In anticipation of his presentation at Affiliate Management Days entitled ‘Using Data to Improve Your Recruiting Efforts‘, conference chair Geno Prussakov interviewed Van Chappell, founder and CEO of 5IQ. The following Q&A with Chappell touches on the current state of affiliate marketing, affiliate management, and, of course, affiliate recruitment.
Geno Prussakov: If you were to emphasise one important issue that every affiliate manager should be paying more attention to, what would it be and why?
GP: What was the most important marketing lesson that you learned in the course 2015?
VC: No one recruits in Q4.
GP: What do you believe to be the main areas of opportunity in 2016 – for online marketers, in general, and for affiliate marketers, in particular?
VC: Content, content, content. Whether you are talking about affiliates, influencers, or paid placements, folks that can provide a content platform are going to be in demand (regardless of whether or not they are delivering performance).
GP: What do you believe to be the biggest challenge advertisers with affiliate programmes face, and what steps could help them overcome it?
VC: When I observe people that are successful at recruiting, I see a few key characteristics:
⦁ A well-defined recruiting process (they aren’t reinventing it every time they start recruiting).
⦁ Data is used to remove the difficult (and time-sucking) parts of recruiting.
⦁ It is a priority — it doesn’t get cut from the to-do list.
⦁ They are being measured on their activity and success in recruiting (especially true when you talk about agencies).
GP: Give us a few reasons why marketers should attend your AM Days 2016 presentation, ‘Using Data to Improve Your Recruiting Efforts‘.
VC:
⦁ Recruiting affiliates is important for sustained growth in a programme.
⦁ There will be a lot of smart people in the room — I’ll call on them to share their experiences around recruiting so you can learn from them as well.
⦁ Pictures of cats! (maybe).
GP: If you were to leave online advertisers, merchants and affiliate managers with one piece of advice, what would it be?
VC: Know your competition and learn from them.
Don’t miss Chappell’s conference presentation, ‘Using Data to Improve Your Recruiting Efforts‘, at Affiliate Management Days on Monday, April 4, 2016, from 10:15-11:00am. Register with code PMI15 for 15% off of full conference passes.
