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Influence And Persuasion Will Win The Christmas Shopper Over

If you’re anything like me your consumer power will spread far and wide in Q4.

Christmas gifts, party outfits, trips and travel to celebrate the festive season, train tickets to visit family and with the rise of Black Friday enticing consumers to purchase maybe a cheeky personal purchase or two. And all that is before the Big Day when the sales kick in and your aunty and uncle gave you a thoughtful gift voucher to ‘treat yourself’ in the sales.

Often we view peak trading as a frenzy of shopping activity, but behind that frenzy we know are intricately planned and strategic affiliate campaigns, often booked months in advance to target consumers. So how else can advertisers maximise their affiliate partners during peak season?

The desire to work with good quality, relevant content sites is no different in Q4 and as we approach peak trading many of these publishers will enjoy a surge in traffic to their sites. Many will write additional articles, engage with their social channels, blog or vlog to encourage their visitors to dwell longer, to engage more and then finally to make that all important purchase.

With this in mind we’ve hand-picked a selection of publishers to showcase, who offer great content that we feel deserves to be highlighted as we approach Christmas.

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 Who are you? Michael Ostromooukhov from Micha London / DreamShop
What is your URL? www.dreamshop.co.uk
Tell us about your site… At DreamShop, our mission is to make online shopping easier, faster and more fun. We select the best products and present them all in one place for the busy shopper. Our website combines products from the top UK-based online retailers and allows consumers to use various filters whilst shopping.
What type of advertisers or sectors do well for you? Clothing, home & garden, beauty and accessories.
Have you received any influence or assist payments from advertisers on the Awin  network, and if so how did you promote them on your site? We did, from a few retailers. We promoted them by featuring their products on our website, displaying banners and even by writing dedicated posts.
Find Micha London / DreamShop by searching the Publisher Directory for ID number: 224159

 
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Who are you? Adam Cable from MobilePhoneChecker
What is your URL? www.mobilephonechecker.co.uk
Tell us about your site… We are one of only two mobile phone price comparison sites that have been Ofcom-accredited. This is our badge of honour that proves that our comparison is accurate, transparent and comprehensive. We have recently released a unique “Build your Own” calculator that pairs SIM-Free handsets and SIM-Only contracts together.
What type of advertisers or sectors do well for you? Utilities/Telecoms.
Find Mobile Phone Checker by searching the Publisher Directory for ID number: 69025

 
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Who are you? Nikki Garnett from Midlife Chic
What is your URL? www.midlifechic.com
Tell us about your site… I am Nikki Garnett, and my blog is Midlifechic. As the former editor of Selfridges’ magazine I noticed how very few bloggers there were serving the ‘over 40’ age group. I am based in the Lake District and twice a week I share posts about my life and style with over 60,000 affluent, intelligent older women who return over 601,000 page views.
What type of advertisers or sectors do well for you? Style and beauty but I also blog about gifting, travel, midlife health and home accessories.
Have you received any influence or assist payments from advertisers on the Awin network, and if so how did you promote them on your site?
When I am selecting products to feature in my posts editorially, it makes sense for me to prioritise retailers who reward for influence. My posts always convert strongly but my readers often make their final purchases via a school fundraising portal or sometimes a cashback site. This means that the assists scheme makes a big difference to my income. It is one of the main reasons that I favour Awin over other affiliate companies.
From mid-November onwards all of my posts focus on gift giving. Because my readers are time poor and cash rich, it is a particularly lucrative time for conversion. I ask brands to send products for review and, in addition to product performance, membership of the assists scheme will influence my decision on who to feature. After Christmas I will analyse which brands my readers have the most affinity for. I will take into account assists revenue in addition to affiliate income when I decide which brands I want to build a relationship with over the next year.
Find Midlife Chic by searching the Publisher Directory for ID number: 209635

 
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 Who are you? Rick Harris from Offer of the Day
What is your URL? www.offeroftheday.co.uk
Tell us about your site… Offeroftheday provides constantly updated information on the best and latest offers from some of Britain’s leading retailers.
What type of advertisers or sectors do well for you? Home and garden and furniture, fashion, electricals (tablets, phones, computing, sound & vision), appliances, toys.
Find Offer of the Day by searching the Publisher Directory for ID number: 60612

 
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 Who are you? Steve Gledhill from Speedchecker Limited
What is your URL? www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk
Tell us about your site… Speedchecker have been helping millions of users worldwide to get a better understanding of their Internet connections since 2008. You can measure your Internet speed and compare with other users in your area. Our comparison table helps you find the best provider and get most value for money.
What type of advertisers or sectors do well for you? Broadband/Telco.
Have you been received any influence or assist payments from advertisers? We have been involved in a trial with BT for influence payments earlier this year and this month also. As you say, we are often involved but not rewarded in the final sales and are naturally curious about how the industry can give the correct credit to all who are involved.
Find Speedchecker Limited by searching the Publisher Directory for ID number: 69362

