Affiliate marketing is growing and evolving year on year. One thing accelerating its growth is influencer marketing. While influencer marketing is a relatively new concept, it plays a big part in many brand strategies today. Affiliate and influencer marketing go hand in hand. When combined, they form a low-risk, low-cost approach to boost sales. This blog post explores how you can get the most out of your influencer affiliate strategy.
Influencer partnerships
Influencers can leverage their online presence to reach potential customers for your brand thanks to engaged followings and impressive reach. Working with influencers is an excellent tactic to appeal to customers at the top of the funnel. The secret is ensuring you’re working with influencers who align with your brand values. Whether you opt for macro or micro-influencers, it can be a fruitful endeavour when done right.
The benefits of thoughtful influencer partnerships:
- Build brand awareness
- Create authentic ad content
- Generate high-quality leads and clicks
- Boost sales
- Encourage customer loyalty
Boosting influencer marketing
Influencer marketing can be expensive, particularly if you’re targeting macro influencers. However, fusing your influencer and affiliate strategy could reduce the risk and save you money. Here are three things to consider when incorporating influencers into your affiliate strategy.
Fee set-up
Although affiliate marketing typically adopts a paid-on performance model, some influencers may command a fee. These are the most common approaches:
No upfront fee – with this fee set up, you’ll only pay for sales as with the traditional affiliate model. Of course, this is the most favourable model and tends to work well with micro and niche influencers.
Hybrid – you’ll pay a reduced fee plus an agreed commission rate with a hybrid model. This is often an effective tactic to reduce initial expenses. Furthermore, you can offer commission bonuses to incentivise influencers further.
Upfront fee, no commission – finally, you can agree to pay an upfront fee and set the commission rate to 0% for an agreed period. With this model, you can use affiliate tracking capabilities without paying a commission on sales.
Exclusivity
Many influencers regularly share affiliate links for brands they like. As a result, it’s not uncommon for influencers to promote competitor brands. So, if you’re working with an influencer purely on an affiliate basis, you should expect this to be the case.
If you’d like exclusivity, the influencer will require an upfront fee or a desirable commission offer. So, this is an important consideration when establishing influencer relationships.
If you’re working on a fee basis, ensure that your contract includes an exclusivity clause and that both parties clearly understand the requirements.
Ad type and platforms
Finally, you should consider the social platforms you use and the types of ads that perform well. When selecting influencers to target, think about the platforms you’d like your brand to be active on and how you’d like to communicate with potential customers.
For example, if you’re looking for in-depth product reviews of a skincare product, YouTube might be the best choice. Whereas, if you’re looking for quality, styled imagery for your fashion brand, Instagram might be your go-to.
Before you invest in influencer marketing, you should know which types of ads perform best too. Doing so can ensure your money is invested in the right content on the platform.
Are you ready to unlock the power of influencer and affiliate marketing? Then, you’re in good hands with us. Get in touch with the team today to discuss a bespoke affiliate strategy using proven tactics and an expansive network of trusted partners. For all things affiliate marketing, follow our LinkedIn here.