IRCE 2008 Session Descriptions

Affiliate marketing programs are often the quiet one of the major online marketing methods. Whereas marketers can view e-mail click-through and conversion rates within minutes of a send and can easily go to Google or Yahoo to see where they rank in search results, it's not so easy to see what an affiliate marketing program is doing. But just as the other marketing methods need constant management, so do affiliate programs. This workshop will examine such important areas as how to streamline the connection process so affiliates can easily link to a retail site and get the latest product and promotional data; how to reward affiliates so that top producers get a higher incentive and how those tiered rewards have changed in the past year; and how to make sure you are competitive with other marketers using your affiliates. In addition, retailers can undertake behind-the-scenes initiatives that help affiliates do a better job, such as providing affiliates with a daily stream of user reviews, which allows pages to be fresh every day to maximize search engine indexing; color swatching, which makes an affiliate site more engaging for a viewer; and links to similar products, which affords an affiliate the opportunity to earn more commissions. Our two retailer speakers this session manage affiliate programs. They will discuss their different approaches and why they manage their programs the way they do and what changes they have observed and reacted to in the past year. Our third speaker is a leading consultant who advises retailers on affiliate management. He will talk about the changes he has seen in affiliate marketing in the past year and assess their appropriateness for different kinds of retailers.