Marketing Content Ideas for an Affiliate Marketing Manager

Marketing content plays a big role in affiliate marketing. It determines whether you get more affiliates to join the program or if will it just be another program that gets forgotten.

The truth is, a lot of affiliate marketers fail. Even though the industry advertises itself as a lucrative way to make extra income, there’s a lot needed to be done for that to be achieved.

As an affiliate marketing manager, it’s your responsibility to avoid failure at all costs. It’s up to you to think of different ways how and where you can promote the affiliate program and make its affiliates successful.

In this post, we’ll talk about marketing content ideas for an affiliate marketing manager. If you’re looking for creative ways to increase the number of your affiliates and affiliate sales, read on to get the latest marketing ideas.

Who Is An Affiliate Marketing Manager?

Before we get into marketing content ideas, let’s first discuss what an affiliate marketing manager does and how they help their merchants and affiliates.

As the term implies, this is a person who manages an affiliate program of a merchant. This can be someone who is already part of the company or is outsourced to do this specific job only.

Affiliate marketing managers are mainly responsible for taking care of relationships between the merchant and its affiliates. Other duties include finding affiliates, helping affiliates with their concerns, monitoring their sales, and fulfilling other marketing KPIs.

These managers are also responsible for negotiating with partners regarding commission structure. Brainstorming and implementing affiliate strategies is also done by affiliate managers. They discuss with affiliates how they can sell more products that can result in a win-win situation.

As mentioned earlier, affiliate managers should do everything to keep the affiliate program alive and growing. That’s why they always think of creative ways to entice people to join their program.

Marketing Content Ideas for Affiliate Managers

Affiliate managers need to be creative in growing their affiliate networks.

In the past years, dedicating a whole page to your affiliate program was useful and was seen to convert – especially if it was made simple and without complex designs.

Take Preply’s affiliate page for example:

It’s simple and direct to the point. It condensed its affiliate program process into only three steps.

Anyone who was interested in this would have joined already but a page and web design can only do so much. Some affiliate prospects need more than this. They need to be hooked and engaged with.

That’s why I’ve listed below different marketing content ideas that affiliate managers can implement to grow their networks.

1. Email Your Users

With everything today being automated like payments, customer response, and emails, there’s no reason not to use email marketing.

This has been utilized throughout the years because of one simple reason: it just works.

In 2020 alone, there were 3.9 billion daily email users, and this was seen to increase in the following years to come. To add to that, 87% of B2B marketers still say that email is one of their top free organic distribution channels.

Given these statistics, it’s no secret that email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to share anything about your business with your customers, as well as affiliates (as in our case).

If a business has an existing email list, it can be used by affiliate managers to promote its affiliate program.

The fact that these people signed up for your email list means that they are interested in what your business has to say.

2. Guest Posting

Guest posting is becoming more popular nowadays. This online collaborationacts as an avenue for people to get their names or business in front of a whole new set of audiences.

Generally, bloggers guest post in other blogs that are in the same or niche as them, or in an adjacent niche. They do so because of these reasons:

• It brings more targeted traffic to their website
• It increases brand awareness and credibility
• It helps with the website’s SEO
• It improves online authority
  

With these reasons alone, you can already see why guest posting is so beneficial when you have something to promote – in this case your affiliate program.

But before you create a guest post with information about your program or your products, make sure to discuss it with the blog you’re collaborating with. It can also help if you start your own blog so you can negotiate more effectively. The features you will include on your blog are decisive in building brand awareness. Creative logos, user-friendly design, web navigation are all important components of the blog.

Communication is important to every relationship. You need to let the owner know what you’ll be including in your post and ask whether it is okay with them. Some website owners tend to be sensitive when a guest blogger promotes something in their blog post – that’s why make sure to always ask first, as a form of respect.

3. Create Video Content

According to Hubspot Content Trend Survey, almost all people of different age groups like to watch videos as content from the brands they support. Given this data, it’s evident that video content tends to get the most attention.

When you want more affiliates to join your program, enticing and explaining in video format is highly recommended because it can increase the chances of them signing up.

