How to Generate Partnership-Driven Editorial Content

How to Generate Partnership-
Driven Editorial Content
Workshop by Gary Marcoccia | AM Days | Affiliate Summit East
March 25, 2022 - NYC

Introduction & Background
Gary Marcoccia - Co-founder / Chief Business Officer / GravityFed.com, Inc.
Affiliate marketer, content creator, consultant, and entrepreneur. GravityFed has been operational for more than two decades.
● GravityFed launched in 2000 as an editorial and gear review website before social media and blogs.
○ One of the first websites publishing product reviews for outdoor lifestyle brands.
● GravityFed remained a “side-hustle” business while I helped to launch and build AvantLink.
● GravityFed’s primary revenue source was outdoor affiliate marketing programs until 2019.
● GravityFed rebranded as an agency, and launched a platform MVP for influencers and creators.
GravityFed now offers affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, content creation, and media production services for ecommerce
retailers and DTC brands.
We leverage our own growing list of more 3000 creators, influencers, bloggers and commerce editors for affiliate programs and
influencer campaigns.
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Gary Marcoccia • linkedin.com/in/garymarcoccia • gary@gravityfed.com

Workshop Overview
Demonstrations, discussions, and exercises on how to find, leverage, and manage partnerships for content
including long-form reviews, product roll-ups, social spotlights, unboxings, and more.
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Part 1: Educational/Discussion
● Affiliate programs vs. influencer campaigns
● The expanding list of partnership types
● Content and campaign types
● ASSOCIATED COSTS
○ Commissions vs. gifting vs. fees
● Campaign logistics and realistic expectations
● Benchmarks, performance, and reporting
Part 2: Hands-On/Campaign Creation
● Partnership and creator discovery
● Roster creation and how-to manage
● Campaign tasks, requirements, deliverables
○ Next steps/takeaways for:
● Campaign launch and execution
● Measuring, reporting, and monitoring
● Leveraging and spotlighting the goods

Definitions
Common labels and definitions used in performance-based, partnership marketing.
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Partnership Side
Ambassador
Affiliate
Affiliate Network
Blogger
Commerce Editor
Creator
Publisher
Influencer
Vanity Code
Brand Side
Advertiser
Brand
Campaign Manager
Deliverable
Evergreen
Program Manager
Media Buyer
Media Hit
Merchant
Retailer
Agency/Network
Agency Type
Marketing
Media
OPM
PR
Contract/IO
Cookie/Referral Period
Marketplace
Network/Platform

Partnership Landscape
The partnership marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the last two decades. Early on compensation
was primarily commission-based to small affiliates, but as the industry grew and improved so did partnership
business entities, technology and audience sizes.
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Affiliate Marketing (Early)
● Not known or understood by many - had to
convince my parents it was legal.
● Individuals working side hustles - far from large
corporations and billion dollar acquisitions.
● Mostly banners on brochure-style websites -
basic functionality on new “affiliate networks”.
Partner Marketing (Today)
● Key revenue component for websites and blogs,
as well as influencers, creators, podcasters, etc.
● Global shopping surfaces with millions of
followers, members, offers, and rebates.
● Programmatic imports and notifications of
promotions, coupons, price drops, and inventory
changes from merchants.

Affiliate vs. Influencer
Affiliate programs and influencer campaigns have distinct differences, but they are not mutually exclusive.
“Influencers” should come on to affiliate programs for complete tracking coverage, from reach and engagement to
the bottom line (revenue).
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Affiliate Marketing Programs
● Compensation: CPA
○ Commission on sales or payment for lead
● Large scale/lots of publishers
● Mass communication
● Reporting/KPIs:
○ clicks, #sales, sales, commissions,
conversion rate, ROAS
● Gifting not generally required
● Discounting essentially required
Influencer Marketing Campaigns
● Compensation: Primarily fee-based
○ Hybrid CPA opps possible
● Small scale/limited # of partners
● 1:1 communication
● Reporting/KPIs:
○ affiliate KPIs+, posts, URLs, impressions,
engagements, costs
● Gifting required
● Discounting not required, but encouraged

