When it comes to picking affiliate offers, its never a clear cut decision. Some offers convert, some offers don’t, its just the reality of affiliate marketing. Selecting the right offer at the right time can have such an effect on your bank balance, it can be the difference of eating at a fancy restaurant or surviving on beans and toast for the rest of the month! Therefore selecting the right offers has never been more crucial in the current times of recession.
So much of affiliate marketing comes back to Psychology. We split test our landing pages to see what colours or copy convert more, relying on what appeals to the psyche of our customers. We select our keywords for ppc carefully, trying to catch our customers in the right mindset, i.e. just before they make a purchase. When it comes to selecting our Affiliate offers it’s no different, we have to put ourselves into our customers mindset.
At the current time there is a global financial crisis. This crisis is effecting each country differently. The U.S. is expected to be out of recession by the end of the year, meanwhile here in Ireland we are in the grips of a severe recession. Unemployment is set to hit half a million this year and we have a national banking crisis along with a property crash and all forms of credit have dried up. The mindset between Irish and U.S. consumers couldnt be more different, therefore when selecting your affiliate offers consider the economics of the country of where the offer is targeted.
Considering the economics of Ireland, offers for high price luxury items won’t convert. So what will convert in a recession? Well I’m going to give you some examples of obvious ones and some not so obvious.
Gambling – Gambling seems to increase in a recession. With high job losses gambling becomes a more attractive option to generate income when all other income avenues begin to try up. Paddy Power, an irish bookie runs a very good affiliate program. A quick look at the number of jobs advertised from their corporate site shows that unlike other companies in the current climate they aren’t considering job cuts. A recent anouncement of their expansion into Australia through the acquisition of Sportsbet.com.au for €140m combined with their current job openings definitely points that their business in more recession proof than most.
Now the next offers are pretty obvious when you put yourself into the mindset of someone in a recession.
Lack of Credit – Since the banking crisis all forms of credit have dried up but people still need to conduct transactions online. Offers for prepaid credit cards should convert in the current climate. 3V a company with an irish arm have an affiliate program run through buy.at.
Utilities – In the recession people will cut luxury services all together but utilities are a necessity. Consumers will be swayed by which every utilities company offers the best deal. Both Eircom and Perlico (Irish Phone Providers) run affiliate programs through tradedoubler. Eircom are even offering up to €80 commission for people signing up to their bundle offers.
So remember when you are selecting your affiliate offers in the recession put yourself in the mindset of the consumer. Try and decide if the offer your pitching is a luxury item or a neccessity. If you know of any other offers that will convert in a recession, let me know in the comments!
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