On this week’s podcast, Amy Scanlon, the GM of Affiliate Practice at Right Side Up, shares insights on affiliate marketing, the role of affiliate specialists, the changing landscape of the industry, and the importance of talent and data-driven decision-making.
Amy emphasizes the need for a holistic approach to affiliate marketing, the value of partnerships, and the evolving role of affiliate managers in the digital mix.
Talking points include:
- The evolving role of affiliate specialists
- Cross-channel interaction
- The value of partnerships
Listen in here to this week’s episode of the Affiliate Marketing Podcast….
What is the role of Affiliate in the media mix?
Lee-Ann begins by asking Amy: “What I wanted to talk to you about today is why you started Right Side Up. Things are changing with the SaaS revolution that’s come into the marketplace. Brands now have the choice to actually take the ownership of this channel in-house. So, that’s obviously created an opportunity for you to build Right Side Up. Can you talk to us a little bit about when you realized that this was becoming a thing? How did you create the plan behind Right Side Up to actually enable? Because that’s really what you are, you’re an enabler.”
Amy replies, “Well, I love that. You know, I started consulting and moonlighting with Right Side Up when I was heading up marketing. As I got back into affiliate marketing, as a tactician, I really started to think about what is the role of affiliate in the media mix? I have always thought that best-in-class affiliate programs fill gaps in areas you can’t and won’t do internally. No-one wants to hear it, no-one wants to say it, but affiliate doesn’t scale. If it’s truly driving 90-plus percent incremental revenue, then it’s typically only 10 to 15 percent of your total revenue. Now, of course, the caveat is not all growth is credit equal.”
The importance of relationships
Amy explains, “I really believe that best-in-class affiliate programs require four very big components. There’s the technology, plus the processes in place, the automated workflows, and the breadth of partnerships that add value at every stage of the funnel. So, your programs don’t suffer from the Pareto principle and have over-reliance on a handful of affiliates where you’re at risk.
“Then the affiliate specialist, the person that does know how to manage –how to build and manage those relationships. I think that those components make sense because it’s such a tactical channel.
“Relationships take time and they’re very manual in building. You can’t just turn on the fire hose of partnerships like you can with the core channels and gather that data. So, you need technology and workflows to automate as much as possible, create operational efficiency so you can build relationships.”
Third-party endorsements
Lee-Ann comments, “We’re all focused on incrementality and all of these wonderful buzzwords that we use in affiliate, but we’re forgetting about the value that happens on the backend that nobody sees, which actually is incredibly incremental to your bottom-line budgets. Just think about if you had to cull your video content creation team and actually allow your content creators who love and use your product to become the content creators.
“Then take that content and put it onto other channels. You and I were talking about TikTok, for example. what’s working on TikTok versus what’s working on Instagram, versus what’s working on YouTube is all completely different. You could find different ambassadors and content creators to work with on a performance basis to actually go and leverage and chase down the niche audiences on those channels.”
Amy says, “I think third party endorsements are getting that seat at the growth table because customers are starting, or buyers are starting, from those endorsement platforms for discovery as well as social proofing and price comparison shopping because they don’t trust the brands. They trust the third parties over them.”
Listen to find out more about:
- Affiliate marketing requires a holistic approach that integrates partnerships at every stage of the digital mix.
- Talent and data-driven decision-making are crucial for the success of affiliate programs in the changing landscape of the industry.
- The Holistic Approach to Affiliate Marketing.
Key segments of this podcast and where you can tune in to go direct:
[19:40] User-generated content – adding value and buyer behavior
[25:00] Diversify the value and the volume.
[30:35] How our customers are changing and the way that they engage with the media mix
Coming up on next week’s episode of The Affiliate Marketing Podcast: Max Ciccotosto, Chief Product Officer at Impact.com
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