Affiliate Summit West 2011B2B Affiliate Marketing: New

Technologies, New OpportunitiesPresented by – Brian Waldman

Our Goals For This Presentation

• Not screw up – pray it is interesting to you

• Allow all audience members to see the opportunity in B2B and other lead oriented industries

• Help affiliates identify path to success in this space

• Tell our story and hear how others handle similar challenges

Who is Merchant Warehouse?

• We provide merchant account services (merchant accounts) to businesses

• After 10 years online we needed to do more to get off the Google nipple

• Launched an affiliate channel last year – generating over $140K/month in affiliate compensation

• We are completely new to this – does that help or hurt?

Our Story Is Not Unique

Affiliates don’t focus on businesses like ours. Is that a big opportunity for you?

• High-value products and services

• Markets with high PPCs but little affiliate competition

• Non-traditional conversions – calls, click to call, live chat

• Offline sale – high close rate

We Wanted A Perfect Program!

• Networks couldn’t support our needs

• Traditional affiliate comp models didn’t work

• Straight links preferred

• Need to highly monitor affiliate activity

• Can afford very high payouts!

Summary of Challenges

• Tracking – How can we credit affiliates with their leads and sales?

• Trust – How can we build trust when sales are offline?

• Recruitment – How do we find and recruit affiliates?

• Systems – How can we handle different leads from different sources?

How We Solved It - Tracking

How do we credit affiliates for offline leads and sales?

• Integration with phone & tracking system

• On and offline lead tracking – dynamic phone numbers, forms

• CRM tracking leads through sales process

• Ability to route leads to unique groups

How We Solved It - Trust

How do we allow affiliates insight into their activity and show them the potential?

• Various payment choices & option to change – lead, close, residuals

• Portal with updated tracking

• Dedicated links and toll-free numbers

• Long cookie length

• Clear terms and conditions

How We Solved It - Recruitment

How do we recruit affiliates when networks aren’t an option?

• Online sign-up and approval with clear program description

• Dedicated sales team

• Attending Affiliate Summit • Networking

• Current customer base

How We Solved It - Systems

Different affiliates send different types of leads. How can we handle this?

• Phone system identifies source

• Routing leads to different sales groups

• Educating sales teams about different needs

• Reporting infrastructure

• Portal for marketing materials

What Does This Mean for You?

• Many businesses like ours have affiliate programs but many don’t market or have the level of sophistication.

• If you can identify high opportunity industries and companies can you sell them on the opportunity?

• Can you add a level of sophistication to others programs and carve out your own opportunity?

How to Identify Opportunities?

• Companies spending a lot on PPC.

• Spaces with unsophisticated SEO

• Companies with strong calls to action on their site and conversion rates.

• Explore phone tracking – get your own toll free numbers and redirect clicks

• Push networks!

What Has Worked For Our Affiliates?

• Review websites – “Best or Top” theme

• Targeting 2nd tier keywords

• Endorsements

• Non traditional affiliate activities – email, postal, telemarketing

• Tangential services

• Our best affiliate…

What Works For You?

We would like to take the remaining time as open for idea sharing and questions.

If you would like to learn more about our program or to

SIGN UP AS AN AFFILIATE!!!!

please see me after the session or email affiliate@merchantwarehouse.com. You can also visit

affiliate.merchantwarehouse.com