Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Opportunities for 2006

Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Opportunities for 2006 Affiliate Summit 2006 January 9, 2006 Anne Holland, Publisher, MarketingSherpa

The Hidden Success

$6.5 billion in 2005 (low estimate)

Smartest, most entrepreneurial marketers on the planet

Facts not Opinion: MarketingSherpa Methodology

Data for our reports, case studies and newsletters is gathered from:

776 affiliate marketers & merchants surveyed

5,000+ email & search marketers surveyed

Eyetracking lab tests

Research partnerships w/ dozens of vendors

500+ exclusive Case Studies

Source: MarketingSherpa Affiliate and Merchant Survey, August 2005 Affiliates & Search: Dramatic Shift Views on how affiliates use TMs are changing fast. Affiliates and Search 29% 39% 50% 21% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% We essentially outsource our search engine marketing to our affiliates, and we give them free reign with TMs and branded terms. We don't allow our affiliates to use our TMs/branded terms in the search engine marketing. January '05 August '05

Affiliates & Search Opportunity #1: News Releases Source: Shawn Collins Consulting, December 2004 Press releases are for customers, not journalists.

Search News Opportunities by Niche Source: PR Newswire Data, August, 2005

Affiliates & Search Dramatic change in PPC bidding Source: MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Benchmark Survey, August 2005 and MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Metrics Survey, June 2004 E-LOAN says bid management no longer makes competitive difference

Affiliates & Search Opportunity #2: Landing Pages Source: Atlas DMT, Search Listing URL and Conversion, 04/2004

Example: 30-50% conversion lift Source: Atlas DMT, Search Listing URL and Conversion, 04/2004

Many landing pages still lame Source: MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Benchmark Survey, August 2005 and MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Metrics Survey, June 2004

Example: Tall Women’s Clothing

Example: Tall women’s clothing landing page

Which search terms are worth extra work on landing pages? Keyword Research ROI – 5+ Years Exp. Source: MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing Benchmark Survey, August 2005

Affiliates & Email Marketing

Three Top Opportunities

#1. Most actionable data: Opt-in recency affects response Source: InformZ for MarketingSherpa, October 2005 Age of User Record

Example: New opt-in campaign Consider an educational 5-7x email series before sending clicks to merchants

#2. Unexpected success data: Co-registration opt-ins Source: MarketingSherpa, Email Marketing Benchmark Survey, October 2005

Example: co-registration

Vendor recommendation

Co-regComplete.com

#3. Eye-opening data: Segmentation worth the effort Source: Topica for MarketingSherpa, October 2005 0.48% 4.14% 6.68% 30.86% Averages 0.20% 3.50% 1.10% 13.10% > 100K 0.80% 3.70% 4.00% 13.40% 50K–100K 0.50% 4.00% 7.60% 28.50% 10K–50K 0.30% 3.90% 9.00% 48.80% 5K–10K 0.60% 5.60% 11.70% 50.50% < 5K Clicks Opens Clicks Opens Not Segmented Segmented Audience Size Promotional Campaigns

Example: Multi-article vs single article ezine

Networking Guide for Affiliate Summit 2006