We run the Profitistic affiliate network, and come into contact with many merchants/advertisers who are looking to start an affiliate marketing campaign, or who are looking to expand an existing one.

They want to further their marketing reach, generate additional sales/leads, and make their brand as popular as possible, so one of the first questions we are often asked as a network is ‘how many affiliates will be promoting our website’? The answer of course, is that it very much depends on the merchant and the details of the campaign.

So, we decided to have a little office chinwag and discuss the Top 15 factors that we think dissuade affiliatese from running any particular merchants affiliate campaign.

Here are the 15 Reasons Why Your Affiliate Campaign Isn’t Attracting Affiliates:

1. Low Commission: An obvious one this, and fundamentaly the most important. If you offer a lower level of commission than that of your competitors, who do you think the affiliates are more likely to promote?

2. Poor Or Lack Of Creative Material: Affiliates are fully aware of the power of good creative. Poor creative generates low click through rates, and wastes potential earning opportunities. Also, a full suite of creative should be made available, including html (email creative) a wide range of banner sizes, text links, and any other supporting material.

3. Restrictive Terms: Affiliates use a wide range of traffic sources to drive sales/leads to merchants campaigns. Restricting promotional choice (e.g, no pay per click affiliates, no email affiliates) can severely reduce the amount of traffic being sent to a merchants website

4. Leakage: Prominent telephone numbers with strong call to actions (e.g call us now!) will serve to divert a proportion of affiliate referrals towards calling the merchant in question, rather than completing the online checkout process. This will result in lost commissions for affiliates. Experienced affiliates know this and will avoid such merchants.

5. Merchants Website Design/Usability: With affiliate marketing, conversion of traffic referrals is everything. The merchant’s website should be professional looking, and usable to maximise conversions. Poorly designed websites will see high bounce rates, and affiliate traffic will be wasted.

6. High Merchant Pricing (sales campaigns): This ties in with conversion rates. If a merchants pricing is higher than its competitors pricing, conversion rates will be low. Experienced affiliates know to compare prices and promote the merchant with the lowest pricing.

7. Low Stock Availibility: Similar to above. Conversion rates will be low if stock levels prevent referred traffic from converting into sales.

8. Brand Reputation: Affiliates know that well known brands are often trusted by potential customers compared to lesser well known brands and so, all other things being equal, convert better. Lesser known brands have to offer ‘more’ in order to attract affiliates to them.

9. Poor Localisation: Campaigns should be localised to the target market. For example, a UK landing page should show currencies in GBP, and address details should ask for Postal Codes (not ZIP codes). Don’t mention CNN or ABC News to UK visitors because they will see that it isn’t UK-specific which can drain trust.

10. Payment History: Some merchants are more reliable on the payments front than others. Savvy affiliates will know who pays (and who doesn’t) and prioritise merchants accordingly.

11.Payment Terms: Affiliates want to be paid as quickly as possible, using the most convenient, and lowest cost payment methods. If you are offering net-90 terms, and insisting on paying using Postal Orders, it willl effect affiliate take-up.

12. Trust Of Longevity: Does your campaign have monthly sales/lead caps? Have you suspended the campaign and restared it umpteen times? If so, you may have lost the trust of potential affiliates who require campaign consistency and longevity.

13. Pre-Approval Requirements: Many merchants (especially on the larger networks) pre-approve affiliates. The problem is that some merchants take weeks (or even months) to approve affiliates and so affiliates prefer to promote instant-approval merchants who enable immediate promotion. Merchants need to ‘strike while the iron is hot’.

14. Poor Campaign Descriptions: When describing their affiliate campaign, merchants should go into details about why affiliates should be running their campaign. Campaign descriptions should include all of the merchants unique selling points, and anything else that sets them aside from the competition.

15. Lack Of Niche Marketing Materials: Many affiliates require specific marketing resources to enable promotion. These may include data feeds, voucher codes, content units, and anything else a merchant can think of to increase accessibility.

We think this is a decent list of the main factors, but please feel free to add anything we have missed!

The voucher code debate – are genuine voucher codes simply a cheap and effective marketing tool or do they harm your brand?

Having a ‘voucher redeem’ area on your site could be looked at as eating away at your profit margin and allowing all customers the opportunity to get a discount. The customer may have purchased from your site even without a code, so why do it?

The Positives

Being listed on voucher code directories with as many as 5 million potential cusomers seeking voucher codes on a monthly basis will naturally generate sales and increase your brand awareness. As a retailer, factoring in a voucher code into your marketing plan will reduce your profit margin but in return could significantly increase sales volume – and getting a sale must be better than nothing.

