7 Best Types of Affiliate Marketing Content (with Examples)

7 Best Types of Affiliate Marketing Content (with Examples)

For most business owners, word-of-mouth is one of the best forms of marketing. An estimated 92% of people trust companies recommended by friends and family. In the current age of digital marketing, word-of-mouth has been expanded to include social media. Along with friends and family, customers seek out information on various businesses from their favorite social media personalities. Nearly half of consumers are influenced by social media when making purchases.

What Is Affiliate Content?

Affiliate marketing is a specific type of content marketing in which writers create a website with content specifically made to promote a business. These programs help business owners widen their reach, connecting with people who may not otherwise see their brand.

Affiliate marketing involves partnering with third parties to promote brands and drive web traffic. You can become an affiliate marketer and help businesses connect to your followers while setting up a potential revenue stream.

How an Affiliate Marketing Program Works

Affiliate marketing is an affordable way for business owners to promote their company. By partnering with popular personalities whose content aligns with their brand, businesses can reach a wider audience. You are motivated to promote these brands because your sales serve as a revenue stream. Successful affiliate marketing content provides a benefit to both parties.

Here are some of the more common types of affiliate marketing content and what makes them most successful.

7 Common Types of Affiliate Marketing Content

Use the following affiliate marketing content ideas to jump-start your strategy and drive more views to your website.

1. Product Reviews

Product reviews are an easy, natural fit for affiliate marketing content. An honest review helps you build trust with your readers. A good review will offer pros and cons associated with the product. Your review should provide readers with valuable advice. When possible, stick with products and product categories in which you have a lot of expertise. You should be able to explain how the product’s features differ from others on the market.

A product review should never be overly salesy. Even if you love the product, steer clear of going overboard when selling its benefits. Otherwise, you could seem less credible and lose your audience. Be fair and don’t be scared to point out features of the product that need improvement.

Product reviews are successful because you have done research for the buyer. They don’t have to go out and test a product to assess whether or not they’re going to like it. If you already have an established reader base, then they likely trust your judgment.

2. Video Reviews

Video marketing continues to gain traction as a popular content marketing tactic. Video is an excellent way to reach people online, as the average person spends about 100 minutes per day watching them online.

As part of an affiliate marketing program, you would create an engaging and informative review of a product and include a link in the description that takes the viewer to the brand’s website. Like written product reviews, your videos should be authoritative and honest.

Make them engaging, and provide the viewer with the information they need to make a buying decision. If you’re an expert in a certain niche, talk about it up front. That way, your viewers will know you’re credible and trust you to review the products.

Video reviews are beneficial for the same reason as written product reviews. They save customers time and hassle because the consumers don’t have to go out and buy the product themselves. To make them most effective, engage with your audience. You don’t have to be a comedian, but you do need to have some personality. Smile and make eye contact with the camera, and read your script the same way you would talk to a friend or family member asking your opinion about a product.

3. How-To Articles

How-to articles are an easy way to inform readers about a variety of products and send them clicking through to different businesses to buy products. You can write how-to articles about a complex topic and break it down, linking different products you’ve used along the way.

For example, if you’re part of an affiliate marketing program for a cosmetics company, you can write a how-to article about proper skincare and link various products you use in your routine.

You can also write a how-to article with detailed instructions on how to use a product with a lot of features. Different apps and other software often include features the average user wouldn’t know about. You can write a how-to article that covers more obscure aspects of the product or just write a guide on how to use all the features of the product to make your life easier.

How-to articles are successful because they give your readers more information about a product. Instead of having to cobble together information from multiple reviews and instruction manuals, they can read everything in one well-written how-to article.  

Nerd Wallet is an affiliate website for financial services that offers tips, advice, and reviews on everything from credit cards to financial advisors. The site features how-to articles that break down complex financial topics with links to different partners, including this article discussing how to pay for college.

4. Product Comparisons

When you’re working with multiple affiliate programs, you can save time by combining multiple product reviews into one comparison post. You can structure product comparisons as a “best-of” list or create a head-to-head comparison of different products.

Like product review posts, the most successful comparison articles are honest. One reason to use a listicle style “best of” format is that it enables you to expand on what you like and dislike about each product. That way, you’re not appearing biased toward one brand over another.

Wirecutter is an affiliate website that features product reviews and other articles from a variety of categories. This site commonly uses top product lists and best of lists to compare products.

