The world of affiliate marketing is vast with endless possibilities. This can be overwhelming — especially where different content affiliate styles are concerned. But this blog is here to provide clarity on how it all works!
First, let’s dive into the different content styles you can choose as an affiliate:
- Blogs/listicles
- Whether you want to inform or entertain, blogs can be an effective and evergreen way to share your expertise on a topic while strategically placing affiliate links throughout. In fact, after social media, blogs are the favorite channel used by brands for affiliate marketing.
- To make your blog more engaging, you can pair it with a listicle, which involves sharing easily digestible information in a predictable structure (like bullet points or numbered lists). You can place an affiliate link to each product listed.
- Product reviews
- With product reviews, you share firsthand knowledge and honest opinions about a product or service, establishing credibility and trust with your audience and sharing affiliate links to the product or service you recommend.
- Email campaigns/newsletters
- Email campaigns can be used to promote a product or service (for which you’d share an affiliate link) to people who have already shown interest in similar items, allowing you to be more targeted and increasing your chances of conversion.
- A newsletter can be part of an email campaign, announcing seasonal promotions and new product releases then sharing the relevant affiliate links along with it.
- Social media posts
- Arguably, the most popular style for content affiliates is social media posts. With social media posts, you can use a highly visual medium to promote a product or service and then direct your following to the relevant affiliate link.
- Podcasts/interviews
- Podcasts are an audio medium that allows you to naturally mention to listeners the products you use, your experience with them, and how you use them. Then, those listeners can purchase said product through your affiliate link.
- Interviews can be used within podcasts to make them more dynamic and interesting, keeping listeners engaged longer. When conducting interviews, ensure that the interviewee speaks about their own experience with the product in order to enhance its credibility.
- Landing pages/websites
- Landing pages should provide detailed information about a product and its benefits while creating interest for your audience. That way, they’ll convert when they click your affiliate link.
- Websites can house landing pages and other content, like product reviews, blogs, etc. This gives visitors easy access to affiliate links associated with all your content.
Choose an affiliate content styles that incorporates your passion
With all the content styles available, you’re probably wondering which one is right for you as you start your affiliate marketing journey. And to that, we say, “What’s your passion?”
If you’ve read our recent blogs, you’ll know we’re adamant about aspiring creators finding their passion if they want to be successful. You have to do what excites and inspires you when picking a creator niche. This also applies to the content you choose to make — it should align with your passion.
So, if you enjoy expressing yourself through writing, then blogs, product reviews, and email campaigns are right up your alley. If you’re more of a visual person, then social media posts on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook or YouTube make sense for your content.
Avoid choosing content styles that are trendy, but you’re not passionate about because you’ll only burn out faster. If you hate the sound of your voice, then starting a podcast may not be the best idea — it won’t work out long term.
Don’t pigeonhole yourself
Once you choose a content style that aligns with your passion, that doesn’t mean you can’t also use other content styles. In fact, we encourage you to do so! As creators, your community should be able to find you in multiple places, so avoid pigeonholing yourself to just one. If your primary content is on social media, you should also have a website. If you don’t, you could risk losing your community overnight.
For example, let’s say there’s a TikToker with three million followers who doesn’t leverage other social media platforms and other content styles. And then the TikTok ban goes into effect, shutting down the platform. That TikToker will immediately lose their clout because they put all their eggs in TikTok’s basket, basically forcing them to start all over.
That’s why it’s a best practice to supplement your primary content style with a second or third style to get your message out there and cultivate your community in multiple places.
Work smarter, not harder with multiple content styles
If you’re worried about the amount of work that’ll go into managing and creating content for multiple content styles, don’t be! You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when you have content spread across several platforms. You just need to find a way to repurpose content for those styles.
So if you decide to write blogs or create videos for YouTube, you can also repurpose them for an email newsletter. Because the content (your blogs or videos) already exists, all you’d need to do is link to that content in the newsletter.
Technology can be a big help here, too. We work with social media creators who also have their own websites, and they use plug-ins that transfer what they post on social media to their website. This allows them to reuse their content without having to create more.
Don’t underestimate the amount of work that goes into each content style
Regardless of the content style, don’t underestimate the work that’ll go into making it a reality. Some creators think of pursuing a content style without knowing the full picture of what that entails.
For instance, podcasting is more than just talking into a mic about random topics; you’ll need good sound quality and editing skills. If you decide to have guests, you’ll need to sharpen your interviewing skills and know how to schedule those guests. While podcasts are audio-driven, they can also be filmed for platforms like YouTube, which means you’ll need video editing skills and camera equipment.
Knowing what you’re getting into and planning for it is how you’ll succeed with your content style. This means putting a lot of time, effort, and professional development into these things if you don’t already have the skill set needed.
Wrapping up
The different content styles give you endless choices for what you can pursue for affiliate marketing. If you align it with your passion, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, work smarter and not harder, and know the amount of work that goes into it, you’ll find success in no time.
