Affiliate marketing - a 'no risk channel'

Bailey went on to outline the importance of standardisation and self-regulation to ensure the continued success of a medium once considered somewhat murky. By protecting the interests of all parties and avoiding conflict, Bailey argued that affiliate marketers could ensure that the medium continued to flourish even during the current tough economic conditions.

Looking to the future, of key concern for Bailey was education and transparency. "Problems come about because of lack of knowledge about what is permitted," argued Bailey. One solution he outlined was to "ensure your terms and conditions are comprehensive and regularly updated".

Most emails sent to affiliates are ignored

Next up, Kevin Edwards, strategy director at Affiliate Window sought to demystify the dark arts of affiliate marketing, arguing that communication is key. “It’s a bold statement,” said Edwards, “but most emails sent to affiliates are ignored”. As a result, marketers must think carefully about how they communicate their message.

Edwards outlined some key guidelines advising marketers to include as much relevant detail as possible; start and end dates; deeplinks with affiliate IDs; expiry dates for codes/vouchers; and information on any potential issues such as stock availability for example.

Angela Greenwood, online marketing manager of Red Letter Days, went on to outline some of the ways affiliate marketing is becoming more mainstream. Having a flexible approach was crucial for Greenwood, as was exploring new possibilities such as integrating the offline with the online and experimenting with emerging technologies such as video.

Managing 3,000 affiliates

Closing the session, Dan Powel, head of account management at Commission Junction and Lina Patel, affiliate partnerships manager at lastminute.com, offered some insights into how to run a successful affiliate marketing campaign.

The duo begun by explaining that lastminute has seen huge year on year sales growth following a restructuring of the affiliates team and an increased internal focus on affiliates. As a result the company now works with more the 3,000 affiliates on its program and affiliate sales contribute over 6% of total online sales with a growth of 70% year on year.

Echoing the comments of previous speakers, of key importance to lastminute is targeted communication. Beyond this however, Patel highlighted the importance of “managing the internal challenge” to ensure the success of their programmes. In order to do this, internal communication has been improved to educate the lastminute team on affiliates and work has been carried out with the product teams to ensure that relevant information is sent quickly and effectively to the affiliate base.

Workable guidelines to increase confidence and growth

Commenting on the event, Dan Redfearn, head of the IAB's Affiliate Marketing Council, said: "Today's event was another great example of how we have moved on from the generic "what is affiliate marketing?" debate, and can now look more strategically at how affiliate marketing delivers benefits to merchants' sales and marketing departments.

“The IAB recognises that a degree of self regulation is always necessary to consolidate growth. Working with the affiliate marketing council we strive to establish workable guidelines to increase confidence and growth in this innovative medium. Anyone interested in finding out more about our work in this area, feel free to get in touch."

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