5. Email Marketing

If you’ve successfully built an email marketing list, you can use it to contact followers with affiliate marketing content. Companies have different rules for monetizing email, but you can send a newsletter with links to content on your affiliate site. You can send out special themed emails, like gift guides for the holidays with links to various product reviews. You can also send out an email with tips for having your best summer and link products you use to host summer parties.

6. Webinars

Once you’ve built up your expertise in a specific niche, you can host webinars to pass that information on to others. You can also host webinars to share presentations from the company itself. You might post a product demonstration or an in-depth Q&A about a complicated product or service.

You can also host a webinar that functions as a video tutorial. Walk your viewers through a process step-by-step, noting products you’re using in each phase and offering links in the video description. You can either post the webinar as a video or live stream it. This way, you can directly interact with the audience and answer questions.

Live webinars are most successful when you engage with your audience. Before hosting the webinar, test out your equipment. Host a virtual meeting with a friend or family member to make sure your internet connection works and to assess the quality of your video and audio.

If you’re demonstrating a product, practice on camera ahead of time so you know that the product and its features are in the frame and viewable by your audience. If you’re sharing a presentation, record a practice session to see what it looks like to viewers.

7. Social Media Posts

With billions of daily users, social media is one of the most effective tools for casting a wide net and increasing brand exposure. Facebook is the most common site for affiliate marketing content. Posting affiliate links on social media is similar to how a business would create a sponsored post.

First, consider the audience, and then choose products and imagery that resonate with said audience. Use interesting pictures that are visually appealing and use keywords and hashtags in your captions. If you’re starting an affiliate marketing website, create branded social media accounts you can use to post your affiliate links.

Blogger Carley Creative Concepts often uses social media to promote various affiliate posts, including gift guides and product reviews. You can use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and more to promote your content or to post branded content as part of your affiliate marketing content strategy.

How to Write Content for Affiliate Marketing

It can seem difficult to break into the world of content without proper affiliate marketing content writing services. It's crucial, therefore, to have an affiliate marketing content strategy to help improve your chances of success and give you proper direction.

Pick a Niche

Figure out what you know most about. The most successful affiliate marketing websites offer authoritative and insightful product reviews, roundups, case studies, and videos. You don’t have to have years of experience, but you should be passionate about your niche. Choose a subject you don’t mind researching. If you can, find an untapped niche with less competition. It will make it easier to generate clicks and passive income.

Pay Attention to Search Volume

Interesting articles are fun to write, but they won’t make you money if nobody is searching for the content. Before getting started, do some internet searches to see what kind of content is out there and use a keyword search volume tool to see what people are looking for. Use your keyword research to generate some ideas and put together a content calendar. ‍

Be Honest

Since you’re representing a brand, you might be tempted to write a rave review and gloss over what you didn’t like about a product. However, a page full of glowing reviews can hamper your credibility. Be thorough in your reviews — give details about what you like and dislike about various products. You don’t have to be overtly negative in your review, but if there are features you don’t like, discuss them in detail. When your reviews are thorough and honest, you give your readers what they need to make their own buying decisions.

Keep Your Readers in Mind

Keyword research will help you determine what your readers are looking for, but you also need to write in a way that appeals to them. Do some competitive analysis. Search the internet for similar content and see what ranks at the top of search engines. You don’t have to copy another writer’s tone and voice. In fact, you shouldn't — your articles should be authentic to your personality, and they should be original so that they rank higher on search engines. Competitive analysis can help you determine what might resonate with readers. You can get ideas for creating engaging content that still aligns with the brand you’re covering.

Appeal to Your Readers’ Needs

When readers take in reviews and other affiliate marketing content that addresses how products and services will improve their lives, they may be more likely to read to the end and click on your product links. Think about how each product is serving users’ needs. Look through online reviews on different shopping sites and see what people are saying about the product. What do they like about it? Why did they choose it over a competitor's product? Answering these questions will help you create valuable content for your readers.

Start Affiliate Marketing Today

If you’re ready to jump into the affiliate marketing content, start out by identifying your niche. Make a list of topics you know about or that interest you enough to learn more about them. Figure out what kinds of content to write and make a schedule. Conduct keyword research to find topics that interest your readers, and figure out how you can add value for your readers. Next, look through various affiliate marketing companies or search for different businesses that offer affiliate marketing programs. It might take some time to build solid readership, but the key is to be consistent. Keep at it, and eventually, you will have the opportunity to create a new revenue stream while benefiting your affiliate partners.