Some of the most successful, high earning affiliates in the world work in the retail space. With affiliate programmes from Amazon, Ebay and many major commercial companies – it’s easy to see why these affiliate programmes are becoming more popular.
Can iGaming based affiliates learn from the lessons that this sector has to offer? We think so, take a look at the points below which consider how we might be able to glean key information to grow businesses inside the iGaming sector.
Knowing your Audience
You don’t see bloggers on social media flogging unrelated products, they stick within their own niche. They know who their audience are, what they’re interested in and only dedicate space to those things. They take products out for a test drive and relate the facts to those who would actually be interested in purchasing it, not just anyone.
They don’t dedicate their resources to shoehorning irrelevant products to their audience or mislead their users. This creates trust with the user and they are more likely to convert over the course of their time on the site.
What can gaming affiliates take from this?
It’s important to know the content that your audience is interested in and then build on that. Use page metrics to understand which topics perform well and then build a content strategy based on that. Especially now that content is key in ranking, a unrealistic review or one that really doesn’t provide in depth insight to a brand could actually be a negative placement up on your site.
Create Authentic Content
If your affiliate portal does nothing but extol the benefits of a site or bonus, then your users may not find that you’re authentic. Make no mistakes that users understand the affiliate/operator relationship, if you don’t give them authentic facts on the brand then they’re not likely to trust what you have to say.
Take a look at reviews of products from retail affiliates, then you will understand how to make your content more authentic. They tend to give a few pros and cons of the product, then follow up with a conclusion that tempts users to buy or not to buy. They don’t create glowing reviews of every product that they can link to, as their readers will quickly lose their faith in the authenticity.
For affiliates this could mean that you point out a few cons in each brand and only really promoting the ones you think your readers will enjoy playing on. The Pogg is a great site that has taken this to heart. They provide audits for operators before they will consider placing them up on their site for their customers to consider playing at. By going a step further they have ensured their audience only gets the best information contained in their reviews, as they are completed by independent reviewers based on a series of factors which they have determined should be included in a standard review.
Dedicate Resources
Effective retail affiliates often spend full time hours promoting their affiliate products. They put time, effort and resources into the brand as a whole, not just the sale of a particular product. They often post without the intention of just converting their reader on a partner site, sometimes they’re just looking for engagement or to keep things updated.
Many affiliates in iGaming don’t dedicate the same time to their portal but they still want the same results. To put the time into the portal is an essential step to success, no matter how many of these you may have. Some affiliates feel that starting up new portals and having a lot of them is important, but it’s a much better idea to spend more time on just one portal and build a valuable audience that repeat purchases and builds trust in your brand.
Add Value with your Brand
In crowded markets like affiliate bloggers, it’s essential to add value and stand out. The most successful retail affiliate markets pick a broad topic and then make it unique by adding their own twist on it.
You also want to make sure that each piece of content that you add offers its own value too. The same old reviews and content won’t have a big effect on your SERPs if you don’t put the effort into them. Instead, forge ahead with content that your competitors aren’t using and that your users will enjoy.
Those that are retail affiliates for a living are masters of this task, as they continue to create content that expands on the topic of the site.
Effective use of Social Media
If we look at how retail affiliates use social media, we can see plenty of tricks that affiliates are missing. The personal, approachable tone that they put across in their content is replicated across their social media channels too. This is a more effective use of social media than many iGaming affiliates use, some don’t use these acquisition and retention channels at all.
Social media can often be misunderstood by gambling affiliates, as it’s just a rehash of what goes on their site. You can tweet about your offers every day, but unless you build an interested user base no one will see them and they certainly won’t lead to conversions.
Simply looking outwards to other sectors can give you a lot of new ideas to use within your affiliate business. If you continue to look for opportunities to grow your business, you will get the chance to gain better exposure than your competitors.