Affiliate Marketing
Performance-based affiliate marketing programs utilize a CPA compensation model (commission-based or flat fee) to pay
partners who drive customers, leads, and sales.
Affiliate programs are most commonly accessible to any partnership type via third party networks or tracking platforms,
but may also be private label/invitation only.
Discount codes and other promotional offers are key components of affiliate program growth. Price has always driven
conversion online. Affiliate marketing evolved in that context.
Most sales volume and new custom acquisition comes from enterprise shopping publishers or partners who optimize
around deals, coupons, rebates, cashback, and other loyalty or discount models.
Settle in for the long-game and stay the course with partner marketing. It takes 18-24 months for a new affiliate program
to establish large-scale partnerships and mature.
AFFILIATE MANAGEMENT and INFLUENCER MANAGEMENT are TWO different roles.
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Affiliate Marketing Process
History/Evolution of Affiliate Marketing
● Early: Independent webmasters and “side-hustle” businesses displaying banners from home offices.
● Later: Early + the rise of coupon/loyalty, tools/tech solutions, social media, and acquisitions.
● Current: Later + Early + enterprise publishers, expanded partnership tent, and commission + pay-to-play.
Affiliate Program Process and Costs
● Launch/growth phase: 6-12 months*
● Program maturity: 18-24 months
● Costs: $500-$2000 to launch + ongoing partner payout + ongoing network fees**
● Management: No programs on auto-pilot. Invest in a program manager***
● Additional budget required for quality content
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* Brands should shoot for a consistent 2-3% CR sitewide before investing in an affiliate program.
** Partner payouts usually range 5-15%. Standard network fees are 20-30% of partner earnings.
*** In-house vs. agency services/OPM.

Affiliate Program Brand
The affiliate or partnership program “brand” should stand out separately from the store brand. The better a
program is positioned as an authority in its category, the easier to attract and retain strong partnerships.
● Fully optimized merchant profile on network or marketplace.
● Set-up branded email communication templates for acceptance, recruitment, and newsletters.
● Build a unique, content-rich sign-up page linked up from footer.
○ This page should be position #1 in SERPs for “[Merchant Name] Affiliate Program”.
● Have a dynamic ad list with regular promotions, codes, and standard evergreen banners.
○ Include mobile compatible ad unit sizes.
● Be visible, proactive, engaged, and responsive to all partnership types.
○ Send out 1:1 emails to key partners.
QUALITY PROGRAM MANAGEMENT IS EFFECTIVE RECRUITING
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Merchant Network Profile(example)
Merchant:
OLIPOPTM
Merchant Profile URL:
app.impact.com/campaign-campaign-
info-v2/Olipop.brand
Network:
Impact
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Affiliate Sign-up Page(example)
Merchant:
Thrive Market
Sign-up page URL:
thrivemarket.com/affiliate-program
Network:
CJ Affiliate
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Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing campaigns are generally fee-based requiring 50% down payment to begin. Commissionable affiliate links should
also be included as a component of an inclusive campaign.
Influencer campaigns are generally private-label engagements that are executed from specifically curated lists of creators or
influencers. 3rd party campaign management software and services are available.
Discount codes and other promotional offers are encouraged. Assign creators or influencers their exclusive promo tracking code
from Impact. Ideal for podcasters and social captions.
Sales come more incrementally over time than with affiliate partners who design to convert. The main objective of influencer
campaigns are to create brand awareness, with more content and sales being a nice bonus.
Influencer marketing campaigns can be executed in 4-10 weeks from discovery to deliverables. Require participants to use affiliate
links or tracking codes. Monitor permalinks and posts over time and build on creator relationship.
INFLUENCER MANAGEMENT and AFFILIATE MANAGEMENT are TWO different roles.
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Influencer Marketing Process
History/Evolution of Influencer Marketing
● “Influencers” have been leveraged by marketers for…ever.
● In the last decade it’s strongly emerged in the context of partnership marketing.
● Influencers are not “affiliates” or “publishers” with shopping surfaces and deals.
○ They are aka “creators”, “brand ambassadors”, “commerce editors”, “bloggers”, etc.
Influencer Campaign Process and Costs
● Discovery/outreach: 1-2 weeks
● Launch/execution: 4-8 weeks
● Costs: TBD based on campaign objective
○ Range $500-$5000 for long-form content w/ quality media
○ Gifting of product samples also required
○ Affiliate program inclusion (w/ special considerations) encouraged
● Management: Discovery, outreach, campaign creation, logistics, milestones, deliverables, reporting*
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* In-house vs. agency/PR services.

