Optimise Your Affiliate Campaign for the Summer Sales

Summer sales mark a turning point in advertisers’ business calendars. Originally limited to textiles and ready-to-wear, they have now been extended to encompass much of the economy for many years. From bank loans to software, household goods, interior decor, wellness products and cars, every brand uses sales as a promotional tool. The aim? To attract new customers, retain existing customer loyalty and increase average spend, while clearing out stock.

Update and monitor your product catalogue

The catalogue tells you what to sell, when and at what price. It should be right up-to-date as it will provide all the key information that goes out to publishers. You can also edit it in real time depending on how sales go. If one product is proving harder to sell than another, you can invest a bit more for a limited period. Take the time to check the quality of your catalogue: images, descriptions, titles, references and everything else should be as clear as possible with unique data and no duplication or errors.

Create and share appropriate and effective visuals

Working with publishers should be a win-win situation. For this to be the case, you need to make your publishers‘ lives easier so they can concentrate on their work and try to bring you new customers. This is why you should send them data and content that are easy to manage and add in. These can include email kits, banners, specific wording, sales strategies, etc. What matters is taking care with the style and content. The design serves the message. Time spent preparing will soon pay off once the campaign has been launched.

Manage different mark-downs

Prices fluctuate hugely during sales. Reductions can start at 20% and increase to 30% or 40% two weeks later. This means you have to be agile, react fast and anticipate all the situations that may arise. Stock management needs to be precise and effective. Your advertising campaigns should get underway immediately and your in-house validation process must be smooth to avoid wasting time. You can also use promotional codes for extra services. These are added to ongoing promotions (free delivery, free returns, insurance included, etc.).

Optimise your email kits

Email is still the preferred way for affiliates to communicate with their communities. This is why affiliates should be sent elements that are ready to use. Choose visuals carefully, be inspiring, test the results on all platforms, check all the links and monitor email campaign performance in real time. You could send through an HTML file with images hosted on your server to optimise load time. Your email kits should be suitable for mobile devices so they work on all platforms. Finally, you can encourage A/B testing to optimise campaigns.

Find the right partner

Managing your own affiliate campaigns can be time-consuming and tiring. It is more efficient to pass this work on to an agency who does it day in, day out. When deciding which agency to choose, you need to ask the right questions: how many publishers do they have in their network? Which countries are they in? Do they already have experience in your business sector? Do they have reliable campaign management technology? Would you have proper support? You can use the answers to these questions to choose the right trusted partner.

Summer sales do not only happen in stores. The online battleground can be the toughest because of the strong competition and real-time element. You should, therefore, see your publishers as business partners. They represent your brand on the (virtual) ground and the more convinced they are by your offering and brand, the more effective they will be.  Consult our team of experts for assistance with your projects!