At Olive Public Relations we know how hard it can be to get the word out about your brand. You can have the most amazing product or service in the world, but if nobody knows about it, you’re not going to get very far. That’s where public relations comes in. By building relationships with journalists, influencers, and other key players in your industry, you can get your business in front of a wider audience and build credibility at the same time.
But what if I told you that there’s another tool in the PR toolbox that you might not be using yet? That tool is affiliate partnerships.
Affiliate partnerships are a win-win for everyone involved. Here’s how they work: you partner with another business, individual, or media outlet (the affiliate) who promotes your product or service to their audience. If someone from their audience clicks on the affiliate’s unique link and makes a purchase on your website, the affiliate earns a commission.
So why should you consider affiliate partnerships as part of your PR strategy? Here are just a few reasons:
Additional Revenue Stream
By partnering with companies as an affiliate, media outlets can earn commissions on sales generated through their promotion. This can provide an additional revenue stream for the outlet, which can be particularly valuable in an industry where traditional advertising revenue may be declining. We are at a day and age where media coverage without some type of affiliate partnership is non-existent.
Enhanced Content
Affiliate partnerships can also provide opportunities for media outlets to enhance their content. For example, an outlet covering a particular industry may partner with companies in that industry to provide product recommendations, reviews, or other information that is relevant to their audience. This can help to provide additional value to readers or viewers, while also generating revenue for the outlet. At the end of the day, our job as publicists is to not only illuminate our incredible clients, but also work with our media friends to help make their jobs easier.
Trust and Credibility
When someone promotes your product or service to their audience, they’re essentially vouching for you. If an influencer with a big following or a media outlet recommends your product, their audience is more likely to trust that recommendation than they would a random ad on Facebook. By building these relationships, you can leverage the trust that these individuals have built with their audience.
Access to New Audiences
Finally, affiliate partnerships can provide media outlets and brands with access to new audiences. By partnering with companies that have a similar target demographic, media outlets can reach new readers or viewers who may not have been familiar with their content before. This can help to increase overall visibility and reach for the outlet, while also generating revenue through affiliate commissions.
So how do you get started with affiliate partnerships? Here are a few tips:
Find the Right Affiliates
The key to a successful affiliate partnership is finding the right affiliates. You want to partner with individuals, businesses or media outlets who have a similar audience to you. You also want to make sure that the affiliate is someone you trust and who will represent your brand well. For example, let’s say you’re a national beauty brand retailing at Sephora, Nordstrom and your own website. Luckily for you, Sephora and Nordstrom already have a great affiliate partnership with most media outlets. For your own website, you could register it with affiliates like Skimlinks, ShareASale, etc. This way your brand can be used for large media outlets and also individual influencers, etc.
Offer a Fair Commission
The commission rate you offer your affiliates will depend on your industry and the price point of your product or service. But in general, you want to offer a commission rate that’s fair and competitive. Remember, the affiliate is doing you a favor by promoting your product, so you want to make it worth their while.
Provide High-Quality Marketing Materials
To make it as easy as possible for your affiliates to promote your product, you should provide them with high-quality marketing materials. This could include product images, videos, copy, and social media posts. The easier you make it for your affiliates to promote your product, the more likely they are to do it.
At Olive we not only recommend the best affiliates for your business, but we also incorporate the affiliate partnerships into our overall strategy, ensuring the affiliate partners have everything they need to highlight your brand. At the end of the day, brand placements and roundups can no longer be secured without an affiliate partnership, so once that’s taken care of, the next step is a foolproof PR strategy for your awesome brand.