6 Reasons Why Your Brand Needs an Affiliate Marketing Agency in 2025

It’s 2025 and your DTC brand is interested in affiliate marketing. You probably have questions galore; what exactly is affiliate marketing? Will my brand benefit from it? What is the best, next step? LaRue has the answers! Here are six reasons why affiliate marketing should be part of your marketing mix in 2025. Here are six reasons why Affiliate Marketing should be part of your marketing mix in 2025: Increase brand exposure and awareness Drive incremental ROI Produce a new revenue stream for your business Increase the opportunity for publishers to talk about your brand Use data to drive future relationships Develop and foster long-term mutual relationships Increase Brand Exposure and Awareness Your brand is amazing, and everyone should know about it. By starting an affiliate program with an experienced affiliate agency, brand awareness will grow. Each affiliate link placement is a touchpoint for your end consumers to become more exposed to your product or service. And when the publisher is a coveted top-tier publication, even better as it becomes an invaluable recommendation from a trusted source. Shoppers love to search high-value SEO product review sites with terms like “best of (product/service)” or “brand/product reviews.” Plus, most publications are already looking for affiliate-ready products to feature in their shopping recommendations and shoppable content, so it’s a match made in heaven. Partners like Capital One Shopping, Rakuten, and TopCashback have millions of active and loyal users, and brands can tap into these audiences by offering the shopper a reward to incentivize purchase. Drive Incremental ROI A well-run, full-funnel affiliate program is more than just a great review on a top review site. In fact, there is a wide spectrum of publisher types that can capture new customer sales! Coupon and loyalty sites can be leveraged to maximize new-to-file customers or drive a higher order value. Outside of traditional affiliates in the content, loyalty, and coupon verticals, brands can establish affiliate partnerships with: Cart abandonment and retargeting partners to increase onsite conversions Buy Now, Pay Later publishers (especially if there is already an onsite integration as a payment solution) Paid search affiliates to help complement a brand’s own PPC campaigns Employee benefits and reward malls (including perk hubs for military members, nurses, first responders, etc.) Produce a New Revenue Stream For Your Business Working with an affiliate marketing agency can produce a new revenue stream for your business! According to the affiliate experts at LaRue, a full-funnel affiliate marketing program can account for 10–15% of a brand’s total e-commerce revenue. Unlike Google Ads or Facebook Ads, affiliate is a performance-driven channel where brands only pay publishers a commission if an affiliate click converts to an online purchase. As a result, affiliate marketing is often one of the most profitable channels for advertisers to invest in. Increase the Opportunity for Publishers to Talk About You Getting in front of the right publishers can prove to be difficult. However, an affiliate agency will already have the publisher relationships to truly drive a program. Working with an agency that also has a PR arm is like having the best of both worlds. While PR does what they do best, the affiliate channel helps ensure every placement is fully supported and tracked through affiliate links. Reminder: Offering competitive CPAs (that’s affiliate speak for publisher commissions) increases the likelihood of inclusions in editorial articles, product reviews/roundups, listicles, gift guides, and more! Use Data to Drive Future Relationship Decisions Data is everything and if you’re like us, you can’t live without it. And in most cases, the smartest decisions are data-driven! Affiliate Marketing allows brands to track key metrics from PR-driven content placements, as well as measure the incrementality of working with traditional affiliates across all verticals (for example loyalty, sub-affiliate networks, influencers, coupons). Measurable affiliate KPIs include topline revenue growth, traffic (affiliate clicks), conversion rate, AOV, ROAS, new customer acquisition, revenue distribution by publisher type, and more! A dedicated affiliate team at an agency will have the knowledge and industry expertise to analyze those KPIs and make strategic recommendations on commissioning strategies, as well as leverage publisher relationships to help brands meet their goals. Develop and Foster Long-term Mutual Relationships Affiliate Marketing is fundamentally a relationship-driven marketing channel and if you want to develop your relationship with industry content creators, hiring an affiliate management agency that specializes in establishing and cultivating those relationships is imperative. It takes time to build and nurture relationships with publishers, so brands should plan to budget for at least a year of dedicated affiliate management to achieve the best results. Another huge positive aspect of having an affiliate agency doing your footwork is that they can create unique ways to work with influencers and publishers, making your brand stand out amongst the fray. Hiring a specialty affiliate agency is one of the smartest strategic moves you can make for your brand. If you’re looking for an agency that does both Affiliate Marketing and PR, look no further than LaRue. With a team full of PR and Affiliate Marketing experts, we’re mastering performance-driven media strategies like it’s second nature. But that’s because it is! Let’s work together.