For example, you can create a video using a free video editor explaining what your affiliate program offers and how it’s different from the rest. By explaining things in a video, you get to share more of the important details engagingly.

4. Create Several Types of Blog Posts

We’ve all heard the phrase “blogging is dead” but every year this statement is proven wrong.

According to OptinMonster, 70 million posts are being published each month by WordPress users and 77 million blog comments are registered every month. And if that’s not enough to convince you, there are still 600 million active blogs in the world today.

So yes, blogging is alive.

As an affiliate marketing manager, you need to utilize every piece of marketing content there is to increase your affiliate network. And blogging is an industry too big not to be used.

But how does blogging increase your affiliate network? It all starts with providing value and being an authority in your niche.

No matter what niche you’re in, for sure there are topics or activities in your industry that you can teach through your blogs.

Let’s use Aura for example. Aura in a nutshell helps Amazon sellers maximize their sales. So being in the Amazon selling niche, their blogs are all about selling on Amazon.

With these blogs, not only do they bring value to their users and link out to their product, but they’re also building authority in their niche.

That’s why when you search “Amazon repricer” or “Amazon repricer software” on Google, Aura’s website lands on the first page.

The same thing can happen to any type of business. As a merchant and affiliate manager, achieving authority and providing value can easily increase your affiliate network. The more value you provide to your customers and affiliates, the greater the chance that people will choose you over your competitors.

5. Hold Webinars

Webinars have been on a rise lately and this was highlighted last year when people were stuck in their homes. Almost all meetings and seminars became online events because of the pandemic.

However, if you truly understand what a webinar can bring to your business, it won’t be just used for meetings and company presentations. In fact, 87% of businesses already use this as a marketing tool.

If you value your online business, webinars should be part of your marketing content – especially if you have an affiliate program.

To convince you further, here are 5 reasons why webinars should be used by affiliate managers and merchants:

1. It gives you an opportunity to be an expert in your field

In a webinar, you get to showcase your expertise in your field. You get to demonstrate it more clearly than writing it in a blog. You can also make it as engaging as possible. You can let the viewers ask questions, let them chime in, show excellent visuals, and show them how to use your product or service.

2. Build an audience

Webinars allow you to build an audience organically rather than through paid traffic. By showing your expertise and engaging with your viewers, you get to increase your following just by educating people and sharing what you know.

3. It can generate leads

Businesses that have more than enough leads will never worry about growing. Webinars can act as lead generation for your business because for a viewer to join, registration is required. And that registration asks for emails and names.

Plus one thing to highlight is that leads generated in webinars are usually high-quality leads. These are people that are interested in what you have to say and teach.

4. Promote your products and affiliate program

When you have several viewers tuned in for you to present something, it would be a missed opportunity if you don’t get to promote your products and the affiliate program that comes with them.

A webinar is a good channel for any business to subtly convince a viewer to become a paying customer. GoToWebinar mentioned that 60% of businesses design their webinars to convert prospects to loyal customers.

5. Use It for Q&A

One of the best benefits of a webinar is a live question-and-answer portion. You can’t do this with a blog nor with video content. Having a Q&A allows you to get rid of any doubts that a prospect may have.

And if you’re able to clear that doubt and answer every question properly, you might just have converted a viewer to a customer or an affiliate.

6. Send An Invitation

Any business has a set of loyal customers. These are the repeat customers that no matter what products you sell – old or new – they’re just going to buy it. They just love your business and the products and services you offer.

These loyal customers are the people that know your products well. And they are also the perfect candidates to be your affiliate. When inviting them to be part of your affiliate program, you need to offer all the details. Be as transparent as possible.

Present all the data, the conversion rate, your excellent customer service, and the commission structure. Being transparent to your top customers just strengthens your relationship with them. Assure them that you’ll provide any help you can give to make things easier for them.

7. Create An In-Depth Product Or Service Review

Reviews in blog form or video format have benefitted every business that has used them. Consumers like to be 100% sure before buying items online – that’s why 9 out of 10 consumers read online reviews first before making a purchase.

