This isn’t your parents’ influencer marketing.
Say goodbye to flat fees and sponsored posts. Today’s top influencers are low-risk, results-driven partners who work closely with brands to promote the products and services that resonate with their highly engaged audiences.
Adding influencers to your affiliate marketing program can increase revenue and prove affiliate ROI — if you know what you’re doing. The Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint is your guide to making it happen.
Download the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint
Knowing influencers and creators are a partner group unlike any other, TUNE teamed up with powerhouse growth agency Zeroto1 to develop an instructional e-book that doesn’t pull any punches. In it, you’ll read up on how influencer marketing really works, why and how it’s different from traditional affiliate marketing, and the steps you can follow to recruit and empower influencers in your program.
You’ll also learn from real-life use cases, including Zeroto1’s insanely successful launch and subsequent growth of the Instacart Tastemakers affiliate program. (Yes, they’re behind that Tastemakers, with TUNE technology driving the program.)
We don’t sugarcoat the tough stuff — like the fact that you’ll need to give up some control to get quality creative content. Or that no matter how hot your product is or how high your commissions are, some influencers just won’t want to work with your brand. What we do is provide you with insightful, actionable information to put you on the path to successful influencer-affiliate partnerships.
What Is Influencer-Affiliate Marketing?
There was a time when the term “influencer marketing” meant shelling out big bucks for celebrity sponsored posts; focusing on brand awareness and virality versus measurable conversions and KPIs; buying followers instead of engaging with them.
Not anymore.
Instead, today’s creators and influencers run the gamut from social media stars to niche role models. They have built up highly-engaged communities and loyal followings, with a deep understanding of what resonates and what feels inauthentic. They count on their audience for a living, so when they promote a product or a service, they’re confident it’s a fit.
This is why creators and influencers are embracing the performance-based model that is the foundation of affiliate marketing, resulting in a hybrid model: influencer-affiliate.
Why Are Brands Embracing Influencer-Affiliate?
As more influencers are making the change to a performance basis, more brands are embracing influencers.
Here’s why.
Most traditional publishers — in other words, your favorite websites and platforms — thrive on advertisers and networks. Their bottom line is tied to impressions, engagement, and clicks. This has led to many of them prioritizing these metrics over user experience.
As a result, across the digital ecosystem, the perception of engagement has become more important than actual engagement and quality user experiences. You can see it for yourself by searching on your laptop or smartphone for a topic you’re interested in. Increasingly, all that gets you is a confusing jumble of results, ads, and AI-generated answers to questions you haven’t asked, or links that lead to broken interfaces and frustrating interactions.
Brands, consequently, are moving away from platforms with shallow engagement and vanity metrics, following their target audience. People want authenticity and trustworthiness, communities where they feel engaged and accepted.
Influencer-affiliates are a bridge to these communities. They help brands build connections to them without the corporate side — the advertising ick — of marketing getting in the way.
Get Started with the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint
Over the next few months, we’ll be exploring key chapters from the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint here on the TUNE Blog. You can read Part 2 of our series here, which dives into the differences between influencer programs and traditional affiliate programs.
We also recorded a webinar with our friends at ZeroTo1 about influencer-affiliates and how they fit into today’s marketing mix. Check it out here.
So, while we’ve barely scratched the surface of influencer-affiliate programs, you don’t have to wait for the rest of the blog series to come out. Download the full e-book now to discover:
- the four steps to success in influencer-affiliate marketing
- what makes influencers and creators different from traditional affiliates
- how to find and engage the right influencers for your brand
- the technology and teams you’ll need to get started
- real examples and use cases from everyday brands
The most successful influencers connect with their audiences through authenticity, honesty, and winning personalities. We hope to do the same.
Enjoy!
Download the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint
Author
Becky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at TUNE. Before TUNE, she handled content strategy and marketing communications at several tech startups in the Bay Area. Becky received her bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University. After a decade in San Francisco and Seattle, she has returned home to Charleston, SC, where you can find her strolling through Hampton Park with her pup and enjoying the simple things between adventures with friends and family.
