Performance based marketing can be really attractive for both parties. With the example of affiliate marketing and some tests I did myself I see some basics coming up which I like to share with you.

Performance based can be attractive because there is almost no risk. As a company you only have to pay a commission when a sale is made. For the publisher/sales person there is normally a higher reward.

Performance based solutions don’t suite all marketing campaigns though. Best is to keep in mind a sales agent you pay per sale.

You need a clear goal and clear tracking. If the goal is vague you can better stick to payment per hour or some other sort of payment. When a sales agent has to do all kind of side work he/she will feel this as a distraction if he doesn’t get payed. If he does get payed a company has often the feeling of paying too much.

Tracking must be good. When a sales agent gets the feeling his revenue is going to somebody else he will stop for sure.

The biggest disadvantage of performance based marketing however is time. How do you keep the sales agents motivated. They are investing time and do get a lot of interesting other offers. So there is a competition for the sales person’s time or attention.

This is were trust and incentives get in. And this is exactly the reason why you can do a lot of harm if you are going for a quick gain and forget about your sales agents/affiliates. Be careful you have a name to protect.

Most people think of Google Adwords as a tool for acquiring new clients cost effectively. And of course it is a good direct marketing tool. However creatives and advertising agencies should use it as well.

As an advertising agency you need to get as much information as possible about your audience. You want to know their need, their interests etc. Adwords can give you this information. It gives you focus, some clues to brainstorm on. Yes it makes a difference if you know that people are looking for blue shoes lately in stead of red ones. So learn more about how to use Adwords as a market research tool.

Besides Adwords as a research or inspiration tool. It can also be a good tool for branding, getting attention etc. Of course you can learn more about Adwords for branding. However you don’t see much of a creative use of adwords yet.

Most Adwords Ads are like “need a car?, come to us” which is of course effective in DM. But Adwords for branding will need a different approach. What about using estrange statements like “My car is better than yours” or using slogans and redirect to customer feedback “BMW Sheer driving pleasure, want to see what others think” etc…

Start building or reinforcing brand associations.

I am not the first to mention it, but it is just to important. So I just have to mention it on this blog.

Competitive intelligence is now for everybody. And again it’s free.

Avinash Kaushik, webanalytics expert and author of the book Webanalytics an hour a day, is explaining competitive intelligence on his analytics weblog. This week he is explaining the use of Google Ad Planner to get information about your competitors audience. You get demographics and psychographics about their website visitors and you can easily compare it with your own.

He is even giving a Procter & Gamble example. So read this article.

Most people still have the feeling that making good money online is for big businesses and brands. However the Internet makes it easier than ever to start your own business with almost nothing to invest.

Big companies are often moving slow and if you hit the right market those big companies’ only solution is to buy your innovative fast growing online business.

Here are some tips to get you started.

• Most people think of selling things. When you have indeed a product to sell. You can just start by creating an online shop with for example Amazon Webstore or sites like eBay and start right away. I know someone who is just selling Ikea stuff on eBay. Some people just don’t know how cheap Ikea is and she makes a profit.
• If you don’t have a product to sell. You can either sell a service like cleaning, consultancy etc. Or you can start buying cheap products from China on alibaba.com.
• Best of all is just to start selling product of others. Become a publishers for an affiliate network like Tradedoubler.com and start selling. You get a commission for each sale you make. You may need a website which you create with free online tools. You can also use advertising like Google Adwords and redirect your clicks to get the commission. (read the affiliate program regulations)
• If you think affiliate marketing is too complicated just get started with sites like Friendhunter.nl. On friendhunter you can become a headhunter in one minute. You just register on the site. Then you start to contact all your friends asking if they are interested in this wonderful new job you saw.
• Talking about friends. It is good to have a lot a friends online. If you have a lot of online contacts or friends in for example social networks. People are also willing to pay for just sending these friends a message.
• More like a creative one. Act like a Brand. Be creative. Do what you love most. Because then you have never ending energy and ideas. When you have a brought idea/concept. Give it a name and logo. Start spreading this idea, keep moving. You will become an online identity which people trust, like, hate. Big Brands will want to be associated with you.

Good luck! End keep me updated.

Check out how top brands are doing in social media. Read The top Brand in Social media report 2008.

As expected: It is increasingly clear that the level of a brand’s engagement with the ever growing online community is beginning to have a direct correlation with that brand’s reputation.

