Guest Post: The Value of Tactical Incentives
I would like to welcome the first guest post on this blog from Matt Brown from Hatmatic, Matt has been working in the industry for many years and has been running Hatmatic, an independent affiliate consultancy company, since leaving dgm in Dec 05.
Matt also writes a blog which he even occasionally updates.
“The Value of Tactical Incentives
Here’s an interesting one: the incentive approach. When I worked on the network side, I’d often encourage a new merchant to keep some budget aside for tactical incentives, for seasonal bonus opportunities so affiliates would feel the love and push the program that little bit harder.
Obviously the Vegas trip which Rob’s posted about is a case in point, though I think that’s one end of a wide spectrum. I have and still do work with all sorts of merchants who offer all sorts of tactical incentives, from “earn an extra 1%…” or 2 tickets to the second day at the Oval…”
I guess my interest here is what is the length of value in putting out a tactical incentive, how long does that value last? What makes an incentive exciting or valuable to affiliates? Can you build loyalty through tactical incentives or do affiliates think they are designed for a short term sales lift, and that merchants aren’t interested in building longer term loyalty through other more strategic approaches.
Be interested in any thoughts. “
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Fraser Edwards
Adii
Paul Wheatley
January 24th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Interesting post Matt, it is difficult to work out the financial gain of these incentives as a merchant.
Though as an affiliate it will certainly turn your head.
It would be good to hear from the merchants that ran the big Christmas incentives, can you put a value on these? And does it offer value for money?