Influencers And Affiliate Marketing, An Advantageous Union?

Campaigns with influencers are considered effective by many marketing and advertising professionals

Many companies are even investing part of their budget in these types of campaigns.

And is that a few years ago, the field of influencer marketing was limited only to celebrities and artists. But currently, the number of social media influencers has increased, which can be bloggers, journalists, artists, specialists in various fields, actors and actresses, models, etc.

But what exactly is an influencer?

An influencer is that "influential" person who skillfully communicates with an audience and can influence the opinion and decisions of their audience. It has great power of conviction and has a large number of followers.

There are many types of influencers in the digital field focused on spheres such as friendship, family, companies, social networks, organizations, etc.

Among the most popular digital influencers we find:

• Brand ambassador: User who shares relevant content supporting a brand and gets a reward in return.
• Celebrity: A person recognized even outside of social media who uses their status and recognition to influence their audience.
• Specialist: Expert user in certain topics with direct influence on the public due to their profession.

Influencer marketing implies that influencers or people who have a specific social audience and who are seen as experts in their niche, support a certain brand and promote their products and services in exchange for remuneration or reward.

Influencer marketing works because of the high level of trust that social influencers have developed in their audience. Their recommendations can determine a significant increase in sales and brand awareness.

However, like any other marketing tactic, an influencer program needs segmentation and planning to achieve a successful strategy.

One of the best ways to conceive a successful influencer marketing strategy is through affiliates.

Affiliate marketing implies that the advertiser pays for the results obtained (conversions, leads, clicks, etc.) to affiliates who promote their products or services through advertisements and posts on websites, in exchange for a commission.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most profitable business models today, as it implies a relationship in which both advertiser and affiliate obtain benefits and positive results.

If the affiliate is an Influencer, he will be able to attract new clients for the company he promotes with less marketing effort, obtaining economic gains and rewards.

For the company, an affiliate agreement with an Influencer will allow you to manage your budget and always get a positive return on investment.

However, we must know that managing a strategy that includes these two marketing trends requires taking into account several important tips:

• Find the right influencer and strike a deal

During the research phase of our affiliate strategy, we must look for the type of influencers that interest us, always taking into account the budget.

The compensation can also vary, reaching an agreement with the influencer. There are common fees for some influencers and many accept rewards and products. Some micro-influencers work independently while others may be represented by an agency or network which will require higher compensation.

• Show the influencer the type of content we want them to share, linked to the company's objectives

To improve brand awareness and increase sales through affiliate marketing, we must share educational and valuable content. Therefore, the influencers who join our strategy must know the needs of the brand to create educational publications based on increasing the customer base and expanding the business.

• Integrate the interests and objectives of the influencer and the brand

The values, objectives, and interests of the brand must be aligned with those of the promoter so that the influencer affiliation strategy works.

We can propose to the influencers topics related to the products or services that will be promoted in the affiliation strategy.

• Constantly monitor the strategy

Metrics are extremely important in an affiliate marketing campaign because we must know if we are obtaining the expected results.

There are a few ways to measure the success of an affiliate campaign with influencers. We can create a specific hashtag, to monitor your performance and observe mentions of keywords on Twitter.

We can also consider the volume of posts and count the total related posts of the influencer, in addition to the number of comments on the content created by him.

Another metric to keep in mind is the number of interactions that users have made with posts related to the action with the influencers.

Of course, it is important to measure conversions depending on the objective of the campaign, counting the number of subscriptions on the web, online sales volume, etc.

As we can see, in affiliate marketing with influencers there is a sales commission involved.

Therefore, both sides win.

The advertiser has more visibility of their products or services to sell more and the affiliate will earn a commission for promoting that product.

What does each side gain?

Brand: more sales and new customers.

Affiliate influencer: commissions and more credibility based on brand recognition.