A Failure to Communicate
By: Lisa Picarille
There's plenty of communication, but most of it's ineffective.
Communication at its most basic level is the exchange of ideas and information. Seems simple, right? Like most things that involve people and processes, it's not always as straightforward as it appears. Communication is part art, part science, part X factor. Getting it right is not easy. And when things go awry, it can be a hugely frustrating experience for all involved.
This appears particularly true in the online marketing space where the ability to clearly and effectively convey and share information between various groups is hampered by complexities, technology and just plain information overload.
In order to operate effectively, publishers need to get creative materials and up-to-date offers from hundreds of advertisers. Merchants and advertisers often rely on affiliate networks to act as the middleman in contacting their publishers. Publishers need to deal with online agencies and communicate with the networks to track their commissions. The networks have to stay on top of both their advertisers and publishers. It's very complex and can become difficult.
"The state of communication and general communication throughout the industry is a big problem. It always has been," according to Linda Buquet, an affiliate management consultant and president of 5 Star Affiliate programs.
That sentiment is prevalent.
"I believe in communication advocacy and relationship marketing - affiliate marketing is lacking that," says Richard Lewis, president of ReturnOnAffiliate.com.
"Communication is a big issue in the community," says Adam Viener, president and CEO of search marketing firm IMWave. "On one hand, each affiliate manager wants to communicate better and more often with affiliates. But affiliates want to deal with hundreds of merchants and yet they do not want to have to deal with everyone."
Viener adds that there is information that is critical to his business that needs to be more effectively communicated to him, but it is often buried in a mountain of other communications that are informational but not urgent or necessary.
"I need to know if there is a change in the terms of an agreement or if someone I'm dealing with is moving - those are the kinds of messages that if I don't see, I'll lose money. But many of the messages I get are about opportunities to make more money," Viener says.
Email Overload
There's no lack of information available to everyone and methods abound for getting your message directly to your intended recipient, including email, RSS feeds, instant messaging, blogging, newsletters and even the telephone.
If you're like the average connected person, or the average online marketer, email is your preferred mode of communication and your inbox is overflowing - even after the junk and spam mail filters have done their jobs. The average online marketer is likely to receive hundreds of emails per day.
IMWave's Viener claims that at one point in early February, his inbox had more than 2,100 unread messages - dating back to November 2005.
"Every once in a while, I miss an important message and I'm not notified when there is a new message. That's why instant messaging is so good for me," he says.
That's what prompted him to create the Affiliate AIM List (affaimlist.com), a list of the AOL Instant Messenger handles of people in the performance marketing space. Members opt to sign up and are then added to the buddy lists of all other members. That allows everyone on the list to see who is offline or logged into IM and then contact them directly (see Revenue March/April issue).
The Affiliate AIM List was created by Viener to facilitate communication among the many different parties comprising the affiliate community. Viener, a longtime fan of AOL Instant Messenger, thought the communication tool would be a great way to foster better and more frequent communication between people.
The list is not a moneymaking vehicle but more of a community service, Viener says. To date, it's been wellreceived, and has 250 members. In April he launched AffiliateSkypeList.com as another way to boost communication.
"There has been a dichotomy between merchants, who want the most communication, and the affiliates, who want the stuff, but feel it's very hard to control the volume," Viener says.
Getting Personal
Instant messaging works for many, but Shawn Collins, president of Shawn Collins Consulting, says that IM is a more personal communication tool and that using it to send out mass IMs is irritating, impersonal and turns him off.
What irks 5 Star Affiliate's Buquet is spam. "First and foremost with affiliates is reading emails and not knowing if they are spam they should be filtering or an important program announcement," she says. "Then you end up having to go through the junk filter."
Buquet adds that even with all the email rules and filtering offered by most applications, many affiliates still complain of being overwhelmed and bombarded with emails and unfortunately, "some affiliates aren't very good at organization."
On the flip side, most program managers don't think beyond using email. They continue to contribute to the flood of email as it's the easiest way to communicate quickly with a large group of people.
"With a lot of the affiliate managers, it never occurs to them to go beyond email and that thinking is flawed in so many different ways," Collins says. "People are not opening email. How about picking up the phone more and engaging affiliates? Also, there's RSS or direct mail. Just touch base with affiliates on a regular basis."
He says that it's also easier to catch less-than-scrupulous people on the phone. "If you have a reason to believe that someone is doing something questionable with affiliate links, you should call and ask them questions," Collins says. "You can tell by the tone of their voice and the way they deal with you. It's a much easier way to get a read on someone when you are communicating with them by phone than when they are sending you a prepared statement in an email."
According to ReturnOnAffiliates' Lewis, it's not about how many parties you have to communicate with, but rather the effort that is put into those relationships. "Affiliates often feel like they are just a number," he says. "I believe affiliate managers will get more out of affiliates if they communicate on a professional level and understand the person they are dealing with. There needs to be more respect for each other's needs and that includes communicating in a way that is best for each affiliate. For some, that might be a phone call. For others, it might be email and still for others, newsletters."
There are several things Lewis is unsure of when it comes to the fine art of communication, but one thing he's sure of, "Communication is the end and the start, and it has to be free."
Monkey in the Middle
But sometimes it's hard for any two parties to interact directly with the networks, which are often acting as the middlemen between merchants and publishers.
"The networks get in the middle of merchant-to-affiliate communication to impede direct communications," Buquet says. Continued on Page 2...
Tags:
communication, forums, message boards, sharing, information, mentor, publishers publishers, affiliate marketing, relationship marketing, marketing firm, advertisers, star affiliate programs, awry, frustrating, affiliate networks, creative materials, communication advocacy, ineffective communication, general communication, x factor, affiliate manager, affiliate management, information overload, middleman, management consultant, stay on top,
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