Creating Content Topics With an Affiliate Marketing Mindset 

It’s not uncommon for clients to push back against blog, infographic, video or slide deck content that they don’t deem to be strictly within their wheelhouse. It’s understandable from their point of view. Why would they want to pay for topics that are only tangentially linked to the products or services they provide to their customers? Understanding a little bit about affiliate marketing and its benefits may help you explain or understand why topics that may not stick narrowly to an advertiser’s core service or product offerings can raise brand awareness and improve authority within their business vertical.

Affiliate networks allow marketers to drive trackable relevant traffic to a customer and then receive commissions on any sales that are attributed to them. An example of this would be a tech-review website that includes affiliate links. Essentially, the process is:

1. Review website signs up for affiliate network
2. The network provides a unique URL to the review website
3. The review website writes a review about some new product, like a new smartphone, and at the end of the review they include a unique link to a sales page for the smartphone
4. If a user reads the review and clicks through to the store page, a cookie or pixel tracks the lead
5. If that user makes a purchase, it will be attributed to the affiliate and they will receive a commission based on the sale

Affiliate marketing works best when the audience for both partners is similar. In the example above, a website that reviews new gadgets appeals to the same audience as consumers of those products, so they make a good match.

Standout verticals for affiliate marketing success include retail, travel, education and personal finance businesses. A blogger or business that frequently writes about or creates content that appeals to consumers of these vertical’s products and services can leverage their own audience to drive sales leads to affiliates and earn a commission on any legitimate conversions. Advertisers who aren’t part of an affiliate network can still use the content creation strategies to expand their reach, build an audience, reinforce brand awareness and establish authority with search engines and relevant consumers.

Even if you’re not an affiliate, it’s worthwhile to think about your customers’ geography, demographics and interests. You can leverage that knowledge to build your brand and cement your authority within your industry.A moving company based in Seattle may want to occasionally post content that is relevant to people in Seattle, or people who recently moved there. They could, for example, write a blog about top five road trips in the Pacific Northwest or what type of vehicle would be best for the snowy, wet roads of Washington.

Although their business isn’t about selling cars or promoting tourism, these topics can very easily be tied into an overarching umbrella concept of things you may want to know if you’re moving to Seattle. A business may not be part of an affiliate network and aren’t actively attempting to drive leads to an auto dealership’s inventory feed, but the thinking behind topic choices parallels what you’d want to do were you in an affiliate network. From a branding and authority perspective, it’s important to identify topics that can include relevant keywords, such as moving, Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue and other surrounding suburbs that the moving customer’s target audience may be searching for.
For example, “Looking for popular tourist activities in the Seattle area? When friends and family visit your new home after your move to Bellevue, Tacoma or anywhere else in the Puget Sound area, give them a taste of the local natural beauty by taking them on one of these scenic drives.” The content should ideally incorporate moving keywords, the geos you serve and at the same time provide an informative piece that will get your brand recognized by people who may not need your services today but will likely need a moving company at some time in the future.

Window Companies, Contractors or Furniture Retailers: Home Improvement + Pop Culture: The Décor, windows and doors of Game of Thrones. Auto Accident Personal Injury Attorneys: Legal + Travel: Summer road trips. Casinos and Gaming: Gaming + Home Décor: How to decorate your home for an authentic casino gaming party. Furniture Companies, Contractors or Window Companies: Furniture + Home Improvement: The benefits and hot styles of indoor-outdoor living design. Higher Education, Appliance Retailers and E-Commerce: Education + Home Appliances: Top 10 things you need in your dorm room. HVAC, Home Improvement and Health Care: Health + HVAC + Home Improvement: Most common illnesses associated with renovating a home or office, including information on sick building syndrome and indoor air quality products. These are just a handful of potential ideas that are stylistically similar to what an affiliate marketer may try to target. They serve to diversify the breadth of your reach while reinforcing your brand identity and generating fresh, relevant content for search engines to crawl. This type of approach to content marketing also prevents every topic from sounding overly similar and stale, which can happen if a business only writes or generates content narrowly targeted at just the services or products they offer.

If you’d like to learn more about how REV77 generates topic ideas, such as the analytics factors we look at and the type of keyword research we perform, please feel free to reach out to us for more information.