Source: Entrepreneur
What You Need to Know
Affiliate and influencer marketing each have their time and place and different values to each. This article presents the pros and cons of each, and of course at God & Beauty we’re biased as to why Influencer Marketing is by far a better investment than affiliate marketing programs
For Your Information
Affiliate Marketing is when an influencer uses a link and gets paid based on how many of their followers follow that link and make a purchase.
Influencer Marketing drives a more organic growth for the brand and leads to long term loyalty and purchasing.
While some influencers can pull off affiliate programs, they tend to be short term programs with that fail to show immediate results, as influencer marketing is about the long term gain, versus the short term play.
Photo Courtesy of Deniz Senkan, Le Fashion Monster
The Rest
Many brands deal with both affiliate and influencer programs, but there is a distinct difference between the two with varying expectations and outcomes. Affiliate marketing revolves around offering “affiliates”, or partners (sometimes influencers), payment based off how many many click on the link provided and purchase a product. Influencer programs entail paying the influencer to produce content to post and tell a story with your product organically. These posts usually have the company tagged on the Instagram post and can be incorporated into in depth articles on blogs.
While some influencers can pull off affiliate programs, they tend to be short term programs with that fail to show immediate results, as influencer marketing is about the long term gain, versus the short term play. Working with influencers is about building relationships and creating a story, while with affiliate marketing that story gets cut short with a link. A link adds a layer of corporation within a post that is supposed to be relatable to the audience. While these programs can be more costly, it is a long term investment your company is making. These posts are what consumers are going to relate back to your brand, and you want to be viewed as authentic as possible.
Moral of the Story
There is a lot to consider before making a choice when it comes to affiliate and influencer programs. With affiliate programs your brand will lose money from the bottom line with every purchase, rather than a flat fee in the beginning (influencer marketing). Larger campaigns that can cross and be connected with other influencers are more effective when growing your brand voice and customer base, which eventually leads to sales increases. One-off projects should still be planned with great thought and care about what your brand wants projected into the social conversation.
Little Tip from the Top
Here at God and Beauty we handle a diverse team of influencers with varying types of programs. Seeing the results of these programs has helped us pinpoint the best options for brands based on their needs. Seeing the value in growing organically for brands, our influencers audiences respond better to influencer programs rather than affiliate deals.
We’ve spoken a lot on trust on the blog, and consumers aren’t trusting influencers who are actively trying to sell them something rather than expose them to products over time. Influencers are viewed as an honest opinion, and they prefer to have an organic conversation without a promo code or link.