Affiliate Marketing IS Dead

Kirsten Aurigemma
2 min readAug 10, 2018

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What is affiliate marketing? Nowadays, “affiliate marketing” is a term that is extremely outdated… similar to 90s trends like N*Sync, Myspace, and Dialup. As Jimmy Fallon would say, “EW!”.

On the other hand, “partnership marketing” is a term that encompasses what was previously referred to as affiliate, but opens the scope dramatically to include strategies like influencer marketing as well. This term more accurately defines teams who strategize, plan, negotiate, implement and analyze both traditional affiliate and non-traditional (social influencer) partnerships to reach users who are unfamiliar with your brand to build interest and drive revenue.

At BVAccel, we recently made the switch from the “Affiliate Marketing Team” to the “Marketing Partnerships Team,” and here’s why:

Affiliate Marketing limits the scope of what we are actually doing as a team.

  • When doing recruitment, we often run into the problem of potential partners responding with “sorry, we don’t work on an affiliate basis. Please reach out when you have a budget.”
  • By rebranding to Marketing Partnerships, we are able to provide our partners with more opportunity for our clients. They are more interested in working with us and our brands by knowing that we can work on a non-traditional affiliate basis and are looking to build long-term partnerships.

The transition to Partnership Marketing allows us to become more creative and think outside the box when developing programs for clients.

  • Do we work with A-list celebrities? YES.
  • Do we work with coupon and deal sites? YES.
  • Name a publisher and we can work with them, no problem!
  • We are always looking to find and execute on the best caliber of placements with the highest quality partners that are either revenue driving or brand awareness based so that we can grow your brand the best way we know how!

Affiliate Marketing is used as a term in various industries and doesn’t always have a positive connotation or relate to what we actually do.

  • By referring to your synergistic partners as affiliates, you are limiting them, as well as your potential, for success. Start referring to them as partners and show them you value them and want to create a long-term “partnership” that will benefit all parties!

Not only does my team work with affiliates on a CPA basis, but we also work with all types of partners, from influencers, to cashback and loyalty sites, to top publications that you tend to look at and check every day for news, hot trends, and market updates.

So in conclusion… “Marketing Partnerships” is where it’s at! Reach out today to learn more about BVAccel and how we can help you grow and scale your brand — we can’t wait to work with you!

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