While the objectives of the companies remain to maintain the sustained growth of the business to remain competitive, the impending crisis has caused a slowdown and decrease in advertising investments. Marketing being a fundamental element for sale, companies seek new alternatives that are more profitable. Online marketing and ecommerce 2.0 are presented as an ideal channel and tool in this scenario due to its dynamism and the continued growth of online “audiences”.
affilinet, a company specializing in affiliate marketing, has made an analysis of how social content or 2.0, could be modifying the way marketing and approximation to the end customer, which is no longer a passive and influential subject, and becomes participatory and more demanding.
Added to this, the financial crisis, which no one can ignore, has contributed to a greater or lesser extent to the Internet being considered as a profitable way to make customers, a fact that until recently was not so clear. Now more than ever, knowing what price a potential client has and what profitability accompanies each euro that is invested, has become a necessity on which the success or failure of a campaign and, with it, a business can depend.
There is no doubt that the participatory structure proposed by the web 2.0 is an ideal scenario to promote meetings, and / or, why not, disagreements with our customers. In both cases, information is power, power that brands and companies can use to know how to improve. The social web allows the creation of groups of experts who share ideas with each other and with the advertisers themselves, thereby increasing the value and capital of the companies.
Innovation and creativity are essential at this time, and there is no doubt that affiliation is an extraordinary vehicle in full growth to explore the possibilities offered by the network, while increasing sales while maintaining profitability. The new generation of affiliate marketing, affiliation 2.0, offers a multitude of technological advances to offer and integrate content, ranging from the use of APIS, to discount codes, beyond the forms that we can call “traditional”, such as the banners.
This means that in these times, advertisers need more and more visits to close a sale, whether from links or sponsored ads (or banners), which means that certain types of tactics will be increasingly less profitable. On the other hand, the profile of the average consumer, now converted into ‘user’ is much more reluctant to be influenced by this type of “advertising” being a much better informed consumer and ‘expert’ about what he wants to buy. Likewise, their interaction in social networks, as well as their exposure to this type of content, means that their purchasing decisions are determined by their online environment and by the sites they frequent such as blogs, forums, social networks or pages with certain types of content. .
“There is no doubt that” Cost per Thousand “or” Cost per Click “not only revolutionized the industry and the way of doing business on the Internet, but also the way to build and publicize brands among online ‘audiences’; However, this model is beginning to stop contributing value to companies in the face of the vertiginous change that is taking place in the world – financial crisis – and on the internet – blogs, social networks, etc. – which means that the way to strengthen a brand on the internet is changing completely. “Affirms Cristina Berzal, director of affilinet in Spain. “Affiliate marketing, unlike, turns out to be much more profitable in the medium term, since the online traffic that comes from this tactic, is a much higher quality traffic than conventional methods. Regardless of the payment model,
monitoring of controlled and adequate costs to the acquisition costs of the advertisers, and on the other, the technology and resources necessary to increase the income of the participating media ”
And, just in spite of the economic crisis, affilinet has experienced significant growth both internationally and nationally, with more and more companies opting for affiliate marketing campaigns due to the value it provides in three key areas for the development of your business: return on investment, measurement and segmentation.
Together with these areas, membership 2.0 enriches or facilitates the way to reach users:
1. Long tail. Brands have the possibility to reach niches much more specific and segmented, and also have a conversation with them. We went from communicating to the mass, to communicate with the individual.
2. About the product or service to the user. Now it is the client who sets the rules. The advertiser has the possibility to bring their products to you and even participate in the dialogue.
3. It allows the global sale; there are no barriers. The medium allows reaching all markets in record time and with profitability.
4. It facilitates the content and participation. The technology allows to integrate the catalog of advertisers’ products as well as to open a discussion forum about them in real time.
5. Contribute to information. Through the contents we can inform quickly and accurately. The end user of accessible opportunities is presented to the user: discounts, offers, promotions, etc.
6. Enrich the shopping experience. It allows to be there where the final client is. The client or user can now buy according to their needs, compare a multitude of offers from the same place and with a clear saving of time, as well as doing it in a few steps.
7. It goes beyond the exposure of the product (attention), favoring interaction (interest) and encouraging action (acquisition-purchase).
In summary, in a scenario like the current one where the resources of companies are increasingly limited and with an increasingly heterogeneous online environment, where measurement and reaction capacity must be immediate, affiliate marketing is a useful, profitable and affordable tool for any company, from large corporations to small entrepreneurs.