Maybe seeing a ‘voucher code redeem’ area encourages potential customers away from your site to seek a promotional code from one of the many code sites which could be perceived to be a bad thing but if you were buying an identical or similar product and multiple sites sold it, would you purchase from the one that offered a 10% voucher code? Price is not always paramount as I’m personally a a great believer in product support and customer service but in today’s price conscious climate, customers enjoy feeling like they’ve got a great deal and a voucher code does just this as well as giving you the edge over your competitor. You may already have an extensive list of previous customers lying dormant who have opted in to receive marketing that could be emailed with a ’10% off code during December’ which would encourage previous customers back onto your site. In addition to being listed on voucher code directories it brings additional exposure to your brand and don’t forget there is an increased likelyhood that these customers will return and buy again.

A voucher code does not always have to be generic for example like ‘Save 10% off all products’, if your average basket order value was around £80 you could state spend £100 and save10% and this would be a nice a way of icentivising customers into spending a little more and increasing your profit. There are different types of strategic codes that can be used and our research shows that a high percentage of UK shoppers in search of a specific product take the reverse psychology route and opt to trawl the endless list of voucher code sites looking for a appropriate retailer and offer a voucher code before turning to Google to seek out their product through search.

The Down Side

Offering a voucher code opens up a new channel for sales as your code could be listed on freebie sites, voucher code sites, blogs, forums and many other sites but the viral spread of a code from site to site can be difficult to manage so this needs to be considered. You may notice voucher code sites offering exclusive codes and the reason for this is that they receive additional commission and an exclusive code from a retailer in return providing sites with increased exposure. Exclusive codes such as MVCBATHSHOP for example also help minimise the viral spread of codes as the code is created personally for My Voucher Codes in this case.

In all honesty we live in world of bargain hunters and savvy shoppers but you may not wish to be portrayed as a bargain/promotion retailer due to the fact that customers may perceive your products to be of lower quality and if this is the case you must ensure that voucher code directories fully understand and respect this as they may still list your site, with or without a voucher code.

Also, a retailer offering codes on a consistent basis makes it quite clear that you have enough margin to play around with and if you suddenly remove all active voucher codes then this can lead potential shoppers to seek alternative sites offering a voucher code. It’s also important to consider that there are shoppers who don’t even browse voucher voucher code directories and base their decision purely on price taken from Google search so it’s important not to increase your advertised price to cover your voucher code as you could be cutting out the shoppers who make their purchasing descions purely on displayed price. Admitedly it’s a fine balance between giving enough away to incentivise shoppers and remaining price competitive to non-voucher code users.

My Opinion

Before ruling out the use of offering codes it’s really worth taking some time to understand how they can be used as part of your marketing plan as there are a multitude of options available to incentivise people to your site using strategic codes.

Finally, please don’t just think that voucher codes are successful with purely high end well known merchants. Voucher code directories are prepared to add retailers large and small which helps to provide additional exposure regardless of business size, and should be considered by any retailer looking to increase online sales volume.

For anybody involved in affiliate marketing in the UK, the A4U Expo is the event to be at. It’s staged over 2 days (18/10 and 19/10) in London and will this year be held at the Hilton Metropole, a new, improved venue following last years venue which comprised of an endless tube journey (from St Pancras) that was the Excel Exhibition Centre.

This year probably sees the strongest speaker line-up yet, and includes an ‘affiliate health clinic‘ appearance from my good self on the subject of CPA Marketing and making money from affiliate marketing with different, non-traditional traffic sources.

So, I thought I would give a few good reasons why anybody looking to learn more about the affiliate side of internet marketing should attend. I actually decided on a ‘final 11′ but trust me, this list could go on. So, without further ado, here are 11 Great Reasons Why You Can’t Miss The A4U Expo (in no order, apart from the last one…):

1. Google’s very own Kaspar Szymanski will be hosting a ‘health clinic‘ on all things Google including the recent Panda update
2. Dr Karl Banks (who actually is a rocket scientist) will be speaking on ‘Copywriting For Conversion’ – a hugely important factor, that is often overlooked.
3. Kevin Edwards  will be discussing the advent of mobile in affiliate marketing. Nobody can be ignoring mobile right now.
4. The IAB will be providing clarification on the upcoming privacy directive – a subject that could affect us all.
5. Speed Networking should provide a great opportunity to meet potential clients/partners.
6. Great parties! Oh, I mean ‘networking opportunities’…
7. The Street – a new area for start-ups to display their groundbreaking wares.
8. A wide range of exhibitors  offering yet more potential for business opportunities.
9. You can win lots of cool stuff from exhibitors (always) and try and grab as many freebies as our own James Anderson who is a self-proclaimed expert.
10. A great-looking speaker session on Facebook advertising, the pitfalls, and the potential ROI opportunities.
11. You can meet me, and if I like you, I will buy you beer.

