Dude Marketing Program - User Manual
ABOUT DUDE
All sports have their special line of clothing and now disc has too. Dude Clothing has developed an exciting range of clothes that are specially designed for disc sports.
Dude Clothing's range of shorts, polos, caps and jackets are feature rich to help you play well and look good. From the breathable, light as air, 4 ways stretch fabrics, integrated towel attachment system, mini disc pockets, side pockets for quick access to score cards, high cut collar for extra sun protection and much more. Wearing Dude enables you to adapt easily to every action, every turn and every twist.
Dude means mate or friend across the world and is used as a term of connection in a fun loving way. The same goes for Dude Clothing, connecting you to the game in a very special way.
Visit the Dude website at www.dudeclothing.com
Now you can have a piece of the sales action... as a Dude Marketer.
This User Manual is designed to provide you with all the information you need to successfully implement your Dude Marketing Program. We can provide the tools, but it is up to you as to how active and creative you are to achieve sales results and commissions.
One of the easiest ways to promote Dude is to follow Dude’s Facebook and repost, ensuring your affiliate link is embedded in the repost. We will show you how.
If you see anything written in this manual that doesn’t work or doesn’t make sense, please contact us for correction or clarification.
Key Links
Dude Clothing Website https://www.dudeclothing.com/
Dude Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DudeClothingAustralia
Dude Twitter https://twitter.com/DudeClothingAUS
Dude Instagram https://www.instagram.com/_dudeclothing/
Dude Blog https://www.dudeclothing.com/blogs/news
Dude Pinterest https://www.dudeclothing.com/blogs/news
Dude YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHWM1VFvqycTxHD_pFnBC3A
Dude Marketer Login https://dudeclothing.refersion.com/affiliate/login
How It Works
• You share your affiliate link on your website, YouTube videos, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, emails, etc.
• Someone clicks your link which directs them to www.dudeclothing.com
• If that person places an order, you get credited with commission for the sale
• You get paid monthly by Paypal or gift vouchers, depending on what you have chosen at registration. You can opt to change how you would like to be paid at any time.
In this manual we will lead you through the many ways you can promote Dude and generate sales to earn commission.
Key Selling Points
Following are some of the key messages and selling points that may be useful for you to use in your messages. Find more in Dude Blogs or Facebook or at the specific product pages on the Dude website.
Every sport has its own line of clothing and now with Dude's involvement, so too has disc golf. It's a sign of the growing maturity of the game and can only be good for it.
Dude designers have gone to incredible lengths to respond to the special needs of the game, with high quality fabrics and design elements that only apply to disc sports. Large pockets for mini discs, side pockets for easy access to score card and pencil, lightweight 4-way stretch fabrics, some of which have never been seen before.
Dude's origins are firmly based in Australia, because founder Chris Finn is an Aussie and an Australian disc golf champion. He's been playing since he was 11 and is instrumental in the game's development down under. But, says Finn, "The major centres for disc golf are in the US and Europe, so it's great to take an Aussie brand to the world."
When you wear Dude, you are closely identifying with one of the fastest growing sports in the world. You are wearing clothing that adapts to every action, every turn and every twist. Dude means mate or friend and is used as a term of connection in a fun loving way. The same goes for Dude Clothing, connecting you to the game in a very special way.
Dude believes Disc deserves high quality – rather than cheap stock with a logo slapped on. All Dude gear is designed and made specially for Dude and disc golf. Fabrics have been sourced especially for the various items, and all designs are unique to Dude.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Dude Marketing Program is a strategy whereby Marketers promote Dude name and products to their network and receive commission for every sale made as a result of their referral to the Dude website. Also known as Affiliate Marketing, it is a popular strategy used by many of the largest companies in the world as a key aspect of their marketing campaign.
The three most common payment methods are: pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead, and pay-per-click. Dude uses the pay-per-sale method, where the Marketer receives a commission for the sale generated by a new customer through their affiliate link. We offer to reward Marketers by a dollar commission or gift vouchers.
Once you have been accepted into the Dude Marketing program, you will receive a unique Your Link Referral Code that is your personal link to the Dude website. This link is very important, as it is the only way to track a sale made through your efforts. When you post your link on Facebook, in a YouTube video, blog post, etc., anyone who clicks on it will be re-directed to the Dude website. From there, if the viewer decides to purchase a product, you will receive commission from the order they place. There are no requirements or restrictions about how often or how much you talk about Dude, but generally you will earn more income from the program the more you promote it.
Key Terminology
Here are some key terms used in Affiliate marketing:
Affiliate: is an independent marketer who promotes a business and is paid on a performance basis.
Affiliate Link: A text link embedded with an affiliate’s unique tracking code. Also known as Referral Code or Link, it sends the referral direct to Dude’s Home Page
Conversion Rate: The ratio of sales to the total number of clicks received. Not every referral will result in a sale.
Deep-link: A hyperlink that leads to a specific product page instead of the homepage.
Pay-per-Sale/Pay-per-Conversion: The affiliate marketing method utilized by Dude. Affiliates receive 10% commission on every completed sale generated by their referral. Or if they elect to be paid by gift vouchers, they receive an extra 20%. So, $100 commission in Paypal would result in gift vouchers for $120
GETTING STARTED
Your Affiliate Account
Once you have been accepted into the Dude Marketing Program, the first thing you should do is log into your account. In your account you will find important information such as your Referral Link, Creatives and reports.
To access your account, login here with your username and password. Or you can find the login link in the footer of the Dude website
Find Your Tracking Link
Your Referral Code can be found on your dashboard. Copy your personal tracking link to share with your followers!
Your Referral Link needs to be used as a Hyperlink on any word / picture or graphic that you require people to click on to link to the Dude website.
Use Post to Social Media to embed your link to your social media account.
Plan your Message
Now that you have identified your Referral Link, the next step is to plan how you are going to promote Dude to your network.
Basically anywhere you can provide people with access to your Referral Link. That includes:
1. Social Media
- Twitter etc
2. Websites
- Your personal website
- Your blog
3. YouTube
4. Email – beware of spamming
You have several options to promote Dude:
a. Create your own promotional copy
Love Dude, so write from your heart according to the medium you are using, be it a blog, twitter or facebook post etc. You may wish to do a Product Review, write generally about Dude, just do a short rave on Facebook or promote a particular message to encourage your network to visit Dude and buy.
b. Use someone else’s promotional copy – with their permission
You might see something someone else has written and want to copy or modify it. You will find a fair amount of written material on the Dude Blog which you are welcome to use as required. You may wish to shout out about a special promotion or sale that Dude is having.
c. Repost Facebook and Twitter comments and posts
d. Use Creatives supplied by Dude
Dude has supplied a wide range of pictures and logos that can be found on your Affiliate Home Page under Creatives in the main navigation
Creatives are graphics created by Dude for you to use in your promotions. They will link either to the Dude Home Page or a specific page within the website.
Each Creative on your Affiliate account page can be used to embed into your promotion. They automatically have your Referral Link embedded into them so that you don’t need to do anything further to embed your code.
e. Create your own Creatives
You may wish to take a screen shot of a product on the Dude website or a picture or message Dude and ask for them to send you a specific pic – make sure you Hyperlink your Link to the pic.
Reports
We recommend logging into your account on a regular basis to view your reports.
Payment Information
Affiliate commission payments are made automatically at the beginning of every month when your account balance reaches the required minimum of $10 or more for the previous month’s transactions.
At registration, you elected to be paid by Paypal or gift vouchers. Your preferred payment method can be changed at any time by messaging Dude with your preference changes
Creating Your Affiliate Disclosure
In December 2009, the Federal Trade Commission released the “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”. As online social media continued to expand, the
FTC wanted to address the concern that people may exaggerate the benefit of a free product or fail to let their followers know the relationship between them as an affiliate and the endorser. To comply with the FTC, you must let your followers know when you are using an affiliate link or if you are reviewing a complimentary product.
AFFILIATE STRATEGIES
Now that you have covered the basics, we are going to introduce you to various affiliate strategies and techniques that can be used to improve your sales.
Deep-Linking
One of the most effective affiliate strategies is to utilize deep-links. A deep-link is a hyperlink that leads to a specific page on a website other than the home page. For example, the generic Dude link is http://www.dudeclothing.com, and the deep-link for the Mens Disc Dacs is https://www.dudeclothing.com/collections/men/products/disc-dacs?variant=1831906912 - found by going to this page and copying the link.
Deep-links convert up to two times better than generic links. That means you can double your chance of securing a sale by simply using a deep-link instead of a generic link. Studies show that problems associated with navigating a website can account for up to 25% of failed product purchases. By bringing your customers directly to a product page, you are greatly increasing your chances of generating a sale.
It is very easy to create a deep-link leading to a specific product page using your affiliate link. Simply find the URL on the Dude website you would like to deep-link, then go to Create Link to a Specific Page on your affiliate home page and copy into space provided. Press create link, then copy or shorten as required.
New Promotions
Dude will release various promotions to encourage sales and usually notify all Dude Marketers via an email. This is a great chance to push the message out to your network and we strongly encourage you to use the opportunity.
Social Media
Using your preferred social media account to promote the Dude message can get your message out to your network very effectively. Be it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
You can create your own messages, retweet or repost others including ours, promote new sales promotions, product reviews or just do a general rave about Dude.
Affiliate Strategies for Bloggers
Blogging is one of the most popular and effective platforms for affiliate marketing.
Banners
Banners are available in the Creatives section of your affiliate Home Page. Simply click on your choice. If you need one that isn’t there, contact Dude and we may be able to create one for you.
Click on the banner of choice and a screen will appear for Get Code
Copy the HTML code and paste into your blog page HTML. Your Referral link is automatically embedded in your Creative.
Alternatively, you may wish to create your own banner or product image in which case you need to hyperlink your referral code manually.