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 Who are you? Lyndsey Burton from Choose Ltd
What is your URL? www.choose.net
Tell us about your site… Choose is a price comparison website covering personal finance, home media and mobile, and shopping. We help consumers to find the best deal. Alongside comparison tables we also run daily editorial of both news and in-depth guides. The Choose brand is family friendly, approachable and accessible – with easy to understand language opening up often complex subjects to all our readers.
What type of advertisers or sectors do well for you? Home media (broadband, TV) and mobile, as well as personal finance.
Have you received any influence or assist payments from advertisers? We were part of an influencer trial with BT, which we have been informed we would do well in, but have yet to hear the full results. We helped to increase our referrals during the trial by increasing our editorial coverage of BT.
Find Choose Ltd Limited by searching the Publisher Directory for ID number: 48450

 
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 Who are you? Gary Billington from Londonfashionblog
What is your URL? www.londonfashionblog.com
Tell us about your site… We are committed to the very latest catwalk trends and high fashion gossip! Sorting the fashion flops from fashion tops, so you will always be bang on trend. Fresh fashion posts weekly so there is no delay to get your fashion gratification fix!
What type of advertisers or sectors do well for you? We work within the clothing and fashion sector.
Have you received any influence or assist payments from advertisers? Yes, we have previously worked with fashion giant ASOS with their ‘Assister Assister’ campaign. To support ASOS in this campaign, we wrote bespoke articles highlighting their product ranges and also supported with social media posts and engagement. We have also worked with John Lewis and MandM Direct with their influence campaigns.
Find Londonfashionblog by searching the Publisher Directory for ID number: 243849

 
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Who are you? Kaylah Doolan from The Dainty Squid
What is your URL? www.thedaintysquid.com
Tell us about your site… I am a lifestyle blogger with candy colored hair, and a passion for unique fashion, and off beat travel destinations. My mission is to encourage my readers to seek out the little things that make life special.
What type of advertisers or sectors do well for you? Clothing and travel.
Find The Dainty Squid by searching the Publisher Directory for ID number: 236011

 
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 Who are you? Victoria Battcock from Bought by Many
What is your URL? https://boughtbymany.com
Tell us about your site… Bought By Many is a specialist insurance site. Bought By Many helps consumers in their insurance buying journey by publishing a wealth of objective, informative content including: insurer reviews; top 10s and other topics within the market. These articles host monetised links to relevant insurers, so consumers can continue to quote and purchase on their chosen insurer site. Traffic is primarily acquired through Facebook or SEO and passes through BBM rich content, resulting in highly qualified leads. Bought By Many content focuses on the value of insurance beyond price so leads tend to be engaged, with a higher average order value than other channels.
What type of advertisers or sectors do well for you? Insurance and occasionally pet or bike retailers if there is a very strong message.
Find Bought By Many by searching the Publisher Directory for ID number: 182277

 
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Who are you? Tony James from Bikesy (goldcastle media)
What is your URL? http://bikesy.co.uk
Tell us about your site… Bikesy.co.uk is a cycling specific price comparison site and search engine. Run by a team of UK based cyclists they aim to get more people cycling, either for sport or commuting, by making it easier and cheaper for them to get kitted out. They work with all of the major cycling retailers in the UK and due to their knowledge of the cycling market are able to promote great clearance deals to their 10K+ cycling twitter followers.
What type of advertisers or sectors do well for you? Primarily working with cycle specific retailers there is also a crossover with larger department stores, auto and outdoor retailers that also operate in the cycling sector.
Have you received any influence or assist payments from advertisers? We’re aware we feature heavily in the decision making part of a cyclist’s purchase journey, both by recommending deals or by showing product results from a retailer that the customer might not have had a relationship with before. Due to the high ticket prices of some of the items in this sector we know that cash back and voucher code sites are also involved in the chain. We do have good relationships with merchants that recognise our part in the sales process by honouring assists and it makes it easier for us to justify the time we’d spend promoting their deals when it comes to scheduling the work between the team for the day.
Find Bikesy (goldcastle media) by searching the Publisher Directory for ID number: 88441

For many publishers, similar to these great sites highlighted, when we look at their affiliate activity we can see that their site is often visited and influences an affiliate sale, but that they may not always receive commission or payment because of the ‘last click wins’ affiliate model. This means another affiliate was involved in the sale after they were, and receives the commission.

In 2014 Awin launched a suite of reporting options for both publishers and advertisers providing further transparency on which publishers were influential in a sale but not rewarded. By March 2015 a payment mechanism was created, offering advertisers across the network the opportunity to set their own rules on paying affiliates for their marketing assistance.

Utilising these reports and setting appropriate commissions for both last click and influence recognises the value that many content sites offer. It’s the future of a successful affiliate programme and we’re supporting advertisers by enabling them to appropriately reward publishers.