At the head of Effiliation since 2005, François Deltour (GE 1981) is a pioneer in affiliate marketing. The sector is little known and yet it’s a strategic area for many leading firms in these difficult economic times. Read on…
 
Can you tell us more about your background?
I spend 3 years at Crédit Lyonnais after leaving EDHEC in 1981, working in the US (opening an agency in Miami) and in France. I then decided to leave the big firms sector and start working on new business venture projects in areas ranging from industry to furniture and the press. 
At 35, I took a break to pursue my studies at the CNAM with a Mastère degree in Organisation Studies, when I did a work placement at Havas Edition Electronique. This was a turning point in my career. Although the company focused mainly on developing CD-ROMS, it gave me the chance to discover the Internet in 1993, which immediately fascinated me. I wasn’t altogether convinced by the future of the CD-ROM but believed that the internet offered infinite opportunities. In 1995, I took the leap and founded my own web agency: Palo Alto.
The first years were very exciting with the first clients and the first contracts, and the new sector taking shape. It was fascinating. In 1999, I met Olivier Gravet (GE 1983) through Edhec Alumni Association, and we merged our two companies. Olivier’s profile corresponds more to direct marketing and public relations. These were the years when the famous internet bubble took off. There was too much enthusiasm over these new technologies at the beginning with high salaries and easy money. In 2000-2001, the start-ups began to close down one after another and there was a huge drop in our activity. We managed to sell it to Publicis in 2003, however, and I stayed there until 2004.
At this time, I bought a subsidiary with some partners, called Effiliation, which I set up in 1999 but which had not developed very much because of the turbulent period we were going through. 
Today, the company is doing very well. We have offices in Paris, Roubaix, Bordeaux, Munich and Sao Paulo. I have quite a few company start-ups to my name that have included both failures and successes. I’ve always wanted to be independent, to start new projects and be driven by new ideas.
 
What’s your field? What’s your vision?
Effiliation is an affiliate marketing platform.
Affiliate marketing is based on a very old concept, as old as sales: “I bring you a customer, you give me a commission.” The web and its tracking techniques have enabled us to step up and systematise this means of developing relations to generate crucial turnover for online retailers. In concrete terms, affiliate marketing platforms link up online traders with websites and e-mailers. The affiliates send them traffic that generates sales. The e-retailer only pays for the turnover created by the extra traffic, usually a percentage of the revenue made. This is the principle of cost-per-action or C.P.A.
The commission is paid on the income generated by sales made in this way, which makes it an even more interesting model. For many e-retailers, the percentage of turnover driven by affiliate marketing is close to or over 30% of online sales. Performance marketing covers all the techniques that link commercial investment with performance. Performance comes in various forms, each of which corresponds to a specific type of compensation: cost-per-click (C.P.C), development of turnover often paid as a percentage of turnover or cost-per-sale (C.P.S), address gathering opt-in, fixed form-filling payment (C.P.L or cost-per-lead), as well as finding candidates for recruitment agencies, downloading of software  trial versions…
Affiliate marketing platforms play a key role for three reasons:
-They are constantly linked to tens of thousands of websites and are able to find the best sources to allow advertisers and retailers to meet their targets
-They have tracking tools that measure the effectiveness of actions and calculate the subsequent compensation.
-They have unique know-how in designing, organising and implementing this type of action.
It’s a truly fascinating area to work in as it gives a complete panorama of e-retailers and stakeholders. You’re learning all the time.

How did your company develop and what are its prospects?
The company’s development was largely driven by growth in the sector.
E-commerce has been growing rapidly at a rate of around 20% a year over the last few years.
The retailers constantly need to increase their turnover and to acquire new customers. Effiliation provides concrete and attractive solutions to meet these needs.
Having said that, it’s a sector that’s changing all the time and we’re still learning about the mechanisms of persuasion and seduction of internet users. This is all the more difficult as the behaviour of internet-users and consumers is itself constantly changing.
That means we have to keep coming up with new technologies and acquisition strategies. The organisation itself is continually being reassessed.
It’s what make the job difficult, but also very exciting.
I read somewhere that 90% of our children’s jobs don’t yet exist. I see this every day in my sector. We create new job functions every year. In the last few months we’ve hired a Mobile Traffic Manager and a specialist in virtual money.
It’s clear that this ongoing adaptation will continue and even pick up speed, which should enable us to develop in a market that will grow even faster in the coming years.
The other aspect of development in our company is globalisation. We’ve opened offices in Munich and have just set up a subsidiary in Brazil. That means a whole set of new challenges!
 
What are the key figures?
15 million euros turnover
Average growth of 40% a year in the last 7 years
65 employees
 
What links do you have with EDHEC and Edhec alumni?
In 1995-96, I thought a lot about the role that the Internet could play in a network structure like the alumni association. I presented my first conclusions to the association’s executive members who were very interested.
I was introduced to other young alumni like Alexis Rollin, Raphaël Richard, and Nicolas Malo and we created the first Planète Edhec, the Edhec community website.
I’ve kept in touch with the association even if my professional life has distanced me somewhat. I’ve stayed in close contact with the others from my Class and last year we organised the Class anniversary (30 years!) for Edhec Alumni Campus Day. It was a really great atmosphere and we keep in touch from afar.
In 2011, I took on several trainees including several Edhec and Espeme students. You can always count on me to help out if I can. When I take on a trainee, I consider it as a trial period prior to a job offer. So we have an in-house training programme, and we try to keep the trainees by offering them opportunities to take on real responsibility. We’ve created a close-knit community between all the trainees, who have similar assignments, and who make up a true team with a team spirit that we’re proud of.
Internet is a sector that’s still hiring. What positions are available in your company for experienced or young graduates?
Yes, we’re looking for different profiles: first of all, traffic managers, with placements offering assignments that are crucial to us: they manage the operational and technical aspects of affiliate marketing campaigns and this is a key role, similar to an advertising manager in an agency.  For more experienced profiles (4 to 5 years), we offer positions as customer management directors, where they deal with a specific retail sector. We’ve also taken on affiliate managers this year, who’re responsible for relations with editors per family (e-mailing, comparative indicators, social networks, etc.). Finally, country managers and sales people who we select above all on their personality rather than their skills. We pay a lot of attention to the sales aspect: we’re the sellers of our sales staff!
 
More information on: http://www.effiliation.com/effiliation_foot_recrutement.php?lg=en