Driving Active New Customers to Shutterfly can help you maximize your commission payout and increase your profitability. Here are some tips you can use to turn Active New Customers into a business-building resource for you.

What’s an Active New Customer?

An “Active New Customer” is an end user who places a first order within 30 days by clicking on your affiliate link.

What can you earn with Active New Customers?

You earn $9.00 for each Active New Customer you refer to Shutterfly. As you drive more active new customers, you earn significantly more! Plus, you’ll earn 8% sales commission on repeat orders within 30 days of clicking through from one of your links.

What drives Active New Customers to Shutterfly?

The answer: an easy way to preserve memories and stay connected with friends and family. Specifically, prospective users are looking for:

• A convenient way to turn digital photos into world-class prints, Cards, customized Photo Gifts (including Mugs, Mouse pads, and Coasters), plus Calendars, Photo Books, Snapbook™ mini-albums & more.
• The ability to share pictures online with family and friends quickly and easily.
• Free, unlimited secure online photo storage. Keep all pictures organized in one place.
• Free membership with 50 free 4x6 prints for joining.

How do you drive Active New Customers to Shutterfly?

1.  Understand prospect behavior/influences and target effective messaging:

• Use messages that match your business model. If your model is Transaction oriented (Paid or natural search), messages such as “Hot Deals and Best Selections” are critical for driving new customers. If your model is Experience oriented (Content sites) emotional messaging such as “ Convenience, Ease of Use, Quality, and 100% Customer Guarantee” will target this group and drive conversions.
• A key reason people buy digital cameras is to share their pictures. So talk about Shutterfly Share: Share pictures online and stay in touch with family and friends quickly and easily; there are no membership requirements, special passwords, or large files to clog inboxes.
• For people wanting a solution for storing pictures online: talk about how Shutterfly offers free, unlimited photo storage and a safe, guaranteed way of archiving images.
• Taking a thematic/seasonal approach. Create a Father’s Day or Graduation theme with merchandising messages relevant to products on Shutterfly (make your own ‘Grad’s year book’, graduation announcements, or graduation party favors). Be sure to leverage our Storefronts and Individual Product links for merchandising.
• As the market matures, it’s less about printing pictures, and more about Photo Gifts. Promote the breadth of Photo Gifts and the ease of creating them at Shutterfly.
• Personal referral is another key to conversion. Therefore, you may consider highlighting customer experience quotes. Some examples:

		“We’ve had our digital camera for a while now and got a great new printer for Christmas, but there are always those times when you want a professional look and I have to say, for those times, Shutterfly is the ONLY perfect answer! I love your products! Keep up the awesome work!”    — Janice and Terry

		“I just wanted to let you know how much I love your web site and overall service. I order a lot of products on line and not one is as organized as this. You have gone above and beyond my expectations and I look forward to ordering many personalized photos and photo gifts for the upcoming holidays this year. Thanks again!”    — Chad

		“What a great job you guys do!! I’m really pleased with how you put our caption on the back of the picture. You don’t know how much time that saves me when I get the prints back. I also wanted to say how easy it is to work around on your website. I just click, click, click and everything I want to do is done! Keep up the great work!”    — Nicole

		“I just have to tell you that this company is AWESOME! I’ve been shopping around for on-line digital printing services and haven’t been very pleased until Shutterfly! The service, quality and turn around time (especially) was absolutely wonderful! I’m very pleased to have found you guys and will continue to send my digital pictures to you. Shutterfly is GREAT!”    — Monica

2.  Promote Shutterfly’s High Converting Products/Categories.

• Most popular: Prints, Greeting Cards, 4×8 Cards, Note Cards, Hardcover Photo Books, Mugs, and Calendars
• Popular: Snapbooks, Aprons, Mouse Pads, Magnets, T-Shirts, Coasters, and Tote Bags (It’s important not to limit yourself to a specific product/category, branch out and test across multiple products/categories.)
• Take a thematic/seasonal approach to merchandise Shutterfly’s products. Create a Travel theme with merchandising messages relevant to products on Shutterfly (Photo Books capture every step of the trip from “Bon Voyage” to “Welcome Home!”, Calendars retrace your steps down the beach, Champs Elysee, or across the Golden Gate Bridge, and Magnets can turn your fridge into a travel poster.
• Be sure to leverage our Storefronts and Individual Product links for merchandising.

3.  Leverage Shutterfly’s Hot Customer Deals to drive orders.

• Take advantage of Shutterfly’s seasonal new prospect offer to drive active New Customers.
• Take advantage of Shutterfly’s special coupon savings to help drive orders.
• Be sure to leverage our Hot Customer Deals banners and text links.

4.  Test, Test, and Test.

• Test Shutterfly in all your Sales Channels (i.e., email/newsletter, Search, Content) and track many different tactics and measure all results.
• Test Shutterfly in the following categories on your site: Electronics/Camera, Online Photo Service, Gifts, Travel, Arts & Crafts, Home & Garden, and Flowers & Gifts.

Have other questions about Shutterfly’s Affiliate Program?
Contact our affiliate manager at affiliates@shutterfly.com.