Photos
Images are very important for a blog. Readers like to see visual representations of what you are writing about. If you are writing a product review, make sure to include photos of the product along with the post. If you do not have your own photos, you can always use images from the Dude website. Make sure in every case you embed your Referral Link via a Hyperlink.
Knowledge
Sharing knowledge is another significant strategy. This could mean anything from informing readers of an upcoming product launch to offering your opinion on a particular product.
Keeping your readers up to date on the latest products can create a buzz within your blog or social media community.
Text-Links
Text-links are incredibly important within your blog. Text-links have a much higher click-through rate than banner ads. Not to say banners are becoming obsolete, but you are much more likely to get a click when your affiliate link is placed within a post. Creating a blog and only placing banners will almost guarantee little to no sales for you. Creating a blog, building your content and sharing important information is a sure way to increase reader loyalty and build sales.
Always include a link when mentioning Dude within a post. The first time you mention Dude, make sure to include your Referral link to the Dude homepage. Unless you prefer, you do not need to keep linking Dude throughout the post. Also, make sure to include links at the end of your post for readers.
Utilize deep-linking whenever possible! For example, if you are talking about the Dude Disc Golf World Tour range in a post, you can include your Referral link and direct readers to the World Tour page by deep-linking. Anytime you mention specific products, make sure to deep-link to the products!
YouTube
Many of our Dude Marketers use YouTube as their preferred marketing source. YouTube offers a variety of options for marketing Dude as Disc sports is a very visual activity as is the Dude gear. Check out the Dude YouTube channel here
About Me Section
Make sure to add your Referral link to your About Me section, along with any other social media channels you use. You can do this by clicking on the Edit tab in your About Me section. You can then add your link into the Add a new link section. Make sure to include your entire affiliate link, as this is the ONLY way to earn commission through the affiliate program. You can title the link anything you would like (ex: Dude Clothing, Dude, etc.). YouTube will automatically add the buttons corresponding with the links if they are available.
Video Descriptions
After your channel is set up and you are ready to begin uploading videos, you will want to add your affiliate link, keywords and tags in your video descriptions.
When promoting a Dude Pro Polo in a video, make sure to verbally mention the Polo name to your viewers and list it in the description box. Being very specific with your viewers can greatly increase your chance of a sale and will help clear up any questions they may have (don’t forget to deep-link)!
You can also add tags, which will help your video show up in specific YouTube searches. Some examples are: Dude, disc golf, disc golf world tour. Be strategic when choosing your tags and try to think of very specific words that can narrow down your video in a search.
Video Tips
When it comes to the videos themselves, make sure to keep them short and entertaining. Depending on the video content, like a tutorial for example, your video may run a little longer, but try to keep videos less than 5 minutes to keep your viewers’ attention. With all the YouTube videos out there today, it is important to make yours stand out. If possible, upload videos with high quality sound and display.
YouTube Trends
Pay attention to YouTube trends, which can be found on the YouTube homepage (left hand toolbar, click on Trending). For example, if you see a trending video related to disc golf, try to make a similar video with your own spin. You could include the trending topic in your title, but add something of your own to make it different.
AFFILIATE DON'TS
Now that we have provided you with a variety of affiliate tips, we’re going to guide you through some affiliate “don’ts”. While it may be difficult to know what you need to do as an affiliate, it’s just as important to know what not to do. Use the tips below to guide you when making important decisions regarding your affiliation.
Don’t Spam
Not only will it drive your potential customers away, we will cancel your affiliate account if we receive complaints from clients, after a warning
Don’t Mislead Your Customers
When sharing about Dude, be truthful and don’t share anything that is dishonest or exaggerated or designed to mislead or trick people into a sale.
Don’t Expect Immediate Results
Affiliate marketing takes time and energy. Do not expect to make money by just adding a banner to your website. If you work hard and implement various affiliate-marketing strategies, you could see a big payoff in the long run. Not every referral will result in a sale, so don’t be disappointed to see a number of referrals before a purchase. Many times. People need to revisit a site several times before they buy, so make sure you give them reasons to return by promoting new products, promotions and messages.
Take note of your conversion rate – that is the number of visitors to the site as a ratio of the number who buy. This rate is affected by a wide range of things, including the fact that sometimes people need to see the message many times to have the confidence to buy. The conversion rate can be as low as zero and any number over that. Clever messaging and marketing can increase the rate. If you find your conversion rate to be low, change your strategy, your message, or even your frequency. Experiment to see what messages work the best.
CONTACT US
The Dude Marketing Program team is here to support you with the tools you need to be a successful affiliate. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions!
As a Dude Marketer, you are also our eyes and ears to our customer base. Please don’t hesitate to feedback anything worthwhile to us – both good and bad, positive and negative, so we can take appropriate action or adjust our program if necessary.
Best Wishes
Kim Macnish
Marketing Dude
kimm@dudeclothing.com.au
or
staff@dudeclothing.com.au