We’re pleased to announce that VoucherCodes is a Gold Sponsor of this year’s Performance Marketing Awards.
Jeremy Samuel, Senior Account Manager at VoucherCodes, spoke to PerformanceIN journalist Niamh Butler-Walton about the upcoming awards, what VoucherCodes is most looking forward to, and some exciting projects going on behind the scenes…
It’s great to have VoucherCodes involved as a sponsor for this year’s Performance Marketing Awards. What are you most looking forward to about the virtual event?
Seeing some old faces! Networking opportunities have been limited during the pandemic, so it’s fantastic that PerformanceIN have created a virtual space for face-to-face interaction, allowing the industry to celebrate together and really take stock of what’s been a whirlwind year.
The PMA’s celebrate the achievements of the best minds in the industry. Which particular categories and talking points are of interest to you this year?
The Innovation category is always one to keep an eye on, but especially so this year given the rapid pace of change as a result of Covid. It’s also great to see the introduction of new categories that really capture the current climate, like Best Use of Performance during Covid and Best Wellbeing Initiative.
At VoucherCodes, what are the main goals you work towards when working with advertisers?
We pride ourselves on having a consultative approach to partnerships, and we place great importance on being a truly bespoke and flexible publisher in order to best serve our partners.
Not only do we work with over 5,000 brands but they also span multiple sectors, so with that comes an abundance of different KPIs for us to work towards – so there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
When working with partners, we aim to fully understand and meet each one’s individual goals, which is a challenging but rewarding process as there’s no better feeling than feeding back to a partner about a successful campaign.
How does your work benefit advertisers?
A key strength we have at VoucherCodes is being able to offer our partners targeted marketing support across a broad range of channels, which allows them to reach people at multiple touchpoints within the customer journey.
These include our website, app, and an array of marketing opportunities including email and social media, all of which we are constantly evolving in order to maximise incremental value for our partners.
Continuous innovation from our CRM team ensures we are promoting our advertisers to an engaged audience, and we can now further segment this audience to target particular affinity groups with bespoke campaigns to maximise ROI.
Lastly, our newer products including our plug and play iFrames and our Browser Extension upsell tools have also proved instrumental in reducing basket abandonment and maxisming conversion.
What performance marketing trends have you seen shift over the past year of the pandemic, and where do you now see the opportunities coming from?
Over the past year, people’s online shopping habits have shifted in so many ways, from when and how they shop to what they’re buying. One key thing we’ve seen is an influx of new customers, which peaked during lockdown periods, suggesting that there were many people turning to online shopping for the first time due to the impact of Covid.
Perhaps the biggest shift we’ve seen is in what people have shopped for during Covid. It’s been well-documented that fitness and wellbeing brands have seen a huge surge in demand during the pandemic as people were forced to take care of their health from home. However, we’ve also seen hugely increased demand in the fashion and beauty categories as people sought to treat themselves during times when going out and enjoying normal life was off the cards. As the country opens up and life begins to get back to normal, we anticipate to see further shifts in purchase behaviour – it’ll be interesting to see which changes from lockdown are here to stay!
What tips can you share for advertisers looking to adopt an effective strategy?
Communication is key. Providing as much context as possible around your business goals and KPIs really helps us to recommend and tailor the best products for your particular campaign.
Equally, it’s crucial to strike the balance between staying agile and booking ahead, especially in the run up to key shopping events. While we’ll always strive to accommodate last minute campaigns, the more notice you can give about upcoming promotions, the more thought and planning we can put into building a bespoke package to really meet and exceed your goals.
Finally, are there any exciting projects that VoucherCodes is working on at the moment? Please share with our readers so we all know what to look out for throughout the remainder of 2021.
Our NHS platform, created back in May 2020 at the start of the pandemic, has just celebrated its first anniversary. We’re very proud to report that in its first year, we’ve driven £5.6m in sales for our brand partners, and saved NHS staff £970k through NHS exclusive offers.
The NHS platform remains a key focus for the business as we go into its second year. After two successful Blue Week NHS marketing campaigns, we’ve got lots more in the pipeline to continue growing the platform, supporting NHS staff and our partners as we emerge out of the pandemic.
Don’t forget to check out the PMA website for more information about the upcoming awards, and stay tuned for more exciting news as we approach the ceremony by signing up to our newsletter.
