Influencers & Affiliates
Partnering with influencers and affiliates is a proven ecommerce revenue generator. Our articles include a seminal 8-part influencer marketing guide, types and examples of influencer marketing, profiles of merchants thriving with affiliate marketing, and more.
-
Influencers & Affiliates
3 Affiliate Tools for Content Marketing
January 27, 2015 • Carolyn Kmet
Banner ads are best used for branding, not to drive clicks. Affiliate marketers realize this. Increasingly, affiliate marketers are relying less on banner ads, and more on their affiliates’ content.
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing Events in 2015
January 5, 2015 • Carolyn Kmet
The following is a non-exhaustive list of top events in 2015 for affiliate mangers to consider. Deciding which events to attend will depend on whether your primary goal is to ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
3 Affiliate Marketing Action Items for 2015
November 27, 2014 • Carolyn Kmet
Set aside some time in December to map out what 2015 will look like for your affiliate marketing channel. Many times, “thinking” becomes consumed by “doing,” which results in a ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Offline Entities Can Generate Revenue
October 30, 2014 • Carolyn Kmet
Affiliate marketing tracks a consumer from a referring source to a completed sale. When we think of affiliate marketing in this simple manner, it opens up an entire realm of ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Working with Loyalty Sites
September 26, 2014 • Carolyn Kmet
One of the biggest challenges in affiliate marketing is working with loyalty sites, which provide consumers with cash back, points back, or some variation of the two. Some loyalty sites ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Holiday Action Items
August 26, 2014 • Carolyn Kmet
Just as you’re gearing up your ecommerce business for a busy fourth quarter, your affiliates are going through the same exercise for their own audiences. Many affiliates step up their ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Importance of Affiliate Marketing Managers
July 27, 2014 • Carolyn Kmet
Simply launching an affiliate program does not guarantee revenue. I’ve seen many affiliate programs fail because of the “if I build it, they will come” mentality. Affiliate programs need to ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: How to Engage Bloggers
June 26, 2014 • Carolyn Kmet
I’ve previously addressed how to recruit bloggers to your affiliate marketing program. In this article, I’ll review how to engage bloggers once you’ve recruited them. Working with bloggers takes a lot ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: 5 Ways to Energize Affiliates
April 28, 2014 • Carolyn Kmet
Here’s the scenario. You’ve launched your affiliate program; it’s been live for about six months now, and you have about 200 affiliates. But no one is driving any traffic or ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: 3 Legal Issues to Monitor in 2014
March 26, 2014 • Carolyn Kmet
Online affiliate marketing is still in its infancy. Many trace the channel’s roots to the mid-1990s, when several retailers developed platforms that would track third-party online referrals and would award ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Working with Search Marketing Affiliates
February 26, 2014 • Carolyn Kmet
In affiliate marketing, affiliates often utilize the same marketing tools as their retailers. The challenge for retailers, then, is to ensure that affiliate efforts do not conflict with the retailers’
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Conducting an Affiliate Marketing Annual Review
January 6, 2014 • Carolyn Kmet
The start of a new year presents an opportunity to review your marketing activities of the prior year. In this article, I’ll walk you through a basic annual review for ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Evaluating Paid Placement Options
October 30, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
As we enter the heart of the fourth quarter, competition for premium placement on affiliate websites increases. Home page banners, inclusion in holiday promotions, and dedicated emails all offer different ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
AvantLink Tool Changes Affiliate Bid System
October 1, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
With the fourth quarter here, affiliate managers should now focus on securing key placements on select sites. Traditionally, this means identifying placement opportunities and negotiating an increased revenue share to ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
The Rise of Data-driven Affiliate Marketing
September 10, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
The concept of data-driven decisions has permeated the affiliate marketing channel. With tracking solutions providing access to deeper data, many brands are benefiting from insights into how affiliates are driving ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: How to Recruit Bloggers
August 1, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
Bloggers are often the most sought-after affiliates in the affiliate marketing industry. This is because bloggers have unique content and targeted, loyal audiences, which drives solid conversion rates and new customers. According to statistics compiled by BlogHer, a publishing network o...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Launching a New Affiliate Marketing Program, Part 3: Promotion
July 4, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
There are four steps involved in launching an affiliate program. They are: (a) evaluating potential affiliate networks and tracking platforms, (b) implementing and testing the tracking code, (c) developing your creative inventory, and (d) promoting your newly-launched program.
