There is a misperception that when companies embark on a lead generation campaign they relinquish control of their brand to affiliates and partners, but this is categorically untrue. The best lead generation campaigns stem from a strong brand which resonates within all of its components. Good branding creates trust around a company and advances lead generation programs because the focus can move beyond questions like “who are you?” to “what can you do for me?”   Branding should be the key framework for any successful lead generation program; without it marketers are forced to compete on a generic level.

By building a strong reputation and brand awareness, companies will strengthen all of their campaigns, including lead generation campaigns. As users progress down a consideration funnel, they are more likely to use branded search queries or go directly to brand-owned web properties. This is a win-win situation for marketers because leads are more qualified, and sales processes shorten when users already know the companies they like.

When lead generation efforts consider a holistic brand, they are able to incorporate additional lead sources into the mix. Search engine optimization, paid search, social media and website structure should play important roles in a branded lead generation program.

So Branded Lead Generation, “Will you be our Valentine?”

ESPN.com Ad Blunder

Once again how important are details? Or better stated, how important is it to pay attention to details? When trying to optimize digital marketing campaigns, I like to look at the whole funnel. Two points of interest are where traffic comes from and where it converts; it’s not just the lead for that matters when optimizing a conversion funnel.

The image to the right is an example of what happens when marketers do not pay attention to detail. The advertisement is promoting an outdated event. I am not trying to cast blame on one party (as both the marketer and ad network could be at fault), but still, this is a waste of valuable ad space that drives me nuts.

Remember with all of your media campaigns to focus on the entire conversion process. Pay attention to where the user ENTERS your funnel (like the display ad seen here). Monitor users as they MOVE through the process, and then optimize the end RESULT. Do this, and you can be sure that you’re always maximizing your media and supporting a holistic conversion funnel.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.

World-class education marketers typically engage in:

• Evaluation of affiliate leads based on demand as well as enrollment objectives
  
  • It is beneficial for marketers to not just ask for leads but to look for programs that they may want to highlight, and then guide affiliates to generate leads for these programs.
  • Focus your budget appropriately to give a “lift” to lower performing programs.
• Expansion of lead sources by identifying new, qualified affiliates partners
  
  • Don’t put your eggs in one basket. Constantly evaluate your relationships and adjust accordingly.
  • Every affiliate partner has its own specialty. Don’t assume a high performing partner will be effective across all programs.
• Integration of affiliate lead data into a single reporting structure
  
  • You should have the ability look at the campaign data holistically, as well as on a granular level.  World-class affiliate marketers have the ability to aggregate and disaggregate data, giving different insights into campaign performance.
    
• Being able to extend your marketing reach
  
  • Affiliate programs help your brand get into the “cracks” of the digital world to reach potential students you might not otherwise have communication with.
    

Here are some questions you should be thinking about for your affiliate program:

• Are you scrubbing and de-duplicating leads?
• Do you measure performance of individual affiliates based on their cost-per-enrollment results?
• Have you implemented a real-time scoring system for all leads from affiliates?
• Do you provide full disclosure of your lead scoring system to your affiliates?
  

- John Perkins is Manager of Media Partnerships for GearyPMG

The main issue with this right now is how affiliates that run affiliate data feeds are seeing a negative impact in the SERP’s (Search Ending Results Page).

My thoughts:

1. If you have quality content and specifically targeted the long tail, you should be fine.
2. Those that were doing it casually are going to have to step up their game and become legitimate with the content they are using.
3. This can only improve the quality of results.

Key Points:

1. Building 100’s to 1000’s of pages to target keywords may not work.
2. external links will hold more weight.
3. Focus on internal link structure.
4. Change up your datafeed.

Overall the end result: Create quality content and Google will reward you.

Read the Article Here

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.