Keyen Farrell Points Out The Most Useful Tips For Incentive Promoting

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A few years ago, Keyen Farrell authored a guide to incentive selling titled Mastering Incentive Websites. In it, Keyen Farrell shared his observations of the trade and detailed the steps he took to form Topaz Financial, a network of Incentive Websites that ultimately drove more than 100,000 advertiser actions. Topaz Financial was also chronicled within the Spring 2006 Issue of Colby Magazine. As we head into a brand new decade, Keyen Farrell needs to share two pieces of advice that he hopes those who currently are in or aspire to be in incentive selling, could find useful.

Free Trials are The New Leads
Many years ago there was no shortage of advertisers eager to partner with incentive marketers on a pay-per-lead basis. It's readily apparent that the pay-per-lead has gone the manner of the dodo. The few pay-per lead programs that remain grant payouts well below what is needed to actively promote them. Pay-per-lead offers have always been the motivation marketer's Holy Grail since they allow conversion rates that are many times those of pay-per-sale affiliate programs. Furthermore, pay-per-lead programs offer a lot of consistency than pay-per-sale programs since the payouts are fastened rather than a percentage of a final sale. Mounted payouts are always more engaging to users and convert at a considerably higher rate.

It should return as no surprise that within the Incentive promoting space, what matters at the top of the day is conversion rate. Each element of an Incentive Website, from the visitor funnel to the individual offers must be tuned to drive the very best conversion rate and ultimately the very best revenue per visitor. In 2005 we experienced conversion rates as high as 20% on certain pay-per-lead offers.

As true pay-per-lead opportunities (suppose lead generation) have evaporated, a connected model remains a viable supply of conversions: free trials. Most clearly, free trials involve no immediate money outlay from users, lifting conversion rates. Secondly, the purchase funnel is much shorter and a lot of direct than nearly all pay-per sale funnels. Free trials are an supply kind where the merchant's goals are directly aligned with yours. The difficulty with pay-per-sale affiliate programs is that the purchase funnel is long and will be downright confusing to the user. Many pay-per-sale affiliate links will direct users to a landing page that's either irrelevant or too high in the purchase funnel. This is usually an intentional merchant tactic since not all sales or actions might be needed to get affiliate payouts. You should always browse the fine print within the terms of every pay-per-sale affiliate agreement. Free trials are a key strategy to stay your incentive selling competitive this decade, and as models of digital media distribution continue to evolve, the opportunities will solely grow.

Do not Go In-House
If the amount of actions you drive becomes important, it's more than seemingly that the merchant can obtain to bring your relationship in-house. Removing the affiliate network from the equation leads to deep and immediate price savings for your merchant partner - since affiliate networks charge merchants as abundant as 30% of each completed action, merchants will happily bump up your payout as an incentive to lure you in-house. My recommendation is easy: Don't do it. Whereas the prospect of higher payouts could seem alluring, in-house relationships will be fraught with trouble even among the foremost reputable merchant sets.

Affiliate networks give a valuable service to you by acting as a strong intermediary. If you've got gone in-house and a merchant decides to bilk you, there is no recourse. The merchant is solely risking your relationship. Of course, if you have a blowout month in which you are owed a giant commission check, an unscrupulous merchant might merely decide that the risk of losing your referrals is worth stiffing you on the check. In an affiliate network, this merchant's actions would jeopardize their relationship with that network's entire affiliate base. Good networks will de-activate deadbeat merchants and fight for you if you've been wronged. Some merchants will reverse or cancel a lot of transactions than they must, and also the network may be a valuable arbiter of such disputes. You'll probably find that your network is raring to lend their ear when you have issues. They acknowledge that the integrity of the network rests on a quality publisher and merchant base. You cannot have a quality network without both. And don't forget, the network gets paid when you do! Thus when the phone rings from your prime payer's affiliate manager, say yes to the free schwag, but say no to going in-house!

Source From http://www.keyenfarrell.com/articles/useful-tips-for-incentive-marketing/

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Keyen joined Google in 2007 as an Account Strategist, Keyen has worked in Google's Media & Entertainment Vertical. As Account Strategist, Keyen is directly responsible for a paid search portfolio consisting of several top Media & Entertainment advertisers. Since January of 2009, Keyen's work has been focused on the Big Three Television Networks. He is currently the lead east coast Account Strategist assigned to ABC, NBC, & CBS.

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