Affiliate and Influencer Marketing… What’s the difference?

Affiliate and Influencer marketing can often get mixed up, as both marketing styles have very similar aspects and some minor differences. In this article, we're going to go through a few of them, while outlining some of the benefits.    

Affiliate Marketing  

Affiliate marketing is when a business or brand works with various bloggers, publishers, and companies. It’s a method of creating leads from your target audience using a third party to promote your products and services. In return, the third party – the affiliate – can give out an affiliated link along with promoting your products and services.  

The main benefit of affiliated marketing is that it's low risk a cost-effective. Businesses that use affiliates only have to pay the affiliate commission when they’ve created a conversion through their affiliate link. Affiliate marketing is a good way of reaching a wider audience without having to spend more money than necessary.

Utilising affiliate marketing opens your brand to people who may have shown interest in your industry but aren't following you on social media.

Influencer Marketing  

Influencer marketing is when a business works with people who have a large following or are influential on social media. The influential person promotes the products in a series of social media posts with a message that influences their audience to click through.

Influencer marketing tends to stay on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Usually, this is where the influential endorse products or services but don't offer their followers an affiliate link. Instead, the influencer receives a flat rate payment per post, or the company will give them free products as a form of payment.

The main benefit of influencer marketing is spreading your brand awareness to a broader audience. You can develop brand ambassadors who will work with your brand for an extended period in the long term. This can mean that the influencer creates content on their social channels to promote your business. They can offer special discounts on products and services. This is different from the affiliate links, as the influencer doesn’t receive anything if their followers were to complete a conversion.

Here at Formation, we are experts in marketing and creating brand awareness. We work with several clients, including their affiliates, to achieve marketing success.

Get in touch with one of our team to find out how we can help you find the right marketing strategy to suit your needs.