Affiliate Marketing – How should affiliate programs promote themselves and their products?

Choosing the right promotional tactics for your digital marketing strategy is an essential aspect of shaping a powerful presence in your industry, says Helmet Guy of PlayAttack Affiliates

Deciding which marketing tactics to deploy when developing your digital marketing strategy can sometimes be a daunting task due to the vast array of options available at one’s fingertips. SEO, social media, content marketing, email marketing, the list goes on and on. More often than not, marketing teams will deploy a number of these tactics when curating their strategy.

Moreover, it is also evident that specific tactics are more effective than others, depending on the industry the business operates in. For example, social media advertising can be tricky for casino affiliate programs and affiliates alike due to heavy restrictions. In this case, utilising content marketing, email marketing, and publishing on popular external domains are more suitable options.

Still, having your name on social channels holds high value, especially given that it’s highly likely for your target audience to spend a sizable chunk of their time browsing social media to consume news, search for products, and more.

In this article, we look to discuss a few of the most preferred promotional methods in affiliate marketing. These tactics were selected whilst considering the restrictions imposed upon companies operating in the gambling industry.

Content Production

Producing consistently great content has become a cornerstone of many marketing strategies across several industries. In affiliate marketing, creating content such as blogs for your website goes a long way in popularising your platform. Write blogs or create videos regarding your thoughts on the latest trends and news, and create long-form how-to guides to educate and inform your audience.

However, producing content does not solely rely upon writing for your blog but also by identifying powerful external websites that you can write for in the hopes of receiving more traffic on your website as a result.

These news portals produce interviews, podcasts, and posts about the latest ongoings within the industry. This makes them incredibly useful for not just writing blogs, but also for placing ad banners or getting listed on their directory. This is something affiliate programs can utilise to attract traffic and quality affiliates so as to establish themselves in the industry.

Moreover, establishing yourself as a source of insightful, helpful information can go a long way in not only attracting but, most importantly, retaining traffic. One way of doing this is by producing reviews for your website that covers your products and services.

Reviews – Written or Visual

Reviews are a great form of blogging that you can approach in different ways. You may opt for the more traditional written format, which you can then go on to publish on your website, social channels, and popular external domains that offer a relevant audience.

On the other hand, another efficient way of producing reviews for products is through video content. Both methods can implement SEO practices, so this depends on where your audience tends to be present and how they prefer to absorb information.

Moreover, it should be clear as to why reviews are such a beneficial tool in affiliate marketing. Affiliates trust reviews just as much as they would trust a seal of approval from a friend or family member. Reviews are a fantastic way to showcase why affiliates should recommend something to their audience. It also enables you to show that your products are not something that you simply promote but also something that you use.

When it comes to affiliate programs for online casinos, reviews are possibly even more critical. This is because affiliates need to make sure that the casinos they send their players to are trustworthy since this can potentially cause financial loss.

Lastly, those individuals who seek out reviews, news, and blogs in general, are audience members of a higher quality. These are the exact types of people you want to attract, as they are more likely to remain active users of your business.

Search Engine Optimisation

We are all aware of SEO’s importance for any company that wishes to manifest a robust online presence. In affiliate marketing, making use of the best SEO practices will naturally drive traffic to your website. Not only does this mean optimising meta titles, meta descriptions, and alt-tags on images, but also making sure that traffic remains on your site long after landing on it. Affiliate marketers do this by offering a high-quality platform with a sleek design, great content, and, most importantly, fantastic products. In a nutshell, everything produced related to your website needs to be done with SEO in mind.

If you remain unconvinced about the importance of SEO, recent studies from BrightEdge show that “B2B companies generate more revenue from organic search than any other channel”. So, everything should be done with SEO in mind to maximise the potential of a business.

Ultimately, affiliates try to adhere to the main SEO principles in the hopes of quality traffic clicking on their affiliate links. Likewise, an affiliate program aims to appear at the top of search engine results for affiliates to find them easily. The term SEO is rather broad and bleeds into different promotional methods, some of which (like blogging) we have already discussed.

Social Media – Share It All

As previously mentioned, social media can be tricky for companies in the gambling industry that do not possess the required license to advertise in certain areas due to not being classified as ‘operators’. Gambling advertising is still a challenge, even for the operators. They, however, are free to apply for permission to advertise by showcasing their license to operate in certain countries and jurisdictions, and might “get away” with more advertising opportunities. Therefore, casino affiliate programs need to make use of social media as best as they can.

How do they do that? By sharing as much of their original content as possible. It definitely cannot hurt to share your blogs, reviews, videos, and any news that might be of interest on all your social channels. You might not be able to boost many of your posts, but you’ll still be able to generate a following on platforms where almost half of adults tend to search for products.

Furthermore, there are plenty of promotional methods which can be of great use in affiliate marketing, but there’s one tactic that is widely considered a mainstay, and that is email marketing.

Email Marketing – A must-have

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools available in the affiliate marketing industry. It is also one of the most cost-effective options available, making it an ideal choice if you run on a tight budget. Affiliates might not always be on your website or social channels to read all the critical updates you may have for them. This is why email marketing is so essential. It ensures that each affiliate will, at the very least, receive relevant information about your program directly in their inbox.

By getting your audience to opt-in to your newsletter, you can efficiently distribute a regular communication with all the relevant updates that affiliates will need to know about your program. This information can be a range of things, from updates about your products and services to changes in your platform and even new tools and materials that affiliates can use to promote your products.

The main takeaway from all of this is that the more methods you adopt and manage to successfully implement into your strategy, the faster your audience will grow and the more conversions you will receive.

All of the promotional methods mentioned throughout have proved to be excellent tools in affiliate marketing and show no signs of slowing down. On the contrary, they will continue to grow in importance in the years to come.