Merchant Traffic Light System – Good vs Bad

Posted on 28 Jan 2008 in Merchants | 6 comments

Welcome to my traffic light system.

Much has been said and written over the past few weeks when discussing how affiliate programmes should be managed if they’re to be successful. A few examples can be found here, over there and in that direction. This includes both inhouse and managed programmes. My traffic lights have arisen partly due to wishing to thank a few merchants, but also to highlighting the extremety between good and bad merchant.

IWOOT (Affiliate Window)
IWOOT, like many merchants, donated prizes for the Christmas Tree campaign ran by Affiliate Window. This generated a fair amount of buzz as it was a new idea and offered affiliates something for nothing. It also had the positive effect of making affiliates sit up and take notice of some merchants they may not have heard of. As a direct result I joined a handful who now feature on a number of my websites.

Gizoo (DGM)
Over the weekend, I received a personal letter, not email, from Gizoo via DGM thanking me for joining their programme when they first launched on DGM shortly before Christmas. Also enclosed was a small Solar Panel Charging Unit which could be used to charge a wide range of things including iPod, Mobile Phone, Bluetooth Earphone etc. As they showed their appreciation, their communication is good (direct and via network), comissions structure in line with others and they are receptive to creatives and suggestion, this is one programme I will pro-actively promote this year.

Currys (Affiliate Window)
An incentive was run at the end of 2007 (unbeknown to me) whereby a select number of best, new and improved affiliates have been offered a day out quad biking. Not only does this sound fun, it also gives affiliates the chance to meet and chat with Currys, increasing the likelihood of future working. Sadly I won’t be attending for the pure reason of location…. yeah, you guessed it….. down south! It turned from a nice prize/incentive, to something less attractive as travel and hotels would have cost over £200

eSure (TradeDoubler)
I have to ask WHY WOULD I EVEN BOTHER?
Today I received a standard email from the dreaded NOREPLY email address, informing me that eSure were dropping me due to lack of sales and leads. How very proactive of the merchant and the network! If we look at this as a prime example, we see that as an affiliate I have a massive selection of insurers on other networks I can promote. Infact I am almost spoiled for choice. Why don’t the networks or the merchants take a proactive approach like other merchants have?

OK, so some of my examples mention prizes, gifts and incentives, however two of the most important factors to any affiliate are commission levels, and communication levels. Merchants have to remember that some affiliates could actually flog a chocolate tea pot to someone living in Egypt in the height of their summer. Infact some affiliates would be able to flog a ship load! The thing you have to ask yourself is are you the only chocolate tea pot producer?

If you’re not, then you like an affiliate, are fighting for sales over and above your competitors. Joe Public will choose an affiliates website that offers value as well as those that appear top 5 in google. Affiliates will choose merchants that also offer value, something of which they seem to forget. It doesn’t always have to be a free gift, it could be longer cookie length, unique discounts, increased commissions, regular communications or even something as simple as a variety of up to date banners!

If you don’t offer anything special, then why would I promote you above on of your competitors who does? In terms of managed programmes, you should also think about the network and account manager. Are they really delivering what you expected from them when they were pitching for your business?

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Update
I received the following email from TradeDoubler today, and with their permission, agreed to post it:

Hi Chris,
 
Hope you are well.
 
I wanted to drop you a line in reference to your recent post on the
web affiliate blog.

In order to ensure compliance with FSA regulations, Esure are
conducting a review of every site that has signed up to the affiliate
program since launch in 2002. As I’m sure you can understand this is a
mammoth task and as a first step we need to remove any affiliates who
have signed up to the program (maybe as long as 6 years ago) and are
not actively promoting the brands.

We are of course eager to support those affiliates who are committed
to promoting the Esure brands and have therefore put in the measure of
contacting only those who have generated no unique visitors on the
program for the last 4 months. As an additional safeguard, we have
asked affiliates to email us back if they are intending to promote the
brands so that we can ensure their affiliation is not affected.

I would like to reiterate that this email was not intended as notice
of termination and apologise if it has been construed as such.

If you are interested in promoting the Esure brands then we would
welcome you to do so, please drop me a quick email back to confirm and
I will ensure that you’re affiliation is continued.

I hope this clarifies our intentions, Esure is committed to the
affiliate channel and we would welcome any further feedback you have
on the programme. If you would like to discuss further please feel
free to give me a call.

Kind regards,

Victoria McPherson