How to leverage the convergence of affiliate and influencer marketing

Marketers today are looking for more effective alternatives to traditional advertising, and it’s pretty obvious why. Not only are consumers facing a barrage of advertising in their daily lives, but they have become ad-blind and unlikely to trust the messages they do see. In response, companies have turned to working with influencers and affiliates, who help fuel the buying journey through sharing authentic and honest content with their communities.

On the one hand, shoppers more frequently turn to trusted creators and brand advocates for information on what to buy—in fact, our research shows that 64% repeatedly make a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation. Additionally, affiliates share product information and codes via various content types and offer guaranteed performance to marketers since they're paid only for results.

The affiliate and influencer channels have traditionally been seen as distinct and siloed from one another, and as such, they’ve been handled by separate parts of the business. But the two are converging as brands begin recognising the value in having these partners work hand-in-hand to drive full-funnel results. Both involve managing multiple relationships with individual partners to run campaigns at scale. Both require sophisticated tracking and analysis to measure performance and ensure that partners—whether affiliates or influencers—are rewarded accordingly.

This convergence enables marketers to leverage community engagement fueled by influencers, paired with trackable sales driven by affiliates. These partners enable businesses to create more impactful campaigns by producing authentic and trustworthy content, building stronger connections with consumers, and ultimately driving conversions. On a high level, the (typically) upper-funnel results driven by creators dovetail neatly with bottom-funnel affiliate activity, thus powering marketing across the full funnel.

Making it happen

So, what should you consider if you’re looking to integrate affiliate and influencer strategies into your marketing plan?

The first is to break down marketing silos to enable cross-functional and cross-channel collaboration. This will help avoid issues such as double-paying or underpaying influencers, or failing to capitalise on big opportunities due to the team's lack of a centralised method to stay aligned.

Next, think about how you are going to recruit your influencers and affiliates. Is it a form on your website? Is it using a marketplace to search? Is it manually searching on social platforms? While this takes some time, some brands have found that scouring the social platforms is the best way to find a really good creator.

Metrics are another key consideration. You should research what metrics to track to choose the right tech stack to work with. The choice of tech stack is also important. The convergence between affiliate and influencer/creator marketing requires tracking activity and rewarding affiliates and influencers/creators for their contribution across the full funnel, aligned with the user journey.

The contract is another key element when dealing with influencers. Will they earn a flat fee, a sales commission, or a hybrid method, offering a mix of both? What usage rights do you have and for how long? If, for example, you work with influencers and agree that you own the content in perpetuity, you’re then free to repurpose the content as your own via paid social, ads and email, and also pass it to media publishers to use in their commerce content—another example of convergence at play.

What type of influencer/creator campaign are you looking to run? Product unboxing, reviews, demonstrations, giveaways? Make sure that in the campaign brief, you specify the type of content you are looking for without being so prescriptive as to stifle the influencer/creator’s creativity.

And if affiliate and influencer/creator marketing is new to you, start small so that you can make mistakes and figure things out before you ask for the big budgets. Start small, test, and double down on your successes. And if you have a declining budget, or just a small one, this is where CPA is useful.

Those without a large budget can start by paying per acquisition, which is a powerful method in its own right. A partnership automation engine that can scalably track and pay any partnership allows marketers to find influencers who will work for a bounty or commission. In turn, marketers can gradually demonstrate influencers’ value internally and make the case for more budget.

So, the boundaries are blurring all over the marketing landscape, but nowhere more so than between affiliate and influencer/creator marketing. With the right approach and the right tech stack in place, it heralds a new dawn for brands looking to engage with customers on their own terms, through channels and mechanics they like and trust.

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Cristy Garcia is the chief marketing officer for Impact.com.