Influencing your customers with affiliates or influencers?

Are you in doubt if you are going to use affiliate marketing or influencers for your

brand?

Let us first explain what is each of these marketing strategies and then,

according to your public and budget, you decide what is best for your company!

In affiliate marketing, a brand partners with affiliates (bloggers, instagrammers,

companies, publishers) to promote the brand through offers, sales, deals, etc.

These affiliates are then paid a share of the revenue of the sales they helped

generate. Because the amount paid to the affiliates is based on the revenue they

helped generate, this type of marketing is very cost-effective.

On the other hand, influencer marketing is when someone that usually has a big

and active audience, receives a flat rate fee to promote the brand.

Affiliate marketing is in general more focused in new customers and sales, while

influencer marketing focus on the brand awareness.

Let’s think of an example to picture better what option would be better:

A company that manufactures protein bars and wants to promote its brand might

contact affiliates and influencers.

The affiliates would share content (pictures, reviews, videos) on their social

media about the bars and spread the word of a sale or a special offer. They would

then tell their followers/connections that in order to get the offer, purchasers

would have to mention a specific code when making the check out. With the sales

generated with the code, the affiliate would receive a percentage, that would

then vary in the gross sales they stimulated.

The influencers would promote the brand by using/eating the products the brand

pays them to and sharing this content, using pictures and videos. As for the

protein bars example, influencers from the brand would receive a certain flat fee

in a monthly basis while the contract lasts. These influencers have to promote the

brand/products regularly following what was settled in the contract between

them and the company.

In order to choose what is better for your company you will have to take into

consideration who are your customers - basically their demographics and

psychographics (read here more about this) and with all information about them,

see how you could better influence them to purchase your products.

Regardless of being an affiliate or an influencer, it is important to be aware that

both should disclosure publicly that they are being compensated to promote the

brand as defined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which enforces the U.S.

Truth in Advertising Laws. And when it comes to the FTC, it is the brand that gets

penalized with a fine, so be careful to have this explained in the contract between

the company and the affiliates/influencers.

Published on: http://softmarketing.us/livemarketingusa/affiliates-or-influencers/