Affiliate marketing Influencer marketing – understanding
In the era of huge popularity of the Internet, achieving business success is possible in many ways. In recent years, one of the most effective ones has been establishing cooperation with influential and recognizable people in the digital world. Such a strategy is called influencer marketing – what exactly is it, what benefits does it provide and what to do to make it beneficial for the company?
Influencer marketing… that is?
Influencer marketing is a marketing strategy that involves companies working with people who gather large communities around them and have a lot of influence on them (i.e. influencers). Thanks to this, it is possible to reach a specific group of potential customers through them in order to promote products or services. It is currently one of the most effective ways to generate brand reach, build its positive image and increase interest in the offer. If you want to make the most of the potential of this strategy, you can act on your own or cooperate with specialists – e.g. with an appropriate affiliate agency.
What is the reason for the effectiveness of influencer marketing? To answer this question, it is worth taking a closer look at the figure of the influencer. In practice, it is a person who:
- It has an engaged online community and is recognized in the industry.
- influences the opinions, purchasing decisions and behaviour of its recipients;
- It can work in different niches such as fashion, fitness, technology, culinary, gaming, education, and so on.
Influencers use their trust and authority with their audience to increase brand awareness, generate sales, or promote specific values. And it is their individual recommendations and less formal messages addressed to potential customers that distinguish this form of promotion from traditional advertisements the most.
Remark! Influenser marketing is sometimes confused with affiliate marketing. Although both of these strategies have many common features, they are based on different types of content and ways of relating to the recipient.
Influencer marketing and its benefits
Influencer marketing is an increasingly popular form of promotion for a reason. Business owners appreciate it because of the numerous benefits it can bring to both smaller and larger companies operating in various industries. The most important ones include:
- increasing brand awareness – by working with influencers who have a large and loyal group of followers, the brand can reach a wide group of new recipients and become much more recognizable among them;
- Increased brand trust – influencers build strong relationships with their community, which makes their recommendations more authentic and credible than traditional ads, allowing the brand to gain more trust in the eyes of the audience.
- increase in engagement – influencers’ recipients are often active, commenting, sharing and reacting to posts, which can affect the number of interactions with the company and build a direct bond between the brand and the consumer;
- precise targeting – influencer marketing allows you to precisely reach groups of consumers interested in a specific topic, thanks to which marketing campaigns are more effective;
- better sales results – authentic influencer recommendations can encourage a large group of potential customers to buy a product or use a service, and tracking the results is relatively simple, e.g. thanks to affiliate links (IM connection with the aforementioned affiliate marketing);
- long-lasting effects – even after the campaign ends, influencers can continue to generate reach and influence brand perception, and their recommendations are often viral, so that recipients share products or services with other people.
It is also worth adding that influencers who create posts, blog articles or vlogs to promote a brand can contribute to improving SEO results and make the company’s website achieve higher positions in search engines.
Good practices in influencer marketing
Of course, achieving all these benefits of influencer marketing is only possible if the company creates a well-thought-out strategy. To do this, it is worth using = proven practices that provide the expected results. Here are the 5 most important!
1. Choosing the right influencers
This is the absolute foundation of a marketing campaign. You should choose influencers who fit not only your industry, but also your brand values and image. This will make any recommendations more credible and the cooperation will be trouble-free. Sometimes the key to success can be the so-called microinfluencers, who – although they have a smaller number of followers – represent a specific niche and create more engaged communities.
2. Authenticity and transparency
Trying to sell products or services by force is a bad idea. Influencers should promote the offer in an authentic and natural way, focusing on real strengths and testing the solution themselves. What’s more, it’s a good idea to make sure that the advertised content is marked as “sponsored” – this builds trust and avoids problems related to unfair practices.
3.Consistency in communication
The brand should have a clearly defined communication strategy, which should be communicated to the influencer. As a result, they will be able to create content in the right style and gain knowledge about what values and features of the product it is supposed to promote.
4. Trust-based cooperation
A company should give influencers the space to create content in a way that suits their style. After all, they are the ones who know best what works and has an impact on their community. Therefore, it is worth setting clear goals for the campaign, but allowing influencers to freely approach their implementation – so that they feel part of the process and thus get as involved in the project as possible.
5.Quality and diverse content
The well-known saying “content is king” also applies to influencer marketing. Therefore, you need to make sure that all content is valuable, useful and unique. What’s more, it is a good practice to diversify them – combining product reviews with unboxings, tutorials, competitions and quizzes can bring excellent results in a relatively short time.
Remark! If you want to achieve good results of an influencer marketing campaign, it is worth starting cooperation with specialists – e.g. the Onaffiliate agency.
Influencer marketing in the world of marketing
Influencer marketing plays an extremely important role in the world of digital marketing today. With its rapidly growing and hugely popular social media platforms, it has become one of the most effective ways to reach consumers. It can be both a complement to other forms of promotion (e.g. SEO or Google Ads campaigns) and an independent strategy that will be particularly beneficial for companies promoting themselves in social media – e.g. on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.
To sum up, influencer marketing is the key to the success of almost every company today. However, it is worth remembering that if used improperly, it will be counterproductive. Therefore, even before starting the campaign, it must be very carefully thought out and planned. The affiliate agency Onaffiliate can be helpful in this. Affiliation offers many new possibilities, e.g. in the context of influencers’ motivation or measuring the effects of their actions.