Recently, I caught up with Kirsty McCubbin from Affiliate Stuff, a leading UK affiliate (now residing in the land of OZ), internet marketer, and all round good-egg. Lovely as Kirsty is, she agreed to a short interview relating to her dealings as an affiliate.

Kirsty McCubbin - Affiliate Blogger Of The Year

Here is the interview in full…

Welcome to the Webtistic blog. Please introduce yourself, and tell me how long you have been involved in affiliate marketing.

Ooh, it’s like affiliate Blind Date! Hi Cilla, my name’s Kirsty McCubbin and I’ve been a full time affiliate for 8 years but was first involved in the industry on the management side of things I think maybe 1 to 2 years before that. It’s so long ago now I don’t quite remember.

Are you able to disclose your main projects, and the traffic channels you work within?

My main areas of promotion are underwear through two sites, LingerieBrands.co.uk and BlokesUndies.co.uk. Those two are largely organic search with an almost insignificant smattering of PPC here and there.

Which of your achievements within affiliate marketing are you most proud of?

Still being here after 8 years. It’s not always easy being an affiliate when Google is throwing everything it’s got at you, we’ve all had to evolve so much in the last few years and the learning curve just gets steeper all the time. So long as I’m keeping up, and broadly understanding the flurries of new things we need to deploy to remain in healthy SERPS positions I think I’m doing A-OK!

How long was it before you realised that you could earn a living from affiliate marketing?

As soon as I found out about the concept of affiliate marketing I was immediately excited. Already working in digital marketing I knew how to generate good traffic for other people, but not how I could do it for myself without opening an online business. Within a few months I’d put up some test pages and was totally hooked. I left my digital marketing job about a year later in 2003 and my life has been totally affiliate funded ever since. I doubt I could get a job doing anything else now – if I was an actor I’d have dreadful typecasting problems!

What projects are you currently working on?

My main brain drain right now is dealing with some Panda issues on one of my sites. It’s been quite badly affected but I’m pleased to say I’ve worked out what needs to be done and I’m well into actioning it and am seeing pleasing results. It’s going to take a while to get it back to full strength but as always with these things it’ll be worth it in the long run. Alas I don’t believe there’s a quick fix for that particular bit of algo fun but I know I’ll have stronger sites in the longer term because of it.

What is the best thing about being an affiliate marketer?

The flexibility and being able to make more money than you could in a standard 9 to 5 gig. That aside, I love all the challenges, constant learning, and the great variation in the tasks you perform to keep your business running. It’s never dull. Sometimes stressful but I’ve never gotten bored and that can only be a positive thing!

What is the worst thing about being an affiliate marketer?

Those little surprises from a Googleward direction and the odd bit of unpredictability of income as a result of that and other factors such as merchants suddenly going bust or deciding not to pay you. That said, it’s the best feeling in the world when you get on top of these issues and beat them so even the bad times have their positive side (eventually!!)

If you had a time-machine, what would you do differently?

I’d have bought lots of generic keyword domains back in 1999 when I first got my job. I’d also have started a good quality content site right at the start of my career instead of spending so long mucking around with PPC. I’d also have bought those Google shares when I had the chance instead of worrying about making too big a dent in my beer money for a holiday

What do you do for fun outside of affiliate marketing?

Well I do love a bit of travel! Most recently I did a nice little jolly to NZ’s South Island and it was absolutely breathtaking. I also like cooking and gardening – domestic bliss or what eh??

Do you have any advice for people looking to get into affiliate marketing?

It’s hard work, there are no shortcuts, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is – remember that when someone tries to sell you something. Above all, create quality content and a resource that people will find interesting and useful and you should be OK. Easy huh…

I would like to thank Kirsty for taking the time to answer these questions. If you are interested in providing an internet marketing related interview, please feel free to contact us.

I’ve pulled together a few of our favourite tools that we have found to improve efficiency within our team over the past 6 months. Some of these tools have enabled us to save many man hours that we would usually be lost from day to day, most of these tools are free to use with some having limitations dependant on the type of use.

