B2C Mother

In a recent poll here on ProBlogger I asked readers whether they’d done any affiliate marketing on their blogs. The results revealed that:There’s some interesting results there but it was the last category (of bloggers not knowing what affiliate marketing is) that I wanted to write this post for with the hope of answering the question. It’s pretty basic and quite beginner focused but for the 14% of you who don’t know what affiliate marketing is – here’s a brief introduction.

Perhaps the simplest way to explain affiliate marketing is that it is a way of making money online whereby you as a publisher are rewarded for helping a business by promoting their product, service or site.

There are a number of forms of these types of promotions but in most cases they involve you as a publisher earning a commission when someone follows a link on your blog to another site where they then buy something.

Other variations on this are where you earn an amount for referring a visitor who takes some kind of action – for example when they sign up for something and give an email address, where they complete a survey, where they leave a name and address etc.

Commissions are often a percentage of a sale but can also be a fixed amount per conversion.
Conversions are generally tracked when the publisher (you) uses a link with a code only being used by you embedded into it that enables the advertiser to track where conversions come from (usually by cookies). Other times an advertiser might give a publisher a ‘coupon code’ for their readers to use that helps to track conversions.

If you have proven experience in the full gamut of classical marketing functions with solid B2B consultative marketing expertise, consider this rewarding role.

ROLE/PURPOSE:
Reporting directly to the Advertising Marketing Manager for Los Angeles Times Interactive, the Interactive Advertiser Marketing Analyst would oversee specific advertising categories, providing effective market and advertising category insights, assist in developing sales strategy, and develop sales collateral for Account Executives and Sales Management for existing and potential interactive advertising clients in order to increase revenue, preserve revenue, or generate new revenue for Los Angeles Times Interactive and Tribune Interactive.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
+ Support for Los Angeles Times Interactive local sales personnel, and national Tribune Interactive sales personnel, serving as consultant, analyst, collateral creator, and category expert for AEs and Sales Management.
+ Gain strong knowledge of assigned advertising categories and their unique markets, as well as all LAT Interactive sites and products, and LAT Media Group products.
+ Sales presentation, collateral, promotion and proposal building and implementation.
+ Conduct market research through pulling, analyzing and interpreting syndicated research data such as ComScore, Nielsen Net Ratings, HitWise, Scarborough, MRI, etc.
+ Analyze client advertising buys and media plans with good understanding of competing media’s (Online, TV, Radio, Outdoor, Print, etc.) strengths and weaknesses.
+ Build compelling sales “stories” for sales personnel to present to clients using data, market and product knowledge and insights.
+ Updating sales tools such as the latimes.com media kit and General Presentation.
+ Work with Manager to build B2B marketing plans for assigned categories.
+ Participating in presenting research findings and collateral to sales teams; training sales teams on new sales tools and new products.
+ Assist Marketing Manager and Sales Management in building marketing and sales strategy for assigned categories.
+ Serve as project manager, facilitating most aspects of projects by working across different teams within the organization.
+ Innovator, coming up with new and creative approaches for marketing to categories.
+ Meet tight deadlines and multi-task several projects at one time.

REQUIREMENTS / QUALIFICATIONS:
+ Requires Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Marketing or related discipline, and related experience in Marketing, Sales and/or Research.
+ At least 2-3 years of marketing experience with a solid understanding of fundamental marketing principles including promotions, product development, pricing and distribution in a media environment. Previous experience with Interactive Marketing is preferred.
+ Must have 1-2 years experience in B2B marketing in a sales environment. Some B2C marketing experience would be a plus.
+ Must be highly-motivated, self-starter, persuasive, with solid project management and multi-tasking capabilities, and with the ability to work well under pressure in a deadline-driven environment.
+ Must have “power-user” level PowerPoint, Excel and Word capabilities and solid presentation building skills.
+ Solid organizational abilities with particular emphasis on communication, teamwork, internal partnering and relationship building.
+ Sharp analytical and writing abilities.
+ Fundamental verbal skills and public speaking experience.
+ Beginning knowledge of advertising strategy.
+ Strong knowledge of the Internet.
+ Previous experience pulling and interpreting syndicated research data such as, ComScore, Nielsen Net Ratings, HitWise, Scarborough, MRI, etc. Experience with primary research is a plus.
+ Good communication skills, to interface with and present materials to AEs and other departments.
+ Ability to partner with a team of sales professionals.
+ Good understanding of the sales cycle; worked with sales as a primary internal customer.
+ Desire to learn and grow.