February 2016

There were 2 posts published in February 2016.

Affiliate marketing

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a marketing method which refers people to make online purchases. In return they earn commission by promoting other company’s products and services. This is a benefit for both parties as mentioned by (Strategies, 2016) the company promoting the product or service is happy as they are earning a commission just for advertising something on their website. The company who owns the product or service is of course happy because they have a sale from a customer who might not have normally come to their site direct.

The size of the affiliate marketing industry

So to give you an understanding of the size of the affiliate marketing industry in the UK, in 2013 advertising companies spent a total of £1bn marketing through their affiliate sites which in return generated a total of £14bn according to (Iabuk.net, 2016). Within a report by (Iabuk.net, 2016) it continues to mention that for every £1 spent it would bring a return of £14 for advertisers, and the most common method they use is OPM – (Online Performance Marketing) this according to (Iabuk.net, 2016) is “when advertisers don’t pay publishers to show the ad, they only pay if the ad causes someone to complete a defined action, such as making a purchase”.

OPM Examples

Compare the market – www.comparethemarket.com/

This is a website where consumers can go to find the best deals for a whole range of services including car insurance, home insurance, credit card, life insurance and broadband deals.

Comparethemarket

Wowcher – www.wowcher.co.uk/

Wowcher describe themselves as “a deal a day site that uses the power of group buying or bulk buying to get unbeatable deals on the best stuff to do, see, visit, eat and buy in a variety of cities in the UK” (Wowcher.co.uk, 2016).

Wowcher

Nectar – https://www.nectar.com/

Is a loyalty card programme which people can use in a number of UK high street retailers to generate points, in return for the points people can redeem them for days out, flight and meals.

 

Nectar

What are the advantages and disadvantages for companies using affiliate marketing?

Advantages
  • Companies will be available in many different areas of the internet which will result in more potential customers and certainly leads for the company, this will also mean that the company doesn’t have spend time and money in finding these customers.
  • The risk is very low for companies as they will only be paying the affiliate companies once they receive a lead or sale from the customer they found.
  • As a company starts to build its affiliate network it will in turn increase it rating for inbound links. In doing so it will mean that search engines will recognise this and boost their rankings when the company is searched for in a search engine.
Disadvantages
  • The company could lose track of how the product is being advertised and in term gain negative press for their products or services.
  • Companies can suffer from commission costs. If companies are using to many affiliates to gain customers, this could result in receiving bad leads and mean that they are paying out for customer’s details of poor quality.

Summary

All in all, affiliate marketing can be very profitable for both parties. It is important that the affiliate understands the product that they are advertising and believes in it in order to gain the most from it. The company needs to be wise with who they let advertise their product and where they are being advertised. It is important for the company that the affiliate understands and appreciates the rules and regulations when advertising products. If they do not, it could become costly for the company using the affiliate and in turn the company will lose money through it.

 

Strategies, S. (2016). Smart Affiliate Marketing Strategies. [online] The Smart Passive Income Blog. Available at: http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/affiliate-marketing-strategies/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2016].

Iabuk.net, (2016). Affiliate marketing & lead generation ad spend hits £1bn | IAB UK. [online] Available at: http://www.iabuk.net/about/press/archive/affiliate-marketing-lead-generation-ad-spend-hits-1bn [Accessed 28 Jan. 2016].

Wowcher.co.uk, (2016). Wowcher | About Us. [online] Available at: http://www.wowcher.co.uk/aboutus.html [Accessed 31 Jan. 2016].

Vine as a digital marketing tool

So what is Vine?

Vine is a video sharing app which launched in January 2013. Vine was acquired by Twitter in October 2012 just before its launch. How this app works is that users can only record a total of 6 seconds worth of footage, then it will play to the continuously on a loop either in the app, twitter or on embedded webpages.

Vine is available on iOS, Android and Windows according to the companies website – https://vine.co

The impact of Vine

Since launch Vine boasts over 200 million active monthly users according to (Smith, 2016). Some other interesting statistic’s that (Smith, 2016) mentions is that the 10% of top brands that are on twitter that use Vine and 100 million people watch Vines each month!

Companies that use Vine

Many companies are now using Vine as a digital marketing platform, companies such as Cadbury’s, Nike, Sony and ASOS. Vine’s produced by companies like these are receiving “loops” in the 100,000’s which shows that it is reaching the masses.

Some great examples of Vine working for companies are below;

Sony

Nike

How to create a successful Vine?

The most important aspect of being successful in Vine is that you need to make sure that your Vines are creative and funny. These are essential for your company’s success on Vine. It is in truth a method of viral marketing. With viral marketing it takes a lot of luck to be successful, according to (Scott and Scott, 2011) “The formula is a combination of some great (and free) web content (a video, a blog entry, or an e-book) that I ground-breaking or amazing or hilarious or involves a celebrity, plus a network of people to light the fire”. I believe this is also the formula for Vine. Each video needs something that grabs the viewer’s attention, which (Scott and Scott, 2011) explains being “ground-breaking or hilarious” and also a celebrity endorser. If we look at an example of a company below that has created a video which is funny and includes celebrities and look at the loops at which the video received it shows how this method can work.

So for example if we look at this Vine shared by Jake Paul. He is advertising for Coca-Cola. This video currently has over 5 million loops. Jake Paul himself has 4.8 million followers. Coca-Cola would have seen Jake Paul as a “Vine Celebrity” and would have used the formula that I mentioned above, to create a video with something which is funny and then to help its success used a celebrity to push it.

Coca-Cola will also be gaining other benefits from getting Jake Paul to record and post a video on his account, he would have posted it to their account and used a hashtag to push it. Coca-Cola will have in return received advertising for Coca-Cola and also boosted its own followers by being mentioned by Jake Paul.

Would Vine work for everyone?

The simple answer is no. Vine will not work for everyone and it will cost companies a fair bit of money to have “Vine Celebrities” create a video for them. According to (DeSimone, 2016) another “Vine Celebrity” Brittany Furlan could charge around $43,500 for one six second Vine. She has 8.7 million followers and is in the top 5 list of “Celebrity Viner’s”.

The idea and concept for the video has to be right in order for the video to have any effect. The video would get lost amongst the masses, according to (Smith, 2016) on average there are 12 million videos uploaded everyday! Lastly when companies post their videos they must make sure that they hashtag them in order for them to be found, without this they are extremely unlikely reach any people.

Smith, C. (2016). By The Numbers: 25 Amazing Vine Statistics. [Blog] DMR. Available at: http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/vine-statistics/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2016].

Scott, D. and Scott, D. (2011). The new rules of marketing & PR. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.

DeSimone, E. (2016). How Do Viners Get Paid? 3 Simple Ways Vine Stars Make Money. [Blog] New Media Rockstars. Available at: http://newmediarockstars.com/2015/03/how-do-viners-get-paid-3-simple-ways-vine-stars-make-money/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2016].