2022 is finally here and with that Income Access is heading into its historic 20^th year in the iGaming industry. That makes it the perfect time for us to look ahead to build out what the next 20 might look like! The affiliate marketing world is always evolving, so affiliates need to constantly be on the lookout for new ways to reach audiences. With the help of our in-house affiliate marketing experts, we’ve put together this article outlining emerging affiliate marketing strategies, all to help you get ahead of the curve and reach more users in the new year.

Influencer Marketing

Often, when the topic of influencer marketing is brought up, it’s looked at as a social media fad that can be associated with a younger generation. However, it’s shown itself to be an effective affiliate marketing tool and something more affiliates are considering.RELATED: Growing Your Brand Using Influencers and Brand AmbassadorsInfluencer marketers aim to build a strong, trust-based relationship with their followers that can lead to high-value users. By either working to become influencers or working with already established influencers, affiliates can improve their credibility, increase their reach and bring valuable users to operators.

As an example, the world of sports betting is rapidly growing and a plethora of influencers are emerging on social media platforms offering their expert picks for their followers. Affiliates can look to connect with these influencers and find ways to connect with their loyal fanbases.

Live Streaming Platforms

Live streaming platforms like Twitch have begun to take over the affiliate marketing world, as it’s become a valuable tool for affiliates to reach new users in an exciting space. While regulations for iGaming streaming on Twitch have evolved over the past year, affiliates can still use the platform to effectively reach new audiences, promote fun products and emphasize safe gambling. Twitch also offers several resources for those looking to begin on the platform, like a Creator Camp and several other documents.

On the other hand, Twitch isn’t the only option for affiliates, as YouTube offers a great live-streaming community for iGaming affiliates to tap into!

While they don’t offer category pages like Twitch does, there are multiple successful iGaming affiliate YouTube channels and a variety of opportunities there. This community will only continue to grow, so affiliates in spaces that are conducive to live-streaming, like Casino, Slots or Poker, should consider hopping on board now.RELATED: The Prominence of Twitch – iGaming’s Latest Great Affiliate ToolFor this affiliate marketing strategy to continue to be successful, affiliates will also need to focus on offering safe gambling education to their players as well. Regulations won’t be getting easier in this area, so it’s imperative to offer healthy gambling tools to followers!

Thought Leadership Content

Creating thought leadership content is becoming increasingly talked about in the marketing world, but there remains some confusion on how to put it into practice. The concept is to create written content (articles, lists, etc.) that your audience believe answers their questions and challenges, while also being enjoyable to read. Building out this kind of SEO friendly content can help affiliates build increased credibility for themselves and the companies they’re aiming to send users to.

For affiliates looking to go this route, be sure to analyze your audience well to choose your direction. Ideally, you’d like to blend the areas of expertise within your team and the kind of topics your audience will enjoy reading. For instance, if you’re an affiliate in the poker vertical, articles on different ways to play certain hands can help increase your authority and ideally lead users to trust the brand even more.

There’s no one size fits all approach here, as each affiliate will need to analyze their market, vertical, and much more to determine exactly what kind of content they should be creating.

The Takeaway

The affiliate marketing industry is hyper competitive and researching new strategies can only help affiliates stand out. While not every strategy will work for each market or vertical, it’s important for affiliates to continue looking for new ways to connect with users. Using fresh ideas in the affiliate marketing space like the ones presented in this piece, the hope is that affiliates can continue to reach new audiences and improve their profile in the industry.