Affiliate Marketing. Chance...or Choice?

Are you in the Online Lead Generation or Affiliate Marketing Industry?

Have you ever found yourself responding to a cleverly presented mobile banner, an emphasized hyperlink in your daily news digest, entertained a wittily delivered subject line or received an intrusive, and yet strangely well timed, geo-targeted mobile message to your phone…only to be hastily redirected to a glossy advertisement promising you the upper limit of what you suddenly realize you didn’t you know you needed?

We all have.

We’ve all watched as over the years advertising methods have moved stealthily into a ethereal cloud of sites, sounds, and colors that tap our phones and ring our voicemails; as marketers expand the channels people encounter to digest their marketing.

In a world covered in advertisements trussed up in swanky inferences, we find a symphony of marketing reaching a crescendo of noise, ultimately ending in consumer deafness. Indeed, with so many options being ferried to and fro, how does the everyday consumer decide when to 'click'…versus…when to pick.

I remember nearly ten years back as I dove head first into Affiliate Marketing and remember my first foray as an upstart affiliate manager, working on my first couple lead generation offers I peddled to XYZ affiliate networks, such as Pepper Jam, Motive Interactive and Dedicated Media.

Product and services such as Acai berry supplements, teeth whitening re-bills, reverse mortgage, "Jesus" holiday calendars and for-profit online universities were all the rage back then. Cheesy, one-pager landing pages with generic, and low-res images, most listing a bombastic call-to-action with pictures of elated and presumably... satisfied customers pasted across the desktop screens were common; along with the good ole’ fashioned 8-field short-form positioned to the right, enticing you to fill the blanks and submit your life away.

I remember looking at these forms back then and thinking to myself “Wow. No one would actually fill one of these out would they…?” --and over the next decade I learned that actually they did; and in fact they still do.

The power of affiliate marketing is in the innate spirit of competition to get the consumers attention. In this business it's a race to the inbox, the iMessage, or the mobile screen. You have talented technologists, ideological marketers, big-box brand ambassadors and the zealous rush of consumer demand in play. With such competition, I’ve rarely seen another commerce eco-system that mutates so quickly, and with such advanced levels of sophistication.

Yet, even now as we live in a world struggling to grapple with the emergence of digital crypto-currencies, or the notion that social media platform data might be harvested to turn the tide in political elections, I find myself wondering if the consumer is being left behind in all of this, or conversely, if the conscious consumer is transcending to a different medium altogether to make their decisions; be they politically minded or consumerism related.

I thought the term the “silent majority” was in interesting notion during the Trump election. The idea that there was a large, unnoticed, unspoken to, and growing group of people large enough to make a political impact that was being ignored by rising media, traditional marketing or the same, tired old way of doing things.

When we observe history, we recount that consumers have proven ability to become callous from messages they don’t like, will tune-out and eventually will ignore completely, instead pursuing their true interests, much to the chagrin of marketers and politicians alike. However developing an anti-body resistance, or deafness to marketing doesn’t mean that demand disappears, it simply migrates to a supply outlet of its own choosing.

I believe consumers have grown tired of the main value proposition offered by mainstream lead generation and affiliate marketing – Chance.

Most affiliate marketing sites ask the customer to provide detailed contact information with a vague promise that the site will provide, or find them a product or service. This vague promise comes with a requirement that the customer agree to have their information shared extensively in fine print; and once it is submitted, it’s largely up to "chance" that the customer will get a fair exchange on their legally submitted trust and consent.

I believe that smart consumers of digital ads are migrating to platforms where they no longer take chances by making their their decisions in a vacuum.

They are moving to advertising forums where they have Choices.

Plenty of consumers have felt the sting of falling for that quick, convenient affiliate marketing promise... only to have their online identify stolen, or offered a product falling way short of the marketing promise. Or even worse, being tricked into starting a free trial that can’t be canceled without calling the bank to charge back some shadowy online merchant located distantly in the Isle of Man.

Indeed there is a growing bubble in the lead generation and affiliate marketing world, where the high-value, tech-savvy, and affluent consumer is maximizing their time by comparing ads, getting educated and using deductive reasoning before clicking and making their choices.

People want to tangibly compare brands, tag-lines, color schemes, online reputation, price and features side-by-side when deciding which ads they want to respond, or not to.

Some of the sites that have it right: include LendingTree.com, NerdWallet.com, PriceLine.com, Rent.com, Hotel.com and Insurify.com to name a few.

These sites have figured out that by creating a platform and user experience where minimal information is collected from the customer, and maximum information is provided to help guide and educate choice - that there is an inherit efficiency linked to conversion, life time value and advertiser satisfaction

I believe the lead generation and affiliate marketing industry is poised to begin shifting away from marketing in a binary vacuum. Soon we are going to see more of these comparison-based advertising platforms emerge where consumers will make choices, instead of taking chances when comparing their options.

For the smart marketer wondering where their low EPL’s or diminishing LTV’s are disappearing to... I would encourage you to think about how you can leverage technology to enrich your marketing strategy, to provide more choices and education to your consumers. How can you create a marketing dialogue instead of a marketing blast with your permissible audience? Stop and think about where the savvy consumers are going for their ad-digest. Lead generation doesn’t have to be a one-time connection, it can be a trusted, ongoing and profitable relationship for all parties. The smart marketers are building returning customer accounts, generating "facebook-like" stickiness, demonstrate thought leadership with REAL tips, instead of GENERIC blog posts, and comparison panels that encourage advertisers to compete for the customer – for once, not just for clicks with price, but for engagement with product.

Choice-based marketing is ensnaring the affiliate marketing world's best customers. Do your part to evolve the industry and empower customers and advertisers by calibrating intent, and solve one of affiliate marketing’s greatest problems.