Why Should More Merchants Attend the Affiliate Summit?

Each Affiliate Summit seems to be better and more well attended then the last. More vendors, more affiliates and more merchants, but it always seems that the large, multi channel retail merchants are represented less than their counterparts. Why, I am not that sure.

I remember the first affiliate conference that I heard of years ago. My boss handed me the print out as she was laughing hysterically shouting “there is no way I am sending you on a cruise”. She walked away laughing as I was left trying to figure out what she was referring to. I think that was the ill fated Affiliate Force. Maybe there are still some doubts about affiliate conferences due to some of the actions of the past and completely unrelated to Shawn Collins and Missy Ward’s event. Maybe I can shed some light on our industry’s most successful event for merchants and give you a few good reasons to attend this year’s event in Miami.

Why go to the Affiliate Summit?

1. Reach affiliates you would find hard to meet otherwise. If you think you know all the affiliates that are out there, guess again. I have been doing this since ’99 and every summit I meet 20-30 new affiliates that I never knew about. Don’t assume that you have everyone in your program that can sell your products. This industry is in a state of constant innovation and the summit is a wonderful place to meet new partners and cultivate new ideas together.
2. Build and strengthen relationships with affiliates. As I have said, and others have as well, affiliate marketing is really about relationships and you can’t trade a face to face meeting, a lunch or a dinner with a phone call or an email. At a conference like this, you are able to really get to know your partners, learn about what they are planning to do and how you can support them and work with them to drive more sales to your site and more success to both of you.
3. Educate current affiliates on your product and business practices. As affiliates gather in Vegas or Miami, you have the opportunity to meet with them, bring many of them together at one time and reveal new products, teach them on your current ones and help them better pre-sell your products to your customers. Educate them on your demographics, customer purchasing behavior and even bring product for them to touch and feel. This can do a lot to build loyalty from your affiliate base and help them sell more for you.
4. Build excitement for your product and program. What better way to build excitement for your program than to reach out to them personally or by purchasing a booth at the event. Prize giveaways and sales promotions go over great here and can help you rally the troops so to speak.
5. Network with colleagues. I can’t overestimate how important this is. Other affiliate managers and professionals in our industry can provide you with great ideas for promotions, recruiting and activation. It’s important to stay in touch with others in the industry and this is a great time to do just that.
6. Great sessions – learn more about our industry. As I stated earlier, this industry is changing every day, if you want to keep up, the sessions have been very good the last two years. Industry leaders share their experiences, successes and failures in all things affiliates marketing. Are you building your team? This also provides a great arena to train your new members.
7. Ideas, Ideas, Ideas. One of the biggest advantages to these summits are the ideas that come out of them. Spending time with hundreds of others in your industry inherently breeds ideas and innovation. The times of the year that I am able to develop some of our most successful plans and ideas are during the summits and other conferences I attend.
8. Merchant to Merchant promotions. Have you done any cross promotions with other merchants? This is a great time to cultivate those relationships and develop some great promotions for both affiliates programs and companies as a whole.
9. Great for program launches. What better way to launch a program than in front of a thousand eager affiliates? It may be the best way to reach these outstanding partners.

I tried to think of ten, but 9 was all I got today. I’m sure Shawn or others can provide another 9-10, so please feel free to add. This is our industry’s biggest event and it is getting bigger every year. It is a wonderful opportunity for merchants to reach partners that they never heard of, want to work with, and/or want to build closer relationship with. Seriously consider a booth too. We have had one for the last two years and it has been a wonderful experience each time.

Oh one more thing – if you have asked yourself who out there can help you drive incremental sales, new customers and make your program more successful, than you need to be at this event.

About Jamie Birch

Jamie E. Birch is the owner and principal of JEBCommerce. Almost ten years ago, he began as a Search Engine Guru and has extensive experience in all aspects of Internet Marketing, specializing in Affiliate Marketing Management. Excelling at performance marketing initiatives at several national, publicly traded retailers and online service providers, Jamie’s work has expanded and evolved. Today, it includes all facets of online marketing: email projects, paid search campaigns, customer retention programs and more. His clients range from Zappos to Doba.com. Jamie also blogs at NewsforAffiliates.com
You can find Jamie on Twitter:@JamieEBirch.

Website: http://jebcommerce.com

Twitter: JamieBcomm