Toggl, The Online Time Tracking Tool

Dave, the MD at Webtistic discovered Toggl a few months ago and we have found it to be a fab tool for tracking the time spent of designated tasks and for improving the overall effiency of the team. We downloaded and installed the Toggl Desktop software free version but there are paid plans available with more advanced features.

In a busy, thriving office environment where you’re multitasking it’s difficult to recall exactly how long you spent on a specific task such as taking telephone calls or answering an urgent email but with Toggl you are able to create individual tasks and switch easily between them, thus enabling the ability to track everything with a single click. You can then view various charts online and interpret the data in the ways you wish. We have found to be very useful in informing our weekly meetings

We have found it a great tool for tracking the time spent on SEO milestones. This enables us to accurately and confidently invoice SEO clients on a monthly basis thus eleveating the worry that wasted time or interruptions don’t become part of the client’s invoice.

Through Toggl, all the time spent on various daily tasks are monitored. This should then provide the basis for improved productivity as you can go on to analyse exactly where time is being spent and where you can allocate time more efficiently.

Toggl is also available as an application on smart phones such as Android and iPhones downloadable from the iTunes store or Android Market Place. It’s also available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Ease of use 8/10
Time saving 9/10
Making efficient use of your team 10/10

Dropbox, Simple Tool To Share, Store And Sync Files Online

Dropbox has been installed on our desktops as a way for us to easily share and update files that are used within our office on a daily basis. The contents of the Dropbox folder automatically synchronises between everyone in the office. This eradicates the mundane task of emailing files to each other for updating and checking and allows for a single copy to be stored that can be edited, accessed and saved by everyone remotely on the Dropbox server. You might be thinking, ‘What if I delete a file by accident?’. Well, you can undelete files by logging in to the Dropbox site where you can also view changes to documents that have previously been edited.

For us Dropbox has cut out the need for sending documents internally via email and the fact we can can all edit the one document stored on the Dropbox server is proving to be a great efficient tool for us. I’m pretty sure the standard free 2 GB storage allowance is adequate for the majority of smaller set-ups but this obviously depends on the file types that are being stored on the server. Dropbox runs in the background on your desktop and simply works like any other folder saved.

Ease of use 8/10
Time saving 7/10
Making efficient use of your team 8/10

TeamViewer

TeamViewer simply allows you to take control of another computer so it enables you to remotely control a client’s computer to give them a tutorial, presentation or to assist with a technical enquiry.

Taking control of another PC is straight forward as no software installation is required as long as you run the application on both sides. We also had no problem with firewalls blocking the application unlike other similar applications.

In addition you can transfer files using the drag and drop functionality. Dragging a file to a partner’s screen during a remote support session will automatically initiate a file transfer, placing the file on the user’s desktop.

TeamViewer is available on Windows, Mac, Linux and as a Mobile Application and we are currently trialling this free for personal use to decide if it will enhance the support we offer our clients. The early signs are that this could potentially save an incredible amount of time with regards to solving client’s technical problems.

Ease of use 8/10
Time saving 10/10
Making efficient use of your team 6/10

Google Calendar

Google calendar is available for free and enables you to set up a calendar for your business and can be shared with each member of the team. This enables you to keep track of meetings, deadlines, scheduled telephone calls and various other events. You are able to assign different colours to staff so that you can differentiate who is responsible for carrying out a specific event or task at any given time.

If you’re organising a special event, the calendar enables you to invite colleagues to a function and they can reply even though they don’t use Google calendar. Google calendar will then track accepted invitations.

You can get event reminders sent directly to your mobile phone or sent straight to your inbox and the calendar is easily accessed from the Google homepage but in order to use this you must sign up with a Google account.

We have found Google Calendar really useful when setting deadlines for clients and is a great way to see exactly who is in the office on any given day in terms of staff holidays etc…

Ease of use 8/10
Time saving 8/10
Making efficient use of your team 8/10

Skype and MSN

Both of these are web-based internet applications that are widely used and are better known than the other tools mentioned above but with our business being based in Derby, UK we have many clients and partners whom are London based so the video chat functionality is very useful. Both of these tools allow file sharing but in my opinion is that Dropbox offers a more simplistic answer.

Using Skype you can have a video conference and we find it’s a great alternative to business trips, helping you work together and make decisions while spending more time being productive in the office. Both tools are cost effective as the only outgoing are your internet costs providing you make your call through the connection using the webcam, microphone and speakers.

Both of these tools allow you efficiently to make quick contact with people. We also use it for communicating with staff working outside of the office. Furthermore you can leave staff messages which they can retrieve the next time they login.

