It really comes down to that doesn’t it? Will this be profitable? What have others experienced? Will this add to my bottom line, or take away from it?  If I engage with an agency, if I engage with JEBCommerce, will the sales generated through this relationship eclipse, surpass and extend beyond the cost of the relationship?

Simply put, yes, it is worth the money, and you may find yourself asking, is it worth me not working with JEBCommerce after you see the slides below.  The increased spend to get the right team on your account leads to significant lift in sales and exposure for your company.  While the blended costs continue to decline, as a percentage, of the revenue produced.  Combine that with the increase in marketshare, and consumer mind share, by acquiring new customers through this channel, and you’ll find that its very profitable to work with an agency like JEBCommerce.

Recently we finished our 2011 analysis for all our clients.  I thought it would be more illustrative to simply show you excerpts of several of those reports.  So… here we go (with private information redacted to protect the innocent ;) ):

This annual review showcased a program that we launched in 2010.  If you look at the gap between the black and purple lines (our main network and all networks total for 2011) compared to the blue and green lines (2010) you’ll notice a huge increase in performance each and every month year over year.  As you can see, with this client, we are looking at $80,000 increases in certain months YoY.  Huge growth and definitely worth the expenditure of a team like JEBCommerce.

The line you want to watch on this year over year is the Blue line (2011). This program we have been managing for several years.  The red line (2009) was their performance before we took it over.  That gap is now at over $60,000 increase each and every month.  One thing to note, this is only one of the programs we manage for this client, and it is their smaller one.  We have realized the same growth, equating to over a million dollars of increase a year after we took over management.  Definitely a profitable proposition.

Here is one of our small business, or b2b, clients.  You’ll see significant growth both month over month and year over year.  The program continues to grow in 2012 at an even higher rate.  Through proper management by an active and aggressive team, cutting edge strategies and a focus on fundamental affiliate management best practices, JEBCommerce has been able to show this type of growth over all our clients’ programs for many years.  It’s definitely worth it.

Here is one final slide.  This program kept growing, in spite of a huge commission change that needed to be made mid stream in 2010.  Even though affiliates had a lower payout structure, we were able to keep them motivated and keep sales increasing, significantly above ours and our client’s expectations.

I hope we were able to answer your questions regarding OPM’s and more specifically JEBCommerce.  If you have any questions, please email jamie AT jebcommerce.com or Jon AT Jebcommerce.com.

And hey, don’t just take my word for it, here is what others have said about us:

We work with JEBCommerce for several reasons. They’re innovative. They educate us by explaining what needs to be done & why. They’re highly experienced. And finally, they’re flexible, knowledgeable about our business, and willing to work with us to maximize results for our company.

Ned Farra
Zappos.com

JEBCommerce has been great to work with! Our Account Manager is in contact with us on a regular basis with updates, suggestions and feedback. And while it’s only been a short time since working together, we’ve already seen our program grow. We know that our brand is in good hands.

Tanja Zelko
Roots Canada

From day one, JEBCommerce was all about getting things done. Under their stewardship, our affiliate program thrived. They are never stingy with knowledge, and are unafraid to give you expert advice everywhere you need it.

Bryan Simonson
iFloor.com

They’ve recruited lots of productive new affiliates, helped us discover and fix a tracking problem that was hurting our program, and provided several ideas for improving our affiliate program and our site. The stellar communication and transparency from JEB makes it easy to know exactly what they’re doing for me and helps us see how we can work together to constantly grow and improve. But at the end of the day, it really comes down to the numbers and JEB has excelled there as well. In the first four months they nearly quadrupled our affiliate sales and we still think there’s plenty of room to grow. I would highly recommend JEB Commerce to anyone who’s looking for help with their affiliate program.

Clark Winegar
Director of Marketing
OverstockDrugstore.com

We had JEBCommerce do a complete affiliate audit for us. They did a fantastic job digging into areas and making recommendations based on their findings. We are constantly improving our program based on their review. I keep it pinned on my wall because I can always look back and find things that need attention or improvement.

Chris Rocha
Harry & David

We were very impressed with the thoroughness of JEB Commerce’s audit. They left no stone unturned, and handed us a number of new opportunities.

