Is your brand benefiting from influencers and creators? They have proven highly effective at increasing brand consideration and are recognized for driving top-of-funnel results and are highly regarded for driving top-of-funnel outcomes, but it is difficult to measure direct impact unless an exclusive code
is given. Subsequently, this makes it challenging to understand how valuable your investment in influencer partnerships is.
US influencer spending will surpass $4 billion in 2022, according to studies. With the rise in demand, creators' costs are also increasing, and they are increasingly sharing information about their earnings with brands.
All this to say, your business understandably needs to see significant ROI from influencer marketing to justify the investment. And affiliate marketing is the perfect medium to do so.
The following five reasons will show you why you should combine affiliate marketing with your own influencer marketing activities.
1. Rebuild old relationships between teams
An affiliate marketing program provides your team with the insights they need to run a successful partnership. It is possible to increase influencer-driven purchases by integrating creator efforts and partner marketing. You can even get a more comprehensive view of your business by paring sales metrics with helpful top-of-funnel data, and you can optimize partner diversification, track individual
performance, and get quantitative insights into the bottom-of-funnel as well.
Your organization can eliminate department silos by collaborating across departments and holding each other accountable when working towards goals. Social, PR, and affiliate teams often collaborate to come up with the best campaign ideas.
2. Smooth partnerships
Influencers are usually used by affiliate platforms. But they often do not understand or have a clear understanding of how their systems work beyond compensation models and user interfaces. The problem is that these tools can be used to force influencers to join affiliate programs, creating unnecessary friction between partners and affiliates.
The right creators must be found and a close relationship must be maintained in order to achieve success.
Select affiliate platforms have integrated with third-party influencer management solutions to make it easier for brands to connect and work with influencers and measure their direct sales so that friction can be eliminated and creators can focus on engaging their audiences rather than worrying about how they will work with brands.
3. Increase the number of customers you have
As appealing as it might seem to have a wider reach for the most famed creators with more than a million followers, it is also important to take note that this larger reach does not always equate to sales impact. Thus, it is sometimes difficult to convince these large influencers to work under performance-based models because of this reason.
You can acquire niche, nano-, and micro-influencers to reach a smaller audience with higher levels of engagement, and these influencers have an audience of up to 50,000 followers, making them a powerful tool for you.
Because they attract engaged audiences with a higher propensity to spend, these creators know they can earn more with affiliate partnerships with brands.
4. Think long term
In the early days of influencer marketing, short-term tactics dominated the approach. Our experience has shown us that long-term relationships with influencers produce better results when they are nurtured in the long run. It is important to find the voices that are knowledgeable about your brand and to build lasting relationships with them.
You can augment your business' revenue streams by building these long-term relationships with your creators. In addition to impressing your followers, you are also building ongoing social proof for your brand.
5. Know your objectives
The objectives and campaign goals of a brand are often opaque to influencers. If you don't specify what you want, then creators assume that what you want is what you want, which is never a good situation.
The up-front work that you have to do is a bit more on your part, but it is crucial that you are clear in communicating your objectives, and that the creators are able to tailor their efforts in order to meet your requirements.
Although this is an important step, there is still more to be done. There is no doubt that it is critical to share the results you want and, at the same time, to make sure that everyone is aligned on how the results will be measured and where the
reward will reside.
It is known as a flat-fee compensation model, in which influencers receive a flat-fee payment upfront in exchange for vanity metrics that, as noted, do not necessarily reflect your real objectives.
Because of this, influencers are typically paid in advance. In order to measure accurately the impact that influencer marketing has on sales,
you must combine affiliate marketing with influencer marketing activities and pay for tangible results.
You can effectively measure the ROI of each influencer and focus on the ones that are most productive by utilizing the individual sales tracking the affiliate marketing industry offers.
Providing influencers with immediate feedback is another benefit of performance-based compensation models. It is evident that they are providing real value to their followers by partnering with brands and delivering products that resonate with their
audiences.
Take Away
It is imperative that companies find ways to generate revenue as well as prove the value of their investments by increasing influencer engagement costs and establishing direct sales accountability. Affiliate marketing by definition provides the
solution
Essentially, by combining the efforts of influencers and affiliates, you're able to drive awareness at the top of the funnel alongside proven tactics that drive transactions at the bottom of the funnel. If there is a way to combine these two
outcomes, both parties are going to benefit.
Brands and influencers coming together via affiliate partnerships are demonstrating a new way of working together that benefits everyone.
