Affiliate marketing (influencer marketing) is one of the digital marketing types. It uses social media influencers to test and market products and services. Influencers are given unique links to redirect buyers to the products or services online store. When a purchase is made via the unique link an influencer has some percentage of the sale given to the influencer.
This is an effective way of marketing products and services as it does not require a huge advertisement and influencers could also make some passive income to support their livelihood.
Based on your product and service type you can choose between Instagram influencers, TikTokers, YouTubers, Facebook influencers, and bloggers to sell your products with affiliations.
You could find affiliates for your products or services in many ways, but the most common ones are via agencies and direct contact with influencers. Agencies are online platforms that register both product/ service providers and influencers/ affiliates. These agencies connect potential providers and affiliate marketers. Examples of such agencies include Fiverr, Tailor Brands, Thinkfic, Blue Host, ETC. but accessing these platforms is limited to some countries and providers and affiliates from Africa and most of Asia could not access them thus using the second option of connecting with influencers directly is advised.
When choosing an influencer, you should keep in mind a few things if you want to have a successful scale of your product or service.
1. Qualities of content created by the influencers – The quality of content created by the influencers (video, audio, Text, pictures) matters because the audience looks for a quality product than quantity So, choose influencers that create beautiful, eye-catching, and mesmerizing content for the audience.
2. Number of influencer followers – the influencer’s followers are your target audience so make sure that the influencer you choose has more than 10000 followers and has a ton of viewers and readers.
3. Relatability of your product with the influencer’s niche – The quality of content and the number of followers of an influencer don’t matter if their niche doesn’t meet with your product type. You can not market an electronic gadget on a cosmetics influencer’s social media.
4. Previous sales of products – influencers may have quality content, many followers, and a niche that matches your products, but they can’t be helpful if they have never had that much experience selling products via their social media or blogs.