Web Affiliate Marketing Blog

In this weeks Marketing Week there’s a number of interesting articles discussing and questioning the use and effectiveness of discount codes and vouchers, both on and offline.

I was interviewed a number of weeks ago by Marketing Week, and it’s interesting to hear other peoples opinions, in particular:

Consumers expect year round discounts.
Two-thrids (66%) of UK Retailers feel that customers expectations have changed so much that larger price cuts are required to achieve an uplift in sales.

Who really beneifts from your vouchers?
A question and viewpoint raised by a merchant, who experiecned odd redemption patterns inconsistent with brand sales when it came to offline voucher management.

Create element of excitement
As the recession continues, brand loyalty goes out the window meaning consumers are willing to experiment. Innovation and emotional factors are now just as large a driver for sales and new customers, as price cuts we 12 months ago.

On a final note…
Birds Eye have re-introduced the Arctic Roll… Created in 1961, the delicious ice cream and sponge dessert is soon set to decome a teatime favourite all over again! Absolute Class!

Over the past few months, I’ve reached breaking point with merchants who continue to send me an email informing me that I’ve been suspended as they no longer wish to work with voucher code affiliates. Lets take a look at Mr Bloggs who has 20 different websites, one of which happens to tackle the voucher code arena. Mr Bloggs also has a finance website, an eco website, a portal for new mothers, seasonal websites and animal welfare sites to name a few.

Mr Bloggs (who probably represents 90% of affiliates) is active in many differnet areas of affiliate marketing, and doesn’t just have a voucher code website. Now here’s an important piece of information for merchants…
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A VOUCHER CODE AFFILIATE

Merchants are correct to think there is such a thing as a voucher code website, but thats where it ends. By suspending me, as I have a voucher code website, you are also stopping me from pushing your programme via 10′s of other sites I manage none of which are voucher code related.

With everyone jumping on the voucher code bandwagon and making use of iCodes.co.uk and Promotions.org.uk solutions, are merchants planning on banning the majority of affiliates? I suspect NO is the answer.

To look at the pigeonholing in a different light, would you call TESCO a pharmacy? Sure they sell headache tablets, but they also shift a fair number of TV’s, bottles of wine, clothes and insurance policies. I would be surprised by anyone who would therefore class Tesco as a pharmacy, or for that matter an insurance broker or even an offlicence. Merchants need to think about affiliates as being a supermarket – offering a massive range of goods to a huge range of people. If you don’t want your programme on a voucher code site, then say so and remove/suspend those that ignore your requests.

THE FLIPSIDE OF THE COIN
A recent merchant who has gone about this exercise did it, in my opinion, the correct way. Firstly an email was sent to affiliates with plenty of notice and explained fully the reasons behind their proposed actions. They requested affiliates remove ALL codes or at the very least show them as expired as there were no live codes.

Sadly some affiliate chose to ignore this request, which left the merchant in an awkward position of what to do next. They asked affiliates to follow their rules, yet some decided to ignore the request so as a result, their only option was to suspend a large number of rogue affiliates.

Sadly I was caught up in this exercise but have since been reinstated as the merchant was open to discussion. In order for merchants to work with affiliates, surely we have to be seen to work within a merchants resonable request? If you think a request by a merchant is unreasonable then leave the programme on your own accord – something many of us have done in the past.

Abel and Cole are the latest merchant that appears to be suffering from MTV (merchants tunnel vision). Having applied to their programme via DGM, I received an emailing saying my application had been declined – the first in over 2 years from memory! The response didn’t come as too much of a shock as I was given a heads up by the lovely Jess at DGM that this was likely to be the case.

The reason is that Abel and Cole don’t want to be advertised on Discount Code or Voucher Code websites, which is fine and totally within their right. However, it appears that some merchants presume that if an affiliate owns a discount code website, then that’s all they own and are therefore refused to promote them anywhere else. Sadly Discount Codes don’t make me enough money to the point where I don’t have to venture out into alternative verticals such as beauty, valentines, flowers, holidays and of course Christmas.

The major annoyance is there appears to be one rule for one affiliate, and another rule for others. I notice that anyone who has a discount code website via iCodes, which is a type of white label discount website, is able to promote Abel and Cole – see here. So why do they choose to be selective? Is it just an oversight?

Despite the selective approval, I think sometime merchants should remember that affiliates have their hands in many pies. If you don’t want to feature on a discount code website then that’s fine and totally acceptable (even if it doesn’t make complete sense) but enforce your rules on everyone and make it clear. At the same time it’s worth realising that a discount code website isn’t always the only website an affiliate owns!

Affiliate Window often send newsletters out to their merchants, in which they focus and introduce an individual affiliate or an individual website. This time round it was my turn, and Affiliate Window decided to review Discount Codes giving it an overall score of 95 /100… Not bad!

Over the past year, I’ve really taken time out and focused on trying to help merchants understand what I have to offer and how best they can work WITH me in order to develop a rewarding working relationship. This has included;

• the creation of a presentation emailed to networks and merchants
• the creation of a google calendar to help plan extra exposure
• arranging meetings prior to networking events

I am glad to report that by focusing away from websites, and more on what I can do to form a stronger relationship with networks and merchants, I have seen my time and effort pay off. I’m not just talking about increases in commissions or prizes (Dixons, Wickes, Sunshine, Vodafone, … sorry… I will stop there!), but simple things like a testimonial from a merchant.

So whats next? How do I get an extra 5 points to reach 100/100? I’m sure that if Affiliate Window reviewed my website in 12 months time, I could expect to receive a mark somewhere in the low 70′s. That’s not because of my site deteriorating, its because of the ever changing landscape and new challenges us affiliates face, as we battle it out with each other :)

Thanks AWin for a glowing review, but worry not, I won’t be resting on my laurels!

What tablets have Pixmania taken?
Which silly billy’s have been “advising” them?

For those that aren’t aware, I am referring to a recent email from Pixmania in which they have issued a whole load of discount codes for use when people purchase sepcific goods, or goods that come to a specific value. Their email reads;

OFFER IN BRIEF:
Pixmania are offering fantastic new codes on appliances and they have extended the expiry date for one TV code! Pixmania are also offering exciting generic codes for all affiliates, except vouchercode sites, and they have a list of their top products for you to promote!

So they have “exciting discount codes” yet they are not allowed to promoted on discount code websites. I mean thats ludicrous! Firstly I don’t find the discount particularly exciting when comparing the prices to competitors especially as Pixmania are apparently “#1 UK electronics e-retailer“. It’s like offering discounts for their Top 10 DLR’s, but refusing any website that focuses on DLRs to feature them! I also wonder how they distinguish which sales have been made via a voucher code website.

I am in the process of moving all my links from websites, to a centralised domain, something similar to OpenAds. This will allow me to easily track clicks myself and compare them with what merchants and networks are recording. It will also mean administering any movement of a merchant from one network to another, quick, simple and a one off job across all my websites. Therefore Pixmania, along with others, will all originate from a centralised domain – so will I be penalised for clicks from NON discount code websites?

I am surprised that they have decided to take this stance, and even more so that the merchant hasn’t changed their mind, especially as it follows Affiliate Windows announcement of a voucher code tool. I notice that the exclusion doesn’t include cashback websites which I find even stranger and see that others are annoyed and bewlidered by this rash decision.