In the iGaming space, there has been lots of chat about influencer marketing – but there aren’t as many iGaming affiliates making use of this marketing technique in comparison to other sectors.
In this article, we’ll discuss whether you are falling behind if you don’t have an influencer marketing strategy in place.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is often described as a combination of both traditional and new marketing tools.
The idea behind it is essentially to use a celebrity endorsement for your product or service – and communicate this across modern social media mediums such as Facebook and Instagram. This allows for an effective content-driven campaign and is a collaboration between the brand and the influencer.
Who is a good influencer and why is it so popular?
People often make the mistake of thinking that an influencer needs to be a celebrity, which isn’t the case; it can be anyone. If someone has a large following on a website or social media – an influencer could be anything from a tipster / blogger to a game streamer. If they have hundreds of thousands or millions of followers – they are the kind of people you want to be connecting with.
There has been a remarkable growth in influencer marketing, which is to be expected when we see social media engagement stats on mediums such as Instagram and Twitter growing.
In a survey conducted by Influencer Marketing Hub, they noted that 37 per cent of marketers now have a budget specifically assigned to influencer marketing. The reality is with an increasing number of brands utilising this method – that this will only get bigger.
How can affiliates use influencer marketing effectively?
It may be more challenging in the iGaming industry to find influencers to promote online gambling – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible, and once you find the right influencer it can be incredibly effective.
As with any marketing strategy – you need to consider your influencer marketing approach carefully. Here are some tips as to how you can get your campaign on track:
- Make sure you have a strategy, plan and budget in place
- Be patient, you are speaking to individuals rather than companies – and to get the best results, you should nurture a good relationship with your influencer
- Put a clear schedule in place
- How does your influencer prefer to be contacted? Make it part of your marketing schedule
- Make sure that you integrate it with your own PR and content marketing schedule
It can be far too easy to take a general approach to influencer marketing and use multiple influencers, or simply look at the number of followers they have and jump on board. You should be researching their content, the types of followers they have, the average reach their posts get – and the amount of engagement they get.
They need to fit in nicely with your brand. Affiliates and operators need to be more innovative than before to make their brand stand out from the crowd, and using an influencer could be the perfect way to do just that.
Influencer marketing is growing at a fast rate, and it would be irresponsible for an affiliate to leave it out of their strategy, especially if they are looking to keep up to date with the hottest marketing techniques.
