CJU Course: If You Only Knew #CJU2010
Advertisers and publishers each have a unique way of “getting the job done” and often times, neither understands what the other needs to succeed. “If they could just see it from my side…” seems to be a frequent plea. Well, now you can! We’re getting together three advertisers, three publishers, one moderator, and audience feedback to cover all the topics you’d always wished you could. This session took place on September 22, 2010. The panel consisted of:
- Jennifer Lovette, Vice President Advertiser Development West, Commission Junction (Moderator)
- Alexis Caldwell, SurfMyAds.com
- Yung Trang, TechBargains.com
- Tony Pantano, imwave
- Cheryl, Intuit
- Shawn Sullivan, Priceline
- Mike Tabasso, Gen3 Marketing
As you can see, I didn’t catch Cheryl’s last name, so I apologize in advance to Cheryl – especially if her name is spelled wrong! Overall this was a great session. It was nice to see both advertisers and publishers tackle the same questions from different sides of the affiliate coin. None of the panelists promoted their sites, they just used examples that were pertinent to points they were trying to make.
Bullet Point Review!
What are some recommendations on the best way to manage offers and tools to generate quality transactions for everyone?
- Focus on improving your conversion rate.
- Make your coupon code box clear & show the savings.
- Have a really clean Add to Cart product page.
- Enable deep linking.
- The most important tool is the communication between advertisers and publishers. What are the things that advertisers need to give publishers to get the best success.
- Networks need to put some initiative into getting one sheets from publishers outlining what they want from advertisers.
- At the end of the day, everyone wants an order placed.
- Use your CJ account reps to make that connection.Ask for feedback from the publisher account reps.
- If I continue to be small and not have tools and resources, how do I get those tools and resources?
- It’s important for advertisers to work with account reps, because it holds more weight if they recommend a program to a publisher instead of a blind pushed offer.
- Rev-share isn’t as important as showing them the economic value.
- At the end of the day, the channel is managed by ROI.
- You have to be open minded because you don’t know where or when you’re going to meet your next big affiliate.
What are some of the challenges you deal with when it comes to advertiser program guidelines and restrictions?
- You have to talk to the publishers to know what is and isn’t acceptable to help develop your terms and conditions. You don’t know what you don’t know.
- This isn’t a playground – we don’t all have to share the ball. We all have to play by the rules, but there are different rules. You have to determine what’s going to best grow your program.
- Mistakes do happen, but reach out because 8 times out of 10 it’s just a miscommunication.
- If you manage a program & login, and you see that your top affiliate is someone you don’t recognize and you have no idea how they got up to the top, chances are they’re probably doing something wrong.
- Sometimes it could be an emerging market with a business model you’ve not encountered, so reach out and ask.
- If you get no response, or a 2 line response that doesn’t make sense, something’s wrong. Don’t be afraid to ditch the bad people even if they’re you’re top sellers.
- Be transparent – merchants aren’t going to take your secret sauce and spread it all over the place.
If you could ask for one and only one simple thing from your partner, what would it be?
- Alexis: An open ear.
- Yung: Landing page conversion.
- Tony: Be open to having a conversation and analyzing your business to achieve your goals.
- Cheryl: Bring new ideas to merchants – they’re open to testing new things & learning.
- Shawn: Reach out & introduce yourself if you’re new.
- Mike: Be my partner.
Points brought up during the Q&A
Why aren’t there more self-service tools for merchants? It’s tricky – making it self-service is really difficult. You don’t necessarily get to determine how the publishers use their real estate on their site. It’s not always what’s in your best interest as an advertiser, it’s what in the combined best interest of the merchant and publisher.
Unfortunately, the conversation was so good amongst the panelists that there wasn’t much time left for questions. But considering how approachable all the panelists made themselves, I think there was probably considerable opportunity for them to be asked questions 1-on-1 instead of in front of the entire audience.
Read MoreSocial Email Marketing: Why are you uniquely prepared for the social onslaught? The Lohan Effect #SMMSF
This presentation took place at the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. Tyler looked at the similarities and differences between email marketing and social marketing – explaining the lessons you can apply today to translate your email marketing experience into social marketing success.
I really enjoyed the presentation, but unfortunately Tyler spoke a bit fast for me to catch more, so hopefully the presentation is clear enough! The speaker was:
- Tyler Willis, Head of Brand Management, Involver (@TylerWillis)
Bullet Point Review!
- We always focus on ‘what’s changed’ but really successful marketers ask ‘what’s remained consistent’?
- Framework is the same.
- Subscribe -> engage -> convert.
- The key to making great art is all in composition.
- What’s changed?
- Social proof influences your outcomes.
- Mistakes are now public.
- Targets talk back.
- You have to pay attention to a lot more locations.
- You have less space & more options.
- Your messages don’t always get delivered.
- The KPIs are different.
Here’s Tyler’s’ slide presentation:
CJU Course: At Your Service
Unleashing the power of web services can literally change your program. Getting the data you need faster and then customizing it to suit the exact needs of your program or web site—that’s what web services are all about and Commission Junction is the industry leader. Hear real-world examples of clients using the CJ Web Services APIs in all kinds of creative ways to help them run their businesses more efficiently than ever
before. The panel consisted of:
- Bram Roukema, Director, Product Management, Commission Junction (Moderator)
- Adam Viener, imwave
- Michael Khodos, Simply Best Coupons
Bullet Point Review!