Influencer Campaigns
Most influencer campaigns are private-label and managed 1:1 with specific requirements , tasks, deadlines, and
deliverables. Unlike affiliate programs that are ongoing, and always expanding with new partnerships, influencer
campaigns are executed with specific participants over a set period of time.
● “Affiliate” and “influencer” are not mutually exclusive.
○ Influencers should join affiliate programs to better track sales from campaign.
○ Influencers can be paid through affiliate networks to consolidate partner invoicing.
● Keep campaign participant #s manageable.
○ Lots more 1:1 logistics with gifting, payment, monitoring, deliverables, and reporting.
● Have realistic expectations for requirements and tasks.
○ Producing a long-form review with quality media takes several days of work and effort.
● Understand the value proposition, process, and be patient.
○ It will take time for the content get traction and rank in SERPs.
● Help link build into the content and spotlight wherever possible.
○ Write a unique post or blog about the produced content.
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Partnership-Driven Content
Web or social media content that’s created and published specifically for a brand or store to drive awareness, and
ultimately more sales and new-to-file customers.
Content creator partnership types include brand ambassadors, bloggers, commerce editors, influencers, product reviewers,
podcasters, etc..
Content types may include, but are not limited to:
● Articles and editorials
● Short or long-form product reviews
● Unboxing videos
● Full-lenght video reviews
● Expedition or travelogues
● Social media posts or stories
● Podcast interviews or spotlights
● Editorials with comparisons or product roundups
● Media production for video or product imagery
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Content Types
For the purpose of influencer marketing campaigns, we have classified three main content types for our clients.
Editorial - Any written blog, website or email content including brand or product spotlights, features, rollups, both
short and long-form reviews, etc.
Media - Partnership-generated audio, photography, and video that aligns with brand requirements. Includes
podcasting, both unboxing and full-length video reviews.
Social - Partnership-generated content created specifically for social media platforms. May include dedicated posts
with permalinks or short videos, reels, stories.
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Editorial Review(example)
Long-form review produced by The Adult Man: Goodlife Clothing Review: Can They Lead to a Better You?
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Editorial Review(example)
Long-form review produced by Man Makes Fire: TRUCK Gloves Review Guide: ‘Outstanding Value’
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Unboxing Video(example)
Unboxing video produced by The Daily Pow: TRUCK M3 Glove Review
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Unboxing Video(example)
Unboxing video produced by Utah Outdoors: Truck Gloves ZRP Mountain Biking Gloves Review
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Social Spotlight (example)
Instagram posts (aligned w/ stories) by Kalejunkie and TwoRoamingSouls for OLIPOPTM and CGEAR respectively.
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Campaign Types
Influencer or creator campaigns can be structured in different ways to generate a range of content types from full-length
video reviews and podcasts to blogs and editorials.
Three examples of influencer campaign types:
● Review Campaign - Editorial content including short or long-form reviews on products, services, destinations, etc.
○ Generally on websites or blogs with indexable URLs and optimized content.
○ Require affiliate tracking links and/or tracking promo codes in content.
● Awareness Campaign - Social posts, product spotlights, podcast or @mentions, product placements, etc.
○ Generally on social media platforms without indexable URLs.
○ Require affiliate tracking links (where possible) and/or promo tracking codes in posts.
● Media Production Campaign - Dedicated video or photo shoots to generate brand or product-specific content.
○ Higher cost, but the “Awareness” will be automatically built in.
○ Leverage partnership-produced media for marketing.
HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS ON DELIVERABLES
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COSTS
The million dollar question. Influencer campaigns designed to generate content and awareness are not covered by affiliate program commissions.
They can be negotiated as part of overall compensation, but budgets are usually required for content generation campaign.
Out-of-pocket campaign-associated cost include: Partner Fees, Cost of Gifting (Out-of-Pocket)
Ongoing costs include: Commissions, Network Fees (Performance Based)
Brands without in-house campaign management would also incur agency service fees.
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● Partner fees range of $150-$10,000 or higher,
depending on audience size.
● Try negotiating a discounted fee by offering double
(or higher) affiliate commission.
● Give all influencer or content creators a branded
promo code that tracks sales.
● Agencies bill similar to PR firms for influencer
campaign management.
● Sample agency fee structure:
○ Fee for discovery and outreach.
○ Fee for campaign management.
■ GravityFed charges 20% of partner
earnings for campaign management.