Why PR Should Be Part of Your Brand Strategy

We’re here to let you in on what PR is really like. Building relationships between a brand and media outlets is essential to a company’s success. If you’ve succumbed to the hype and watched a few episodes (or all two seasons, no judgment here) of Netflix’s Emily in Paris, you know how important public relations or PR can be to a brand. But — believe it or not — media relations and marketing are about more than wearing avant-garde outfits and strolling through the streets of Paris with a trusty smartphone and a fashionable friend. (I know, we’re bummed, too!) We’re here to let you in on what PR is really like. In real life, building relationships between a brand and media outlets is essential to a company’s success. PR firms bridge the gap between brands and media outlets, helping them work together to create meaningful marketing campaigns that benefit both parties. Here is everything you need to know about developing a successful brand strategy outside of the fictional world of a TV show and how media relations and PR can help your business succeed. What is a Brand Strategy? There’s a lot that goes into PR and media relations work for a brand. One of the most vital parts of marketing a brand is developing a brand strategy. While the term sounds simple enough, what does it really mean? Brand strategy encompasses what a brand stands for, how it looks, and how customers perceive it. A well-thought-out brand strategy is developed by first coming up with a brand personality and then applying it consistently to all aspects of the business. Whether a customer is viewing your logo on a coffee cup or browsing through descriptions of different coffee blends, there should be a clear unifying theme in all brand materials that makes them feel distinctly like a part of your brand. It could be an emphasis on sustainability or a feeling of relaxation, but whatever it is, the customer should be able to feel it. Benefits of Brand Strategy Brand strategy is vital for brands of any size. Here are a few of the benefits of having a solid brand strategy: Brand Recognition A brand strategy promotes brand recognition. Applying a unified aesthetic across your entire brand means that customers will know what to expect from your business. When they see it featured in magazines and on news sites, they’ll instantly recognize your products. New customers will see your brand as established and trustworthy if it has a clear and professional identity. Scaling Potential A brand strategy leaves the door open to scaling your business. New additions to your brand are likely to be more successful when a brand strategy is in place, and less effort has to go into marketing them because similar campaigns can be used for all of your brand’s products. Clear Messaging A brand strategy clearly defines your company’s goals and relays the brand message you want to communicate to every person who views your brand materials. This makes marketing efforts easier to develop and carry out according to your brand’s predetermined guidelines. Potential for Long-term Success A great brand strategy can solidify your presence as a business and set you up for long-term success. Customers respond to consistency and authenticity, so a lasting brand strategy helps keep long-term customers and attract new ones. A brand strategy that gives your business its own unique identity also makes it stand out in the market to be distinguished from competitors and has a better chance of being featured in gift guides or on talk shows. Why Should Public Relations Be Part of Brand Strategy? PR is vital for brand strategy when it comes to media relations. Media relations is what happens when PR professionals and media outlets interact. For example, if a wellness brand wanted to be featured in a “Top Lifestyle Brands in 2025” popular magazine, a PR firm would handle all of the logistics to make it happen. A PR professional doesn’t just help arrange features or interview spots and then leave you to fend for yourself. PR firms are actively involved in the process of media exposure from beginning to end. For example, in the wellness brand scenario, the PR professionals on your team would reach out to the magazine and secure a spot in the feature. They would then help prepare your brand for an interview, whether via Zoom, email, or phone, and optimize your website for media coverage. Your job as a brand is to dream big and set marketing goals, and our job as PR companies is to help make them happen. Media relations and PR can help promote brand strategy and work synergistically to achieve a common goal. How PR Benefits Brand Strategy PR and media relations can also help you with each of the benefits of brand strategy described above. Here’s how PR can benefit: Brand Recognition PR professionals can help you develop a clearly defined brand identity that customers will recognize and respond positively to. Part of that is being listed in significant publications — and our savvy publicists are experts at landing these features. Scaling Your Brand Media relations experts can offer valuable advice if you need assistance with an advertising campaign to market a new product and grow your brand. Clear Messaging The goal of PR is to facilitate a great relationship between a brand and its audience (including the media!), so making sure brand messaging is developed, distributed, and received successfully is all part of PR. Long-Term Success Media relations is useful in executing not only short-term goals such as individual marketing campaigns but in nurturing a strong long-term relationship with customers and the public to promote lasting brand growth and longevity. Make PR a Part of Your Brand Strategy with LaRue At LaRue, we enjoy helping guide brands through marketing and digital media campaigns. From working together to create a strong marketing plan to make sure it reaches customers and the public favorably,

