Challenging, Leading, Inspiring, Agile, Bold and Rigorous. These are our values.
Unlike most agencies they're not just words that adorn our reception wall. They are hard wired into how we behave and what we do for our clients.
This entry will show how we Challenge industry norms and look for innovation, Lead the market in terms of the way we work, Inspire our competitors to follow our actions, are Agile, constantly evolving alongside market conditions, are Bold, trying new things that have not been done before and are Rigorous, examining every possible opportunity to the finest detail.
Leading
Proprietary network - in 2008, we invested in technology to launch our own proprietary network to migrate key volume drivers in house for clients such as MBNA (saving £500k since launch), Setanta (saving £50k since launch) and T-Mobile. This freed considerable budget allowing us to invest more in to the channel. We now operate as an affiliate network and frequently pitch for affiliate only business, essentially rivalling the traditional networks.
Agile
SEO guidance - in 2008, we have made it a priority to focus on SEO to get incremental growth from the affiliate channel, with many agencies focusing on PPC. Through site changes and supplement of content and copy, we were able to get improved visibility for T-Mobile on terms such as "mobile broadband" with two affiliates occupying positions 1 and 2 in the natural results. This contributed to 7% of total volume in 2008 for T-Mobile.
Challenging
Pricing models -In 2008, we looked at ways of "tweaking" the affiliate model to get incremental volume and found this could be achieved by sharing the risk with the affiliates. Our clients have been reluctant to do this, but now realise this is where growth opportunities lie.
The two options available:
- CPC/CPA hybrid pricing, allowing the affiliate to invest in more expensive terms in PPC, with the security that some of their costs will be covered. In December we increased traffic to Setanta by 5% through rewarding 10 non-traditional affiliates in this way.
- Tenancies ensuring high placement irrespective of how competitive the offer is, enabling the affiliate to have guaranteed budget to invest in promotions. In Q3 2008, 12% of T-Mobile's total volume was driven from such activity.
Inspiring
Rewarding on value - while affiliates are good at driving volume, it is also important to look at lifetime value. We recently incentivised Haven affiliates to push higher value holidays in the form of a prize draw, which increased the overall AOV by 15% and remained 10% once the incentive had finished.
Leading
Creation of content - many believe affiliates should create their own content, but this inhibits the quality of their promotions. BLM Quantum were first to encourage clients to create portals of unique content for affiliates with Haven launching their portal mid 2008, followed by dgm, who then launched dgmknowledge - adapting our idea across their client base. The Haven portal was created internally at Haven, so costs were minimal. Two affiliates who utilised the content found their conversion rates increase by 31% and 22% respectively ( www.havensholidays.co.uk and www.havenholidayoffers.co.uk)
Rigorous
Improving EPC - while tweaking commission can be effective, we have found conversion is the key to long term success. In the past year we have reviewed our client's sites and provided recommendations to improve the sales journey. After implementing our recommendations for bespoke affiliate pages of a very different design (something the other ISP's haven't tested), Pipex saw conversion increase by 19% on their website, which then increased our positioning on comparison sites, increasing overall volume by 25%
Agile
Niche markets - we think it is important to look for opportunities that may be suitable for affiliates, that are not being utilised. We proposed using affiliates to drive mobile broadband, FREE SIM requests and business enquiries - all before the other networks. In August, we recommended Haven used affiliates to drive caravan sales - to date, we have driven over 100 incremental caravan sale appointments - all from newly recruited non-traditional affiliates. This is something new within the affiliate market.
Rigorous
Accountability - we introduced click path technology for a number of our clients in 2008 such FTC and Haven. We believe it is important, rather than just reporting on the last click referrer, to look at all online activity holistically to see the value each channel adds. In 2009, this will allow us to reward a proportion of commission to affiliates who drive awareness but who are not necessarily the last click. This is especially important when looking at brand PPC vs. affiliate activity, when there is de-duping between the two.
From continually referring back to the values of Challenging, Leading, Inspiring, Agile, Bold and Rigorous, BLM Quantum are confident that 2009 will provide further opportunities to grow the affiliate channel and use this to further meet our clients business needs.
People Involved
The BLM Quantum Affiliate Team: Rich Way, Head of Affiliates. Eleni Read, Affiliate Executive. Sarah Flannery, Affiliate Executive. Mark Johnson, Affiliate Executive.