Jason Bernloehr
E-Commerce Mgr
Rockler Woodworking

Jamie and his team possess industry insights that are rare among online marketing professionals. They have found a productive balance between staying on top of relevant new technologies and utilizing the lore that they’ve accumulated since the beginning of the web. These insights allowed JEBCommerce to provide us with a thorough, comprehensive program audit that resulted in solid growth strategies with proven results. I rely on Jamie for second-to-none industry expertise, knowing that he and his team have the creativity and diligence necessary to put together an actionable roadmap.

Andy Newlin
Director of eCommerce
Sierra Trading Post

Now, let’s keep going with the math.  Add your benefits, work station, and more.  You are looking at a substantial cost for manning your affiliate program with a successful group of individuals.  That is a significant outlay of cash that is, most likely, very difficult to get added to your budget this year.  And it may be a good bet, but not a proven one.  What happens if that first hire doesn’t work out as planned?  Now you have additional costs of severance packages and a renewed search for the right candidates(s).  Not to mention your time training and ramping up the individual within your organization.

Outsourcing in general provides some additional benefits in terms of cost.  If there are no projects to work on, you incur no costs.  There is no downtime to train.  You also have virtually no overhead costs, those are incurred, and spread out amongst clients, by the agency.

Every affiliate program needs an experienced and talented manager, and many need a team.  Outsourcing your program may allow you to get this qualified team on your program at a substantial cost savings right out of the gate.

And that is where an agency fits in.  Our core competency is affiliate management.  An agency frees you up to continue focusing on yours, while ensuring that your affiliate program continues to grow by having a solid, experienced and high performance team manage it from within an organization that is optimized for that exact activity.

Freeing you up to focus on the items you are good at, set up for and excel in is another great reason to hire and outsourced program manager.

I hope you enjoyed our brief video in Part 4 of this series.  If you haven’t seen it yet, click here to see how your program can get increased exposure by working with an outsourced affiliate management agency or OPM.  (I use those two interchangeably.  I never really liked the acronym OPM, but it seems to have stuck so it’s hard to part ways with it.)

Today I want to discuss speed and flexibility.  Outsourced firms can simply work faster. They have the ability to collaborate, pull in additional resources as needed, and delegate work to subject-matter experts. In-house staff, on the other hand, often must find solutions on their own, self-teach to fill any gaps in expertise, and sacrifice initiatives when resources get tight.

Take for example the advertising tax that is getting so much attention right now.  Every affiliate program needs to be aware and knowledgeable about this issue to protect your organizations.  But I can tell you first hand, it takes a lot of time to figure out this issue in general.  Many hours are spent by JEBCommerce staff researching the issue nationally and researching each individual state that proposes or passes these issues.  When one person has to not only execute your affiliate management plans and strategies, but also stay abreast of this issue, along with hundreds of others, that pulls them away from executing “Revenue Producing Activities”.

With an agency or OPM, that doesn’t happen.  Our resident expert on a given subject is pulled into the team when we need them so that the team managing your program doesn’t have to learn, research, guide and execute outside of those revenue producing activities. This leads to higher sales and a more consistent level of sales and performance over time.

Outsourcing also provides the ability to upscale and downscale resources based on the projects at hand. That flexibility allows for additional cost savings in the long term.  Higher sales, safer programs, protected brands and higher profit – all these things available with an agency like JEBCommerce.com

Tell me if this has ever happened to you:

You enter the quarter/year/month with a list of projects, campaigns and initiatives you need to successfully implement and complete.  You enter the period with hopeful enthusiasm you structure your teams, resources and needs and begin to crack away at each item on your plan or todo list.

Then an initiative enters the picture from above or another channel altogether begins a new project that no one foresaw.  Immediately your list of todo’s went from mission critical, to critically ignored.  Your new creative, new datafeed, additional network all got pushed off.  But, how often are your forecasts changed accordingly?  Probably not often.  So there you are, same sales goals, same budget, but half of the items you need to finish the race.

Some things just get in the way and more often than not, in-house teams are backlogged on projects due to numerous initiatives happening at once or a simple lack of resources to get things done.

But there is a difference with outsourced firms.  Agencies must complete projects on time to retain our clients—and, therefore, ensure that they have the resources to start and finish projects efficiently.  As stated in previous posts, because clients can shift from one firm to another, planning adequately so that all projects get completed as planned is vital and a hallmark of a great agency.

