What is Influencer/ Affiliate Marketing?

Introduction

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In this day and age social media plays a very big role in life. Individuals with the right following on either YouTube or Instagram have the ability to make a living off of it, being able to make money without actually working. Some of these influencers have a very dedicated audience where they openly donate huge sums of money and talk about them, spreading the name through word of mouth. Many influencers are very well known in the younger generation, which becomes an easy topic of discussion. Companies are well aware of influencers and the impact they have on their audiences.

Impact

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Almost like a cult following followers in essence will do whatever their famed influencer does or wants. Most users are of the younger generation are easily influenced as they look up to these people as role models. If an influencer told them to buy a product then they would most likely purchase it. With social proof, influencers can use products and show consumers how the product/ service works. Viewers will probably consider any promotion of sort to be authentic, they do not believe that their role models would showcase a product they would not use/ want others to use. Influencers are used to sharing their lives on social media with others and as a result, audiences feel the same connection as they do with friends, which creates an invisible layer of trust. This bodes well for many companies that are trying to target young people as an audience. It allows businesses to solely focus on influencers/ affiliates when marketing a product as they have such huge audiences.

Businesses do not have to worry about who to target. They can create deals with these affiliates/ influencers, potentially increasing profits, awareness of the product and ultimately audience. Compared to affiliates influencers demand an up-front fee as they prefer to be paid straight away for their sponsorship which usually takes a lot of research and talking between brands and influencers. However, affiliates can take a pay for performance model, where they are only paid on results. This is in the form of purchases, sign ups or subscriptions. Usually affiliate marketing is a low risk investment as it is all performance based compared to influencers.

For example, Loot Crate is a popular gaming company that sell monthly subscription boxes, with random gaming, tv show and comic goodies inside. They have a loyal following of gamers. In 2014 the company decided to start working with influencers by taking to Twitter asking their audience “Want to join our influencer network? We’re looking for Twitch streamers/YouTube channels. Send channel stats & info to ‘mikey@lootcrate.com’.

Conclusion

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Affiliates and Influencers have had a huge digital impact in marketing as it has allowed companies to cut corners with creating its own audience, instead they can either pay influencers or create deals with affiliates that will do that all for them. For companies it means that they have been able to save a lot of time and money that would have been spent on campaigns and advertising. It can also be considered more reliable as audiences trust these people a lot more than a product that is just being advertised by the brand.

 

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Additional Information:

Influencer Marketing Examples

Influencer Marketing Statistics 

Influencer and Affiliate Marketing 

11 – Types of Digital Marketing 

Influencer Marketing on Consumers