October is an intensive month for many businesses as Black Friday and Christmas sales are approaching. There is some important news such as Google announcing new Analytics. We have found great practical tips to improve and expand your affiliate program in time for Q4 peaks. Another topic covered in this post is Crowd Marketing and SEO. The cookieless era of the ecommerce world and how businesses are been impacted and Amazon struggling with fashion market space.
New Google Analytics announced
Businesses use Google Analytics on every day basis to understand their customers. Its crucial to understand every marketing channel and that every £ is spent well. Google have created more intelligent Google Analytics solution to help you understand how to increase ROI. The new google analytics has machine learning at its core to help with insights. The essential insights introduced are:
- Smarter insights to improve your marketing decisions and get better ROI
- A more complete understanding of how customers interact with your business
- Built for the long term
- The future of Google Analytics
Here is the link to Google announcement – click here.
Tips to enhance and grow your existing Affiliate program for Q4
PerformanceIn shares some insightful tips on growing your affiliate program for the most exciting period for any marketer. We really like the tips and some important dates to notes. We would suggest focusing on November and December (mostly gifting pre-Christmas and post-Christmas sale) as those are the strongest periods for most brands. Some important dates to remember in November:
- 11th November – Singles Day – where unmarried people buy themselves gifts
- 26th November – Thanksgiving day in US
- 27th November – Black Friday – many brands begin Black Friday promos few days before
- 30th November – Cyber Monday
Here is a list of questions worth asking yourself:
- Is your affiliate payout still competitive?
- Is your website optimised and capable of handling increased traffic?
- Are your promos and creatives locked in and completed?
- Have you prepared a gift guide that affiliates can use?
- Have you communicated with top producing affiliates on what can be done to scale for Q4?
Remember to plan ahead your November to make the best out of the peak season. We do not agree completely that Q4 is time to build your affiliate program. Our suggestion would be to communicate with your existing publishers and make sure that they are aware of your plans. Perhaps its time to push for extra exposure to reach the largest number of customers. If you have just opened your program or still planning to, focus on inviting new strong publishers as soon as possible perhaps with increased commission to incentivise them to join you.
Link to the PerformanceIN news post – click here.
How Can You Use Crowd Marketing It in Your SEO in iGaming?
Did you ever think of affiliate marketing and SEO to work together? Affiliate Insiders covers some key areas and shares some insight you might find interesting:
- What is Crowd Marketing?
- Boosting Popularity
- Link Building
- Social Media
- Improving Conversions
Link to Affiliate Insider story – click here.
How to Optimize Your Affiliate Program for Growth
CJ Junction one of the larger affiliate networks have shared their thoughts about upcoming Q4. CJ points our the importance of technical readiness, by making sure your feed is correctly implemented and checking the tracking and pixel is correct. Organising publishers is worth looking into, making sure you are sharing right incentives to the right type of publisher. Its worth analysing and reviewing your existing program to push the right levers. CJ have noted it is extra harder to cut through the noise with pandemic and election. Here are some great tips to consider:
- Promote offers earlier than normal.
- Showcase unique offer messaging.
- Mobile usage rises significantly during an election season. Ensure your mobile experience is clean and invest in mobile media opportunities.
- Take advantage of consumer demand immediately post-election.
- Measure initial reactions to holiday campaigns and adjust if needed.
- Don’t assume that your holiday offers are breaking through the noise; reinforce the message before, during, and after the election.
Link to CJ article – click here.
Gaining customer trust in the cookieless era
There are multiple talks about cookies and what it means to brands and any other ecommerce businesses. ClickZ have written a great article covering insights from Deloitte Digital research.
The summary of the article:
- The end of third-party cookies brings an opportunity for brands to build relationships of trust with their customers. Ultimately, cultivating trust comes down to how brands handle customer data, however they come by it.
- Part of adopting a new approach to engaging with data is considering when and how first-party personal information is collected. The “how” is an important foundational detail, as it may set the tone for the marketer’s relationship with the customer, determining whether or not a customer chooses to opt-in to share their information at all.
- Even after consent is obtained, customers and prospects have the right to change their minds. It’s an ongoing conversation between a customer and a brand, and so the ability to grant or revoke consent at multiple points in time is critical.
- Smart data use provides relevancy, and the brands that are positioned to thrive in a world without third-party cookies will likely be those that recognize a simple truth: You earn the right to be personal by first being relevant.
- Ultimately, it’s up to the brand to use it to deliver better content and experiences and grow its customer relationships.
Link to ClickZ article – click here.
Affiliate marketing tips to improve your campaigns in 2020
This year had many twists and turns with pandemic impacting digital world of ecommerce. For many companies existing in online sphere it was actually a great year. We might had to have thrown 2020 January tips away or adjust existing strategy, but it seems that this year Q4 may be stronger than ever before with people been stuck at home and forced to buy mostly online. The article from ShareASale covers some key areas:
- Building Trust
- Building Relationships
- Producing Content
- Telling stories
- Utilizing tools
- Marketing Channels
- Micro-influencers
- Payment on influence
- Social Media
- User Experience
- Mobile responsive websites
It is important to push this Q4 to make the best out of this insane year. Ecommerce brands have been very successful this year and it seems it’s only beginning of ongoing and increasing trend.
Link to ShareASale blog – click here.
Why Amazon is not a fashion leader
Amazon may be leader in many market sections but it does not seem fashion is one of them. Ecommerce News noted that Amazon.de is in sixth position in Germany. Amazon’s shop functionality is not designed for inspiration. Some information are missing which are important for online fashionistas.
Read more about Ecommerce News here – click here
Thank you for reading, if you and your business needs expert help in SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing, Social, Ecommerce and Digital Marketing please feel free to contact us. Creatos Media team is always here to help!