A recent Web Marketing Group article reveals very promising Internet usage statistics:

• Around seven new people use the internet every second
• For the millions of Internet users, every 4th person is using it to purchase something.
• An average of US $1 billion in Internet transactions are conducted every month.
• In a year, this figure rises to roughly US $1 trillion.
• In a year, there are 88 million new users. And this figure is constantly rising.

Suffice it to say, there’s a huge online market out there, ready and willing to buy. But with different backgrounds, tastes and interests, it’s not just about advertising everything, to everyone. Research shows that knowing who your audience is, what their needs are, and how they behave are key factors to making a successful sale.

This is crucial information to keep in mind during the holidays, when affiliates may want to look at trends for seasonal products and services, which they may not otherwise promote. Having this information will help you to invest your time and energy in markets that are more likely to provide an excellent return on your investment.

Affiliates will also do well during Q4 by looking at their own interests and expertise. If you are passionate about something, ideally something that is also part of a seasonal trend, it will be much easier to promote and sell.

If you’re a PPC affiliate or a blog affiliate, knowing your target audience is even more important. Without this information, these kinds of affiliates may be using irrelevant keywords, and providing content that is uninteresting and indeed unconvincing when it comes time to make the sale.

With trends suggesting that consumers will be spending less this holiday season, it’s more important than ever to make sure your Q4 marketing campaigns are on target.

“Consumers are more aware of their spending than ever and are very active in trying to find the best deals. Coupon websites are still growing rapidly in popularity, with nearly two-thirds of consumers checking for coupons when they shop online,”

said Guy King, co-founder of RetailMeNot.com.

For more techniques, tools, tips and great resources to make sure you’re getting every last drop out of your affiliate marketing campaigns, be sure to come back to the Share Results blog . Until November 27, Share Results is throwing a big Holiday Blogging Event, packed with all kinds of seasonal information regarding trends for Q4, tips to get the best deals, consumer trends and how best optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns.

It’s November, and with Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, consumers are looking forward to some of the biggest savings of the year. Whether through brick and mortar stores, online retailers, or both, consumers will be browsing products throughout the month to snap up the best bargains, come November 27 (Black Friday) and November 30 (Cyber Monday).

For affiliates and merchants, it’s important to start your campaigns early and to get the word out about your promotions in order to capitalize on impeding traffic. And while many people associate Cyber Monday as strictly online sales, and Black Friday solely about offline sales, the truth is, both days are important to your online sales goals.

In fact, while the majority of consumers identify Black Friday weekend as the time to buy big ticket items, research shows that Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are actually quite similar, suggesting that shoppers don’t separate the two in terms of online and offline sales.

A recent study by the Yahoo Insights team supports this finding, concluding that online sales on Black Friday were not too far behind sales that occurred on Cyber Monday. The study reveals that online retailers experienced a greater percentage increase in conversions on Black Friday, than Cyber Monday.

Trends identify Black Friday/Cyber Monday as having the best deals on personal, home or office and electronic products. Location is also important, with more than 50% of consumers shopping from their workplace, for added convenience.
This year, due to the still recovering economy, Black Friday sales ads are expected to offer shoppers a selection of huge bargains and deals on even more products and services. Free shipping offers are also especially popular during Cyber Monday, with 75% of customers preferring to shop with an online retailer that offers this incentive.

So with mere weeks left until two of the biggest shopping days of the year, merchants and affiliates should definitely make sure their marketing campaigns are ready. Consumers will begin product/service browsing now, so make sure your deals and free shipping promotions take front and center. And remember, online sales are not just about Cyber Monday anymore; Black Friday is going to be equally important to your marketing campaign success.

The holidays are the most wonderful time of the year, and present merchants and affiliates with tremendous earning potential. In fact, holiday shopping can account for up to 50% of an online retailer’s yearly sales, meaning that affiliates too have an equal opportunity to leverage this peak shopping season.

In 2008, an estimated 85 million people shopped on Cyber Monday, known as the kick-off date to the online shopping season. This year, many online retailers are looking to the Monday after Thanksgiving to bring another sales surge.

The Black Friday – Cyber Monday weekend accounts for a significantly large portion of the holiday sales for online retailers. Yahoo Advertising reports that Black Friday is the new Cyber Monday, stating,

“When compared with the average day in November, Black Friday showed a 147% increase in conversions, while Cyber Monday had a 73% increase in conversions.”

This year, the lucrative Black Friday – Cyber Monday weekend falls between November 27-30; affiliates, make sure your campaigns are ready!

The 2009 forecast looks promising, when compared to 2008. Amazon.com has reported its third quarter income has increased to $199 million from $118 million last year. It’s forecasting 4th quarter growth of 21% to 35% over last year.

To leverage your earning potential, it’s important to note what shoppers will be looking for:

1. Deals
2. Discounts
3. Coupons

As economic difficulties continue, consumers are looking for money-savers now, more than ever. Coupon sites have seen monumental growth this year, with shoppers looking for discounts and deals. Sites such as RetailMeNot are seeing over 200% growth over last year.

According to Netelixir , keyword search advertising is expected to be the most important customer acquisition channel during the 2009 holiday season. With Google reporting a 7% increase compared to the third quarter of 2008, PPC affiliates will have a great opportunity to increase their search revenue. For affiliates looking to try their hand at PPC, the holidays are the perfect time to get started. And with Share Results’ recent launch of their SEM Agency , it’s easier than ever to get the support you need to drive the success of your affiliate marketing campaigns.

For more techniques, tools, tips and great resources to make sure you’re getting every last drop out of your affiliate marketing campaigns, be sure to come back to the Share Results blog . Until November 27, Share Results is throwing a big Holiday Blogging Event, packed with all kinds of seasonal information regarding trends for Q4, tips to get the best deals, consumer trends and how best optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns.

According to a recent article from eMarketer.com, the No. 1 metric of success for the marketing and sales managers polled was the number of new customers acquired. Lead generation and increased sales were also tracked by more than two-thirds of respondents.

This holiday season, it will be more of challenge than ever for retailers to attract new customers to both brick and mortar and online stores. That is not meant to imply that there will not be shoppers. In fact, Marketing experts National Retail Federation (NRF) have predicted that the holiday sales for 2009 will see flat growth largely due in part to the recent recession and consumers being much more money conscious.

So, there will likely be a bevy of shoppers this season, but a post-recession, research savvy new breed of shoppers, best described as the selective consumer. That means that this season, more than ever, it is important to stand out, and make educated decisions about where advertising money should be spent.
That means operators will have to roll out customized promotions that are tailored to their customers. More significantly, it means that the operators who can forge a relationship with their customer base will be those who succeed this Q4.

“Marketers have been aware of the effectiveness of building relationships and trust with content since long before the Internet,”

said Gordon Plutsky, director of marketing and research at King Fish, in a statement.

“Technological change has rapidly increased media channel options and the patterns of information consumption among consumers. More and more marketers are abandoning old media—and traditional advertising—to venture out on their own with original content.”

The marketers studied in the eMarketer.com article considered their corporate Website the best method for achieving their top goal of reaching prospective customers. Social media and custom content and media were not far behind.

As the shift into more in depth consumer research continues, this season will see more value shoppers who will browse research and compare products on the Internet using Social media. Consumers are using social media more to search for deals and coupons via Twitter and Facebook, so marketers may want to channel more resources into that avenue.

For more techniques, tools, tips and great resources to make sure you’re getting every last drop out of your affiliate marketing campaigns, be sure to come back to the Share Results blog (http://blog.shareresults.com/). Until November 27, Share Results (www.shareresults.com) is throwing a big Holiday Blogging Event, packed with all kinds of seasonal information regarding trends for Q4, tips to get the best deals, consumer trends and how best optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns.

It’s week two of our Holiday Blogging Event, and in our last blog of the week, we ask, what one incentive do online consumers want more than anything else?

According to Forrester Research, 75% of customers prefer to shop with an online retailer that offers this incentive, and The Conference Board Survey supports these same findings, reporting that 90% of consumers say this would also entice them to spend even more online.

The incentive here is free shipping. It’s an attractive enticement, and most consumers have come to expect it, especially around the peak holiday season.

Many merchants debate whether offering free shipping or a discounted purchase price will be more attractive to the consumer. David Bell, marketing professor at the Wharton School observes that

For whatever reason, a free shipping offer that saves a customer $6.99 is more appealing to many than a discount that cuts the purchase price by $10.

Bell also concludes that 60% of online retailers cite “free shipping with conditions” as their most successful marketing tool.

So why is a free shipping offer so important to an online retailer?

• 78% of online customers say that exorbitant shipping costs discourage them from online purchases. (Source: E-tailing Group, 2008)
• 75% of people prefer to shop with online retailers that offer free shipping, compared to 61% in 2007. (Source: Forrester Research, 2008)
• 43% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts because of unexpectedly high shipping charges. (Source: Paypal, comScore, 2008)
• 61 of the largest 100 online retailers offered free shipping as of the week of Monday, November 10, 2008. (Source: Internet Retailer)
• 90% of respondents say free shipping offers would entice them to spend more online. (Source: The Conference Board Survey, 2008)
• 72% of consumers say that if an e-commerce site eliminated free shipping, they would use another e-commerce site that did offer free shipping. (Source: comScore Survey, 2008)
• People are searching for ‘free shipping’ earlier in the Christmas shopping season, and for longer. Searches for free shipping began to rise in October of last year, and actually peaked in the first week of January. (source: eConsultancy.com, 2009)

Need more reasons to offer free shipping this holiday season? Check out Free Shipping.org for a list of retailers who are incorporating this incentive into their marketing strategy—and succeeding!

Is your affiliate marketing campaign ready for the holiday season? If not, this is the blogging event to get you ready for the busiest season of the year. Check out last week’s blogs, and make sure to tune in again next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for more tips and techniques to help you end Q4 with your most successful campaign yet!

As the cold air begins to flow, merchants are on the lookout for what kind of online shopping trends are on the horizon for this 2009 season. October is half over, and if you haven’t started to prep your Q4 campaigns already, it’s time to get started!

This year, it is estimated that US retail e-commerce sales (excluding travel) will total $132 billion, down 0.4% from 2008. eMarketer forecasts online sales will begin to rebound in 2010 and hit full stride in 2011 if the recession is to end in 2009 as economists have predicted.

Trends suggest consumers will be spending less this holiday season making it more of challenge for retailers to attract ideal customers to both brick and mortar and online stores. That, of course does not mean there will be no shoppers, but it means that consumers will be more selective. That simply means that this season, more than ever, it is important to stand out, and make educated decisions about where advertising money should be spent.

Trends also show a progressive shift in consumer research, and there are more value shoppers who will browse research and compare products on the Internet. Consumers are using social media more to search for deals and coupons via Twitter, Facebook. So, marketers may want to channel more resources into that avenue.

In preparation for the 2009 holiday shopping season, online retailers looking to create the most effective e-commerce site should take the following steps:

1. Optimize website with holiday focused content
2. Improve pay per click (PPC) advertising campaigns for holidays
3. Driving more sales through the Comparison Shopping Engines
4. Create more customer loyalty programs
5. Humanizing customer service
6. Increase free shipping offers
7. Offer exclusive holiday coupons
8. Plan long term on how to reach consumer AFTER the holiday season have passed

For more techniques, tools, tips and great resources to make sure you’re getting every last drop out of your affiliate marketing campaigns, be sure to come back to the Share Results blog. Until November 27, Share Results.com is throwing a big Holiday Blogging Event, packed with all kinds of seasonal information regarding trends for Q4, tips to get the best deals, consumer trends and how best optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns.

Online coupons are hot these days and people are looking to save money from coupons and deals more than ever.

This trend should be continuing into Q4 of this year. If you are an online retailer and are not presently offering coupons through your affiliate program, you can lose out during this holiday season as consumers are expected to hunt for more bargains and discounts.

Coupon websites are seeing double to triple growth this year which is worth noting as it tells us that there is a huge demand for it. A blog post in GrowFromHere.com brings a good point up about the environment benefits for offering online coupons;

Using the internet to distribute online coupons for some retailers has led to a reduction in catalogue production/distribution, saving both the consumer & the supplier money, not to mention lowering environmental impact by reducing paper waste…

While creating coupon codes, make sure to have codes that are easy to remember, have a clear call to action along with an expiry date.