Influencer marketing refers to marketing through Influencers to showcase and drive a brand's features and benefit messages. For instance celebrities' endorsements of brands are Influencer marketing.
So also is an affiliate marketer an influencer, because he or she drives a brands features and benefits messages to the consumers through review articles and affiliate links on his website or landing page. He or she also promotes brands in social media and forums, and drops affiliate links for the buying public to checkout the brands site.
Therefore, Influencer marketing is the same as affiliate marketing, though with some value added techniques. Read more about Influencer marketing below.
‘Influencer marketing’ is really just affiliate marketing with a new name
Global client strategy director
Affiliate Window
An important skill set for marketers is being able to assess and
assimilate new digital marketing technologies. In no time at all new
ecosystems sprout up around the latest fad or buzzword. The current
digital darling, influencer marketing, generates the usual set of
questions and unknowns. Should it be fully embraced or is it a case of
the emperor’s new clothes?
Through our channel’s affiliate filter, influencer marketing’s
positioning generates a sense of déjà vu. Alan Partridge fans may
remember when long-suffering assistant Lyn tries, and fails, to persuade
him to swap his car for a Mini Metro. When Lyn adds that it is now
called a Rover Metro, Alan snaps back “they’ve rebadged it you fool”. In
many ways, influencer marketing feels similarly ‘rebadged’ from what
anyone working affiliate side has typically known over the years as,
well, affiliate marketing.
For those unfamiliar with the affiliate business model, advertisers
can access a wide variety of digital business models from price
comparison, bloggers and social media to voucher sites and loyalty
platforms, with the one common thread being the payment on performance
business model.
The beauty of the channel has always been that it represents minimal
risk for advertisers, providing an environment to try a range of online
activity with little or no incurred marketing costs. The ‘why’ for
advertisers has always been ‘why not’?
The long-standing bedrock for the affiliate channel has been the army
of bloggers and content sites that offer advertisers a window to their
engaged users. But we live in an age where talk of brand advocates and
influencers (or as I read recently ‘change agents’) can obfuscate what
more switched on brands understand, and that is they can tap into this
rich seam of content through existing marketing channels. But they must
be willing to adopt a flexible and new approach to how they work.
Let us consider what we mean by influencer marketing because this
sits at the very heart of the issue. Surely it is quite simple,
‘influencers’ are just individuals or companies who have access to an
engaged audience they can share stuff with. What I have just written
could actually just be another definition of affiliates.
Bloggers and content sites offer advertisers a window to their engaged users
The time and investment from an advertiser’s perspective is in
identifying, contacting and maintaining a positive relationship with
these influencers. There are challenges that have to be acknowledged.
Affiliate marketing is time-intensive and can drain resource for
sometimes minimal output (if that output is measured solely though
sales). Similarly by measuring outcomes much of the marketing effort,
clicks, interactions and impressions can be ignored where obvious
value is added. Also, many of these influencers may not be running their
blogs or social media channels as a full time job so contacting them in
a timely way can be tricky.
For brands that have recognised the affiliate channel can address
increasing demands for a dedicated influencer strategy, their approach
is starting to pay dividends. One of the largest retailers we work with
has an ecommerce operation that sells fitness supplements. They know
there are a number of individuals with a huge social media presence who
have the power to push their products to an audience receptive to
recommendations. They partner with a handful of these advocates offering
a combination of commission payments, free products and occasional
tenancy placements in return for coverage across a series of social and
blogger channels. It is obviously important that affiliates remain
authentic. Disingenuously endorsing products they would never use
themselves could have a detrimental impact both on their relationship
with their audience as well as harming the brand.
Topshop is another brand that gets it. A couple of years ago, it
aligned its acquisition approach through the affiliate channel with its
internal PR and marketing teams to ensure it was having consistent
conversations with those fashion bloggers with the power to showcase its
latest ranges. Topshop launched a dedicated blogger hub where content
could be shared and ran dedicated events around key seasonal trading
periods. It also became more creative with its payments, a fundamental
consideration at the heart of the issue.
Topshop identified around 10 fashion sites it wanted to feature its
clothes. In return for additional coverage it would pay each site a ‘top
up’ payment when they drove intent that ultimately led to a sale
they didn’t convert. In other words, it knew the last-click cost-per
acquisition model that the affiliate channel is premised on can prove
problematic for many content sites. And that’s because they act as
sale enablers, a window into product ranges that people would otherwise
be unaware of. They pique interest, stimulate initial intent but they do
not always drive the ultimate conversion.
“Brands that recognised the affiliate channel can address increasing
demands for a dedicated influencer strategy are seeing dividends“
By being flexible with their commercial model, they were able to
reward a group of previously unengaged affiliates and send a clear
signal that they valued their marketing efforts. Advertisers frequently
forget the cost of the sale they have to pay through the affiliate
channel often ignores the higher marketing spend affiliates have borne
in order to drive the transaction.
More enlightened affiliate marketers are trying to drive this message
home. The long tail of affiliates, influencers, brand advocates or
whatever new marketing spin the industry wants to put on them, is
the most in-demand affiliate segment but ironically advertisers are
doing little to make many of their online marketing efforts financially
viable.
Now is the time for brands to take a two-stage approach to their
affiliate campaigns. For those affiliates focused on the conversion,
stick to the tried and tested last-click, cost-per-sale model. It works.
But for those affiliates premised at an earlier stage in the purchase
cycle, let’s get creative with payments and recognise the wider
contribution. By taking an intelligent approach to commission payments
overall campaign return on investment doesn’t have to suffer and
affiliate programmes become a truer reflection of the channel’s
diversity.
So for those marketers curious about influencer marketing, look no
further, you’re probably already doing it. But in order to accelerate
your efforts, let’s work together to offer more sophisticated solutions
and in doing so acknowledge affiliate marketing as the first and
foremost influencer channel.
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