Affiliate Marketing: What’s Changed in 2019? New Tools, Trends, and Channels

Affiliate marketing is alive and well in 2019. Individual online influencers have continued to grow their presence using niche Facebook groups, blogs, websites, video, and other corners of the internet. 

Whether you are building a niche audience, or just want to make money online, here are some of the top trends, tools, and channels to pay attention to in affiliate marketing in 2019.

Live Streaming

Review content (where you or your users tell others how a product or service worked for them) is still performing well for affiliates. Traffic continues to be directed to websites that provide the best content. It’s time to step up your game! One current trend in affiliate marketing is the use of live streaming video to review or promote affiliate products; these reviews can be saved and reposted to YouTube with applicable links to affiliate products.

Live streaming is great for affiliates because it gets online users to join in real-time so they won’t feel like they’re missing out in the future. What’s more, if a user is aware that you continuously produce great content, they are more likely to return the next time they are looking to purchase a product you have reviewed.

Users are also likely to click on an affiliate link to buy if your streams are insightful and give them helpful information they need to make a decision.

Push Notifications & SMS

Mobile is one of the hottest marketing channels to focus on in 2019, and that’s no different for affiliate marketers. Once you have your niche audience, think about how you can deliver them mobile-only content, which might include creating an app for your existing audience or communicating with an audience through Short Message Service (SMS) messaging.  

Send targeted messages to that audience using an SMS service provider, or push notifications through your app about affiliate offers, or content to bring in more targeted traffic. The communication and messaging are in real-time, and you can personalize messaging to the actions and interests of your followers. Promoting your affiliate partnerships through mobile is an effective way to get your affiliate offers in front of your audience quickly. 

Short-form, Real-time Content

Ephemeral content, like stories and short-form, real-time posts will continue to rise in popularity amongst marketing professionals. While largely used in a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) approach, the trend toward temporary content is beginning to pick up speed in the Business-to-Business (B2B) affiliate marketing programs as well. 

Some ideas for Fiverr affiliates:

• Create Instagram stories promoting Fiverr Gigs you think are exemplary.
• Go live for the reveal of your Fiverr project, and create reaction videos.
• Include shortened links to your Fiverr affiliate URL as a watermark on all Fiverr related short-form stories.
• Send a Direct Message (DM) to followers who like your Fiverr-related stories, and provide your affiliate link. 

The level of storytelling that ephemeral content unlocks for affiliate marketing will keep your followers engaged and give them helpful and entertaining content—all while supporting your affiliate marketing goals.

What will this year hold for Affiliates?

Each passing year brings new online marketing opportunities, but it’s important to focus on the basics as well. 

Continue to look for ways to get the right product to the customers who are looking for it. Whether it’s through a Facebook ad campaign or a well-researched blog post, users appreciate targeted information that helps them make the right decisions.