I live so much on the pure affiliate marketing side of things that I have not had the issue of cross channel conflicts come up. I'm sure this problem comes up with large retailers, I just have not had to be the one that decides which channel gets credit for the sale. Just got an email asking for advice about this, so thought I would blog it here and post it in the forum to see if some other merchants care to share some solutions.
Quote:
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"Dear Linda, I found you on the XYZ forum and hope you're well. Not sure if you can help, but I知 trying to do some research to understand a problem that痴 come up for a client. I知 particularly ignorant about affiliate marketing and I知 really hoping that you might be able to direct me towards some resources that could help me. Basically, the problem is that my client sends out direct mail and each piece of mail has a code that the prospect enters on the home page when they come to purchase/apply. However, the company also has an affiliate program. What seems to be happening is that people receive the direct mail piece, go online and either with a basic search to find the site, or if they池e searching and trying to do some research, they end up on an affiliates site. They then click through to the company site and sign up with the direct mail code. Essentially, my client then ends up paying both the DM and affiliate costs for the same prospect. Do you know if this problem is endemic and if so, what are others doing about it?"
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I replied: "I知 sure this comes up with other merchants but Ive never been involved in a conversation or seen anyone discuss it. I just know that there are many other cross channel challenges that can come up too. But I don稚 know of a public forum or any articles I can link you to about the subject. I値l copy your email to my blog and forum and we値l ses if we can get you some answers. I知 sure others have had this challenge and figured out how to solve it."
Anyone have ideas?