I’m a big fan of both these tools and this is why we have awarded them nearly 5 stars.

Ease of use 9/10
Time saving 8/10
Making efficient use of your team 9/10

Assuming that you have at least some knowledge of SEO and that you haven’t been living under a rock for the last 3 months, there is a good chance that you have heard of the “Panda” Update which Google recently released.

Basically it was a fairly major update to the search engines algorithm and it had a pretty big effect on how a lot of sites are ranked. The main aim of the update was to push low quality content down the results pages and get the better stuff to the top.

Overall it has been a pretty successful update, at least that’s what most people are saying. But as in any war, there was collateral damage, and certainly a few good sites have suffered too.

So what’s a webmaster to do?

Good question, and one which we have been puzzling over of late here at Webtistic… so without further ado, here is my guide to SEO post Panda:

You won’t rank just because of a strong domain

Until recently, if you built a big authoratitive site targeting lots of long tail keywords, you could bet that a few pages would rank purely off the back of having a big site with lots of content.

Not any more though! Having a big behemoth of a site isn’t going to give you an advantage any more – not unless every single page on it is uber high quality.

Lesson:

Consider a smaller more focused site, target a smaller group of higher value keywords and focus on quality, not quantity.

Bad pages will bring you down

The scatter gun approach is now even more risky. If you have a few good pages and a whole load of bad ones your rankings could suffer.

Lesson:

Re-visit older, and low quality pages and tweak them or even consider getting rid of them and starting again. You need to figure out what content is performing and what content isn’t.

Poor quality links don’t work

It has been going this way for a while, but this seems to have been a tipping point. If your SEO company is still doing directory submissions then you should probably be a little concerned.

Lesson:

An effective link building campaign should include a nice mix of medium quality links and high quality “content links”. A couple of decent content links really can be worh 1000 submission type links.

Make your site look nice and non-spammy

Google can actually appreciate things such as how cleanly presented your site is and whether it looks spammy. That means that if you swamp your site with adverts and spammy links you may well lose rankings.

Lesson:

Keep it clean looking. Include a few adverts, sure, but try to make sure your site looks nice for the visitor. Also, try to add value to any affiliate type offers.

Low content pages are a problem

If you have a lot of pages with little unique content you may have a problem. This may be true for ecommerce sites which have different pages for different sizes of the same products, or for affiliate sites which have a lot of pages with little more than a link to the affiliate site.

Lesson:

The best thing to do is to spend the extra time on each such page and make it unique and helpful, but where this isn’t possible try to think of clever ways to introduce dynamic and user generated content such as;

User reviews, stat’s, related offers, case studdies, featured products etc…

Also, consider using “link rel canonical” tags on duplicate pages to assign credit to the main product page or category page.

Summary:

This update has really been something of a game changer for certain niches and it is definitely a sign of where Google is going.

Of course there is more to come and there have already been several more tweaks since Panda. Our best advice is quite simply that if your site doesn’t do something for the humans that you are targeting then you can forget about Google.

On the other hand, the playing feild has been levelled, smaller sites are very capable of competing with larger ones, just so long as they are better at what they do.

Want us to take a look at your site? Shout us over for a look…

If you’re thinking about joining a network and you’re concerned about how affiliate networks prevent fraudulent activity then here is a list of important questions to consider.

1. Are all affiliates individually vetted before being approved onto the network?
2. Does the network use a fraud management filter?
3. Is there the option to control exactly which affiliates are running your campaign and blacklist individuals if necessary?
4. Can affiliates be approved to promote my site on a case by case basis significantly reducing the risk of fraud?
5. Can I call up my affiliate manager for support if I need it?
6. Does the network monitor lead or sales details and look for signals that could indicate potential fraudulent activity?
7. How tough is the network on affiliates found to be committing fraud?
8. Doe the network ensure that any duplicate leads are removed leads are unique
9. Is the network part of any fraudulent affiliate information sharing network?
10. Does the network have measures in place to remove fraudulent sales or leads?

Affiliate network fraud should not be a serious concern for any new merchant as long as the network has a sytem in place to actively manage and monitor possible fraudulent activity.

Profitistic is a zero fee affiliate network owned by Webtistic as a means of providing additional marketing reach to Webtistic clients.

For smaller merchants many networks can charge in excess of £3000 which is usually non-refundable regardless of performance and success as a merchant. Zero fees provides a great platform for merchants to try affiliate marketing without the set-up fees or ongoing monthly management charges.