The 101 Guide to Influencer Marketing in 2025

Your bank account might not appreciate the strong pull of influencer marketing when it comes to an early morning shopping habit, but your brand’s marketing plan certainly will. The smell of freshly brewed coffee, the cozy warmth of the sun’s rays and of course, a lighthearted scroll through Instagram and TikTok … the recipe for a perfect morning! What better way to start your day than by experiencing the latest social media trends without even having to get out of bed? And if you happen to buy another trendy sweater or color-changing lipstick along the way, you know exactly who’s to thank (or to blame): the influencers. Your bank account might not appreciate the strong pull of influencer marketing when it comes to an early morning shopping habit, but your brand’s marketing plan certainly will. Influencer marketing harnesses the power of social media influencers to drive product sales. Whether your brand sells cat treats or pet rocks, there’s a way for you to capitalize on the trend of influencer marketing and turn it into a lasting boost for business. Our 101 guide to influencer marketing has everything you need to know about influencer marketing in 2025. Read on to learn all about how you can integrate influencer marketing into your brand strategy and give your marketing plan the upgrade it deserves. What is Influencer Marketing? Influencer marketing refers to the partnership between a social media influencer and a brand. At its core, influencer marketing simply means that an influencer makes positive posts about a brand and its products or services. The influencer is compensated by the brand, either with a commission fee based on sales, a flat monetary rate or through the gift of free brand products. How Does Influencer Marketing Work? From Grumpy Cat to Charli D’Amelio, you’re no stranger to seeing influencers all over your favorite social media sites, but what exactly do they do? How are they paid, and are they really worth it? What an influencer actually does depends on the type of postings a brand hires them to make. Here are just a few of the possible forms influencer marketing can take: Product Placement Product placement means that an influencer features a product from your brand on social media and gives you credit. For example, for a pet brand, an influencer might pose with a bag of cat treats, make a video of themselves feeding their cat the treats or simply feature the bag in the background of a picture of themselves and their furry friend. Giveaways With a giveaway, the influencer’s followers can enter to win a product from your brand. A fashion brand might give an influencer a box of curated fashion items to post pictures of and encourage followers to enter to win. This brand strategy aims to generate interest in the product and your brand in general. Social Media Takeovers Another strategy is allowing the influencer to run your brand’s social media pages for a specific amount of time, such as a day or a week. Social media takeovers give influencers the chance to put a creative spin on your brand’s content and interact with followers. Brand Ambassadors A brand ambassador partnership is a long-term marketing strategy. A brand ambassador is an influencer who posts about your brand regularly over a long period. At the largest scale, think of Jennifer Aniston and Aveeno or George Clooney and Nespresso. Sponsored Posts Depending on an influencer’s platform, sponsored posts can come in the form of social media posts or blog posts. Influencers promote your brand and services or products in their posts based on guidelines and topics you go over together. There is a lot of variety in how influencer marketing can look depending on the goals of your individual brand and your marketing plan. We can help you pick the perfect technique to help your brand shine. Benefits of Influencer Marketing The overall goal of influencer marketing is to increase traffic to your brand’s site and social media pages and boost your business sales. These are some factors that can be benefitted by influencer marketing and that make it a worthwhile brand strategy to try out: Brand Awareness Amount of Content Trust in Your Brand Networking Opportunities A Worthy Investment Boost Brand Awareness In 2018, Alex Rodriguez partnered with Old Navy during the holiday shopping season. Rodriguez posted on his social media that Old Navy would donate $1 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for every $1 pair of socks bought at Old Navy. Old Navy raised over $1 million from this promotion just on Black Friday, and it brought them massive sales through the holidays. Beyond their success in sales, both Old Navy and Rodriguez received positive press for helping charity. This campaign boosted brand awareness and product sales for Old Navy and positively impacted how the public perceived them. This is the power of influencer marketing. Increase Quality Content Partnering with an influencer can increase social media content without sacrificing quality. A brand typically makes its own social media posts. When an influencer’s posts are added to this, it means there will be more content related to your brand available on social media without your marketing team having to do more work of its own. Giving an influencer some creative freedom in the brand posts can be a helpful brand strategy to add variety and innovation to your marketing plan. Sharing the influencer’s posts on the brand’s account can also increase social media engagement for your company. Enhance Trust and Reputation Another benefit of influencer marketing is boosting your brand reputation. An influencer is someone who already has a sizable social media following, and their followers trust their judgment and opinion. When the influencer posts positive content about your brand, their followers will know that your products can be trusted. Build Relationships and Network One way to get started with influencer marketing is to adopt it on a trial basis. Over time, once you get the positive

What is Affiliate Marketing?