EXPECTATIONS
Have realistic expectations in terms of immediate results, and campaign requirements. Campaign tasks and
requirements that are unrealistic will not yield a good response rate during outreach. When truly considering the
time and effort it takes to produce quality content…
GIFTING AND AN INCREASE IN COMMISSION IS NOT ENOUGH
● Gifting only for content exceptions do exist, but
○ With new or smaller creators / less audience.
● For volume, look to enterprise publishers like Bing, Honey or Rakuten.
○ Campaign objective is the creation of favorable brand content.
● Some immediate sales with new content spotlights.
○ Plus consistent incremental revenue over time.
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Reporting
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Affiliate - Metrics & KPIs
● Clicks
● Sales (# of)
● Sales (Amount)
● Costs
○ Commissions
○ Management
○ Network Fees
○ Paid Placements
● Conversion rate
○ # Sales/Clicks
● ROAS
○ Sales/Costs
● Total # of partners
● Partner activation rate
Influencer - Metrics & KPIs
● If possible, all affiliate metrics
+
○ Total Influencers
○ Total Followers
○ Total Posts
○ Total Reach
○ Total Engagements
○ Avg Engagement Rate
○ Avg Reach/Post
○ Avg CPE
○ Total Costs
○ Total Sales (if tracked)
3rd Party Tools
● Affiliate networks
○ Impact.com
● Influencer management
○ GRIN.co
● Influencer discovery/outreach
○ NinjaOutreach.com
● Social data aggregators
○ SocialBlade.com
● Brand compliance
○ BrandVerity.com
● Reporting aggregators
○ Affluent.io (agencies)
● Google sheets

15-Minute Break
text
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Part 1: Educational/Discussion
● Introduction
● Workshop Overview
● Common Definitions
● Affiliate vs. Influencer
● Affiliate Marketing (Programs)
● Influencer Marketing (Campaigns)
● Partnership Landscape
● Value of Content and Content Types
● Campaign Types and Requirements
● Reporting / What to Measure
Part 2: Hands-On/Campaign Creation
● Scope & Objective
● Budget
● Partnership Discovery
● Lists and Rosters
● Gifting and Logistics
● Tasks and Requirements
● Launch and Timeline
● Reporting and Measuring
● Deliverables Management
● Leveraging the Goods (Content)
● Conclusion of Workshop
● Final Q&A

Campaign Scope & Objective
Determine the scope and objective of your influencer or creator campaign. Organize a plan around who you want
to reach, what you want them to know, and how to go about reaching them through partnerships. This is the role of
the influencer campaign manager. Reference the Influencer/Creator Campaign Checklist.
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● What is budget?
● How many partners?
● Campaign type?
○ Long-form editorial reviews?
○ Video reviews?
○ Social spotlights?
● Minimum follower count or audience reach?
● Specific social media or video platform?
Brand looking for a long-form product review
campaign (for the purpose of this exercise).
● Budget: $5000
● Partners: 5
● Campaign Type: Review
● Requirements: Blog and Social
○ 1200 word count minimum
○ Informal unboxing
○ Social spotlights of review

Budget & Requirements
Specific tasks may also be required, including tagging the brand on social, the use of specific hashtags, or linking to
merchant with specific keywords.
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Budget: $5000 (using agency)
● Partner Fees ($750*5 partners): $3750
● Agency Fees (discovery, outreach): $500
● Agency Fees (campaign management):
20% of partner earning=$750
Total: $5000
Requirements
● Blog with minimum 5000 visits/month
● Minimum 1200 word count
● Minimum 5 quality product images
● Short, informal unboxing (iPhone OK)
● Established YouTube, Vimeo or Instagram
account (for unboxing video)
● Affiliate program participation required
● Use of all content and media by brand

Discovery & Rosters
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● The first step in content generation campaigns is to discover
partners.
● As prospects are discovered, build a roster (or prospect list)
to work from.
● Reference the Influencer Campaign Roster included for basic
list management
● Lists or rosters should include a minimum of 50 prospects for
a campaign seeking 5 partners.
○ Invite entire roster with “first 5 to show interest are
in” type of messaging.
● Discovery tools include 3rd party outreach platforms, affiliate
networks, social media pages and profiles (follow the
followers), and good old fashioned Google.

3rd Party Discovery Tools(example)
GravityFed has a private-label, invitation
only platform and curated master list with
more than 3000 content creators, bloggers,
and social influencers.
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Impact has a vast partnership discovery
environment with many thousands of
prospects from many different partner
categories, as well as useful tools for
filtering and outreach.
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Publisher Discovery has a robust AI-
powered partnership discovery platform
that filters and identifies lists of prospects
by geo location, network, category, and
more.
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Timeline & Logistics
Influencer campaigns take time to execute to completion. More logistics and 1:1 support than with affiliate
programs. For a long-form product review campaign, plan 8-10 weeks or longer for deliverables and final
reporting.
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Campaign Timeline
● Campaign creation: 1-2 days
● Partnership discovery: 3-5 days
● Outreach, negotiations, agreements: 1-2 weeks
● Gifting: 1-2 weeks
● Content creation: 3-4 weeks
● Deliverables & reporting: 3-5 days
Best Practice: Supplemental follow-up reporting 30 days
after completion of campaign.
Campaign Logistics
● 1:1 prep & support
● Collecting product requests details
● Collecting shipping details
● Shipping of gifting products
● Monitoring of campaign milestones
● Deliverables management
● Final reporting on campaign metrics/sales

