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
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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).