Vinny Lingham's Blog

As many of you can appreciate, it’s quite tricky to blog a panel, but here goes:

Emerging Markets Panel

Cindy Timmons, Publisher Biz Dev Director, CJ
Brent Hill – VP Biz Dev – Feedburner
Greg Stevens – VP Client Dev – Pronto
Oliver Luckett  – Co-Founder – Revver
Patty Mitchell – VP Worldwide Sales – Six Apart

The panelists all proceed to introduce their respective companies.

Revver is a viral video marketing company, which aims to monetize viral marketing movies.

Feedburner is the world’s largest feed management system (I use them).

Pronto is Interactive Corp’s (IAC) shopping search engine.

Six Apart is the maker of TypePad, Moveable Type & LiveJournal – blogging platforms.

Cindy proposes that embracing these new channels for marketing in the early adoption stage will open up great avenues for growth.

Question:  We continue to see huge growth and traffic for a handful of large social networks, such as MySpace & YouTube.  How does your business model interact with these social networks.

Everyone sees these tools as complimentary and wants to embrace those markets.
There is a lot of interest around MySpace.

My battery is dying, so I’m going finish off right here!  My session is next, so pick up what happens there on the Clicks2Customers Blog.

CJU Keynote Address: Sarah Fay – Isobar

“Creating Time” – The New Brand Challenge

Sarah start with a new definition for CPA – Constant Partial Attention

I can see this session is going to be tough to blog – lots of graphs. She starts with a graph of how alternative media devices have penetrated our daily lives.

Sarah predicts that by the year 2020 – 80% of all media will be digital and very fragmented and personalized.

There is an imbalance of spend – more time is being spent online than other mediums, however the marketing dollars are spent more on offline channels.

The New Digital Consumer

Consumer is in control
Advertising avoidance
Multi-Tasking
Mobile (over 10bn text messages per month in the US)
Communities

A lot of this looks regurgitated from the works & talks of guys like Chris Anderson, Steve Jobs, etc. I’m not finding it particularly interesting at this point, probably because I’ve heard this all before. The next bit of stuff was quite fun though.

From buying time to creating time

The brands that will win are those whose consumers tell the best stories.

In practice : Creating Brand Time

Adidas : Social Networking

Created a custom MySpace page video-submission contest, adidas soccer player pages and Ad builder feature

Results: In 6 weeks, 1MM page views, 55k+ friends, 22k+ ads created

Electronic Arts – The Godfather video game launch

Guerilla campaign involving 30,000 oranges (stickered with URL) placed among heavy commuter routes on launch day in NY, Chicago & San Fran, driving people to web site featuring game footage.

Veronica Mars – Building Community through Mobile

Website traffic increased 500%
8% click through on WAP ads
Ratings for the show doubled
Subscription increased 100% week over week for the 3 week duration of the program
New Horizons

Possibilities to Sell
Possibilities to interact
Possibilities to connect

When creating time, CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) is just one many important score keeping measures.  You have to pay attention to metrics like Direct Response & Branding.  Is the customers connection to our brand giving a greater brand value.

How do we measure and improve?

It needs to be metrics based, but overall brand building should be part of the process.

“It’s all about relationships”

Tom Vadnais kicks of with a nice slideshow of a few of CJ’s clients. He also discusses that the focus of this years conference is relationships, which is what drives their business.

The Industry – Growth Ahead

• Online ad spending in Q2 2006 grew by 13.8% from Q1 2006 and this trend is projected to continue

• Ad Spending on the Internet is expected to account for 7 percent of global ad spend by 2008, a 76 percent growth between 2005 & 2008

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together”

Tom goes through the various ValueClick businesses (CJ, Pricerunner, Mediaplex & ValueClick Media).

Commission Junction – The Industry Leader

Over 40% of the top 500 retailers choose CJ to power their programs over the next two providers combined, next closest provider ranks at a distant 26%.

Commission Junction is the leading provider in over 70% of Internet Retailers catalogs.

Key Efforts over the Past Year

Performance Reporting
Value-Added Services
Program Management
Strategic Planning
Publisher Prospecting
Publisher Optimizing
Blueprint for Profitability
Five live, interactive training seminars
Action Life Cycle

Just announced: CJ launched Web Services
Web Services
Adobe Contest Announced
Q1 2007 Contest
Future Plans
Horizon Awards for Best Web Services Application 2007
More API’s
Looking Forward

Your ability to develop long-term profitable relationships will remain CJ’s priority
Use resources and tools to grow and innovate
Continue to build profitable relationships

C is for Cookie
Ok, well this session was particularly interesting, given the recent cookie report that we released.  Unfortunately, it was quite technical and very specific to CJ, so I didn’t see the need to make session notes.  If I find someone who did, I will link to them.
R is for Revenue

Jeremy Palmer did a great job today on this session – here are the notes:

CJU 2006 Session:  R is for Revenue
Presented by Jeremy Palmer – QuitYourDayJob.com

Growing your affiliate revenue through the power relationships.

