Why You Should Consider Affiliate Marketing As Part Of Your Product-Pitch Mix
As the holidays approach, consumers are likely to come across gift guides naming the top ten items for [insert relationship]. It’s likely some, if not most, of those gifts have affiliate links.
Why You Should Consider Affiliate Marketing As Part Of Your Product-Pitch Mix
These items have trackable links that lead users to sites where they can purchase the product. Publishers earn a commission when consumers purchase recommended products from these links. Typically this is mentioned in language on the site.
Why You Should Consider Affiliate Marketing As Part Of Your Product-Pitch Mix
Many recommendation sites include products with affiliate links, like The New York Times’ Wirecutter or CNN Underscored, but they state that items are tested rigorously before they are recommended.
Why You Should Consider Affiliate Marketing As Part Of Your Product-Pitch Mix
Wirecutter, for example, notes: “We earn money through subscriptions and various affiliate marketing programs. That means we may get paid commissions on products purchased through our links to retailer sites. However, we recommend products based on our independent research, analysis, interviews, and testing.”
Why You Should Consider Affiliate Marketing As Part Of Your Product-Pitch Mix
Pitching with Affiliates
Yet some publishers recommend only products with affiliate links. Accordingly, media relations pros pitching items that lack those links may be shut out.
Why You Should Consider Affiliate Marketing As Part Of Your Product-Pitch Mix
Alyssa Garnick, founder of Agean Public Relations, estimates it’s “25-50% harder” to garner media placements for a product that lacks an affiliate link. Adds Priscila Martinez, founder of Los Angeles-based The Brand Agency, products without an affiliate network sometimes are “precluded from opportunities, even [when it is] a superior product.”
Why You Should Consider Affiliate Marketing As Part Of Your Product-Pitch Mix
On the other hand, in the experience of Jennifer Magaña, PR division lead, Beyond Fifteen Communications, getting turned down on a pitch because a product lacks an affiliate network “is more a rarity than the rule.” She adds that most gift guides are not affiliate marketing-only outlets.
Still, as a result of the caveats surrounding product mentions and…
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