Affiliate Marketing for Brands: Beyond Influencers with Greg Potts | The Longer Game

Affiliate marketing for brands goes far beyond influencers. Greg Potts of Levanta breaks down how creators, publishers and deal sites drive Amazon and ecommerce growth, and even AI search visibility. Brands today are looking for all the levers. They want that extra edge to push their brand into the stratosphere. What if you could find an additional way to get in front of customers to grow your brand outside of traditional marketing and advertising? What if you could garner trust with consumers without them even knowing your brand? That's affiliate marketing in a nutshell. Influencers, Publishers, Media Companies, & Deal Sites are all different types of affiliates and Greg Potts, Senior Director of Partnerships at Levanta, joins us on today's episode to make sure we use the right mix to grow our brands. As affiliate marketing grows, it's become more than just selling products. Brand and affiliates need to have depth. What is the brand about? Why should I care what this affiliate has to say? Without those things, you become yet another voice in a sea of noisy content. Get your phone, your ring light, and get ready to start influencing people. Season 4 Episode 17: Greg Potts What they cover 1. Brands are looking for additional levers to pull to increase visibility and revenue and influencers are becoming one of those regular levers to pull. 2. Influencer marketing has evolved into what we now see as the creator economy. It's no longer just about selling a boat load of product. Consumers want to resonate with messaging behind the product. 3. Affiliates, especially listicles, or a list style article from a well known publisher often, can have massive impact on LLM rankings because of how they value that content. Don't just use influencers. Use the whole arsenal of affiliates. 4. Different sized brands need to have different playbooks but all great affiliate programs start with a great product. You can't sell crap for very long. 5. Timing matters for content. Expectations may be high for how well content will perform but don't be afraid to recycle or redo content if it didn't hit the first time. 6. People go to agencies because of their expertise. They are solving problems other people have never seen before. And bad experiences with agencies often require a reframing of how brands approach the service, which really great agencies can help them do. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:44 Meet Greg Potts of Levanta 06:07 From influencers to the creator economy 08:30 Affiliates beyond influencers and their impact on AI search 13:19 Amazon's external traffic incentives 19:11 Ask Greg: affiliate strategy for low-rated products 25:11 Setting the right commission rate 30:26 Why brands hire agencies The Longer Game explores the future of retail across Amazon, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar. The goal is simple: help brands grow by understanding how all channels work together. Retail is evolving. The brands that win are the ones willing to adapt. Subscribe to stay updated on new episodes. Learn more: https://thelongergame.com About the Guest: Greg Potts is the Senior Director of Partnerships at Levanta, where he leads global agency collaboration and growth. Before Levanta, he was a Strategic Partnerships Manager at Amazon. At Levanta he has partnered with over 200 agencies worldwide, helping their brand clients use Levanta's creator-powered affiliate network to grow awareness and sales. Connect with Greg: LinkedIn:   / greg-potts   Website: https://www.levanta.io Instagram: @gregrosspotts About the Host: Michael Maher is Chief Idea Officer of Cartology, an Amazon-focused agency helping brands grow revenue and profitability. Connect with Michael: LinkedIn:   / immichaelmaher   Email: michael@thinkcartology.com Sponsored by Cartology: https://thinkcartology.com #TheLongerGame #AffiliateMarketing #RetailStrategy