There’s even a bit more to it.  Sometimes, 2+2 does equal 5, or even 10.  The combined effort of an entire team working to reach and excede your sales goals has a combining effect.  As you have even more experienced managers work on your account, in the way that JEB does, you see results even quicker.

Don’t forget to read Part 1 and Part 2!

Let us know what you think.

Because of the highly competitive nature of the affiliate marketing industry, outsourced firms must operate at a very high level simply to keep their clients satisfied.  In many instances, the demands put on an affiliate management agency are higher than those placed on a single employee.  This means that agencies, like JEBCommerce, must go above and beyond expectations, many times working “over budget” and beyond the original scope of work to meet the high expectations and demands of each client.  Click here to read more.

Today, I’d like to discuss the high level of collaboration that our clients experience as well as the increased level of experience and expertise available through an agency like JEBCommerce.

Increased Collaboration

Let’s face it, the marketplace, economy and our specific industry is changing at an increasingly rapid pace.  With the adtax, and Pennsyvlania’s recent “reinterpretation” of their tax code, Google’s continued algorithm updates and more, it is vital that the person, or team, managing your affiliate program stays on top of all these issues.  More than simply making sure your company stays within the lines of all 50 states’ tax codes, making sure that your affiliate program, and overall bottom line, continues to grow means that your affiliate program has to stay at the front edge of all these changes.

JEBCommerce just moved into a new office specifically designed to increase the collaboration between our ever-growing team that is needed to grow your program and protect that growth.  Our entire team works from our offices in the beautiful, and snowbound (today), resort town of Coeur d’alene.  Check out these recent photos.

Not any one person can have every experience, know every affiliate and stay on top of all these issues, but with an agency, it’s possible for you to have  a team that does.  Each of our staff is dedicated to maintaining expertise, not only in affiliate management best practices, but in a different part of our industry.  Some focus on the adtax, while another stays up to date on Google’s algorithm changes and adsense tactics.  Some focus on paid placement optimization while others are at the cutting edge of analysis and reporting.  It’s very difficult to find one person that has all of those experiences and expertise, but through constant collaboration that is only found and optimized in the JEB offices, our team is able to grow your program quicker while protecting you and your company from the shifting sands of affiliate marketing.

Along with necessary collaboration amongst our teams, we also have fantastic relationships with other vendors outside of the affiliate industry.  This allows us to bring in more individuals with an increasing array of experience and expertise to work on your account.

Deeper and Broader Experience

It is possible to find and hire a very experienced affiliate manager that has a very broad range of experiences.  But that comes at a very high cost, very often, well above 100k.  It’s also difficult to find that person.  At JEB, with all our employees working in our Coeur d’Alene office, our clients have access to over 50 years of affiliate marketing experience across more than 100 different programs.  From large to small brand retail, business to business, to consumer lead gen.  Growing old programs, and healing wounded ones, most likely, if your program is experiencing something, your management team here, or someone else within our company, has been through or or helped a client tackle that issue.  This increasingly broad range of experience is available to you and your affiliate program.

These two aspects of working with an agency are vital to the continued growth of your program, especially in our current economy.  What do you think?  Anything to add?

In part 3 we’ll be discussing how Economies of Scale within an agency can help your program grow even more!

]]> http://blog.jebcommerce.com/why-work-with-an-opm-2-collaboration-and-experience/feed/ 1 http://blog.jebcommerce.com/what-is-jebcommerce-reading-january-18th-edition/ http://blog.jebcommerce.com/what-is-jebcommerce-reading-january-18th-edition/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:34:56 +0000 admin http://blog.jebcommerce.com/?p=1713 The holidays are finally over and the entire team is back from the Affiliate Summit, and all our 2012 plans have been completed, so now all normal activity can resume, including our “What’s JEBCommerce Reading” posts.

Today’s meeting we discussed Q4 performance (some of our clients saw 700% growth YoY!), our upcoming off-site planning meeting at the Western Pleasure Guest Ranch in Sandpoint, Idaho, and eyes that can be turned from brown to green.  Enjoy!

(Maryellen Garasky) – We can turn your brown eyes blue!

