Affiliate Marketing Blog from UK Offer MediaWelcome to Kieron’s blog - the life and times of an Internet Marketeer

Communicating effectively with affiliates, more good and bad emails

I received an email from TradeDoubler this week entitled “Halfords update and voucher codes”. Great I thought, just the job for some fresh content on my discount codes site. Imagine my disappointment when I couldn’t use anything at all from the email.

To explain why, here’s the email along with some notes I made:

Dear Affiliate,

Please find below information on key activities for Halfords this coming week.

DONT FORGET AN EXTRA 1% COMMISSION IS NOW AVAILABLE ON ALL ORDERS ON HALFORDS.COM UNTIL 24TH DECEMBER 2007

Offline

Press adverts this weekend feature:

Sat Nav:

50% off Route 66 Mini Regional - now £99.99 with free set up and demo
50% off Garmin Nuvi 200W - now £139.99 with free set-up and demo
Save £40 on Garmin Nuvi 200 - now £129.99 with free set-up and demo
Save £40 on Garmin Nuvi 250 - now £139.99 with free set-up and demo
50% off LG N10 - now £129.99 with free set up and demo
Save £100 on TomTom GO 720 - now £229.99 with free set-up and demo
50% off Route 66 Mini Regional - now £99.99 with free set-up and demo
Free set up and demo on ALL sat nav

Bikes:

Half Price Vibe 360 BMX Bike - now £59.99 with free build and safety check
Half Price Shockwave XT675 Mens Mountain Bike - now £89.99 with free build and safety check
Half Price Shockwave XT750 Womens Mountain Bike - now £129.99 with free build and safety check
Half Price Shockwave XT950 Mens Mountain Bike - now £129.99 with free build and safety check
Save £33 on Apollo Urchin Boys Bike - now £49.99 with free build and safety check
Save £33 on Apollo Stunt King Bike - now £54.99 with free build and safety check
Save £47 on Apollo Kinx Boys Bike - now £59.99 with free build and safety check
Save £40 on Awesome BMX Bike - now £69.99 with free build and safety check
Save £13 on Apollo Stinger Bike - now £49.99 with free build and safety check
Reserve your bike in-store this Christmas for only £10 deposit

In-Car Technology:

Under Half Price LG CD Radio with MP3 Connectivity - now £69.99 - with half price fitting
Save £20 on JVC CD Radio with iPod connection - now £129.99 - with fitting at only £9.99
Belkin Tunecast 3 FM Transmitter - only £29.99
Under Half Price Ripspeed In-Dash DVD/CD/MP3 Player - now £199.99
An extra 10% off ALL Camera Detectors - web exclusive

Toys & Games:

Half Price Football Table - now £49.99

Car Maintenance:

Save 1/3 on Halfords 49 piece Precision Tool Set in ABS Case - now £39.99
Save 1/3 on Halfords Professional 150 piece Socket Set - now £99.99
Save 1/3 on Halfords 235 piece Metal Tool Chest - now £49.99
Save £5 on Halfords Professional 30 piece Screwdriver Set - now £24.99
Save 1/3 on Halfords 127 piece Tool Case - now £99.99

OK so first of all, well done to Halfords for increasing commission over Christmas, I just wish they would send out better emails so I could promote them and claim this increased commission. At first glace the first half of the email above contains some really good information, around 27 products that are discounted. BUT where are the links? The email was just plain text and contained no hyperlinks.

If only TradeDoubler had taken a leaf out of Buy.at’s and Affiliate Window’s book and included personalised hyperlinks with my affiliate code embedded, then I would be promoting them right now. However, I receive about 200 to 300 emails a week from networks and merchants and my workload is so big that I only have time to promote the merchants hwo make it easy for me. I wish I had the time to search the Halfords website and build my own deep links but its just too time consuming.

Anyway, the rest of the email continues in the same vain, then we come to the good bit, the voucher codes:

Current Sat Nav voucher code offers:

|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|Sat Nav model |Voucher Code |Voucher Code | |
| | |Price | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom GO 720 |HALTTGO720TRAF |£256.94 | |
|Traffic | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|Garmin Nuvi 250 |HALGAR250W |£159.99 | |
|Wide | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom ONE Europe|HALTTEUXL |£176.55 | |
|XL | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom ONE Europe|HALTTEUXLTRAF |£204.88 | |
|XL Traffic | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom ONE GB XL |HALTTGBXL |£142.99 | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom ONE GB V3 |HALTTGBTRAF |£154.00 | |
|Traffic | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom GO 520 |HALTTGO520 |£203.25 | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom GO 520 |HALTTGO520TRAF |£227.93 | |
|Traffic | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|Sony NV-U82 |HALSONY82 |£169.99 | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom One Europe|HALTTEUTRAF |£168.99 | |
|V3 Traffic | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|Garmin Nuvi 200 |HALGAR200W |£142.00 | |
|Wide | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|Garmin Zumo 500 |HALZUMO500 |£287.00 | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom Rider |HALTTRIDER |£269.99 | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom ONE Europe|HALTTEU |£148.79 | |
|V3 | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom GO 720 |HALTTGO720 |£226.69 | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom GO 920 |HALTTGO920TRAF |£362.45 | |
|Traffic | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
|TomTom One GB V3 |HALTTGB |£126.99 | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
| | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
| | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
| | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
| | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
| | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
| | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|
| | | | |
|—————–+—————–+—————–+—————–|

