Affiliate Marketing Manager at Bloom & Wild, Ganeev Sawhney, started her role in September 2021. She has significant skills in client management and is not a stranger to the performance and partnership marketing landscape having worked at award winning affiliate network, Rakuten Advertising, as Account Manager.
We managed to grab Ganeev for a conversation about her history and how she entered into the industry, as well as the trends she is noticing…
So to start, please can you explain a little more about your role and what exactly it entails?
I am the Affiliate Marketing Manager at Bloom & Wild, the UK’s favourite online florist. I’m responsible for developing strategy for the UK, as well as managing all affiliate partnerships including onboarding new publishers and optimising existing publishers for the UK and DE. I also work closely with our network to engage with all publisher types.
What emerging publisher strategies are you seeing right now?
There are a lot of new partners who don’t work through the traditional affiliate model – buy now pay later, card linked offers and open banking to name a few really interesting partnerships under the affiliate space. We are also seeing the importance of influencer marketing and how we can work on an organic as well as paid basis through affiliate networks.
What do you most respect or what impresses you about your key affiliates?
How reactive we can be as a channel; as soon as we turn on an increased offer or cashback rate we see the positive results come through. There is a lot of flexibility with our affiliates and sometimes have many last minute changes and we really appreciate the quick responses and turn around times.
What shifts are you seeing in affiliate marketing with your company?
We used to see affiliates as being a channel that only drives traffic through voucher codes and were heavily reliant on the same discounts across all publishers. Our focus is now shifting towards being more incremental with our strategies. We are working more with reward and charity partners, which we have found key for improving incremental orders at a high LTV.
Internally, other teams are shifting their thinking about affiliates away from just vouchers and discounts and can see we can be more strategic in the activity we can push with different publishers. Affiliates is now one of our most efficient marketing channels.
And what really impressed you in 2021?
The importance of supporting key workers and being able to give back by working with these types of publishers. We have seen a big shift in our programme following the pandemic and watched publishers like Blue Light Card really grow. Also really interesting to see how new publishers like GoCertify are using technology to enter into this space, a lot of publishers are using this to partner with new brands.
Who or what inspired you to get into performance marketing?
I started as a coordinator at Rakuten Advertiser and was lucky enough to work across an array of amazing advertisers partnering with lots of different publishers. This really opened my eyes into the world of digital marketing. I love how fast paced it can be as the digital landscape is always changing and evolving. I now think I have the best job working with incredible people and at a company with an incredible mission!
What’s your top tip for publishers?
Be innovative and come to the table with fresh ideas on optimisations, we are always willing to try new things. What works for one brand may not work for another so provide bespoke opportunities based on the brand and perhaps looking closely at competitor activity.
What can affiliates do to stand out when working with your brand?
Similar to the above but bringing new opportunities to the table to help us stand out amongst our competitors. Another thing which is really appreciated is transparency and being able to provide clear and constructive insights following optimisations. Especially since measuring success is at the core of all performance marketing being able to understand what worked well, what didn’t work well and why will really help for future partnerships.
What one thing would you change about the industry?
Being recognised as a channel that is more than just vouchers and discounts and how affiliates can work in collaboration with other channels to provide strong overall results.
What other areas of the industry would you be interested in being involved in in the future?
Looking at how affiliate marketing fits into the bigger picture through getting a better understanding of other marketing channels. I’m also taking a bigger interest in influencer marketing and how we can collaborate through a performance model.
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