By its very nature, affiliate marketing is all about joining forces with others to help further your business. You can do this in a number of ways by partnering with blogs, companies and publishers. Another option of affiliate marketing is to team up with an influencer. Influencers have a great deal of power in the digital landscape, and teaming up with the right one can help improve your affiliate program. Let’s take a look at why that is.
The Power of Trust
When you are offering a product or service to the public, one of the hardest things to gain is trust. Trust largely contributes to a potential customer’s decision-making process – it’s what helps turn a lead into a paying customer. The power of trust extends beyond that, though. It’s also what encourages a one-time customer to make repeat purchases, and ultimately, that’s the aim of the game.
By partnering with an influencer, you are harnessing the power of trust from the get-go. Successful influencers have a community of followers behind them that already trust them, and achieving that is no mean feat. It takes time to build that kind of relationship with customers, so if an influencer promotes your product or service, a lot of the legwork is done for you.
Engaging Content
Crafting engaging content is what pulls customers in. To be engaging, it needs to utilize SEO, offer real value, and encourage an ongoing conversation, among other things. Influencers are well-versed in creating engaging content. After all, content is their main output, and they’re in constant communication with their followers, particularly if their main channel of communication is social media.
An influencer’s audience seeks out the content they create – that’s why they follow them. So, it’s easy for an influencer to hold the attention of a lead long enough to recommend a product or service and then encourage them to make a purchase.
Authentic Promotion
Authenticity is vital for effective promotion. If an influencer aligns with your company values, their promotion of your product or service will come across as much more genuine and seamless. When this is the case, even sceptical viewers can be converted into leads.
What is more, an influencer may already be one of your customers. That is a bonus, too. It means that the content they are putting out regarding your product or service has an incredible amount of value because their opinion is based on having tried and tested your product. It is genuine positive feedback that encourages others to make a purchase, too.
Broader Horizons
Growing your customer base isn’t always easy. It requires a great deal of trial and error until you come up with the perfect formula for furthering your reach. Teaming up with an influencer makes lighter work of this. By doing so, you’re tapping into an audience you may have otherwise not been able to reach. That’s the beauty of the influencer – they come with a large following, so your reach expands from the outset.
Types of Influencer
Influencers can be divided into four different categories, and each one can add value to your affiliate program.
Nano-influencers
A nano-influencer tends to have between 1,000 to 5,000 followers on social media. That may seem like a small amount, but the nano-influencer certainly has its pros. They operate on a much smaller scale, meaning they can engage in conversation with followers more easily. They could be bloggers whose websites have a high Google ranking or operate a small-scale podcast or YouTube channel. Either way, their niche following allows them to develop personal relationships with their audience.
Say a potential customer has a query about your product or service and comments on a social media, blog, or video post – that comment is far less likely to go unanswered by the nano-influencer.
Micro-influencers
A micro-influencer usually has between 5,000 – 100,000 audience members. They tend to have less one-to-one contact with their audience but make up for it with a more extensive reach. They’re considered experts in their respective niche and deemed trustworthy and reliable by their followers. Micro-influencers are likely to use multiple channels and platforms to get their content across to their audience.
Macro-influencers
The number of followers the macro-influencer has will fall somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000. This group typically focuses on more than one niche, which is why their audience is much broader. The macro-influencer is considered an authority and, as such, garners a lot of trust from its audience.
Mega-influencers
The mega-influencer is the head of the pack. They have upwards of 1,000,000 followers on social media and are considered celebrities to some degree. The mega-influencer makes use of multiple platforms, and so their reach is extensive. If mass brand awareness is your goal, the mega-influencer can help you crack it. However, the con to teaming up with the mega-influencer is that they’re often seen as less genuine because they partner with multiple companies.
Final Thoughts
Essentially, an influencer is someone who has an impact on the buying decisions consumers make. Incorporating influencers into your affiliate program can help raise brand awareness, reach a wider audience and boost purchasing activity.
When choosing which influencer to work with, keep the below factors in mind:
- Influencer category – Which influencer category do they fall into, and what is their reach?
- Social media engagement – Do they have high levels of customer engagement on their social media channels?
- Website traffic – Are they drawing viewers in through their website or blog?
- Relevance – Are they relevant to you and your brand?
- Trustworthiness – What’s the general opinion of that particular influencer? Are they considered trustworthy and reliable?
