name, I can deduce that they are looking to purchase that specific handbag.

Visitors in the early part of the buying cycle should be directed to a different type of page that late cycle buyers. How can you add value to the early cycle buyers?  Here are some ideas:

• Show many different products listed and compared.
• Informative content / articles concerning the type of product or niche.
• Comparison chart

The important thing to consider is, "what is going to be valuable to your visitor, and convince them to make or return and make the purchase through your site?" Establish your site as an authority site for information about this product or niche for this visitor.

Let me tell you, slapping up a site with a ton of banners mish-mashed all over the place isn't going to get that done. Put yourself in your visitor's shoes. If you hit that type of site, how will it help you in making a purchasing decision? What value is it adding for you in the buying cycle?

On your site, add a "About Us" page and also a "Privacy Policy". Fill these in as well, to give your visitor a sense that your are running a real business, and are committed running a professional operation. I guarantee having these two simple pages will increase your conversions and return visitor numbers.

Next post, we'll deal with how to build pages for those late cycle buyers who are intending to make a purchase.