Deliverables & Reporting
Reports vary depending on content and campaign type. Social campaigns will track activity primarily around posts and engagements,
whereas editorial campaigns also track traffic referrals and sales, as well the social metrics.
Deliverables for influencer content campaigns generally include permalinks/URLs. In the absence of URLs (for example an Instagram
story), screenshots may be requested.
For social influencer campaigns, track the following metrics. SocialBlade may be useful for compiling some partnership data, but for
post data much of the data collection will be manual.
● Total Partners - Number of partners participating in the campaign.
● Total Followers - Number of followers combined - all partners.
● Total Posts - Number of posts combined - all partners.
● Total Reach/Impressions - Number of post/page views/impressions combined - all partners.
● Total Engagements (Likes, Comments) - Number of likes and comments combined - all partners.
● Avg Engagements/Post - Average number of engagements on each post.
● Cost Per Engagement (CPE)
● Total Campaign Costs
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Social Influencer Report(example)
Two basic reporting templates are included.
1. Affiliate Program Report (monthly)
2. Influencer Campaign Report
Yours to download and use templates!
MUCH more sophisticated templates out there.
Can’t share ours due to custom scripting.
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Leveraging Content
Help content partners, help you! Be a part of their link building strategy.
Whenever possible link to, post about, feature, or spotlight partnership-generated content.
Social Media - Post or story partner-generated content. @tag creators with relevant #hashtags.
Blog - Write a blog and spotlight the partner-generated content curated for your brand.
Newsletter - Spotlight content in newsletters or flyers to help partner-generated content rank higher organically.
Website - Feature influencers or creators and their content on your affiliate or ambassador program sign-up page.
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Leveraging Content(example)
Featured brand ambassadors and content partners on the Thrive Market affiliate program sign-up page.
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Management Templates
Workshop Materials
https://bit.ly/content-generation-workshop
Affiliate Program Reporting
https://bit.ly/affiliate-reporting-template
Influencer Campaign Checklist
https://bit.ly/influencer-campaign-checklist
Influencer Campaign Reporting
https://bit.ly/influencer-campaign-reporting
Influencer Campaign Roster
https://bit.ly/influencer-campaign-roster
Gifting Sample Requests
https://bit.ly/gifting-sample-requests
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How To Use/Make A Copy
All the materials including the presentation can be found here: https://bit.ly/content-generation-workshop
Templates are available and open for use. Download
And make-a-copy instructions:
● Open the file you want to download and save
● Select “File” in the main menu, then “Make a copy”
● Save and rename the file to your Google drive
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Affiliate Program Reporting
Download and use this Affiliate Program Reporting template (Google sheets) for 2022: https://bit.ly/affiliate-
reporting-template
Template Instructions
● Save a copy of template to your Google drive
● Starting in January, overwrite data in white cells only
○ Yellow shaded cells use formulas/do not edit
● Input monthly data for each corresponding month
● Save another copy and modify to add additional years
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Influencer Campaign Checklist
Download and use this Influencer Campaign Checklist when creating campaigns (Google sheets):
https://bit.ly/influencer-campaign-checklist
Reference these general guidelines and a list
of business when setting-up influencer or creator
campaigns.
Includes links to shared materials and templates.
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Influencer Campaign Reporting
Download and use this Influencer Campaign Reporting template (Google sheets): https://bit.ly/influencer-
campaign-reporting
Template Metrics
● Post URLs
● Followers
● Engagements
● Costs
● Yellow cells use formulas
○ do not edit
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Influencer Campaign Roster
Download and use this Influencer Campaign Roster template (Google sheets): https://bit.ly/influencer-campaign-
roster
Roster Details
● Blog/Publication URL
● Primary Social Platform @ Handle
● Name
● Email
● Shipping Address
● Contact Date
● Interested (Y/N)
● Affiliate (Y/N)
● Notes
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Gifting Sample Requests
Download and use this Gifting Sample Requests template (Google sheets): https://bit.ly/gifting-sample-requests
Sample Request Details
● Blog/Publication URL
● Primary Social Platform & Handle
● Name
● Email
● Gifting/Product Details
● Product Page URL
● Shipping Details
● Tracking #
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