For decades, affiliate marketing was very easy but now the marketing part is becoming tougher.

I’m writing this newsletter and while you’re reading this, later today I get to interview Louis Grenier who wrote the book, Stand The F*ck Out.

I’m going to take this newsletter to move from the affiliate marketing discussion to just marketingwhich is an uncomfortable topic for many. Uncomfortable because I think many people just aren’t good at it.

Speaking of newsletters, join our Beehiiv newsletter and shout out to StatsDrone, FTDx and insert_your_company_here.

Marketing is uncomfortable probably because it is hard and it involves taking risks. If your job is CMO, your work is put on a spotlight. You look like a genius when it works and when it doesn’t, you’ll feel like you’re risking your job for every failed campaign.

I’m going to share a few stories and examples of companies that inspire me when it comes to marketing. I’ll start first at our attempts at marketing too.

Here is a summary of what I’ll write about.

  1. StatsDrone - our struggles to get more users
  2. StatsDrone marketing & GTM strategy
  3. Optimove Connect
  4. Under Pressure Podcast
  5. iGaming SEO book

StatsDrone - our struggles to get more users

Now this is going to sound like a little bit of a rant and simply put, I’m writing about this to see how we can help other SaaS founders. Also to see how people can help us by being super transparent.

I talk with a lot of companies in iGaming and some of them are competitors and others are similar data analytics companies but not competing. We seem to have the same thing in common: long buyer journeys.

I think for marketing to be good, we need 2 ingredients:

  1. Trust
  2. Product awareness

I think we have built the trust through the following means:

  • Doing the Affiliate BI podcast
  • Writing newsletters like this
  • Meeting customers in person
  • Winning awards, it does help
  • Word of mouth and referrals

StatsDrone marketing & GTM strategy

So how are we going to handle product awareness?

  1. More product marketing
  2. Webinars
  3. Do our own events
  4. More products that market themselves
  5. More product marketing at conferences

So what does the above look like?

One of our many webinars to come

Shoutout to Lynda Salem for putting together an awesome webinar for Tableau for iGaming today and last month was dynamic variables by Joe Hatch.

Well I just want to say we kinda know what it looks like for everyone else and there isn’t a lot of inspiration going around other than a few standout companies.

We will definitely be doing more webinars but we are looking at doing some of our own events to bring people together.

I asked Manesh Palli for a bit of help and he gave a lot of tips but this quote for this article “Marketing in iGaming is shifting fast. With AI, forward-thinking teams are doing more with less, not by cutting people, but by working smarter. More companies are bringing in Fractional CMOs to lead strategy and team execution, redirecting saved budgets into actual campaigns. It’s no longer about having the biggest team. It’s about having the most efficient one. The future of the marketing department is already here.”

So taking Manesh’s vision for marketing as a Fractional CMO, I like some of these ideas that translate to the following. I like doing our own events, building more products that market themselves and doubling down on marketing to focus on pain points and positioning.

So if iGaming doesn’t have a lot of good marketing, why is that the case?

The common answer I hear from everyone is that the industry is wealthy so people spend their way to get their market. But perhaps maybe not spent so wisely.

I mean don’t get me wrong, I’d LOVE to be able to spend money unwisely without regard for ROI. But I can’t.

That is why we adopt the $0 marketing budget philosophy.

Remember that ICE video we did, 39 hours of watch time, 13k members reached!

Now I want to shout out a few companies that have caught my attention in terms of marketing.

Optimove Connect

Optimove Connect

It isn’t unusual for a big company to be able to host their own events. Aside from Optimove, here are a few notable events / conferences that are created by other big companies.

  • Ahrefs Evolve
  • ZapConnect by Zapier
  • INBOUND by Hubspot

I mean a few weeks ago, I went to a Flippa.comcalled The Exit Meetup which had a stop in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was a great event where Flippa showcased some new products and brought a lot of buyers and sellers of businesses and digital assets.

So when I noticed that Optimove did their own conference, I see it on social media and I felt like I missed out on something great that is beyond another networking drinks event.

Under Pressure Podcast

It is awesome to see Märit von Stedingk back in the B2B marketing space. I don’t know who’s idea it was for Aleato do a podcast but Märit is the Head of Marketing so she gets credit until I’m corrected.

Cedomir Tomic and Alex Pratt

I don’t want to say podcasts are a dime a dozen because they really aren’t. However, if you are going to launch a podcast, you want to create buzz and have an impact.

Well Alea have been bringing these hyperbaric chambersto conferences so you see them all the time. They have them in their office.

I haven’t even listened to an episode yet but I’m already a fan.

Seems first episode features Cedomir Tomic interviewing Alex Pratt who was a great gueston the Affiliate BI podcast.

SoftSwiss iGaming Trends 2025

When I saw the ebook, I downloaded it and gave them my info because I at least wanted to see what was inside of it.

Inside was not just great insights but a collaboration of many great minds and useful data sets. It featured people like:

iGaming SEO book

Of course I was featured in the iGaming SEO book which I mentioned (ok, it was a humble brag) last week.

The actual book is available on Amazon

It is awesome to have a book on my desk that I wrote a chapter for. Remember, that is more branding than product marketing.

Marketing lessons for affiliate marketing

A lot of affiliate marketing in the past 20 years has been a basic recipe:

  1. Create traffic
  2. Convert it

Sounds easy and it really was.

I think today, there are not enough creative ideas when it comes to link building and doing product marketing.

I think the creative ideas will be needed to both create demand (demandgen) as well as capture it.

My closing comment I think is going to be on the concept of positioning.

Stand The F*ck Out, notice the purple hat?!

I’ve just finished reading Stand The F*ck Outby Louis Grenier and I already read Obviously Awesome by April Dunford.

I think many affiliate sites that are struggling today have an identity crisis and this comes down to positioning.

No identity = no positioning, unless you’re doing insane blackhat SEO and printing money.

Mark Preston, one sharp SEO pro

When I interviewed Mark Preston on the Affiliate BI podcast, his core message was clear. Not enough affiliates are treating their website like a real business. If you did positioning and some marketing, that would turn it into a real business. See Mark's interview here.

Manesh!

Closing shoutout again to Manesh Palli, we had a great chat today about marketing and your help is greatly appreciated and inspiring!

If you need a Fractional CMO, talk to this man.