MARKETING PLAYBOOK THE ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE. TIPS FROM THE WORLD S MOST INFLUENTIAL PERFORMANCE MARKETING EXPERTS

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1 THE ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE MARKETING PLAYBOOK

2 Hello! Performance marketing has long been a significant contributor to brands Internet revenues and it is undergoing significant changes to adapt to new trends in technology and media. From being a tried-and-true channel that largely worked on autopilot, brands and agencies that serve them need to adopt their strategies and embrace the new trends that are emerging. Todd Crawford Co-Founder and VP, Strategic Initiatives The channel is set to continue to expand and according to Forrester Research in their US Affiliate Marketing Forecast, 2009 to 2014, it will grow from a $1.9B industry in 2009 to $4B by the end of Performance marketing is one of the fastest growing online marketing tactics and, in fact, has a 16% growth rate that outpaces display advertising and digital marketing spend category growth rates of 12.5% and 10%, respectively. Imagine where it will be in another 5 years! The growth is driven by increased overall Internet usage and mobile devices that enable new business models and increased amount of transactions. We hope this ebook helps you and your business become more successful.

3 Table of contents Introduction How to create expert content for your site Paid posts versus affiliate marketing Guest posts still work and always will Affiliate marketing 7 Elements that need to be in every great product review How to double your subscribers in 30 days How to launch a product Deciding on a new market to promote Can affiliate tracking be implemented for offline promotions Increasing subscriptions by 315% Thank you to the Performance Marketing experts who contributed to this ebook Closing Thoughts

4 Introduction Marketers have increased the percentage of their ad budgets dedicated to digital year after year is no different. It is projected that $ billion will be allocated to online ad spend this year.* With a significant amount money being invested in online marketing campaigns, marketers are focused on spending wisely and getting the highest Return on Ad Spend across all digital channels. Impact Radius sent out a survey to marketing executives and digital advertisers to understand the top priorities in Which areas of focus will allow marketing teams to maximize revenue and cut out the ad spend excess? The study reveals executives and marketing teams have four main priorities: Mobile, Personalization, Attribution, and Productivity. We decided to share the wisdom of some industry veterans and the most influential people in performance marketing to better understand these trends and how to take advantage of them. Here are their tips: *emarketer, Digital Ad Spending Worldwide, by Region, , Aug

5 1 How to create expert content for your site I took a page from the book of home building expert, Tim Carter, and his site, Ask the Builder. Based on his extensive experience building homes, Tim made himself available to answer questions related to home repair and building. He would then answer them on video and in text in posts on his blog. I also use Google Alerts to help me with ideas to create content by tracking keywords to find relevant news stories, blog posts, etc. I then answer questions I receive at AskShawnCollins.com on video, and then transcribe those answers to make blog posts. Shawn Collinshttps://twitter.com/affiliatetip

6 2 Paid posts versus affiliate marketing Unfortunately, whether PR agencies hire bloggers for product promotion and ambassadorships, in-bound links, or as a way to build Facebook and Twitter followings, they are getting absolute bottom dollar pricing on brilliant native advertising and content they don t even need to create themselves. In addition, bloggers are constantly telling me that the requirements on reviews and sponsored posts are growing as marketers become even more aggressive in their outreach efforts. Affiliate marketing links in blog posts provide bloggers with continual revenue stream opportunity with little, if any restrictions on content or copy at all. Bloggers control the content, the context, and the choices to support the products they love and earn money steadily in the process. Missy Ward

7 3 Guest posts still work and always will You may have heard that Google has planned to crack down guest posters. This all stems from a blog post that Google Webspam team member, Matt Cutts, created. It seems that many people are taking what Cutts has said a bit out of context. This shouldn t deter you from pursuing opportunities to spread your brand and improve your linking profile from the use of guest blogging. If anything, it s more valuable now than ever. In layman s terms, Google won t punish your site unless you are one of the biggest guest blogging networks in the world and you publicly taunt them. Matt Cuttshttps://twitter.com/mattcutts

8 4 Affiliate marketing Stop delivering intrusive s to your prospects and give them value. Educate them on the space and your company. Communicate to them everything that you would have if they came up to your booth at a trade show. After all, you are getting 1000x more leads than at any trade show. Why not put in place an automated system that continues the relationships after they visited the website? Your sales will increase drastically. Some of our clients are doing more than 25% of ALL of their sales through our sequencing. Jeremy Shoemaker

9 5 7 Elements that need to be in every great product review Image/Video Product Description Buyer Description Proof Negatives Call-to-Action Keyword Phrase Keep in mind that it's the merchants job to sell the product. Your job as an affiliate is to pre-sell the product. A good product review will assist the visitor with their buying decision so that they buy the right product, and feel good about doing it. Lynn Terry

