British Airways Fare Sale!

My job has me traveling to different marketing events, be it for Social Media or the SEM/SEO verticals. Last month, it was San Diego, CA. Last week, Las Vegas, NV. I might need to go to Austin, TX before years end. I flew to London some months ago for SES, which BTW is coming up again: February 16-19, 2010. I enjoyed London – well, except for the cold – but I definitely would not mind going again. Which brings me to British Airways.

For all you travel gurus, British Airways has a super ‘World Sale’ going on, good through November 19th. If I book now for the SES conference in London, flying from Orlando to London is only $289 each way that week – NOT BAD!!!!! And it’s not just London that’s on sale but Asia, the Middle East and Africa too!

My recent travels reminded me how the economy has affected even the airlines – the only complimentary offerings the airlines provided during my recent flights was something to drink (which consisted of either water or juice or soda). Anything else is extra.

What’s cool about British Airways is that they provide you an “upgraded” experience: 200+ On-Demand Entertainment Options, ergonomically designed seats (complete with lumbar support, adjustable headrest and recline ), eyeshades, flight socks and of course complimentary food and cocktails on all flights. Yeah!

Too bad I can’t fly them to Texas…

Just Got Back From Pubcon

Last week I was away in Las Vegas, manning a booth for our illustrious ‘Sponsored Conversation’ marketing company. Had a great time. Saw some old friends, made new ones, had some delicious enchiladas at the Hard Rock Hotel (Pink Taco restaurant) and got to see some sites – well, we walked down the strip (shrug).

The show was smaller than expected, way smaller than the DMA tradeshow from a few weeks earlier in San Diego, but my colleague and I got to meet some great people in the SEM/SEO space and hopefully garner some lasting business relationships with them.

I met some key Super Affiliate Marketers as well which will help define the path this blog will be following in 2010. Stay tuned for details…

New FTC Mandated Disclosure Rules

This past Monday, the Federal Trade Commission made some big changes to its rules on endorsements and testimonials in advertising. It’s the 1st time in 29 years that the FTC has changed them, but it’s a project they’ve been cooking up for a while now. The reason? The Social Media landscape. The agency, charged with protecting consumer interests, has decided to update its policy on endorsements because the Internet has become a compelling medium in shaping consumer decisions. “In 1980 most of all advertising was disseminated by the advertisers themselves; today a good part of that advertising is being disseminated by users,” said Richard Cleland, assistant director- division of advertising practices at the FTC.

The main takeaway is that commercial relationships need to be disclosed, although they did not say how. For bloggers who review products, this means that the days of free-flow giveaways may be over. Gadget bloggers and reviewers on Amazon and such now must disclose freebies and financial interests or face fines up to $11,000 per incident.

What does this mean for affiliates? Affiliate-created blogs, review sites and other pages have proliferated, filled with claims that drive traffic to merchants. However, when this content contains exaggerated claims or fails to disclose connections with sellers, there may be liability for deceptive advertising.

Still, the new rules are fairly ambiguous, but what’s exciting about this is that the social media marketing company I work for (full disclosure, I am not being compensated for this post ) IZEA Inc., has been advocating disclosure for years, and to quote Ted Murphy, CEO of IZEA, the company has “spent thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars building the marketplaces and tools to make social media marketing easy, effective and FTC compliant.”

Go us!!!

The Power Of “F” (face-to-face :)

As affiliate marketers, our focus is on generating online sales for the businesses we represent. Henceforth, most (if not all) of our business dealings are done through the interwebs (i.e.: we research and choose a niche, register a domain with hosting, build a site, develop content and drive targeted traffic to generate conversations). But we can’t (and shouldn’t) underestimate the power of face-to-face meetings.

I encourage you to maximize your networking opportunities at affiliate conferences, such as Affiliate Summit. Many affiliate managers want to talk to affiliates face to face. It’s crucial they know who and what methods are being used to promote their programs. And they want to know what proven marketing methods you are using. Sure, this can be explained via email, but face-to-face adds another element to your business dealings, the human element and consequently, solidifies your relationships. And just think of the possibilities of meeting and learning from affiliate gurus – in person!

With the recent economic downturn, however, it’s no secret that many businesses are cutting back on expenses, which includes travel for f2f’s. In a recent CFO Research Services/American Express global study, a solid majority of survey respondents (87%) say their companies plan to spend less on business travel this year compared with last year. The same report mentioned “that companies seek to control travel spending without compromising sales activities, client relationships, and critical business operations.” Conflicting, isn’t it? What are business to do?

Well British Airways has one solution. The airline and its partners are giving away FREE travel “grants” to 100 small-to-medium size U.S. businesses to anywhere in the world British Airways flies. The campaign, entitled “Business Opportunities Grants”, is part of a multi-phased initiative to help business get ahead by focusing on tangible, human connections as a crucial driver of business growth. As part of the program, British Airways will award each grant winner 10 roundtrip transatlantic Club World business class tickets, Courtyard by Marriott will provide each winner $1000 toward accommodations and Canon will give them a Wireless Office all-in-one printer, specifically designed for small businesses. Pretty cool, eh? How do win your own grant, you ask? Compete to get one here: Business Opportunity Grant. In doing so, you will continue to value the power of “F”.

Happy travels……

Three Simple Steps to Write Headlines That Sell

In a previous super affiliate training post, we went over some techniques on creating headlines. But how do you begin to write those powerful headlines? Here are 3 simple steps:

Step One: Get to know your audience intimately. What are their hopes, dreams, desires, and problems? Understanding your audience will help you create an emotional and powerful headline directed specifically at your audience.

Step Two: Determine how your products or services are going to make your prospect’s lives better or solve their problems. For example if you sell fitness equipment and your audience struggles with feeling attractive then you can create a headline that highlights a specific benefit your fitness equipment offers to solve that problem.

Step Three: Write ten to twenty, yes twenty, possible headlines. Not only will this give you practice writing compelling headlines, it’ll help you hone in on that perfect headline. And if you think you have a few winners you can always test them for conversion rates to find out which headline is more effective.

Marketing and copywriting experts consider your headline to be the most import element of any effective marketing piece. Take the time to craft a compelling headline and you’ll reap the benefits for years to come.

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