subject: Leveraging Consumer Trends in Affiliate Marketing [print this page] OK, quick show of hands how many people think that consumer trends like confidence in the economy, spending habits, future purchase plans, etc. have an impact on what sorts of offers consumers respond to? I'm guessing a lot of you have your hands up. Now, how many of you hand raisers actually look at any of this kind of data when thinking about a new offer or niche to start promoting? Does anyone still have their hand up?
Aside from trying to get you a little exercise with some hand raises today, I'm hoping to get you thinking about using new sources of information when you think about future promotions.
DM Confidential took a look at some consumer trend information released by BIGresearch recently that should play into your marketing plans for the rest of 2010. The research shows some very interesting behavior that should have an impact on consumer spending with the holidays approaching. According to the report, consumer confidence in the economy as a whole is down slightly from last month (August) with 27.4% of respondents expressing solid confidence in a strong economy. This is also the lowest percentage since February 2010 which stood at 27.2%. Not surprisingly, year over year, consumer confidence is also down (by about 2%). None of this is likely to come as a shock, as anyone who keeps up with any national news knows how the recession has affected consumers of the past couple of years.
What is somewhat surprising is that the research also shows that credit card spending is on the rise across the board compared to September of 2009. Consumers reported using credit cards more than last September on discretionary items including Apparel, Dining Out, Entertainment, Vacation Travel, as well as more stable purchases like groceries, gasoline, and auto repair.
As far as planned holiday spending, the numbers are mixed. 5.3% reported plans to spend more on gifts than last year, while 32.1% plan to spend the same and 35.3% plan to spend less. All of these numbers show improvements from last year (more consumers plan on spending the same or more than last year). A good number of respondents (22.1%) said it is still too early to decide about their holiday spending.
Digging in more specifically, it looks like purchase plans for many big ticket items (Automobiles, Computers, Furniture, Jewelry, Televisions, Vacation Travel) are all trending higher than last year. Not surprisingly, Real Estate shows a slight downgrade in purchase plans, as that market has not yet rebounded nationwide.
So, lots of percentages and many of them showing somewhat mixed information. How do you make use of this information to plan your campaigns for the rest of the year? While there aren't any "aha!" revelations in the research, there are some good takeaways for online marketers.
More consumers are starting to take out their credit cards again. This may not indicate a return to the days of easy and prevalent credit for everyone, but if the trend continues the credit and financial offer vertical may improve.
Increased spending on big ticket items is definitely something to watch and leverage in your campaigns. If consumers are starting to look at booking that vacation they put off from last year, then vacation offers may be a good niche to start looking into more seriously.
Overall consumer confidence is still relatively low and doesn't show signs of a major increase in the near future (barring some extremely surprising positive economic news). This means that consumers will continue to be on the hunt for bargains and products/services that can help them get more for less. There continue to be plenty of offers leveraging this mindset and if you aren't promoting them yet, you should consider adding them to your list of campaigns.
Keep an eye out for reports like this in the future and look for data on consumer trends that you can leverage to build your business.
