How to get more press coverage using affiliate links
Jonathan Lundy, CEO of Gymfluencers joined us for an expert session on affiliate marketing. He covered what affiliate marketing is, how to set it up, and how it can generate more press coverage. You can watch the full session by signing up to PR Dispatch, but here are our key takeaways.
Let’s take it right back to the beginning. Affiliate marketing is a way for an affiliate (such as a publication or an influencer) to have their own unique link for a brand that earns them a commission when it is clicked and purchased from.
There are different parameters for the payout which are controlled by the brand, as is the amount of commission received based on what they feel is fair. This ranges between 2-3% commission, and Jonathan advised that anything above 3% is something you’d want to steer clear of as a brand.
Affiliate marketing allows you to reward publications for any clicks and conversions that come from your coverage, making featuring your products often more desirable - as it is another revenue stream for publications that is very much growing.
Aside from the financial gain, affiliate links can offer discounts, so a publication could hold an exclusive offer or discount to its readers or subscribers, which is great for relationship building and looking to those trust signals.
For eCommerce brands, there are a whole range of benefits but the key advantage is offering an attractive proposition for your products to be featured.
Setting up affiliate links is both free and easy. Plus, it lets you track which publications drive the most customers to your site. This is a game-changer in an industry where tracking results has always been a challenge (PR girls, you know the struggle), giving us data, insights, and real-time results.
The drawbacks are few and far between, but it's only fair to mention them. You will need to keep a close eye on your affiliate codes and any discounts in case any leaks occur or savvy shoppers come along and sign themselves up to become an affiliate, just to get the good stuff. Another thing to consider is pricing the commission into your products, so your margin doesn’t fall short of where it needs to be.
Want to get started and get more press? Here are the three steps you need.
The AFF foundations
Get set up with an affiliate platform. The easiest one to get into is Shopify Collabs, as it plugs straight into your store and takes under 30 minutes to set up. From here, you can set up your commission structure, any gifting options, and any discount codes.
The beauty of Shopify Collabs is that it manages all of this under one roof, and you can set your gifting up to be instant when someone - like an editor - is approved as an affiliate for your store. This shrinks the gifting timeline massively, meaning that your product could be in their hands in the next 1-2 days, with no waiting around for addresses, confirmation, or just playing email tennis to get it sorted.
Spread the word
Now you’re set up, it’s time to prep.
Your brand name and products will be searchable on your chosen affiliate platform, so make your product details work harder for you. Think of it as SEO for the affiliate world, you want to appear for as many relevant search terms as possible, so think about how you can optimise your descriptions.
Another press consideration is letting the press know that you have an affiliate programme for them to use. The easiest way to do this is to include it as a line in your pitch email. Highlight that you have an affiliate strategy and invite them to take part This detail can move your pitch toward a feature, so make sure to include it.
Most publications will already be familiar with affiliate links, and have their own profiles and accounts set up ready to go.
Clicks and coverage
We mentioned the data and this is truly one of the most powerful parts of affiliate marketing. You will get to see in your dashboard the clicks and conversions that have come from certain links - so you can attribute it back to pieces of coverage.
This means that you can not only track but strategise where you want to spend your time and energy pitching, in line with what gets you the most traction online in terms of sales and new customers. It’s often surprising which of the publications have the most weight with your customers, and it might be that the smaller publications perform better as they have more intimate relationships with their readers, but track your results and tweak accordingly.
Affiliate marketing is more than just those Amazon links we see flying around Instagram— they’re a strategic and effective way to generate coverage with a proven impact, and many publications are now actively looking for brands that can offer them affiliate commissions. So get set up and get pitching, and increase your chances of press success.
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