8 min read
| March 8, 2023
Affiliate marketing has been around for some time now. However, recent digital advertising trends and a booming influencer marketing industry have led to a new form of advertising: influencer affiliate marketing. This approach is proving to be so effective that 81% of brands around the world now have affiliate programs.
This guide will explain how to build a successful affiliate campaign strategy for your influencer marketing program. We will also share some handy tips to help you get the most from your influencer affiliate marketing collaborations.
What Is Influencer Affiliate Marketing?
Influencer affiliate marketing is an effective approach for promoting your brand on social media. It can help you connect with a larger audience, obtain social proof, generate engagement, and build a reputation as a credible and authentic brand. All this helps you increase your conversions and generate more sales.
Compared to paid influencer marketing strategies, with affiliate marketing, an influencer endorses your brand in exchange for commissions, leads, or signups. There are a few other subtle differences between the two approaches, too.
For example, although both marketing strategies rely on brand ambassadors to promote a brand or product, influencer affiliate marketing tends to be geared towards new-customer acquisitions. Influencer marketing, in contrast, is more focused on developing ongoing relationships with your customers that boost brand loyalty. That’s why it’s always a good idea to include both approaches in your marketing strategy.
Influencer Affiliate Marketing Tips
Building an influencer affiliate marketing strategy is easy. The key is finding the right influencers, creating engaging content, and leveraging the specific benefits of each platform where your affiliate marketers are endorsing your brand. Then it’s just a question of tracking your results, making adjustments where necessary, and using the right tools to manage your influencer affiliate marketing partnerships.
Let’s take a look at these steps in a bit more detail to help you build a successful affiliate campaign strategy for your influencer marketing program.
Reach Out to The Right Influencers in the Right Way
The first step in creating an influencer affiliate marketing campaign is reaching out to the right influencers in the right way.
The right influencer for you will depend on a number of aspects. This includes your industry, your target market, and the scope and nature of your affiliate marketing campaign. Make sure you conduct thorough research to ensure that the influencer you select has the right profile, the right audience demographics, and impressive creative abilities. A good place to start with this is by using hashtags to search for popular influencers working in your niche. It’s also a good idea to use an influencer marketing platform to conduct more in-depth research.
Once you’ve found someone suitable, make sure you reach out to them in the right way. Check their bio to see if they have a preferred method of contact listed. Above all, try to form a relationship with them before discussing how to promote your product. Interact with a few of their posts and show them that you’re interested in working with them.
Create Engaging Content
Try to be creative with your influencer affiliate marketing content. That way, you will generate a buzz around your product and engage your target audience. For example, you could get your affiliate influencer to launch a contest or giveaway, do a podcast interview, or share a “How to” video explaining the benefits of your product.
Leverage Influencer Networks
Make sure you launch your influencer affiliate marketing campaign on platforms where your target audience is hanging out. Moreover, make sure you adapt your content to each social network. For example, Instagram is best for photos, and TikTok is best for video challenges. Encourage your affiliate influencers to research current trends on each platform and create something that will stand out.
You don’t have to limit your influencer affiliate marketing campaign to social media sites either. You could get influencers to endorse your product on review sites, or through their blog, for example.
Measure Campaign Effectiveness
Once you have launched your influencer affiliate marketing campaign, it’s important to track performance metrics to see how it is doing. This will help you determine if you are reaching the right audience and if followers are engaging with the affiliate’s content. That way, you will get a feel for what’s working well and what you need to improve in order to boost the ROI of your influencer affiliate marketing campaign.
Aside from performance metrics like reach and engagement, UTM tracking codes and unique coupon codes can be great tools for this, especially if you are launching multiple influencer affiliate marketing campaigns. That way, you can pinpoint who is generating the most sales and who is not meeting expectations.
Diversify Your Affiliate Program
Working with one or two affiliates is great, but to truly create reach you should consider including multiple content creators from different niches. By doing this, you are tapping into new audiences and informing them about your product.
Use an Influencer Relationship Management software
If you’re relying on multiple affiliates for your marketing strategy, you’ll want to keep track of them in order to make the most out of your collaboration. The best tool for this is influencer relationship management software (IRM).
For example, Influencity’s IRM helps you manage each stage of your affiliate influencer collaboration. You can create a profile for each affiliate influencer and maintain notes and pricing historicals in real-time. You can also document each interaction including initial contacts, negotiations, affiliate campaign preparation and management, follow-up, and final feedback. Centralizing all this important data ensures transparency so that your entire team stays up to date with each of your influencer affiliate marketing collaborations.
