Everything you want to know about affiliate marketing + Why you might want to pause before saying "YES" to a call for sources
You see a writer's call for sources on HARO, Qwoted, a Substack...here's what to do BEFORE you reply back to submit your client to get you the best ROI on that email!
Hi TTC Community!
Hope everyone is having an amazing week. It is just us or is this week absolutely flying by? Anyone doing anything fun this weekend? Tell us in the comments below! We have an exciting newsletter this week, but first some housekeeping:
Ready to have all your affiliate marketing questions answered? Join us on 7/11 for a special group Everything to Know About Affiliate Marketing TTC Session
One of the main topics we get asked about at Top Tier Consulting is affiliate marketing. We often hear things like:
Should my client be signed up with an affiliate program?
Is it a dealbreaker if they aren’t?
What are the best affiliate platforms?
How do I contact e-commerce editors to get my clients into these articles?
How do I communicate in pitches that my clients are on affiliates?
When it comes to percentages, what gets an editor/writer’s attention?
And so on!
Well we have some exciting news! Get ready because in July, we’re doing a special TTC group session all about affiliate marketing. Since this is a group format, it will be in a more accessible and affordable rate. It will also give you a chance to learn from colleagues and hear answers to questions they bring up that you may not have thought of. And we’ll be bringing in affiliate mastermind herself, Sarah Karger, Affiliate for Publicists Masterclass Creator, as a special guest. You’ll walk away with ALL of your affiliate questions answered plus hear best practices on getting your clients on affiliate programs, pitching clients on affiliates, finding the right platforms, troubleshooting specific affiliate situations and more.
Date: 7/11 10AM PT/1 PM ET
Rate: $199 Top Tier Consulting Paid Substack Subscribers
$249 Non Top Tier Consulting Substack Subscribers
Send us an email info@toptierconsulting.net to sign up! (Note the .net and not .com).
Save the date for our next Top Tier Talk: June 29
We’ll be sending out a signup sheet soon and a Google form to submit your questions for us. As a reminder this is free to all paid Substack subscribers of any plan. Can’t make it? We’ll send out a recording afterwards so you can still watch.
Now onto this week’s topic:
Why you should pause before submitting your client to a call for sources
This week, we’re diving into a topic we keep seeing pop up over and over again. Lately, we’re seeing a lot of situations where we put out calls for sources and people are overpromising on what their sources are able to deliver. It seems like the second our Substacks or HAROs go out, people are so quick to submit a source that may even remotely be in the realm of being a fit for the story that they aren’t stopping to really consider if the source is a good fit or not. This is a no go for a variety of reasons, which we’ll dive more into below.
Fist off, what does this situation look like? Here are a few examples:
Nicole just sources for a very specific AI expert: a medical AI expert who uses/studies AI for medical diagnosis or an AI prompt engineer to talk about how patients can use ChatGPT to analyze their symptoms and see what type of health ailments they may be dealing with. She got sooooo many responses. But just because your client is in the AI space doesn’t mean they are an automatic fit for the story.
If you reread what was in her query above, it’s very very specific to the patient experience of using ChatGPT. People submitted anyone and everyone who even remotely had anything to do with AI. This included people that were included in the AI legal space, AI for analyzing children’s mental health conditions, AI engineers who were working in all kinds of industries that had nothing to do with the medical space and AI apps….soo many AI apps.
She also recently sourced for a movie or pop culture expert to talk about the top dog movies on Netflix. In PR responses, she received messages from people who were
”perfect for this story.” This included people who worked at pet websites that sold products (clearly not movie or pop culture experts, rather people trying to promote their products), and all sorts of sources who didn’t have anything even remotely to do with pets but were just movie aficionados (who were clearly trying to promote their brands that had nothing to do with movies at all).
These are just a few of the many examples of things that come back to writers when they put out calls for sources on Substack, HARO, Twitter, Qwoted, Linkedin, and beyond that are clearly not a fit.
These types of responses are unfortunately a big waste of a journalist’s time and clog their inboxes.
Sourcing is not a numbers game
Yes, the more times you submit your client as a source, technically the better the chances you have of them getting picked up in a story. As Wayne Gretzky famously said: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
P.S. Here’s one for The Office fans. ;-p
BUT when it comes to relationship management with a writer, submitting a client as a potential source is an exercise you want to stay within the lines on. It’s not a numbers game for a writer. It’s about finding the right fit.
This process is similar to when you send out a pitch. When doing that, you’re making sure to pick a writer who covers the beat of what you’re pitching (i.e. you wouldn’t want to pitch a cannabis client to a writer who never writes about it). This is no different. When submitting your source as an expert, you want to make sure they really and truly do fit all of the criteria that a writer is asking for because at the end of the day, a writer is going to pick the sources that are truly the best candidates for their article — not the one who submitted the fastest or the
Read more below to find out how this can affect your working relationship with a journalist PLUS tips on how to truly make sure your client is the right fit before offering them up as a source.
Not a paid subscriber? Take a moment to upgrade today. Our annual membership is just $99, which means you get our extensive WEEKLY newsletter deep dives on our best practices for pitching clients, networking with writers, and best positioning your clients for top-tier coverage in your inbox for just $1.90 a week! Or we have a $10/month plan. As a member, you’ll also get access to our extensive archives of past content AND attend/participate in our monthly Zoom Top Tier Talks where we do hour-long zooms with our subscribers and answer any quetions that came up for the month, bring in special guests, and talk about current industry topics.
Book a Private TTC Consulting Session With Jill & Nicole for June
We’re already sold out for the next 4 weeks, but we have 2 slots open for mid-late June … so if you’re interested in more direct access to us, book one of our private consulting sessions!
Want to workshop a few pitches with two top-tier writers? Try our Pitch Perfecting session.
Looking to build deeper relationships with journalists? You’ll love our Become a Journalist’s BFF session.
Have a slew of questions you want answers to? Book an Ask Us Anything session.
Are you putting together a press trip and need help with the details? We offer a Press Trip Invites and Itineraries session.
Need fresh ideas for sending mailers to writers? Book our Press Package session.
Scheduling an in-person or virtual media event? We can help, with our Hosting the Perfect Virtual/In-Person Media Event session.
Have other ideas you need help brainstorming or creating an action plan for? We offer Custom sessions, too!
Now back into this week’s topic: