iGB Affiliate 55 Feb/Mar | Page 82

INSIGHT What else did I learn from being authentic? Some of the best advice I received in 2015 was from successful I-Gaming entrepreneur, Luca Pagano, who told me: “Networking is key in this industry”. Taking time out from your to attend an event that is specific to your business can indeed open doors when you utilise these networking opportunities to learn. It certainly worked for me as in doing so, joined-up marketing strategy delivered revenue uplift. Truly understanding this channel and making it deliver calls for a level of grit and patience, which leads to an eventual “ah –ha” moment. You have to find what works for you as I don’t believe social media as a communication or acquisition channel has a one-sizefits-all formula and finding that trigger and tone is what makes it so exciting to work with. “I don’t believe social media as a communication or acquisition channel has a one-size-fits-all formula and finding that trigger and tone is what makes it so exciting.” I developed new relationships that have increased our revenues significantly. Learning something new can surprise you! Last year I learned a lot about social, a medium that I didn’t really rate in terms of digital acquisition (or revenue generation) in the past. NETELLER sponsored Crystal Palace F.C. in 2015 (there’s an interesting piece of reading on Brandwatch if you care to read up about it - https://www. brandwatch.com/2015/03/insightswhich-football-sponsors-are-getting-thebest-roi/) Social was a big part of this sponsorship as we wanted to increase customer engagement. I learned how to harness the power of social and turn it into real revenue, without even referencing the business, its products or its service. ●●Talking to our audience authentically about things they are interested in stimulated interest in our service and delivered ROI on our marketing activities as measured by engagement reach - by almost 60% ●●Playing with social media as part of our 76 iGB Affiliate Issue 55 FEB/MAR 2016 out of my comfort zone forced me to focus on customer targeting before the acquisition messages - which led to engaging new audiences by stepping into their everyday lives as part of their personal interest groups. I’m not about to write another list of “cool tools” for 2016, these lists already exist, but I am going to share with you one in particular: Openr (www.openr.co). It’s a social media sharing tool that can monetise and capture leads as well as help you co-promote with other brands. It’s trackable, functional and easy to use and it revolutionised my understanding of social marketing and content sharing. I was also impressed by how it transitioned across our entire marketing platform to engage affiliates and worked with our B2B clients (operators) as well. mentoring programme I participated in (The Accelerator Academy) to coach entrepreneurial tech start-ups in and around London. Not only did this program enrich my own digital learning by exposing me to a number of different businesses (from in store purchasing technology to video and social sharing tools) I made some pretty fruitful relationships as well. My final words of wisdom... Start this year with a desire to be more authentic and see where it takes you. Whether yo u are an affiliate or an affiliate manager, I think most of what I’ve said here can be applied to you. Make the changes that need to be made, don’t wait, work with purpose and passion this year! ●●Stepping How did I find Openr? This brings me back to my fist point about being authentic to yourself and sometimes “playing hookey” to attend interesting events. I discovered Openr during a LEE-ANN JOHNSTONE is Director – Affiliates & Merchant Marketing (Digital Wallets) at Paysafe Group, which recently rebranded from Optimal Payments. Lee-Ann joined Optimal in 2011, where she developed and implemented acquisition programs via affiliate (B2C) acquisition and merchant marketing channels (B2B) to deliver extensive revenue growth. She manages an online marketing team in the UK, Sofia and Australia, and recently delved into educational events as creator of AffiliateFEST (www.affiliatefest.co.uk).