Many people often get confused about the difference between affiliate marketing and influencer marketing. Both are extremely powerful ways of marketing and growing your business, but there are differences. Let’s get into them here.
Affiliate marketing: What is it?
Affiliate marketing sounds complicated but is quite simple. Think of it as performance-based marketing. The more customers that are brought into the website, the more the affiliate will get paid.
For example: imagine that you are searching the internet for shavers. You come across a blog listing the top 10 best ones. You find one you like on the list and see it has a link to buy the product which goes to another website. You buy the product and have a great shave (hopefully!).
In this example, the affiliate shared the affiliate link to their audience and when it is bought, the affiliate gets a commission from the website that has just made a sale.
If you’re looking for a quality affiliate marketing website to help you get started on making money this way, check out algo affiliates.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is similar as it involves a third party – however there are key differences. An influencer has a large audience they can use to leverage and promote certain products/services. So, when a business is looking to increase sales and brand awareness, and has a certain target audience in mind, then can link up with an influencer who has an audience similar to the one they are targeting and get them to promote the products/services on their behalf.
With influencer marketing, the money for promoting these products/services is given upfront, and they are usually paid by social media post that they put out to promote the brand.
You can then measure the success of an influencer marketing campaign by tangible benefits accrued – for instance an increase in website views, followers, sales, or even email signups.
As stated earlier, affiliate marketing is paid per referral, whereas influencer marketing is different and is done by promotional posts. So, in short, the main difference is payment and the overall goal of these types of marketing.
Is an Influencer or Affiliate necessary for my business?
Many businesses are different so it can be hard trying to figure out which type of marketing is best for your brand. However, you don’t just have to pick one. They can both be used at once as a great marketing strategy for improving your growth.
It must also be known that affiliate marketing does take a slightly longer time to set up in comparison to influencer marketing, mainly due to the time it takes to reach out and find suitable affiliates in your niche and get them set up.
It’s also a good idea to do some research on the two and find the best for you, especially when pricing is concerned. Depending on the reach of the influencer, the price will vary. It’s a good idea to go on Google or social media to look for one that may be suitable and contact them.
In no time at all your influencer/affiliate marketing campaign will be good to go, with great results often appearing in very quick time.
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