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Launching a New Affiliate Marketing Program, Part 2: Developing Creative
May 30, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
Editor's Note: This is "Part 2" of a three-part series on launching a new affiliate marketing program. "Part 1" we published previously. There are four steps involved in launching an affiliate program. They are: (a) evaluating potential affiliate networks and tracking platforms, (b) ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Managing the Google Affiliate Network Closure
May 1, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
The most significant development in the affiliate industry recently is Google’s announcement that it will be shutting down its affiliate network. According to the notification from Google to all affiliates on April 18, 2013, all affiliate relationships will be severed on July 31, 2013....
-
Influencers & Affiliates
2 Affiliate Promotion Case Studies
April 1, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
Affiliate-marketing managers frequently offer bonus incentives to drive sales or increase traffic. My firm recently tested two different bonus-incentive strategies, both of which were successful. This article describes them. Plus-Size Fashion Retailer: Style Consultation and Gift Card...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Online Coupons: Pros and Cons
February 27, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
Using coupon codes to entice online consumers is a long-running debate. The pros are (a) easy to implement, (b) easy to track, and (c) consistent increase in conversion. The cons are (a) uncontrollable distribution, (b) tendency to drive non-loyal discount shoppers, and (c) reduction of...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Beyond Banner Ads to Drive Traffic
January 29, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
Affiliate marketing extends beyond a standard banner ad. While you should offer your affiliates a solid creative inventory — featuring a wide variety of campaigns and sizes — you should also ensure that you are providing tools for affiliates who use other forms of advertising to drive ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Launching a New Affiliate Marketing Program, Part 1: Tracking Platforms
November 29, 2012 • Carolyn Kmet
Editor's Note: This is "Part 1" of a three-part series on launching a new affiliate marketing program. "Part 2" and "Part 3" we published subsequently. There are four steps involved in launching an affiliate program. They are: (a) evaluating potential affiliate networks and tracking p...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Using Product Data Feeds
October 29, 2012 • Carolyn Kmet
A common error that merchants make when launching an affiliate program is not providing enough marketing support for their affiliates. Merchants sometimes assume that all they need to do is provide a few banner ads to their affiliates, who would place them on their sites. But many sav...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
How to Set Affiliate Marketing Commissions
October 1, 2012 • Carolyn Kmet
Before launching an affiliate program, merchants should establish their default commission structures. This is the base commission rate that will apply to all of your standard affiliates. You will still be able to customize terms for individual affiliates, but your base commission rate...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Recruiting Content Sites
August 29, 2012 • Carolyn Kmet
In affiliate marketing, sites that feature unique content are highly valued. A few examples include product review sites such as Steves-digicams.com; blogs such as Icoulduseadeal.com; and online forums, such as ...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
3 Ways to Help Affiliates Pin Products
August 20, 2012 • Armando Roggio
Merging affiliate marketing with photo sharing on social media sites may help online retailers boost site traffic and sales whilst earning loyal patrons. Affiliate marketing is pay-per-performance marketing wherein merchants reward affiliates — sometimes called "publishers" — that driv...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: 3 Incentives to Drive Sales
July 31, 2012 • Carolyn Kmet
Ecommerce executives often gauge the success of an affiliate program by how many affiliates have signed up. This is misleading. I’d much rather oversee a program with 25 active and engaged affiliates driving traffic and sales, than thousands of affiliates who aren’t generating any ac...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Optimize Creative Inventory
May 31, 2012 • Carolyn Kmet
Managing an affiliate marketing channel is more than just getting affiliates to join your program. It is also about optimizing ad placements on affiliate sites. Building Your Creative Inventory Different types of affiliates have different creative needs. Coupon and deal sites such...
-
Influencers & Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing: Communicating with Your Affiliates
May 1, 2012 • Carolyn Kmet
One of the important responsibilities of managing an affiliate marketing channel is communicating with affiliates. The most common form of communicating with them is an email newsletter. A question many affiliate managers ask is, “How often should I send a newsletter?” The concern is...
9 Books to Strengthen Cybersecurity
Perplexity Shopping Tests Ecommerce SMBs
How to Audit HTML Headings on Any Page
Holiday 2024 Marketing Campaigns from Top Brands
Supply.co Founder on Life after the Sale
Wallet Passes Are a Mobile Marketing Channel
Drive More ROI from Meta and Google Ads
