At AffiliateFEST, we had the pleasure of welcoming Ben Jeffries from Influencer.com to our stage for the keynote speech of the day. In this article, we’ll be giving you an overview of influencer marketing the rise of this digital media and the ways that this could make an impact in your affiliate business.
Influencing the affiliate game
As ever, our aim is to give affiliates the jump start on what they should be doing to stay ahead of the digital disruption that is taking place around them. This is very much the case with influencer marketing, as we’re just not seeing it being used to its full potential in the affiliate game. Some brands are dabbling, in building brands but are forgetting that they are also becoming influences to segments of audiences and don’t fully utilise their content and experience to engage the audience correctly with this in mind.
What is Influencer Marketing?
It’s content and branding amplified. It’s about multiplying brand reach via people in social communities via social platforms. The onset of video streaming and the popularity of sharing content there is a unique ecosystem of content streams that can be used to push branding in a more personalised and subtle way.
Many affiliates worry about how to assess the ROI of such conceptualised content marketing methods, as it’s not as trackable as average online advertising methods. This can present a rub for affiliates, as they want to know what they’re getting back for their investment, with good reason! This is where working within an Influencer platform is different, as it can give structured data on brand mentions and visibility helping you to see how your audience is connecting with the content and promotional campaigns you are sharing.
The fact is that this new content methodology is on the rise. In 2017, *86% of online marketers used influencer marketing , 92% of whom found it to be highly effective.
What does this mean for you as an affiliate?
Affiliates need to stop thinking of themselves as a brand and start thinking of themselves as nano influencers. If you have an engaged audience and community that you can influence you need to be thinking about how you talk, communicate and promote brands and offers to them. Hard selling is not well received any longer. You need to break through the noise in terms of how you are engaging your followers online, to retain and re-sell to them. Mainstream marketing channels are becoming harder to monetise so are you able to change your commercial stand point and re-position yourself as an influencer instead?
If so – what does that mean for the content you generate?
For years we’ve been saying content is king. Some believe content is the only marketing channel left that drives any influence on consumers, so quality content is important. Its not enough to have lots of it on site, you need to be authoritative to rank. Considering this and how influencer marketing has come to the fore, start thinking about HOW you engage your target audience, not just WHERE.
Get Help, or spend the time to really understand it
It’s essential to be aware of the potential complications of this type of marketing, especially where it relates to compliance. You don’t want to choose celebrities that have a particular appeal to children or an overwhelmingly underage audience – you also don’t want to post content in your own channels that could contravene or be shared en mass with the wrong subset of users.
You should also be aware of the compliance around the ad copy and the phrasing that you use. Ads should be clearly marked as such and users should be aware of the exchange of money for the post. While this might seem like it puts a dampener on your sponsored post, it’s come to be expected on these platforms.
This might be a new way to tap into an audience that you or your competitors have not yet reached. Millennials are always a desirable demographic as they tend to have more disposable income and be motivated to use online services more easily than an older demographic. Traditional marketing methods can fail to reach this audience, but as they are so active on social media this can be the ideal way to get your brand noticed.
Join us for our next disruptive Bootcamp event on the 21 March 2019 where you will get the chance to learn how new marketing methods such as Influencer marketing can impact your sports betting affiliate site at #AIBootcamp 2019 or simply subscribe to our newsletter to be kept up to date with the latest news and features from Affiverse.