Imagine having an affiliate program for the product you’re selling but you have no proof that it works. That’s where affiliate product reviews come in. These reviews boost the confidence of your prospects that your products indeed work.

Product reviews can benefit any business – it doesn’t matter what niche you’re in. You can be a lingerie store, a hardware store, a scarf-only business, or a pet service company – every business will benefit from product reviews.

These contents are in-depth and value-packed posts that display the pros and cons of your products or service. And if this review is well written, it can significantly boost your affiliate numbers.

To write a great product review, make sure to include these 4 points:

1. Use the product

The first thing to consider when writing a product review is honesty. You need to use the product for yourself to create an honest and in-depth product review. Your readers will be able to sense whether you’ve used the product or not.

By using the product, you get to experience first hand the ins and outs of it. You’ll be able to note all the little details. When you use the product, the outcome of the review will look genuine and this will give a confidence boost to your readers.

2. Relate your review to your readers

Other than establishing trust, building a connection between your readers is important. You need to write the review as if you’re also answering the questions in your readers’ minds.

For example, you can answer questions like:

• Who would buy this product?
• Who is this product for?
• Why do you need to buy this product?
• Does this service save you time?
• Does this software save you money?
• Is this for people that want to try something new?
  

Every prospect has some doubts about a product or service. If they didn’t have any, they would’ve bought or joined your affiliate program already. By addressing these questions in your review, you’re slowly breaking the mental barriers that prevent them from purchasing or joining your affiliate program.

3. Include your pros and cons

People always want to see the good and the bad of a product. If you only highlight the good parts in your review, you run the risk of readers thinking that it’s biased. So it’s only right that you include the negative side as well.

Including all the pros and cons of a product makes the review more genuine.

4. Be visual with your review

Using images and graphics makes your reviews engaging and not tiresome to read. If you can, get the gist of the sections of your review and repackage it as an image, summarize it in a table or create an infographic. Take this for example:

AwesomeX could’ve mentioned the pros and cons in a paragraph but to make it simpler for their readers, they’ve transferred the data to a table.

5. Write in conversational tone

When writing a product review, remember that the priority is to inform the readers. Selling them the product and enticing them to join the affiliate program only comes second. That’s why it’s important to write in a conversational tone rather than trying to hard-sell them.

An added benefit of writing in a conversational tone would be higher customer retention and an increased number of readers finishing the whole review.

Becoming A Better Affiliate Marketing Manager

Knowing what marketing content to use is just one part of being an affiliate manager, nurturing and strengthening affiliate relationships is the whole other side of the job.

If you ask any top affiliate manager about what’s the most important aspect of their job, most of them would answer – starting and maintaining good relationships with affiliates.

Essentially, they are also relationship managers who take care of other aspects of affiliate marketing.

So how does an affiliate manager improve their affiliate relations? They can do so in 3 ways.

1. Listen to your affiliates

Listening is key to any good relationship. A relationship can’t improve if one side doesn’t listen to the other. Once you listen to your affiliates’ needs, it would be easier for you as an affiliate manager to present ideas and opportunities.

2. Ask for feedback

Feedback can be a start for improvement. For some, it might be hard to read or hear criticism from others but for any great affiliate manager, it’s only part of the job.

You can start by asking questions about what the affiliates think about the program and how it could improve. You can also ask how to make both parties happier and more involved.

By asking such questions, it shows the affiliates how much you value their voice and opinion.

3. Help your affiliates to be more successful

Just because they joined the program doesn’t mean that the job is done. Giving them new strategies and resources to make more money will make them love the affiliate program even more.

You can do this by sending them a summarized report of new data on affiliate marketing, educational resources about new strategies on selling products, or links on how to convert visitors to sales.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing managers wear a lot of hats when working – they are relationship managers, marketers, researchers, and many more. But in order for them to be efficient in their jobs, they need to grow their affiliate network and maintain a good relationship with the affiliates.

With the marketing content ideas listed above, you have a chance to improve your affiliate program metrics.