Affiliate Marketing – CMO's Least Mastered Area of Digital Marketing

A recent collaborative survey, conducted by Fanatics Media in partnership with Marketo, produced an eye-opening Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Benchmark Report. Among the other things analyzed, the study sought to find out the most (as well as the least) mastered areas of digital marketing for present-day CMOs. Here’s what it revealed:

Top 3 Mastered Areas:

• 69%: digital marketing/online campaigns
• 65%: content marketing
• 58%: email marketing

Areas of the Least Knowledge:

• 30%: mobile marketing
• 26%: growth hacking
• 22%: affiliate marketing

2016 Priorities

The study also looked at the priorities that CMOs have set for 2016. The top-quoted ones were:

• 55%: brand building
• 45%: achieving positive marketing ROI
• 39%: automating marketing processes

I know of no other area of online marketing that can better assist advertisers with the top two goals on the list (brand building and yielding the best possible ROI) than affiliate marketing. Since we are talking performance-based marketing here, branding nearly always ends up being rolled in at zero additional cost. While, speaking of the ROI, per The Value of Online Performance Marketing study, conducted by PwC for the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB), affiliate programs yield fifteen-fold return on investment to advertisers. No surprise why affiliate marketing that was voted the most desired digital skill of 2015.

Therefore, the 22% mastery of affiliate marketing by CMOs is definitely worrisome.

It so happened that, besides my manuals on affiliate marketing, I also run the world’s only conference which has “mastering the management of affiliate programs” as its slogan and is solely devoted to helping CMOs and digital marketing managers make the most of affiliate marketing. I started it in 2012 and our eighth show is coming up n April 3-5, 2016. If you fall into the 78% that believe they can improve their knowledge of affiliate marketing, I would love to shake your hand in San Francisco in less than two months. Check out the upcoming show here and hurry to register before the Early Bird deadline expires.