Early Bird Price for Affiliate Summit ENDS TODAY
Boston, MA
Want to meet me?! Of course you do! Remember that today is the last day to sign up for Affiliate Summit East 2008 and still get the cheaper Early Bird Pricing. The full conference pass – today only – is just $949 while an Expo Hall Only pass is a very affordable $99. If you’ve been waffling about going, pull the trigger and do it now while it’s still cheap!
After tomorrow, the prices go up to $199 for the expo hall only pass and a whopping $1449 for the full pass. And of course, if you sit on your lazy duff until the last minute, you have to shell out $299 for an expo hall only pass or $1949 for the full conference pass.
There are a lot of great sessions already scheduled and on the agenda for the summit. A full agenda is online already. I’ve already added several to my TripIt account so I can plan out my time, including Sam Harrelson’s Leveraging Social Media, Andy Rodriguez’s Affiliate Marketing Basics for Merchants, and Lisa Picarille’s Content that Kills sessions.
There’s no reason not to save money and really, this is a great event for affiliate marketing professionals – both publishers and advertisers – to network and learn from. So go today and register for Affiliate Summit East 2008 in Boston while you can still get in with the best price!
Read More
Contest Soon
That’s right, I’m gearing up for my first ever contest here at TrishaLyn.com. I’m not really going to make people
jump through a million hoops with some complicated point structure system to win – but I won’t lie, it will have to benefit me in some way of course.
Prizes are being compiled, details and rules drawn up, and everything should be ready soon. So in the meantime, stay tuned!
Oh, and a Free Toolsday post obviously didn’t happen this week…mostly because yesterday felt like Monday and it slipped my mind. So a really good one will be coming next week to make up for it, I promise!
Want to donate a prize for the contest? E-mail me at Contests@TrishaLyn.com! For those of you interested in donating, the audience is readers of my blog… so businesses, performance marketers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, etc.
Read MoreAlternate Language Creative
I was presented with an interesting dilemma last week. An affiliate contacted me and pointed out that their visitor base consists mostly of non-English speaking users.
Of course we’re willing to accommodate this publisher. He’s excited about the program enough to ask for the creative that his visitors will understand and connect with. Now in this case the language in question was Spanish, which I don’t personally speak. So I gave the publisher the opportunity to give me the copy and we can work from there.
This makes me wonder how other affiliate managers deal with creating custom ads appealing to different demographics, languages, cultures, etc. Do they always create a few different versions of an ad for other demographics or take the requests in as they come? I guess it depends on their program and the types of publishers they have.
For the time being, I’m sticking with a case-by-case basis, although I know eventually it’ll need to be automated lest I go insane trying to appease these requests. I’ve said it many times before that everyone needs printing, in all languages, so eventually I can see the reach of our program extending across demographics. Eventually it would definitely be nice to come out of the gate with multiple versions of same ads. Networks, if you’re reading, you should work in a way to add different versions and not count against our total link count.
Alas, I’m betting that no one from any affiliate networks reads this so my plea will go unseen.
Read MoreIn Mail We Trust
There’s an interesting little blurb in the November/December issue of Revenue Magazine on page 18. In part it says:
The study said that newspaper ads were the most trustworthy, with 63% of media consumers saying they trust the ads there. Search ads were the highest-scoring online format, with 34% saying they trusted them. Banner ads were trusted by just 26% of respondents and mobile advertising had 18% of the public trust.
Basically what this says to me is that, even in an era of internet marketing, viral marketing, and SEO/SEM… brick and mortar printing is still the most trusted form of advertisement.
One of the best ways to get the word out in a trusted way is direct mail. Direct mail allows you to catch your customers when they’re more alert and looking for information within their mail delivery. Consider this: when you get home from work at the end of the day and check your mailbox, you’re momentarily more alert while trying to decipher what are bills that need immediate attention, letters from friends or family, and what is advertisements. But even though you’re not looking for the ads, they can still seep into your consciousness during those moments.
Direct mail is inexpensive and can be completed by a number of different resources (other than your kids bribed with a pizza and armed with some stamps on a Saturday afternoon). Reputable printing and mailing companies like PsPrint take all the hassle out of a direct mail piece. Mailing lists are affordable as well, so there’s no hassle in supplementing any customer list you already have with more potential leads.
Make sure to keep these tips in mind when planning our your direct mail campaign:
- Make it Relevant. Target your list in a way that the consumers receiving your mail piece actually have interest in what you’re selling or promoting. Use demographic parameters in renting your mailing list to narrow down who you’re paying to send a piece to.
- Make it Pop. Designs should be eye catching when looking through the usual boring pile of mail. Use vivid colors to make your piece stand out amid the white and manila envelopes.
- Make it Clear. Don’t clutter your piece with information in the attempt to let the consumer know everything about your company. Focus on a single call to action (e.g. coming into the store for more details or visiting the website for more information). Use the mail piece to say the most important thing you want the consumer to know and direct them to the most important action they should take.
Now get out there and get your mail on!
Professional Mailing Services at PsPrint
Annoying Sales & Marketing Tactics
Annoying Tactic #1: Launch a campaign without communicating it to everyone who needs to know internally.
Yes, if we told you we’d have to kill you. It’s that secret! Or, just not well communicated. There’s a fine line between keeping everyone in the loop and spamming everyone with constant updates. Personally, I’d rather err on the side of caution and go with the borderline spam. At least that way I never hear that dreaded phrase “Well nobody told ME that”. In my opinion, the more informed the employees are, the more interested and invested they are in making the company work and grow successfully. Maybe that’s just me.
Annoying Tactic #2: Contact everyone at the company you have contact info for to push a deal.
While erring to spam internally doesn’t bother me, constant follow up when I have no say in a matter does. I read an interesting blog a few months ago and man does it ring true. Listen up…if I’ve told you that you need to talk to a certain person that’s obviously not me, don’t keep sending me e-mails and calling me. Despite the word “assistant” in my (former) title, I am not this person’s secretary and cannot get them to call you back any faster if they are not interested or, better yet, not in the office. I’ve never been one to respond well to hard sales even if I was genuinely interested in the product. So back off, Salesman Steve. We’ll get to you when we’re good and ready.
Annoying Tactic #3: Make sure everyone you’ve ever met knows where you work and how they could use you.
There’s a fine line between informative introductions and obnoxious introductions. If someone you meet at a show or other non-work related function asks what you do or where you work, don’t be afraid to tell them. It might spark their interest and give you a wide opportunity to explain to them how great your company is without shoving it down their throat. But be careful not to be obnoxious. Princeton’s WordNet search defines obnoxious as “objectionable: causing disapproval or protest”. So don’t leave a sour taste in people’s minds about your company by announcing it off the bat when you shake hands. Yes shows are great networking opportunities, but if you go around spewing information about your company to everyone who didn’t ask, they won’t be likely to use you. Saturation is not always good.
Annoying Tactic #4: Miss deadlines
Missing so many deadlines that the promotion or campaign is practically a moot idea is the most annoying of all. When people get a postcard for a sale and the sale is halfway over, they tend to be ticked off about it and it really doesn’t encourage them to go order right away to take advantage. I know, I’ve received many a sale card mid-sale and thought simply “well, that’s a sale I won’t be able to hit”. Marketing is all about timeliness, so missing the mark is just poor form. It doesn’t motivate your customers to take action and it holds back other people within your department trying to work on the same project.
Read More
