Communication between Advertisers and Publishers
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When it comes to publisher marketing, communication is not a one-way process. Publishers should be considered more than just an echo of your PR team or an extension of your own site. What should advertisers be communicating to their publisher s, and what potential pitfalls should they look to avoid?
How should you communicate with your publisher s? 4 general tips.
1. The personal touch: Many mature programmes have thousands of members so addressing publisher s personally wherever possible will be appreciated. Your network should give you some way of personalising any bulk emails, and will supply direct contact details so you can add the personal touch. A peculiar feature of the publisher community is that IM is a far more utilised resource than phone, with many publisher s preferring it to email, so sign up with a separate address and put it on your programme description with an invite to add you.
2. Have a presence where publisher s hang out. Forums, round tables, trade shows and other industry events all attract good quality publisher s. Tellingly, the 2009 Econsultancy Affiliate Survey revealed that online forums are a more popular source of information about publisher marketing than networks or advertisers themselves. Try to make sure that you, or your network contact, monitor publisher forums and blogs as publisher s are a valuable news source about how your brand is performing.
3. Reach beyond your programme. The network’s communication suite is not just a glorified emailing system. When you have a big announcement to make, use the network’s own PR resources. Any network worth its salt will have its own newsletter, blog, Twitter and Facebook presence and this can amplify your message beyond the network, bringing in new publisher s from outside it.
4. What can they do for you? Additionally, don’t be afraid to solicit information from publisher s that will allow you to make smart decisions about which publisher s are suitable for which campaigns, and how much you should pay them. Ask questions about how publisher s promote or intend to promote and get their vital stats - monthly visitors, page views, email database size, etc - if these are not showcased in their publisher profile.
What should you communicate?
Publishers will expect regular (but not constant!) updates on new campaigns and promotions. The golden rule here is that when you do send publisher s new marketing material, do so in a way that cuts down on the work for them. Deep link everything that is promotional, and avoid sending irrelevant info about your general brand strategy; the place for this should be in the programme description.
In particular, there are six aspects of a publisher programme that it is vital to make sure publisher s are informed about.
1. Changes to Terms and Conditions - Particularly important is to communicate any changes in the paid search policy, cookie length or the kinds of publisher activities that you permit. A reasonable notice period should be given ahead of these changes coming into force and feedback should be invited.
2. Changes to the commission structure - Changes in commission, whether up or down, should always be communicated as this might require publisher s to change their forecast or budgets. Many publisher s work their campaigns back to an EPC and commission (along with conversion rates and rejected or returned offers) go into calculating this. Where it is necessary to lower commissions, get the input of your network point of contact to anticipate any problems.
3. Site downtime - Everyone recognises that some downtime is unavoidable, but where it is scheduled make sure this news is communicated to publisher s to give them the option of pausing campaigns. Publishers hate feeling like an after-thought if other channels are made aware.
4. Affiliate suspension - Affiliate links will break if a publisher is removed from the programme. This causes a poor user experience and will stop potential customers from reaching your site via that publisher . Suspending a publisher from a programme should only be done after contact has been made explaining the reason for their suspension, and feedback invited.
5. Modifications to the site structure - Just as in the case of publisher suspensions, these might affect publisher s’ links and could cause 404s which ultimately will stop your customers from transacting.
6. Offer start and end dates - With the introduction at the start of March of the ASA’s extended digital marketing remit it is also now increasingly important to make sure publisher s are advertising the correct information on their sites so that consumers do not feel misled. Providing start and end dates for discount codes, sales or special offers are more important now than they ever were.