It’s worth considering the time scale of when affiliates get paid by the network for promoting your site as we pay our affiliates net15 but there are networks in existence that pay net60 and net90. The knock back of holding off paying affiliates for such a long time is that affiliates dedicate skilled time and money actively promoting sites and net90 is a long time to wait to receive payment for work you have done nearly 3 months ago.

Zero fees certainly does not mean zero affiliate management as the smaller networks can offer increased support with a personalised service. At Profitistic we especially pride ourselves in offering our merchants fanatical support.

If there are no setup fees or ongoing monthly management charges your probably wondering what’s in it for the network? Usually the network will charge an override which is quite simply a fixed percentage of whatever you decide to pay the affiliate. For example if you were a sales merchant and paid affiliates 10% commission per sale and the network charged an override of 30% you would pay a total of 13% per sale.

Something to consider is that zero fees networks will earn revenue purely based on the success of your site/product so they probably take a more cautious approach when accepting new merchants on to the network. The reason for this is that networks will spend a considerable amount of time and money adding and managing new merchants and if they don’t perform then the network earns no revenue and will never recoup these costs.

Whether your an established merchant or just launching today a zero fees network is great option as it provides you with what is literally a risk free marketing opportunity.

Google don’t make mistakes. General Custer made a mistake, Gerald Ratner made a mistake, and Tiger Woods has made loads of mistakes, but for Google, it is rare.

Google’s ‘decision’ (assuming somebody actually made a decision) to rush-launch its new real-time listings was a mistake, but it has provided rich bounty for marketers looking for easy, free traffic. Google suddenly said to us all… forget all the hard work involved with link-building, and page optimisation. Just spam Twitter all day with popular keyphrases and you will dominate our most valuable keyterm pages.

We have been keeping a very close eye on these listings, and although it is impossible for us to obtain accurate statistics, it is very clear that the number of real-time ‘windows’ appearing in the organic listings has been slashed heavily. This is bad news for the hordes of marketers who could suddenly appear on page one of Google for amazingly popular and commercial search terms, but if you look around, the opportunities are still out there for some super-heavyweight search terms.

For example, do you sell Blackberry phones? If so, why not spend this evening monopolising the search term by twittering how great your Blackberry store is? A mere 550,000 searched for the term ‘blackberry’ last month in the UK alone.

Page 1 for the search term ‘Blackberry’:

You see, this is where the slick Google machine turned into a blob of ice cream. Unusual, I know, but every online marketer I spoke to knew the implications within 3.2 milliseconds of seeing it in action so why didn’t Google’s army of boffins? Were they too busy counting their share options? Is ‘The Big G’ panicking about the rise of Twitter and other micro-blogging platforms? You can bet your derriere that they are, but this really isn’t the way to counter it for some kind of half-arsed ‘first-mover’ advantage.

Google, you got it mind-numbingly wrong, but my clients would like to thank you for all the lovely free traffic!

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Christmas is coming and the goose is becoming decidedly plump (and more than a tad worried).

This is the time of year that Uncle John Lewis and Auntie Dorothy Perkins compete to see who’s stores can most closely resemble National Lampoon’s with decorations fit for a king (or Simon Cowell). They do this with good reason. Christmas is a time for consumer financial abandon (yes, just like our banks), where the pressures of spending mount and the credit cards reach melting point. The ‘Christmas Feel’ adds to this pressure (don’t think it’s about adding ‘good cheer’ because it certainly isn’t), and the more the pressure mounts, the more Mrs Jones will spend on little Arnold’s NintendoStationBox.

So, how does this work in the online world? Well, very much the same, but there are other advantages to online retailers of adding a Christmas feel. Consumers will see that, with all its snow and holly, your website is current. They will see that you care that it’s Christmas and have bothered to show it. They will see that you have bothered to correctly place the Christmas  ‘hot items’ where they can be found within 1 click. These are all good signs and add to trust.

Last Christmas, as a little test, I was running an Adwords campaign and I had the traffic directed to 2 similar landing pages; one in the standard graphic format, and one with a few Christmas graphics added. Suffice to say that my client received 12% more sales when using the Yuletide flavour.

So, if you do nothing else over the next week, and you would like to see your conversion rates increasing (retail or not), pour yourself a Bailey’s Irish Cream, stoke the fire, and set about making your website feel like it hasn’t forgotten about Christmas.

Otherwise, you may receive a vist from the Ghost Of Christmas ‘Never Was’!  (Sorry, I couldn’t resist it)