Affiliate Managers

Affiliates are your program’s greatest assets (and liabilities)

Your affiliatesor “human capital” account for 100% of your program’s value

Successful merchants manage their human capital weel
Recruit good affiliates and give them the resources they need
Motivate existing affiliates so that they remain loyal and help to grow the program

Optimize Current Affiliates

Forget about the 80/20 rule

Super affiliates are important and can drive a lot of volume, but represent only a small fraction of your program’s potential.
Imagine the impact on your program if you could get 50% of your affiliates to drive 1 sale a month

Merchants expect affiliats to be self made and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

Provide additional tools

Provide new content (articles, creative, Datafeed, RSS)

Enable phone tracking

Consider trademark bidding for top affiliates

Consider opening new marketing channels (e-mail marketing, SEM)

Unique destination URL’s

Remove Obstacles

800#’s should benefit affiliates, not take away sales
Poor conversion rate – evaluate your landing pages and checkout
Open communication-IM, phone and email
Survey the competitive landscape

Promotions and Contests

Temporarily raise commission rates
Offer bonuses for volume increases
Create a contest that can involve everyone – most sales, most improved, etc
Run the promotion or contest as long as possible

Run a Clean Program

Have a clear and strictly enforced policy for spammers and spyware affiliates
Protect trademarks – Make exceptions clear
Remove black hat affiliates
Test your tracking
Be transparent

Build Relationships

Send personalized emails
Make “no pressure” phone calls
Snail Mail gets read more than email
-Go the extra mile by sending company branded “gear” or a product sample

Provide Training

Have a recommended list of books, websites, blogs and forums for new affiliates

Provide industry insight and training
-    Keywords
-    Site messaging
-    Target Demographic
-    Best Sellers
-    Customer Behavior

Blueprint for Profitability

Book developed by CJ & Jeremy Palmer – available from within CJ

Allow Test Purchases

Customers make the best affiliates
Get feedback regarding landing page and checkout process
Affiliates can identify potential leaks in the sales pipe

Educate Yourself

Good affiliate managers understand:
SEM/SEO Basics
Various affiliate business models
Basic traffic, and conversion strategies
Network with industry professionals – RMAMA, BAAM

Recruiting New Affilliates

Go where the affiliates are

Industry conferences – CJU, Affiliate Summit, Webmaster World
Announce your arrival in advance, setup appointments
Attend all networking functions
Have business cards and program handouts
Follow up 2 days – 1 week after the conference has ended

Recruiting on the Web

Review paid and natural search listings for your keywords – look for potential affiliates.

Use Web site contact form or DomainTools.com to find contact information
Never use a template or canned email to reach out to new affiliates

Using Forums

Participate in forums, don’t actively recruit
Register with your name or abbreviation – keeps future options open
Use a promotional signature, but don’t overdo it
Never spam the board

More ways to advertise

Paid Search
Directories
AffiliatePrograms.com

Reaching out to Merchants

Get on their radar early

Develop a portfolio/resume website

Examples:

IMWave

Clicks2Customers (no kidding – he mentioned us!)

Apply to the program when you’re ready to take action

After You’ve Applied

Send a quick email with introductions, ask for a time to follow up over the phone

Do a test purchase

Subscribe to their customer newsletter

Read their corporate blog

Subscribe to news alerts

Understand their business and industry by signing up for news alerts for the companies that you market for
Communication is Key

Create an affiliate web site for your program
-eBay Affiliates
-Buy.com Affiliates
Affiliate program blog
Newsletter
Collect contact details

Initial Follow-up Call

Share your promotion strategy

Gather details about their program

-    Customer demographics, top converting products, keywords, conversion strategies, Datafeed, SEM/Trademark policy
-    If possible, ask for a product/service sample
-    Exchange contact details
-    Request access to tools you need – Datafeed, RSS, API
-    Set realistic expectations for launch
-    Schedule a follow up call for 1 month later
Negotiating Terms

Sales volume speaks louder than empty promises

Track your sales closely – evaluate month-to-month trends and identify growth

Schedule a call after you’ve been driving measurable volume for a month (or more)

Follow up Call:

1. Know your metrics: sales, costs, ROI
2. Project future earnings
3. Emphasize dedication to program
4. Understand the merchant’s margins
5. Show your value – review promotion strategy, explain future opportunities
6. Get a clear definition of the payout ceiling and steps in between
7. Set clear expectations about scaling sales volume
8. Schedule a review call for 1 month later

Maintain the Relationship

Keep communication channels open

Express gratitude

• Send occasional “thank you” card (no email)
• Recognize important company events, promotions, etc.
• Offer a program testimonial

Meet up at conferencesMake affiliate manager aware of the trends you’re seeing

Strive to be a “value added reseller”

Well, I’ve finally arrived in Santa Barbara for CJU 2006, and the weather here is absolutely fantastic – unfortunately, having watched “An Inconvenient Truth” on the plane here, I’m not so thankful for the weather.  It’s a fantastic, eye opening documentary on Global Warming, by former future President of the US (as he puts it in the movie), Al Gore.  I thoroughly recommend this film to everyone – please go and see it!

I will be blogging almost every session that I attend here at CJU on this blog in realtime, and Jenna, Joanne & Charlene (from the Clicks2Customers team) will be blogging on the Clicks2Customers blog.   If you’re at CJU and you would like to meet up, please email me (vlingham -at- gmail.com) and let me know!