The Mythical Affiliate Manager: Why An Agency Is A Better Fit For An Online Merchant

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When a brand decides it wants to properly attack its marketing, it seeks out experts to help them do so. Sure, they may have a marketing manager in-house to oversee the marketing process but when they need heavy lifting in the form of an integrated advertising strategy that plays out across multiple media in multiple markets, they turn to an advertising agency.

It's no different when a brand decides to enter the affiliate marketing channel.
Many merchants entering the affiliate channel believe a workable solution is to delegate all affiliate marketing responsibilities to an in-house affiliate manager and/or hook up with an affiliate network's managed services offering. But an affiliate manager is just one person and an affiliate network is just a platform, a technology provider and not a marketing expert. Much in the same way Google Search is a platform for search engine marketing and does not offer search marketing expertise.

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by Steve Hall    Apr-22-15    
Topic: Agencies



Instagram ROI: What Your Brand Can Expect from Working with Influencers

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When we think of social media ROI, we tend to only measure value by numbers. So much attention is given to number of followers, reach, impressions and likes; but while these markers are very important, there's a much broader story that can be told, particularly on social networks like Instagram where photos create an opportunity to paint a much bigger brand picture.

Sure, Instagram has some limitations in what campaign parameters can be measured -- engagement rates act as the major metric -- and this can raise the question of what a brand really gains from influencer marketing. However, Instagram, now one of the top three social networks with over 300 million users, gives brands an opportunity to tap into the influence of Instagram power users and leverage their existing follower relationships in order to reach a broad audience.

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by Steve Hall    Apr- 8-15    
Topic: Opinion, Social