That's a wrap 2021 & 5 things I learned from my Podcast guests this season.

That's a Wrap For 2021!

The final episode of my Affiliate Marketing Podcast, Season 5: Affiliate Marketing Around the Globe, has just dropped on Apple and Spotify today.

I have just listened back to this week's final episode and I thought I'd quickly summarise the key value bombs I learned from this season and what our guests shared about strategy, relationship management, tracking and technology - that might help you expand your global reach and leverage the power of affiliate marketing for your business growth!

Here are the key points (in no particular order) for you to enjoy:

1) "Affiliate Marketing" as a term is no longer covering the now fragmented partner marketplace.

Affiliates are everywhere. Managing multiple different partnerships is becoming harder to accomplish in a one size fits all program. We now have to consider how we want to work with B2B partners in JV relationships, Media partners on a performance basis, Content Curators like influencers and Ambassadors all undercover of one program that manages to fit everyone's needs and relationship management status. Technical solutions are having to develop faster to accommodate these changes and give marketers the tools to continue to make data driven decisions that allow us to continue to make profitable partnerships drive incremental sales. Affiliate Managers need to understand and "get to grips" with how they can manage multiple types of partner relationships and provide the support and assistance these partners need to grow their sales. (Have a quick listen to episodes 2 & 5 to find out more on this topic)

2) If you want to reach a local audience, you have to customise your proposition to fit

We spoke in depth to a number of regional experts in this series, and I learned that customisation and localisation goes far beyond just language translations on site. If you want to grow your reach and enter new markets you have to invest in understanding local customs and cultures too. From not smiling when you walk up to a Russian affiliate to have a conversation (Listen in on episode 7 : Affiliate Marketing in Russia where Constantine explains this) to having a telephone based customer service team on support and serve online customers in Eastern European markets vs email support or live chat. (Take a quick tour of episode: 8 to hear more on that). Not to mention localising languages and payment methods down to regional vs country based levels as Samatha discussed in detail (Tune in to episode 6 where we explored Latin America and Brazil in particular)

3) Understand attribution Modelling and how this works for YOUR business and how it impacts growth across channels and geo's before you implement it in your program methodologies

One of the best things that happened to me this past year was getting back to live - in-person events simply because the people you meet and get to network with can change your outlook on complex situations in a matter of seconds, as it did when I sat down with Choots Humphries, co founder of Link Connector an Affiliate Network based in the US. Choots has a wealth of experience in affiliate marketing and he shared some absolute nuggets on attribution and relationship management which made me tell our audience to press > pause, REWIND, and listen AGAIN. (You can listen to that part for yourself in episode 9) .

It's really not about implementing complex attribution models - because you feel you have to, or should - it's about figuring out what works for you and your partners and doing that by having conversations with them to drive value for your business and using the data you have to optimise your ROI.

4) Africa is still a goldmine of emerging opportunities - but you have to change your tactics to get success.

Africa - is a place that's close to my heart, it's where I grew up and where I still call "home". It is a rich, diverse and complex continent, and there was nobody better to explore the affiliate model there than with my friends Albert and Sarafina who are both experts in this region and who are doing incredible things to grow and leverage brand marketing to build successful case studies in affiliate marketing in this space.

The key take away I learned here in this episode is that you HAVE to listen to the local market and adjust your marketing activity and campaigns to suit their needs. From channels and ambassadors to growth and development infrastructure, there is no doubt Africa holds a wealth of opportunity still for brands to bed in growth in this emerging market place but you'll have to adjust your marketing mindset and really get creative to see best results. (Listen in on episode 10 where we discuss this very point and detail some of the ideas the Yolo group is implementing to drive performance and growth in this region. )

5) Affiliate Marketing - is growing and we need to adapt our strategy to move with these changes. You gotto keep learning!

Raj?Nijjer, the chief marketing officer of?Refersion,?summed things up nicely when he said " Treat your Affiliates like humans. They are not Google Ads and they are not a Technology pieces..." (Check out his other comments further by listening in to episode 2).

The truth is we are all learning what's working and what's not - because the industry is constantly changing and morphing into something bigger and more complex all around us.

"Recent stats delivered on More than 80% of marketers expect their affiliate marketing revenue to increase in the future. (Fetch Profits)"

That's a pretty big stat to take note of. It's also a sign that more and more brands are investing in performance marketing and getting it right can mean a big difference to your bottom line earnings and revenue. Getting it wrong could tank your business very quickly.

I'd like to see companies investing more resources, training, and skills development in understanding and enhancing their affiliate marketing teams and strategies to take benefit from this continued growth as this channel simply cannot be ignored or silo'd any longer.

In Summary

Affiliate marketing is not dead, and it never will be. I am just as passionate about supporting growth for our clients in this channel as I was more than two decades ago when I first started learning it. If you're passionate about learning how to AMPLIFY your performance in 2022 come join me at our AffiliateINSIDER AMPLIFY summit - a virtual learning event taking place 17-18 January and it is 100% FREE to attend.

We've brought together the best of the best to take you through where we think affiliate marketing is headed in the year ahead and we want our community to learn with us and grow their business and improve skills development as a whole in this industry.

Make 2022 a year of learning, be bold, try new things and more importantly invest in your learning. Come join me each week as we launch Season 6 of our Podcast (coming to you 13th January) which will be talking about amplification strategies for digital + affiliate marketers to help kick start your year with purpose!

AND... one last thing....

>>Subscribe to the Podcast here, and leave a 5 star review if you like what you hearing - it helps us to reach more people and will make me really happy :)

THANKS FOR READING TO THE VERY END.

Happy New Year!