How PR and affiliate marketing can work together

With bourgeoning interest from brands to integrate affiliate marketing into their strategies, it can be unsettling for PR pros to see this upstart tactic playing in their backyard. Earned media purists may take offense at affiliate’s very premise, which crosses into what they consider pay-for-play territory.

The unknown can breed uncertainty, but the reality is that public relations and affiliate marketing can not only coexist but form a symbiotic relationship that breeds mutual success. By combining these two elements, brands can leverage the content space in ways that simply did not exist a few short years ago.

For the uninitiated, affiliate marketing is a system in which third-party publishers, affiliates, are compensated for promoting products and services. They create content and are paid for generating sales and traffic stemming from that content.

As an example, consider the NY Times vehicle, Wirecutter, which is extremely transparent that their revenue is based on an affiliate model. Affiliate marketers pitch them a product to review and the editorial team chooses whether to promote them based on their merits, like customary earned media. With the affiliate model however, the outlet earns a percentage of the sales that their coverage generates.