Inspinn has seen thousands of affiliate businesses over the last decade and it’s fair to say that there is not a one size fits all approach! There are however some common themes that can be the making or breaking of an affiliate business and below we highlight some of these topics alongside how Inspinn may be able to help:
+ Do you know the tracking setups of your partners?
More than any other factor in affiliate marketing, the way that the retailers you promote track sales into their affiliate network hugely affects how easy it is for you to earn money by referring them customers.
The complexities involved in tracking cover topics such as container tags, conditional/ unconditional tracking calls, leakage points, universal links and many more. It can be an overwhelming and confusing learning curve but here at Inspinn we can teach you and your team the impact that each of these concepts can have on your earning potential as well as offer insights into which retailers have the most optimum tracking setups (and user journeys) that will help your business succeed.
+ Are you charging appropriate rates?
Some affiliate propositions deliver so much more value than just an acquisition of customers but that can sometimes be lost on retailers who have 100+ sale active publishers on their programme. It can be a challenge to cut through the noise and even more difficult to convince retailers to acknowledge your value beyond the last click.
Inspinn’s experience enables us to tell you how well priced you are compared to industry standards and offer guidance on how best to present the justification of your fees. We provide the right balance between being attractive to prospective retailers but also stretching earning potential as far as reasonably possible. Our understanding of how to interpret advertiser’s 1st party data will also prove useful as you develop an understanding of how your retailers currently view your performance.
+ Is your marketing collateral telling a convincing story?
The way that an affiliate sells itself is directly correlated to the amount of flexibility a retailer will offer commercially. Publisher’s with a clear unique selling point and proven case studies will be able to secure more exclusive offers, more commission and more tenancy payments than those who rely on reputation or expect a retailer to ‘gamble’ on their proposition.
Inspinn have seen successful and unsuccessful media packs over the years and can help review your marketing collateral and help create convincing case studies through A/B testing. These steps will ensure that the time you spend with retailers is convincing, well-rehearsed and grounded in solid facts, helping your chances of achieving a successful outcome.
+ Does your partnerships team balance account management with upselling opportunities?
A partnerships team (the team which manage accounts for you) are ultimately tasked with keeping your clients happy whilst also attempting to sell tenancy packages, stave off commission decreases and look after your business interests. That’s a lot to ask of one team and requires a mix of skills which are not commonly taught without specialist training.
At Inspinn we’ve sat in countless publisher/advertiser meetings and have seen a range of talents, skills and persuasive arguments that find the perfect balance of commercial acumen and intelligent account management. Our experience enables us to offer mock meetings with your teams, offering feedback on strengths and opportunities that will help to make sure your partnerships team deliver on all fronts.
+ How future-proofed is your business?
There is an increasingly frequent trend for 3rd party tech companies to try and solve problems that persist across the entire affiliate industry. Recently they have covered topics like quality of feeds, evergreen content navigating to dead links, leakage to apps and personalisation of service. Some of the technology that is used to solve these problems relies on being able to plug in to existing affiliate ecosystems to pick up on historical offers, past commission rates, past conversion rates, etc… It has made the accessibility of publisher data considerably more important as it provides the key to taking advantage of new technologies.
Whether it’s using chatbots to learn how customer service issues have been dealt with or understanding the strength of an offer based on what has been previously available, there is a pressing need for publishers to embrace new technologies and Inspinn can point you towards good companies to work with and draw up business plans that justify why and how you can improve the accessibility of your data.
Get in touch to see if we can help you get more out of your affiliate business…