- Most APIs in CJ are done in ReST & SOAP (which will be phased out eventually).
- 6 APIs are offered:
- Publishers: Commission details.
- Publishers: Advanced look up
- Publishers: Product search.
- Publishers: Link search.
- Advertisers: Commission details.
- Advertisers: Publisher look up.
- Before APIs, people used feeds. Those took 1 day+, APIs are real-time.
- How to get started:
- Talk to your developers.
- Go to Webservices.cj.com.
- Review the APIs documentation.
- Register for a developer’s key.
- Remember to use ReST, not SOAP.
Points brought up during the Q&A
- All APIs are pull; they’re considering using push APIs too so publishers can apply to the programs, etc.
- When a link expires, they still track – they’re just not promoted anymore.
Social Email Marketing: Small Tweaks, Big Impact! The Power of A/B Testing #SMMSF
This presentation took place at the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. In this session, Shelley discussed how even the most simple tweaks and A/B testing techniques in email can improve KPIs and significantly impact traffic to your site.
I felt bad for Shelley, as earlier in the day some folks had bagged on MySpace. But Shelley recovered nicely and the testing data she presented was informative and sometimes surprising! The speaker was:
- Shelley Beaumonte, Online Marketing Manager, MySpace
Bullet Point Review!
- Almost any email variable can be tested.
- Determine your success criteria before sending email.
-
Variable Open Rate CTR CTO Subject X Design X X Frequency X X - Lessons learned:
- Test 1 variable at a time, or else you won’t know what factor actually affected the data.
- Don’t abandon the losing variable completely, you can still tweak it.
- Know the objective of your email.
- Never assume a small change = small results.
- There’s no standard minimum sample size. No one number but you want it to be statistically significant.
Here’s Shelley’s’ slide presentation:
CJU Course: Joel Comm – Top 11 Social Media Mistakes
There’s a basic misunderstanding about “advanced social media”. It really doesn’t exist. Social media is just basic human interaction and common sense. However, there is such a thing as a social media fail, and mistakes one can make when entering into the world of social media from a professional standpoint. Joel Comm, best selling author and CJ Performer (@JoelComm), came to CJU on September 22, 2010 to impart to us the top 11 social media mistakes.
To be completely honest, this was nothing new to me. However, Joel is a good presenter and it was very entertaining and still worth my time to attend and take copious notes to pass on to you!
Bullet Point Review!
- Mistake #1: Believing the world of social media isn’t real life.
- State your opinion.
- Be polite.
- Don’t libel.
- Avoid flame wars.
- Mistake #2: Regarding social media as a marketing tool.
- Put your relationship with followers first.
- Train employees or interns on proper use of Twitter.
- Make it up to your fans with special offers if you make a mistake.
- Like me, know me, trust me, pay me.
- Mistake #3: Forcing audiences to follow your marketing instead of following you.
- Reward loyalty.
- Know your audience.
- Accept criticism, even if it’s over the top.
- Answer positive posts publicly.
- Mistake #4: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
- Keep control of your sites – inmates should never run the asylum!
- Guide the conversation.
- Mistake #5: Spamming sites (or asking others to do it for you).
- Don’t bribe. Don’t subterfuge.
- Pay for honest, sponsored mentions.
- Become influential legitimately.
- Mistake #6: Not being authentic.
- Write your own Tweets (remember it’s a personal thing, so your logo might not actually be the best user icon to use).
- Focus on the relationships.
- Mistake #7: Silencing critics instead of listening.
- Moderate but allow dissent.
- Make mistakes right quickly.
- Mistake #8: Not being professional.
- Be professional!
- Know your audience – this will help you to be personal, but also not too personal where you cross a line that might hurt your brand.
- Mistake #9: Loose lips sink ships.
- Watch what you say.
- Apologize quickly if you offend or cross a line.
- Engage the community.
- Mistake #10: Stopping your campaign – and your relationship.
- Build campaigns for the long term.
- Don’t cast aside engaged customers.
- Remember real people build real relationships.
- Treat your audience with respect – they know where you “live” online.
- Mistake #11: Not realizing that the world is watching.
- Engage your brain before Tweeting.
- Make it right when you make a mistake.
- Don’t become a negative example in Joel’s presentation.
Social Email Marketing: Finding Influencers in Your CRM & Making Advocates #SMMSF
This presentation took place at the Social Email Marketing event, put on by Influence People with lead sponsor Constant Contact. The conference took place on Friday, September 17, 2010 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA. In this interactive session, Chase explored how to go from boring CRM to Social CRM discussing the importance of knowing your customer, segmenting out advocates and understanding who and why they are following or “Liking” you.
I felt like this was mostly a pitch for the company, which was a little discouraging. But some of the info was useful, hence the notes I took. The speaker was:
- Chase McMichael, Co-Founder and CEO, InfiniGraph (@chasemcmichael)
Bullet Point Review!
- There are 4.6 billion cell phones.
- 500 million users on Facebook.
- Facebook Connect – you don’t even need email anymore.
- If you integrate that, you might just have given up control.
- An affinity map provides insight for co-marketing.
- InfiniGraph ranks shared content based on people, context, influence, and brand affinity.
- Your “stream” must induce clicks (Facebook, Twitter).
- If a consumer is active around your brand, they’re sharing details with friends.
Here’s Chase’s’ slide presentation:
