This year’s economic reality means that the trends are going to be different than they have been in the past. While an increase in potential online shopping might seem somewhat dire, what it actually presents is a chance to adjust current marketing campaigns and get in on some great campaigns just in time for the holidays.

Practical gifts, such as gift cards, are sure to see an increase in popularity this year. There is a bit of irony here, as many people are planning on using gift cards to purchase the gifts that they will give this year.  So, giving gift cards to your friends might make sure that you get a gift next gift-giving season. One area that consumers have cut sharply is restaurant gift cards.

Spending on food and candy is up, while most other non-gift categories have declined. While statistics show that spending on items like decorations, greeting cards, and flowers is down, there are still opportunities to be found in the holiday season.

The good news is that many of the areas that people are interested in spending their money can be found online and more shoppers are turning towards the Internet to find deals. In fact, last year during the worst part of the current recession, online shopping outperformed brick-and-mortar in several key categories, including apparel, books and magazines, home and garden furniture, and greetings and gifts.

With this in mind, focusing on the campaigns in the best-performing categories in 2009 will boost your traffic and your earnings.  Apparel merchants like AdditionElle/Penningtons/MXM, and T-Shirt Monster are excellent choices to complement your retail traffic, and Zoobooks will be a good bet for consumers looking for educational gift for children. With many people minimizing their gift-giving costs, unique Christmas affiliate programs like Imaginary Greetings (Letters from Santa) and Santa’s Ornament Shop could be just the thing to reach your holiday consumers.

Whatever your focus, affiliates in the Share Results affiliate network will have plenty of options to choose from. Don’t forget to consult with one of our account managers, as they can really make a difference in helping to direct your seasonal campaigns.

Reducing investments in campaigns that might not be as popular this year as they have been in the past and instead focusing energies on the trends for the current climate will help to ensure continued growth in the fourth Quarter and a great start to 2010.

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.

We’re seeing green and red! This can only mean that Santa’s Ornament Shop has gone live in Share Results!

Santa’s Ornament Shop offers the largest selection of personalized Christmas ornaments available online. These ornaments have been hand selected for their quality and uniqueness so that the selection always meets the needs of anyone looking for that perfect inexpensive gift for even those who seem to have everything.

With something for everyone, affiliates can easily promote Santa’s Ornament Shops’ 3,000+ ornaments to visitors looking for the perfect Christmas gift. Customers who purchase will also enjoy free shipping on their orders of 5 items or more, adding just the right touch for the holiday season.

The site also features three very popular traffic generating fun activities (Disco Santa, Gingerbread E-Card and Birthday Cake E-Card) to which affiliates can direct their traffic if they choose.

Placements permitted in this program include:

• Banner Creative
• Text Ads
• PPC/Search Marketing (For more info please click here: http://www.shareresults.com/local_affiliate_desc.php?mid=17280)
• Coupons
• Email
• Newsletter
• E-Cards
• Incentivized
• Deep Linking
• Direct Linking
• 120-day Cookie
• Targeting US and CAN customers

Commission Offer
As a new affiliate to the Santa’s Ornament Shop affiliate program, you will earn 12% commission on all verified sales.

Special Launch Promotions
For every location an affiliate places one of Santa’s Ornament Shop banners (including links to the e-cards) affiliates will earn a chance in a drawing to win one of three $100 cash prizes. New affiliates must email SOS with their banner locations to qualify.

Affiliates also have the opportunity to earn up to 15% commission on sales during the month of December.

-Affiliates who refer between 25 and 49 sales: 1% bonus per sale 25 and over

-Affiliates who refer between 50 and 99 sales: 2% bonus per sale 50 and over

-Affiliates who refer over 100 sales: 3% bonus per sale for all sales

*As calculated at the end of December. An affiliate can only earn one of the three bonus structures based on their overall sales volume.

Join the affiliate program today to take full advantage of these exclusive affiliate promotions expiring December 31st, 2009.

If you are retail affiliate with a strong family audience and/or are a PPC or coupon affiliate, you are an ideal partner for this affiliate program!

For more info or to join, please visit: http://www.shareresults.com/local_affiliate_desc.php?mid=17280

Whether you’ve just launched an affiliate program, or you’re experienced in the field and are looking to increase your sales, attracting the right kind of affiliates is a must to ensure a successful Q4.  The following checklist highlights recruitment strategies that merchants can apply to ensure they are bringing in the right affiliates into their program.

1. Brand Exposure
Merchants love affiliate marketing for its performance-based  revenue model, but affiliates are savvier than ever before and know that their customers won’t buy brands that aren’t well known and trusted. You need to increase brand exposure every place possible, online and offline. For example, a merchant that wants Canadian traffic needs to launch on and offline ad campaigns north of the border, or it will be hard for any affiliate to give prime real estate space on their site to promote a brand their customers don’t recognize.

2. Customer Promotions
Coupon codes, free shipping and other deals make a major impact on whether or not a customer will buy a product/service.  Affiliates flock to offers that are unique, exclusive and convenient—so if you can, introduce these marketing incentives, then make sure they are clearly visible when marketing your affiliate program to new partners!

3. Get Social
Technorati, Google Alerts, Facebook and Twitter are all great channels for attracting new partners who promote products/services that may be similar to your own. Use keywords related to product/service in Google Alerts and Technorati to find blogs that are good match for your own program.  And keep in mind that Google and Microsoft both recently secured deals with Twitter, and Microsoft has also inked one with Facebook to include updates into Bing search results.  This makes social media marketing all the more important to marketing in general, and specifically to search engine marketing.

4. Performance Bonuses
Performance bonuses are excellent incentives to attract new partners, or even to complement an existing affiliate’s performance campaign. Merchants can either offer a set dollar amount or a tiered bonus commission that is based on sales. Try tailoring your bonus system according to your budget, and if you so choose, only offer these incentives to affiliates who’ve performed well in the past.

5. Referral Commission
Many affiliates get into the business of affiliate marketing because of friends who are also affiliates. Encourage this word of mouth marketing through referral commissions. Many affiliates may hear of affiliate programs through forums and search engines, but word of mouth is just as influential. Offer a flat referral commission and if you can afford it, a lifetime commission on transactions the referred affiliate sends.
If you’re already active with all or some of the above recruitment strategies make sure your affiliates and potential affiliates know about them.  Announce these details in your company newsletters, on your blogs, on your website and even in industry print publications.  The more affiliates know of these details, the more likely you are to attract quality affiliates to your program.  And if you’re not yet active with these recruitment strategies, Q4 is the perfect time to get started!

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.

We wanted to let you know about the latest Share Results Hot Coupon Deals for November 2009. There are some exciting promotions including the launch of one of our newest merchants AdditionElle/Penningtons/MXM – the leading fashion experts for plus-sized women!

NEW:AdditionElle/Penningtons/MXM

Affiliate Promotion: Earn an extra 2% commission for all orders (from 6% to 8%)
Offer expires November 30th, 2009

Coupon Code: Customers get $15 off orders of $75 or more
Coupon Code – Available via the Share Results Coupon Feed
Offer expires November 30th, 2009

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Imaginary Greetings

Coupon Code: Get a free personalized phone call with purchase of a Santa Letter
Coupon Code – Available via the Share Results Coupon Feed
Offer expires December 31, 2009
Coupon code can only be used once by one customer and cannot be combined with other promotions

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StyleFly

Customer Promotion: Black Friday/Cyber Monday Coupon
Coupon Code – Available via the Share Results Coupon Feed
Canadian Traffic Only – Offer available from November 27 – 30, 2009

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Tundra Gear

3 Coupon Codes:Customers get 10% OFF any hat
*Customers save 10% on all products
*Buy 2 hats, get a 3rd hat free

All offers expire after December 31, 2009 and cannot be combined

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The CuteKid

Affiliate Promotion: Brand new $1.25 CPL offer for Member Registrations + landing page

Offer is now Ongoing!

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ZooBooks

Coupon Code:
Get 20% OFF any order (subscription not included)
Offer expires December 31st, 2009

Customers get 10% off all products (excluding subscriptions)
Offer expires February 14th, 2010

Both coupon codes – Available via the Share Results Coupon Feed
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T-Shirtmonster.ca

Customer Promo: Brand new Military T-Shirts for Remembrance and Veterans Day + New landing page for products

Offer expires November 30, 2009
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UnderGroundHipHop.com

3 Customer Promotions:
*10% Off orders
*$10 Off orders $75+ or more
*$25 Off orders $150+ or more
Coupon Codes – Available via the Share Results Coupon Feed
Offer expires December 31, 2009

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Nero

Affiliate Promotion: Earn an extra $25 for your first 10 sales in November
Offer expires November 30, 2009

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Language of the Leaf

Coupon Code: 10% Off on all orders over $30 + Free shipping over $50
Coupon Code – Available via the Share Results Coupon Feed
Offer expires November 30, 2009
Coupon code can only be used once by one customer and cannot be combined with other promotions

Login your Share Results affiliate account to access all these great coupon offers! http://www.shareresults.com/affiliates/login.php

The holidays present online retailers with tremendous earning potential.  With mere days left in the month of October, and the countdown to the real holiday madness just around the corner, now is the time to have a good look at your marketing campaigns to make sure you’re set up to enhance your sales volume, and ultimately, seal the deal.  Here are some key areas of your marketing campaigns that you should look at to make sure you’re in shape for the season.

1. Quality Affiliates
Having knowledgeable, capable marketing partners is crucial to the success of your online campaigns.  A quality affiliate will have an attractive, user-friendly website with a high page rank, and will employ multiple marketing methods to promote your product(s).  So make it a point of recruiting these affiliates and regularly logging into your account to evaluate the quality of partners that you are attracting to your program.

If you don’t feel confident about the caliber of your partners, you should speak to your affiliate manager, or consider re-evaluating your recruitment strategy.  Your Traffic Report can also help you identify your top-performing affiliates, along with their conversion rates, and can be pulled based on Affiliate ID.  Once you have partners whom you believe have the potential to perform well in your program, the more likely quality sales will be generated.

2. Click-Through Rate
Your click-through rate is an important indicator to help you determine whether (a) customers are attracted to your product/service, and (b) if they are abandoning your landing page for some unforeseen issue.  For example, you may create an effective banner ad or coupon, but a problem on an affiliate’s site, your landing page or your shopping cart could be impacting the customer’s ultimate decision to buy.

The Deep Linking tool is applied by merchants who want to help their affiliates highlight specific products that match the need of the customer.  This tool allows affiliates to send customers to an exact area of your site that truly responds to their buying need.  When a customer sees a product on a banner that they like, and then lands on a relevant landing page for that item, you are helping to seal the deal, and reduce the odds of shopping cart abandonment.  If you’re seeing low stats, consider permitting a tool like deep linking in your program, or talk to your Share Results affiliate manager to offer some insight.

3. Seal the Deal
Once an affiliate has sent a customer to your website, and the customer is ready to buy, it’s up to you to seal the deal.   Make sure you have the right tools, and are doing everything you can to make buying convenient and simple.
An example of a deal breaker might be a banner on an affiliate’s site promising a flat price for one of your products, only to have that customer discover shipping charges during the checkout process.  In fact, according to comScore, 43% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts because of unexpectedly high shipping charges, and 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.  Free shipping is just one of several incentives that are important to online shoppers, so make sure to incorporate this in your strategy whenever possible.

Most importantly, remember to apply your Share Results marketing software to its full potential by using the tools at your disposal, and to check in with your affiliate manager regularly to find more strategic techniques for closing the sale.

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 until November 27 for more tips and techniques to help you end Q4 with your most successful campaign yet!

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.

Executing a successful Q4 campaign is possible for online retailers, even if the season’s shopping activity is expected to decrease due to the poor economy.   Merchants who wish to succeed this year will need to be strategic, and plan ahead.   In today’s edition of the holiday blogging series, we’re going to touch upon 5 tools merchants must have if they wish to execute a successful holiday campaign.

According to a recent article from RBR.com, trends show shoppers plan to pinch pennies this holiday season, while InternetRetailer.com reports more holiday shopping will take place on the web. Armed with this knowledge, merchants can tailor their tools and resources to help them better perform during the fourth quarter of 2009.

Here are some suggested must-haves for merchants who wish to succeed this holiday season:

Must-Have 1: Update Terms and Conditions

It is important to update terms and conditions on a regular basis, especially during a busy holiday season when there are likely to be increased transactions.  This is necessary so merchants don’t find themselves welcoming in sales generated through methods not permitted in their affiliate program in the first place (for example,  incentivization, brand name bidding, or social media links through Facebook and Twitter).  While it may seem like a hassle to update terms and conditions regularly, it is far less of a hassle than the alternative; if terms aren’t up to date, merchants have to have to go back, review transactions, and evaluate if the affiliate used methods that were in violation of program.   In order to avoid this headache, merchants should clarify the promotional methods with affiliates – NOW!

Must-Have 2: Marketing Tools

Linking, Banner and Email Creatives are all marketing tools that can be employed to maximize a merchant’s potential for success in the upcoming holiday season.  Deep or Direct Linking has been effective in allowing affiliates to help close a sale from a potential customer. Currently available in the Share Results software, it is being used by merchants like UGHH to allow affiliates to promote a specific product.  Co-branded Banner Creatives are great sales tools for affiliates to use to promote and attract potential sales. These can include a specific product, a coupon code or even a call-to-action like “Free Shipping”. HTML Email Creatives have been great tools for merchants like Zoobooks, who’ve have great success with email marketers who promote their magazine subscriptions to US families. Having attractive email creative (including suppression files and suggested Subject lines) helps a merchant’s affiliates to target specific demographics.

Must-Have 3: Effective Landing Pages & Secure Shopping Cart

Effective landing pages complete with a secure shopping cart can mean the difference between closing or losing sale.  A secure shopping cart convinces shoppers they’re spending money with the right retailer.  A recent DigitalHome.ca article confirmed that shoppers are encouraged to pay attention to issues like security and Privacy Policy’s of a retailer’s site. Language promoting security of shopping cart on landing page reassures customers that their personal details are protected. Generally, affiliates also want merchants to have secure checkouts as well.  After all, affiliates spend a lot of effort promoting for their merchants, and if traffic doesn’t convert, then that defeats the affiliate’s purpose.  A comprehensive merchant will want to research shopping carts extensively, to find the ones that are most compatible with the given business model.

Must-Have 4: Coupon Codes

You may be asking yourself why coupon codes aren’t grouped in with must have #2, Marketing Tools.  That’s because coupon codes are a niche unto themselves, which can be tapped by marketers all on its own. A recent eMarketer article highlights the popularity of coupons and points out that even the most affluent online shoppers are as likely to try and save a buck this holiday season.  Merchants can use this intelligence to be more selective and offer competitive and even co-branded codes. Exclusive coupon codes can be segmented for affiliates who are known or have potential to be top performers.

Must-Have 5: Affiliate or Account Manager

Given the current economic climate and the fact that shopping activity is expected to be down for Q4, merchants are going to need more than just hot items to woo customers.  Having someone communicate with affiliates to answer their needs, or an account manager to liaise with partners on the merchant’s behalf, is essential for creating dialogue, negotiating better placement of an offer, and answering affiliates who want exclusive promos to promote.  A proficient affiliate manager can help facilitate the process by aligning merchants with the right affiliates, and working with both parties to achieve their desired outcomes; brand exposure, increased traffic, maximized conversions and profitability.

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 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!