10 6 How to double your subscribers in 30 days An actionable way to double your subscription rate is by adding a start here page. You know it a separate high-quality page that lists your best posts, especially for those who are coming to your blog for the first time. The truth is that converting fresh visitors into subscribers will do you a lot of good because you d be able to nurture them, solve their problems and win their hearts faster. A start here page all by itself can t do the job effectively, though. You'll need to add a subscription box at the top, middle, or beneath the page. Don't go stuffing your page with opt-in boxes. It's a killer and could discourage your first time visitors. John Chow

11 7 How to launch a product Schedule your launch, and then work backwards to plan your prelaunch. Implement strategies to recruit launch partners (affiliates). Design a prelaunch campaign that incorporates these key ingredients: Provide real value Build a list Tell a story (marketing narrative) Generate social proof Convey urgency and scarcity Eric Holmlund

12 7 How to launch a product - Visualized Prelaunch Squeeze Page Prelaunch Subscriber List FREEBIE #1 (Video, Webinar, PDF, etc.) Traffic from affiliates, and from buzz that you ve generated (social media, etc). Follow-Up Sequence FREEBIE #2 (Video, Webinar, PDF, etc.) FREEBIE #3 (PRESELL) Early Bird List Customer List (Removes them from the prelaunch list) Repeat follow-up until they buy Launch Sale Page Early Access

13 8 Deciding on a new market to promote You ve got a great idea for a new site, and you feel really passionate about it. That s great. Enthusiasm about an idea can be essential for success in performance marketing. However, sometimes passion about a site is not enough to make money. On occasions you will just want to run some of your sites as a hobby and nothing more, and that is fine. But it is important to know from the get go which website ideas have a big potential for making affiliate money and which ones don t. 1 2 Look at the size of the market Look at competition levels Will people want to purchase the products which I include on the site? Geno Prussakov

14 9 Can affiliate tracking be implemented for offline promotions? This is a great question, and one with one of those answers people hate It depends. Can it be done? Yes. The merchant needs to be on a network or have technology that can capture that code, there are a couple that do. Also the merchant cart (or lead form) needs to have a place for that code to be entered. There are more affiliates that are using offline methods of promotion so it isn t uncommon for affiliates to ask for a special code that tracks uniquely to them. Deborah Carney

15 10 Increasing subscriptions by 315% (And the Small, Quick Thing That Made it Happen) A small, quick win helps people associate reward with whatever helped to produce it. I m also a huge fan of Ramit Sethi s blog because there was one specific post I read that helped me save $30/month on my cable bill with one simple phone call. I m a huge fan of RunnersConnect.net because early on my coach taught me a quick breathing exercise I could do while running to immediately get rid of the cramps on my side. It worked instantly. And my last post generated a ton of new and excited subscribers because it was chock-full of ways to produce a small, quick win. That was the strategy behind the post. Put a subscription form on the most viewed articles on your blog - that small tip alone increased my subscriptions by 315%. Pat Flynn

16 Thank You To The Performance Marketing Experts Who Contributed To This ebook Deborah Carney Lynn Terry Eric Holmlund ericstips Matt Cutts mattcutts Geno Prussakov eprussakov Missy Ward Jeremy Shoemaker shoemoney Pat Flynn John Chow Shawn Collins

17 Closing Thoughts Performance marketing is an exciting and relatively untapped area for marketers. At Impact Radius, we are deeply committed to creating SaaS technologies that are disrupting the channel by enabling brands and agencies to work directly with their key partners to change the performance marketing landscape. As these experts have shown, there are many new ideas and concepts to consider when developing your marketing strategy. It s especially challenging because performance marketing is evolving and becoming more difficult to manage and track. Due to our deep expertise in the field, we understand these challenges and have developed a suite of tools to help you better manage them. We d love for you to check us out. Just start here. /get-a-demo/ Request a Demo

18 This playbook was produced by: Evolve! is a marketing and influencer engagement agency that blends influential people and the media with social campaigns to create high awareness and leads for our customers. We utilize Raynforest, the first online influencer marketplace, great content, and proven growth methodologies to deliver strategic programs that give clients winning and measurable results. Impact Radius enables digital brands and agencies to maximize the return of ad spend across digital, mobile and offline channels. Our SaaS marketing technology enables marketers to have a singular trusted analytics view into all marketing efforts by collecting granular consumer journey data and marketing costs. Through the automation of critical marketing processes and real-time delivery of visual reporting insights, the platform drives revenue for global companies such as American Airlines, Cabela s, Shutterstock, Tommy Hilfiger and Wayfair.