And the balance of power has shifted - with control passing from the brands themselves to the consumers.
(source marketingfacts.nl)

Want to check your Brand yourself?

Looking at the report’s Methodology: You can start by measuring the number of times your brand is mentioned on Youtube, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Flickr, Digg, Twitter Del.icio.us and Board Reader. And you can do a search on Google blog search and Technorati.com. After measuring the quantity you have to start looking for the tone of voice as well…

-Want to learn more about using Social Networks.

-BTW Interbrand has an office in Nyon.

Just back from my holidays. Wondering that most tourist information is still offline.

With the interactive marketing getting more location based cities, countries, regions etc. should consider the huge possibilities of mobile marketing, google.maps, video etc.

I, as a tourist, would like to get info on my mobile while entering a city. Especially on holidays we are in need of information for example about the weather.

I went to Nice in the South of France, lovely place. I Like this webcam so much. Got a free slogan for them (I am using it already) Have a Nice day!

I do believe performance based marketing has a bright future. For anyone involved in advertising it is very attractive to pay per sale, per lead etc. in stead of just buying reach without any further guaranties.

Publishers have the opportunity to place ads while sharing the revenue. Customers get to see more relevant ads because ads that don’t pay will disappear.

Affiliate networks will however face a hard time to stay relevant. As tracking software will become free and available for everyone. Affiliate networks will have to compete with affiliate managers within the advertising companies to find and built relations with relevant publishers.

Why would you still pay the affiliate network if you can do it yourself.

Google is already offering Pay per Action advertising in beta and I guess it is just a matter of time before Google starts offering this tracking solution for non-Google ads as well (similar to Analytics campaign tracker). By then anyone can start his/her own affiliate program for free.

If the tracking software is for free. Affiliate networks will need to show their relevance by delivering better tracking and/or better publishers then we can find ourselves. In this situation they can’t afford to charge monthly fee’s. They will probably have to work performance based themselves.

Last Thursday, 29 may, there was the second e-Business Convention in Geneve. It was a small conference and the aim was not to be inspiring, I guess, but more to inform new prospects and clients.

I was surprised there was a photographer instead of some flashy podcast and or back-channel experience. Must valuable of the convention was, in my opinion, the list of companies serving Geneva and it region in the online marketing field. So here is a list of companies based in our region.

1. www.b3b.ch
2. www.b-i.com
3. www.businessdecision.ch
4. www.cobweb.ch
5. www.cross-systems.ch
6. www.dotbase.com
7. www.emailvision.ch
8. www.everial.ch
9. www.ic-agency.com
10. www.mediapost.ch
11. www.opi.ch
12. www.optaros.com
13. www.rsd.com
14. www.smallbiz.ch
15. www.zoovista.ch

Affiliate marketing can be a great way to get relevant traffic to your website. You only pay a commission when this traffic is giving some result.

I always compare affiliate marketing with offline retail. Retail is making money by selling your product and keeping a part of the revenue. For Brands it is always wise to have this distribution channel in place. But just like with offline retail you must have a strategy.

When you are for example a luxury brand. You only want to see your product sold in exclusive shops. Otherwise you harm your brand. On the Internet this issue is even more relevant.

Good affiliate networks always let you, as advertiser, review each website to decide if a website is a suitable match for your brand. But still this is not enough. We have seen examples of big brands getting in very bad places. (check German examples here).

To prevent Brand damage you should always manage your affiliate programs properly. Is there anything strange going on in your program. Affiliateblog.nl (in Dutch) comes with a lot of things you should look at. In short, ask yourself this questions :

• Check your top-10 affiliates. Do you know them? Where do they get their traffic from?
• Check your stats. Are there any affiliates delivering huge amounts of traffic with a low conversion and/or high bounce rate?

To start with affiliate marketing in Switzerland you can start with Tradedoubler.
More basic info about affiliate marketing on wiki.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) can be found in most European countries and in various other countries of the world, even in South America. There are now attempts to launch the first Asian IAB in china.

Strange though that there still is no Swiss IAB.

Asking IAB Europe about it, they confirm that IAB Europe is in conversation with a group of people about opening an IAB here. They hope to make a formal announcement about it before June. That is in about 10 days!

Mission of IAB is accelerating the growth of e-commerce, interactive advertising and online marketing.