(Jamie Tapia) -12 Ways to Get Twitter Followers

(Danielle Dougherty) – Making sense of Christmas Statistics

(Jen Dorman) - Steve Jobs action figure no longer in production.

(Jamie Birch) – George Washington on Leadership

What are you reading?  We’d love for you to share!

Why should you join these programs?

Started by designers, for designers and is the #1 marketplace for crowdsourced graphic design. They connect passionate designers from around the globe with customers seeking quality, affordable design services.

99designs was the 2010 People’s Voice Award Webby Winner in the Web Services & Applications Category! January is historically their BIGGEST month with a 30-40% increase in sales. They’re currently converting at just over 2% and has more than one way to earn commissions!

Program Terms:

• $25 Commission on Design Contest Listing
• 25% of purchases made from the Logo Store
• $1 Bounty on Designer Leads
• 60 Day Cookie

What’s in store: keep your eye out for some great new things coming up this year! 99designs has introduced game mechanics for their community of designers, are re-working and simplifying their categories like Brochure Design, Web Design and Book Cover Design, introducing a data-feed for their design postings and are working on some fresh new creative for their affiliates!

You can learn more about the 99designs affiliate program by visiting the education site here: 99designs.

Store. Access. Share. Backup. Egnyte HybridCloud offers a cloud storage service that addresses the critical infrastructure needs of small businesses – file storage, backup, sharing and collaboration – in one secure, centrally managed and easy-to-use solution. Egnyte service was designed for small and medium size businesses and offers business-class reliability, security, access control and reporting.

January is trending to be Egnyte’s biggest month to date, has the highest commissions in the industry and pays on both leads and sales. Now is the best time to join!

Program Terms*

• $1 Bounty for free trial registration
• $10- $150 for a purchase of any monthly or annual paid subscription
• 45 Day Cookie

You can learn more about the Egnyte affiliate program by visiting the education site here: Egnyte.

*Program Terms Effective February 2012

Both programs are on the Commission Junction network, you can join here:

• 99designs
• Egnyte

Help your visitors get access to valuable business resources by joining today and start earning commissions now!

The new year brings new beginnings, a little colder temps, and hopefully some time for you to plan your 2012 expenditures and marketing campaigns.  Many advertisers/merchants look for ways to maximize their current marketing channels and budgets while trying to figure out just how they will acquire that ever elusive new, and highly profitable, customer.  Maybe you are in this position this January and are reviewing your channels and plans and are considering whether or not an affiliate management agency is right for you.  Many are in the same position.

Many of our clients when looking at an outsourced agency ask the simple question, why work an OPM (outsourced program manager)?  There are basically 8 major reasons why this type of arrangement works for our clients and may work for you. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be outlining each of these reasons and hopefully answering a few of your questions along the way.

Today we’d like to talk about reason #1:

Overall Higher Quality Output

Because of the highly competitive nature of the affiliate marketing industry, outsourced firms must operate at a very high level simply to keep their clients satisfied.  In many instances, the demands put on an affiliate management agency are higher than those placed on a single employee.  This means that agencies, like JEBCommerce, must go above and beyond expectations, many times working “over budget” and beyond the original scope of work to meet the high expectations and demands of each client.  The ease with which clients are able to move from one firm or another makes high quality output an imperitive.

With a quality affiliate management agency, like JEBCommerce, you’ll receive:

Cross industry analysis

Deeper competitive data and positioning

Increased exposure across the affiliate community

Higher quality reporting and deliverables.

In the past we have performed several activities that our clients have felt went above and beyond our scope to help them become more successful, such as:

Finding, evaluating and making recommendations on a Search Engine Optimization firm.  Many of our clients need more than just affiliate management help, they need SEO, Email and SEM help as well.  In times like these, we utilize our trusted status to help them find the right fit for them and increase their overall top line sales.

Customer service is key to making sales happen.  More than once our smaller clients needed assistance in growing their customer service team.  We have been able to find them both in-house and outsourced solutions.

Every program needs a solid merchandise and promotions calendar.  When our clients are unable to put this together on their own, we work with them to create a solid, attractive and high performing calendar that not only the affiliate can use, but all their channels.

Competition is getting tougher each day.  Many of our clients have seen their competitions begin to aggressively go after their business both online and offline.  We work with our clients to brainstorm ideas, both online and offline, that can help them fight off this encroachment.