When researching how to improve your brand marketing strategies, you may have seen the term ‘affiliate marketing’ pop up again and again. While affiliate marketing is often touted for its many benefits, it’s critical to know the answer to the question of ‘what is affiliate marketing’ — and how exactly it works before jumping in.After all, it’s vital to have a solid understanding of any media strategy before implementing it into your brand marketing plan. Lucky for you, we’re pros in this space. Here is our guide to ‘what is affiliate marketing’ — and how to make it work for your brand. What is Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate marketing is a practice where third parties (called affiliates) help market your brand. These affiliates promote your brand or product on their own platforms and are compensated when business or traffic is created as a result of their efforts.To get involved with affiliate marketing as a business owner, you would sign up your brand for an affiliate program and decide what commission you want to offer to affiliates when they feature your company on their platform.In media, affiliates are becoming a necessary component of being featured in digital magazines, newspapers, and websites. There are many big players in this field — Amazon Associates, Skimlinks, ShareASale — and each publication has various requirements to be considered for inclusion. Without being part of an affiliate marketing program, it’s unlikely a brand will win a coveted spot in a gift guide or product round-up. Benefits of Affiliate Marketing Now that you know the answer to the question of ‘what is affiliate marketing,’ you may be wondering about the benefits. Affiliate marketing can help your brand grow in several ways.Here are just a few of the aspects of affiliate marketing that could be beneficial for your brand: Audience Growth Cost- and Time-Effective Low Risk Easy to Start Increase Brand Exposure Grow Your Audience Reaching new potential customers is one of the most significant benefits of affiliate marketing for brands. When an affiliate advertises your brand on their platform, they can connect your products or services to a new group of people. Affiliates are usually chosen because they have an established platform and audience that they have already worked to build up.Being part of an affiliate program allows freelance journalists and editors to consider your product for features. Since all affiliate programs have requirements — like having a solid website, a certain number of reviews, and so on — it covers some of the research a reporter needs to do for their work. A Cost- and Time-Effective Solution Any brand marketing tactic that can help save time and money is helpful to consider. Luckily, affiliate marketing is both cost- and time-effective. Other traditional marketing strategies can be very costly, but in comparison, affiliate marketing is more affordable and can help you save money while still making a sizable brand marketing impact. Commission fees can be relatively low, and just being part of an affiliate program increases the chance that media outlets will feature your brand. Low-Risk Brand Marketing Strategy Once you consider the answer to ‘what is affiliate marketing,’ you might begin to realize that it is a great low-risk brand marketing strategy. The risk to your brand is especially low if you choose only to pay affiliates when a sale is made through the link or advertisement they post on their platform. This way, you are only paying a commission to an affiliate if they actually drive business to your site or brand. Easy to Start If you’ve ever wondered about the topic of ‘what is affiliate marketing,’ one of your concerns may have been how difficult it would be to not only get started with but to maintain over time. Many affiliate marketing programs and services are available today, making getting started with affiliate marketing simple. We can make the process even easier by helping you figure out how to sign up for affiliate marketing programs and see your return. Increase Brand Exposure Participating in affiliate marketing can help increase brand awareness and target a wider audience. If you are a part of the affiliate programs that publications and media sites seek out when looking for brands to include in gift guides and stories, your brand will have a better chance at being featured in top media outlets. As a result, your brand will have more opportunities to get valuable media exposure and reach the audience of different top publications. Essential Affiliate Marketing Tips Here are some valuable tips to keep in mind when getting started with affiliate marketing to help maximize the impact it can make on your brand: Choose the Right Affiliate Program(s) Utilize Seasonal Marketing Partner with LaRue PR Choose the Right Affiliate Program(s) At the end of the day, affiliate marketing should help your brand. You can afford to be selective about which affiliate programs you make a part of your brand marketing strategy. Consider the top affiliate programs out there like Amazon Associates, Skimlinks, and ShareASale, and do your research to find out which ones would be most useful for your brand. You can also join more than one affiliate program to better your chances of being featured in top publications. We can help you identify the affiliate programs that are right for your brand and get started with them. Utilize Seasonal Marketing Affiliate marketing can be an even more effective strategy considering seasonal marketing techniques. For example, you might consider putting more focus on affiliate partnerships in the lead-up to busy times of the year, such as in the months before the holiday shopping season. This will maximize the effectiveness of the affiliate marketing partner for both your brand and the publication that features you. How Partnering with LaRue Can Help The best tip of all for making the process of navigating questions such as ‘what is affiliate marketing’ and how it can be used to help grow your brand is to assemble an effective marketing team by partnering

