The first Affiliate Marketing Council of 2012 takes place on Thursday 26th January and in keeping with tradition we’ll be electing the new Chair.

As Helen Southgate’s stint in the top seat draws to a close, the Council is looking for candidates to put themselves forward for the job. If you’re interested in finding out more read Helen’s thoughts here.

Following the election it will be business as usual as the AMC establishes a steering committee. This new development will effectively see a group of around 15 regular attendees from all corners of the industry guide the work for the next twelve months. Individuals will then take on the individual projects to ensure the ongoing efforts of the AMC to represent the performance industry continue unabated.

The venue for January’s meeting is Google’s Offices in Victoria – exact details will be added shortly. The meeting will kick off at 3pm.

In this guest post, Pavel Webb, affiliate manager at TextMagic, a bulk SMS gateway based in UK, offers his insight into mobile marketing within the performance channel.

Mobile affiliate marketing
While online affiliate marketing is relatively familiar to most businesses, mobile affiliate marketing is relatively new.

Smartphones are making it easier to track conversions via affiliates, and with the rise of smartphones predicted to have surpassed ‘conventional’ handsets by the end of 2011, mobile affiliate marketing is fast becoming an exciting opportunity for affiliates.

More retailers going mobile
Google has offered up its expertise again to online retailers creating a How to Go Mobile website dedicated to helping website owners optimise their websites and online stores for better mobile experiences.

That’s good for customers and it’s good for affiliates, because without more sites rendering correctly in the mobile browsers, sales through this channel would flatline.

With online retailers enjoying a banner year, 2011 is the year that both smartphones with capable browsers and retail sales via mobile devices breaks through.

Offers, discounts and vouchers
Always a strong player in the affiliate space, the major voucher sites have gone mobile with SMS messaging and by developing their own apps to capture the growing mobile market, especially in local search.

Strong mobile category use in dining, entertainment, ticketing and sports is a perfect match for this kind of affiliate marketing.

App developers reaching out to affiliates
With downward pressure on app pricing and falling advertising revenues in free apps, developers are increasingly looking at the affiliate model to bolster their income.

By creating value-added services for their apps via an affiliate channel, app developers can offer embedded SMS messaging, retail feeds, and vouchers to create revenue for their projects and a better experience for their end-customers.

Tracking improvements
There has been a general lack of understanding in cross-channel marketing at the business level when it comes to mobile.

Many online stores simply haven’t figured out how to get around a single user arriving from a mobile ad, browsing and then going to the desktop to shop around some more and make their purchase.

However, eMarketer reported recently that 2011 has seen a 95% increase in retail category use by mobile users.

Retailers now realise that such a significant portion of their visitors coming from mobile, and an increasing number of transactions too, they need to implement their own ways of monitoring and tracking mobile visitors. Big online retailers like Halfords have set up their own mobile tracking to ensure they understand who visited from what kind of device.

With better tracking comes more comfort in mobile affiliate marketing and with that comfort comes more choice and better programmes for affiliates.

Helen Southgate, Senior Online Marketing Manager, Sky

2011 will certainly be a year that I think will be remembered in the history books for a number of reasons, many of them not particularly positive however in digital it has been a positive year if you can look passed the obvious economic issues in a lot of sectors.

I’ve worked in online now for nine years and I think 2011 will be memorable for the year that digital really took over to become the leading marketing channel for many brands.

This should not be underplayed, this is a huge feat considering the budgets that are still spent in TV and Radio, online truly is becoming the focus for many brands and moving to be the heart of their business.

Mobile finally arrived and wow did it arrive with a big bang!  The growth of this sector is incredible, and anyone that lets that pass over them will have some serious challenges in 2012.  Consumers are interacting more and more on their mobiles and we’re starting to understand very quickly when, how and where we should engage with customers depending on the device they are using.

This has led to some really exciting developments such as search targeting by device, augmented reality applications, location based targeting etc.  2012 is going to be huge for mobile and the affiliate channel needs to ensure it is on the same wagon.

However, it wasn’t all rosy, the increase in targeting functionality online and in mobile has led to some concerns in the EU and we are now facing a new legislation around cookies that will undoubtedly raise a lot of challenges next year.

I think we really need as an online industry to get our heads out of the sand and pro-actively promote to consumers why targeting across the web is beneficial for them.  It means a better experience, targeted and relevant advertising, tailored journeys, recommendations etc.

Surely this is a win for customers as well as marketers, let’s promote that!

If not I can see the industry having one hand tied behind it’s back which would be detrimental to all involved.  Google are running an awareness campaign for consumers at the moment in conjunction with the Citizens Advice Bureau, let’s take a leaf from their book.

In terms of affiliate marketing, the sector continues to grow and the IAB AMC survey conducted recently identified that Advertisers felt positive for the channel in the year ahead.  I still think we need to do more to generate more income into the channel.

I think we should be pushing to get more data on the affiliates role beyond last click, I think we should be looking at the value that affiliates add in terms of brand awareness and where they integrate into a combined online / offline marketing strategy.  There are huge opportunities and concentrating solely on the last click I think is not beneficial for the industry, although it will (and should) always be used as the best measurement to attribute a sale we need to look around that click and the contribution different affiliates make to a sale and a client’s overall ROI.

An exciting year ahead for online and for affiliates, for me it will be all about integration and mobile.  Bring it on!