Most of the technological advances people see in the online trading sector occur in the Trading Platform.
However, since it has always been Affiliates which have driven growth in the online trading sector, especially as the industry expands into new markets such as the Far East and Latin America, the technology empowering Affiliates has kept pace as well. It’s just been less visible.
We’re pleased to speak today with Assaf Meiry, Senior Product Manager at platform provider TechFinancials Inc (LON:TECH), to learn more about what they are doing with their Affiliates solution.
LR: Hi Assaf, and thanks for joining us today. Please let us know, what are the key elements of a successful Affiliate solution?
Assaf Meiry, TechFinancials
Assaf: A successful affiliate solution is built on both business and technological foundations. From a business perspective, brands and affiliates need to be able to generate new business opportunities. In these challenging times for the online trading industry, you need a winning team, to ensure a steady and diverse traffic flow that benefits all parties.
A successful Affiliate solution nurtures both existing and new marketing channels. It requires advanced tools to enable monitoring, and to keep both parties coordinated, working in sync. The solution should allow affiliates to drive as much traffic as possible, without exceeding brand capacity, and still allow brands to make rapid adjustments, instructing sales agents on how to handle new traffic sources, as they flow in.
A revenue generating affiliate solution will offer brands and affiliates tools that track traffic and monitor lead status, while promoting transparency for both parties. In addition, an essential tool is a web mobile application for affiliates, with a dashboard that enables them to view their traffic in real time. Affiliates require a Back Office they can log into so they can see the status of their traffic, monitor their commissions and view reconciliation reports. Another factor essential to their success is 24/7 support from an expert team that will not only help with integration and set up, but also be there every step of the way, monitoring abnormal events in the flow of traffic. The support team will notify brands and affiliates when critical errors occur that have the potential to harm the bottom line.
Affiliates and brands need a powerful technical backbone to run their operation smoothly. and manage large bursts of traffic with ease. A robust and reliable API is required that enables affiliates to track and manage all aspects of their affiliate marketing, driving conversions and optimizing campaigns. Smooth Affiliate Program Integration is essential, providing accurate reports with actionable data for managing external marketers and monitoring traffic. A packed affiliate product portfolio, offering trading signals, auto-trading, robots and more, as well as a wide choice of secure, reputable and relevant payment service providers, are also key. Strong Back Office reporting will also increase sales and improve campaign effectiveness.
LR: As you’ve grown, how has TechFinancials’ Affiliate solution changed?
Assaf: We are committed to maintaining open channels of communication with our partners. Over the past year we have worked in close collaboration with our leading brands and affiliates to tailor our solution to meet their specific business needs. The solution has matured and evolved to deliver a more comprehensive answer to our extensive network, so that affiliates and brands can communicate more effectively and boost conversions. A wealth of Business Intelligence tools enables those using the TechFinancials affiliate solution to track, monitor and manage every aspect of the funnel, for increased revenues.
LR: From a technology perspective, what are the key tools you provide to Affiliates?
Assaf: The key tools that we offer to affiliates enable them to dramatically improve the success of their marketing efforts. Our feature-rich solution enables affiliates to manage their traffic effectively, generate fresh revenue opportunities and track their commissions throughout the trader life-cycle.
With regard to registration, affiliates can register a trader via the API, or directly from a landing page. They can receive an alert every time a lead successfully registers with the brand, and automatically log new accounts into the platform, via a hypermedia link. This increases self-conversions and enables sales representatives to catch the account while they are still online.
Affiliates can also track contact with leads and check their sales status, monitoring conversion and qualified lead rates in near real-time. They can attach notes on every lead, providing additional, relevant data, and add a link to the source landing page, showing which promotion triggered registration.
When it comes to billing, affiliates can instantly receive an alert any time the trader deposits funds, verify that campaigns have performed as expected, and manage traffic flow accordingly. In addition, they can monitor each trader’s deposits and banking status, and then follow up on the expected payout, so as to never miss a commission.
Affiliates can also generate a fully customized client, with their own trading offering tailored specifically to suit their traffic, taking their business to the next level and engaging more effectively with each individual target market.
LR: Some of the criticism leveled at the Forex and Binary Options sectors lately regards the way Affiliates market and acquire customers. When they are representing your brand, how can you help ensure that Affiliates abide by the standards which TechFinancials itself follows?
Assaf: TechFinancials is dedicated to protecting its brands’ reputations. Our affiliate solution offers total transparency, ensuring that brands can monitor incoming traffic, and benefit from a 360 view of the entire process. They can oversee funnel activities and step in where necessary. Equally, affiliates can view their traffic and are guaranteed their earned commissions.