How To Get Press For Your Startup

You’ve done the hard work, but how do you spread the word? Launching a business is challenging. True success requires endurance and ingenuity, especially if the goal is to build a lasting or even iconic brand. Getting press for your startup can feel overwhelming, even discouraging at times, especially when entrepreneurs are typically already wearing many hats. It’s important to remember that creating a great product or service is only half of the equation. Once you have that, you need to focus on building brand awareness, a key element for standing out in a crowded marketplace. In 2025, there is no magic bullet methodology for driving brand recognition. It requires a mix that includes everything from social media, public relations, performance marketing, and more. 11 Tips for Getting Press for Your Startup Luckily, there is overlap between all of these mediums and focusing on one will often help create overarching brand momentum. Conquering the multi-faceted, multi-platform, digital media landscape can feel daunting, but LaRue’s team of 20-plus seasoned publicists, affiliate marketers, account executives, and social media experts can offer insights on how to get started. 1. Research Research, research, research. The media landscape is vast with more outlets than there have ever been and one common denominator: a need for new content. Spend some time reading and following the platforms where you would like to see or hear about your brand. Go down the rabbit hole and work backwards, starting with the bigger and more obvious publishers to those that might be a little lesser known. Stay current on the content and stories they are creating, promoting, and publishing to see how your brand fits within their work. Of course, if you have an in-house PR person or an agency, it’s their job to do this work, but having awareness of the space will help you understand how to craft the best possible strategy. 2. Know Your Targets From doing the research, you should learn about the power players in your specific media landscape. In our current, very digital age, this list will include creators and influencers, editors, writers, producers, podcasters, and more. Look at your wish list of targets and make sure you learn everything you can about their beat, their content, what they cover, their interests, personally and professionally if that’s an option. The key is to become an expert in who they are and what piques their interests, so you can craft the absolute best pitch and stand out from your competitive set. 3. Writing is Key A well-written email pitch is a thing of beauty. Editors, creators, producers, and writers’ inboxes are inundated with pitches and press releases. That means, for your email to get opened it must stand out. A smart subject line, a punchy introduction, or thoughtful and well-researched opener can make all the difference. Show that you have done your research by explaining why you chose them to reach out to. BUT the key is to do all of this in three sentences or less. Nobody has time to read through a long email — get to the point. And no spelling mistakes. 4. Gift and Invite Another great way to get on the radar of key contacts is through experiential marketing. Product sampling and events should be curated and thoughtful. Keep in mind, the ideal is to have the product requested, versus sending it out unsolicited and into the void. It’s also important to note that media are invited to a lot of events — both virtual and IRL. For a brand to garner interest it’s important to create something truly innovative. But it’s worth the sweat equity. Most creators will only sing a brand’s praise if they have had a good experience with the product/service. Sending a standout package or hosting a memorable brand activation will help create brand advocates. 5. Be Ready You might think you’re ready, but are you really ready? Is your packaging where it needs to be? Are you entirely happy with the product? How’s the website? Do you have inventory? These are the questions you should be asking before you attempt to place your brand in the hands of the media. You often only get one shot to impress and if you aren’t entirely ready to be seen and shared, it can work against you. There is also nothing worse than getting coverage and not having stock on hand to fulfill initial demand. 6. Timing Like they always say, timing is everything and the press cycle is a specific one. Editors and creators are planning months and seasons ahead. If you’d like to be considered for a seasonal gift guide, make sure you expose your target to your brand with plenty of time. 7. Network This may sound way less appealing than ordering takeout and binge-watching shows, but networking at industry events and meeting people is a huge part of making inroads. The people you meet at conferences, happy hours, and other gatherings often turn out to be allies or friends of allies. If they happen to also be founders, CEOs, or creators in the media landscape, they can share insight into what has worked for them and their brand. 8. Watch Others Pay attention to what other brands you admire are doing and look to for inspiration. Watch how they evolve, where they are getting coverage, and what they are doing to stand out. You need to be original, but a little competitive analysis is a great motivator. 9. Be Realistic Set attainable goals. Target five media outlets or creators a month/week/day depending on your bandwidth. Set a goal you know you can stick to and chip away at it. Overnight successes are often years in the making. You might not land your dream outlet or placement right away and that’s okay. It’s far from a failure. Just getting on a writer’s or editor’s radar might lead to coverage down the line when the time is right. The key is patience and perseverance. 10.