“He’s downloading his suppression list and checking it twice. Unlike naughty affiliates who should probably play nice”
Well at least for the next month or so. Santa has been dominating Q4 since the 4th Century. He’s the ultimate Advertiser, Merchant and Brand. As a Brand, he leaves Apple, Nike and Microsoft in the dust. As a Merchant, he empties more warehouses of product in a month than you do in an entire year. If he were a consultant, he’d probably accept your LinkedIn request, but you definitely couldn’t afford him. But here are a few of the services he might offer your business, courtesy of AKMG:
Santa Knows His Audience
This dude can target: Age, Gender, Geo, Income, Demo, Marital Status, Interest, you name it. Behavioral Targeting? Old Jolly takes it to the next level by knowing exactly how naughty or nice you’ve been all year long. What’s that Billy in Fluffy Landing, FL? You want an iRenew Bracelet? BOOM, Santa’s got your iRenew Bracelet (So does AKMG in case you were wondering). His secret isn’t Quantcast or Alexa either. It’s giving. His whole existence is based around giving people exactly what they want. Think about your ideal customer. Why do they need your product more than the next person? As online marketers, we often encounter personal privacy issues. The main reason this happens is because most Advertisers choose to exploit our personal information to take our money, when they should be striving to give us exactly what want…like Santa.
Santa’s Got Your CRM, MLM
Santa Claus effortlessly puts his customers to work as marketers by embedding within them a clear marketing message at an early age. Be “nice”, and he’ll hook you up in December. As those children grow up and become parents, they pass that message on to their own children, getting them to behave for at least a few months. It’s the ultimate behavioral pyramid scheme, and Santa thought of it first.
How does this tie into affiliate marketing? Well, we already up-sell, cross-sell, refer and monetize a user every which way, and most brands have already integrated related tactics into their marketing plan. One brand that got it all right for me personally was Blizzard Inc., makers of World of Warcraft. First, my friend convinced me to sign up so that he could get a free limited edition weapon. Being the awesome friend that I am, I sign up for a free trial. After about an hour of playing I’m hooked because of the outstanding quality and production of the game. 30 levels (and approximately 150 hours of my life) later, they tell me that if I refer one of my friends, I receive free membership for a month, increased experience, character summoning, gifting and limited edition items. At the end of the day, they’re monetizing and growing their member base simply by having an outstanding product. I’m very happy to see more and more casual games like Kingdoms Of Camelot adapting this model, and making their way into the affiliate space.
We’re Kinda Like Santa
For every single product you’re trying to sell this holiday season, there is a consumer who wants it. If you care about your brand, have a great product, and are trying to move a heck of a lot of inventory this holiday season, please contact us ASAP! We’ll take care of that for ya, because AKMG is on the grind, all the time…like Santa.