OK well it does contain some discount codes but it doesn’t tell me what the prices are on the sat nav units before the voucher codes are applies, so I can’t tell my visitors. It also doesn’t tell me when the codes expire. All in all its just messy, is badly formatted and I can’t use it as it doesn’t give the information I need. I just think this is a real waste of an email that could contain some really good useful information. It doesn’t even contain any codes for new updated creative, there is literally nothing I can use in it. A wasted opportunity.

Now compare that awful piece of communication with this brilliant email I received from Buyagift. Please note that the formatting looks a bit wonky but that’s just because I cut and pasted it into my blog. The original email was perfectly formatted, anyway here it is:

Dear Kieron Donoghue, We’re now entering the final furlong, with just under 2 weeks until the big day. In this newsletter I’ve put together everything you need for the final push and beyond - our hottest gifts, last order dates, and January Sale information.

Below are the hottest 10 products - guaranteed to continue selling well through to Christmas. The links include your affiliate ID so they’re ready to go. We also have a fantastic range of Oxfam gifts - perfect for the person who has everything. Click here to view the Oxfam range. Go Ape! 2 for 1 Offer - was £58 NOW £29 http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=273&awinaffid=16083&p= http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/2215 Adult Tour of Stamford Bridge for Two - was £29 NOW £16 http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=273&awinaffid=16083&p= http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/1385 Ferrari Thrill - was £125 NOW £75 http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=273&awinaffid=16083&p= http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/1797 Aston Martin Thrill - was £125 NOW £99 http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=273&awinaffid=16083&p= http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/1620 Discount Harness Sphereing for Two - was £59 NOW £45 http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=273&awinaffid=16083&p= http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/1817 Indoor Skydiving - was £49 NOW £29 http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=273&awinaffid=16083&p= http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/1815 Health Club Day Pass for Two - £20 http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=273&awinaffid=16083&p= http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/51 Audi R8 Thrill - £99 http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=273&awinaffid=16083&p= http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/2011 Single Seater Experience - was £159 NOW £75 http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=273&awinaffid=16083&p= http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/1798 2 for 1 Segway Rally Race - was £99 NOW £49 http://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?awinmid=273&awinaffid=16083&p= http://www.buyagift.co.uk/Product/Id/2164

We will despatch items by first class Royal Mail up to 11am Sat 22nd Dec, but advise you to order by Thurs 20th Dec if you require your gift in time for Christmas. Orders taken up to 11am Sat 22nd Dec for guaranteed next day delivery will be delivered by 1pm Mon 24th Dec.For any last minute orders, customers have the option of printing a temporary voucher from our website.

Our January Sale will commence on Tuesday 27th December and will run until Sunday 13th January. During this time the discount code jansale08 will give 10% off everything, excluding theme park and attraction tickets.The current Christmas creative in Affiliate Window will automatically be updated on these dates.

Video Creative In January we will be launching video creative for affiliates to embed into their pages. This gives content sites the perfect opportunity to pre-sell the exciting experiences to your users.PPC Restrictions Please note that “Oxfam” and “Go Ape” have been added to our PPC restriction list. You can see the full list on our program page on Affiliate Window.Bestsellers This Excel spreadsheet contains our top 25 bestsellers by month, including historic data..Product Feed This CSV file contains all product information relating to our website. It is updated every Friday. Should you have any specific feed requirements, please get in touch.

Finally I’d like to thank all of you for your consistent hard work in 2007, and for helping Buyagift maintain the position of number one online retailer of gift experiences. Kind regards, Graham. graham@buyagift.co.uk dl:020 8370 8303 : grahamatbuyagift@hotmail.com

How brilliant is that? Here’s why:

It gives me the top 10 bestsellers, and not only tells me the price and the saving available but also contains PERSONALISED DEEP AFFILIATE LINKS!! Because of this I simply cut and paste them into my UKOffer site here. Easy!

Voucher Code: There is even a voucher code for the January sale that starts 2 days after Christmas. Great advanced planning.

Last Orders: The dates are all here, great.

Bestsellers and product feeds: The email contains links to excel spreadsheets that give us the latest bestsellers and product feeds. Really useful.

Contact Info: Just incase we have any queries Graham signs off with all his contact info. Not a “no reply” email address that some networks use.

So hats off to Buyagift and in particular Graham, he is one of the best Affiliate Managers in the industry, its not the first time I’ve praised his methods of communicating effectively with affiliates and I doubt it will be the last.

What I’m listening to right now: Dream - “Ditch That”

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Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 10:49 am and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.