Offer Frustrations
3 Comments May 21, 2006 / Posted in Affiliate MarketingOne of our users recently spotted this offer from Nectar - spend £10, you get free P & P and a goodie bag worth £25 free, + double nectar points - 4 points to the £1. The offer is from Buy Cosmetics who do offer good prices and discounts and also do give affiliates promotions.
In some cases it’s possible to use our own affiliate links and guide users to the same offer but to earn the site commission. However it’s absolutely impossible in this case. The best available affiliate offer is spend £25 to get £25 free. How can any affiliate then compete against Nectar’s spend £10?
Now no doubt the argument will be that Nectar are a big brand and on the level playing field of business accept that you’re on a different level, but surely somewhere along the line merchants must realise that these offers get shared around the web? As is we have a bunch of happy users buying from Buy Cosmetics and earning a few quid for Nectar! OK, I could remove the link and/or replace it, but it is a good offer and at least it generates user interest (grasp at straws to get some positivity out of it).
Just to share the wrath a little more. Sendit.com have now joined DVD.co.uk in promoting Screenselect. A user can sign up for Screenselect at one of these two sites and receive £20 free - great, unless you’re trying to promote Screenselect to your users. Why join via an affiliate site (who at best can offer 4/5/6 free DVD rental) when there’s £20 to be had for free for themselves elsewhere. It’s not like even Sendit.com or DVD.co.uk are offering affiliates any share in this offer either.
Ah well, what can you do?Â
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Hi Jason, I hear your frustration and can hopefully provide you with a few answers.
As you probably know I’m the affiliate manager for Buy Cosmetics and was therefore involved in setting up this offer for Nectar.
Just to clarify, this isn’t a big brand vs small affiliate type scenario. Nectar IS an affiliate just like everybody else; they use the Buy Cosmetics links on CJ just like thousands of other affiliates do. The real battle here is Big Affiliate vs Small Affiliate and as you know, affiliates who are able to deliver more sales are rewarded more often than not with an increase in commission. With nectar having a penetration of 2million plus households you can imagine how they would become more than just a super affiliate. If more commission isn’t available then Buy Cosmetics can get creative with their promotions as in this instance.
This kind of things certainly isn’t new, the likes of Greasy Palm and The Mutual have been doing it for years. Perhaps now we’re seeing a corporatisation in affiliate marketing with the likes of Airmiles and Nectar getting in on the act?
Bottom line - If any affiliate can provide good volumes of sales I am always open to suggestions and can tailor the program to best suit them. If affiliates would like to increase their sales for Buy Cosmetics and don’t know how, well I’m always here to help.
Cheers
Paul.
The problem is though the promotion isn’t just for Nectar customers. The promotion spreads around the web and Nectar pick up the “small affiliate” customers too. So Nectar gets bigger - you guys are happy as you’re getting sales, Nectar are happy… and it’s the small affiliates sat wondering how do you combat that - the answer is you can’t.
It’s hard enough to get users interested in offers/discounts - without every offer you have in your arsenal totally pointless. No one person’s fault but wholly frustrating seeing user after user commenting how they’ve just bought at Buy Cosmetics! C’est la vie of the affiliate I guess.
[...] Jason Dale had a well deserved rant about the inequality between the offers available to bigger brands and those available to affiliates. Jason recently also posted about someone wanting to leave his mailing list. It’s not a weekend blog post but it did make me laugh [...]