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1. Is Influencer Marketing just glorified Affiliate Marketing?
Influencer marketing flourished from the success of celebrity marketing. Celebrities
have promoted products for years, often within the use of above the line marketing
campaigns. Take the super-bowl ads for example, of which 99% feature a celebrity
promoting a product. These are offered in return for a hefty endorsement fee.
Celebrity marketing soon evolved to become Influencer Marketing. Often filled under
the Sponsorship Marketing shelf, it has now taken its own form under the new title of
influencer.
As the internet matured, with the growth of YouTube and Facebook to name a few,
individuals emerged classing themselves as ‘experts’. And in many instances they
were. They started with blogs in the late 90’s, early 00’s. Martin Lewis is a great
example, who started a blog on money called Moneysavingexpert, which became so
popular he crafted millions of followers.
As more accessible channels like YouTube emerged, the ease in which you could
host your own content grew. Suddenly anyone could become an ‘expert’, and
overnight many did. Creating an army of followers, those we now call ‘influencers’
emerged. Reviewing, advising and recommending everything under the sun. Of
course, those topics which are most popular, like video game reviewers, became the
highest grossing influencers and celebrities in their own right. But others amassed a
more niche following into specific topics, like Neil Patel for Digital Marketing. Who,
we should still add, has hundreds of thousands of followers. Or Mrs Hinch, who is
best known for her reviews on cleaning products on Instagram, very niche but a
following and an influencer in her own right.
Influencers have been segmented into the following types; micro and macro. We’ve
also seen them labelled into more specific types; the celebrity, the authority, the
connector, the personal brand, the analyst, the activist, the expert, the insider, the
agitator, the journalist, and the trend setter. They tend to review, recommend, post,
like, comment, debate and share content on their favourite topic, to educate, make
you laugh, inspired, be envious of, to provide an insight into their lives, to be
revealing, to be helpful, with all their content. Their content can range from videos,
pictures, articles, infographics, quotes, books and ebooks.
These influencers helped spawn an entire industry ready to capitalise on their reach.
As more and more brands started to see the power of influencer marketing, so did
specialist agencies, platforms and analytics follow. Influencers are predominantly
motivated money.

2. Traditionally they will promote a brand in exchange for commission. This is a model
that celebrities first used, as described previously.
There has been though a shift in that motivator and brands can now offer
alternatives, although essentially they all lead back to the influencer earning a profit.
Brands can create value for the influencers community and help to grow their
network. Sharing their posts in return for exposure could be one way. Their
community and following is what drives their revenue, so they are always looking for
ways for that to expand. Their reputation is also key, any positive PR or praise they
receive is also a strong motivator. Especially if an influencer has had some bad
press, brands can always turn that around for them. SEO is also key, offering up a
backlink to their articles is another alternative. Offering them exclusives and
encouraging healthy debate is also another way. Brands are becoming more creative
with how they work with influencers, they are now treated not just those you can offer
a commission to, but much more a partnership.
This now segway’s nicely onto the topic of this article. Is influencer marketing just a
glorified version of affiliate marketing? Or perhaps, it’s just an extension of
partnership marketing? Should it stand alone as a marketing type in its own right?
Firstly, influencer marketing is core pillar of relationship marketing, where marketing
is arranged via the activity of relationships with third parties. Some argue it sits
simply under the pillar of partnership marketing, like affiliate marketing too. It’s a type
of partnership and follows the same rules as it would for a business to business
relationship. There’s direct contact with the party who will be promoting your brand,
there is commission involved, and there’s appreciation for what assets will be used,
how the brand will be promoted, and how to track the campaign. As the core
elements are essentially the same, one could argue influencer marketing is just
another type of partnership marketing.
If we look at affiliation too, it follows the same principles, exposure in return for
commission or a benefit. As we described earlier Martin Lewis was one of the
internet’s first influencers, but his site Moneysavingexpert is considered one of the
most powerful affiliates in the UK. This implies, he himself is the influencer but his
medium was an affiliate. As we can see there’s a bit of a blurry line between the two.
Some though take the opposing view. Influencers do much more than an affiliate,
they can take your product and display it in actual use. They can give an honest,
open account of what they feel about it, they can show it in locations and places an
affiliate blog or comparison table cannot dream to.
As we described earlier, they aren’t always fishing for commission. They are trying to
build their brand too and their following, they want to partner with you much more

3. than affiliate site ever would. Affiliates can be very much a give and take relationship,
oppose to an influencer which is more mutual. Influencers are also real. This is an
important point when it comes to trust and hence, influence. An affiliate site can
seem just that, a boring, plain, flat website. Whereas an influencer has a life and a
personality behind it so help promote your brand.
All in all, I think influencer marketing stands on its own, in it’s own right, as a new
form of marketing, ready to take on the 21st century. It’s a new strand, but possibly
one that will replace the existing affiliate model. It takes the advantages of
partnerships and puts a human element behind it. It isn’t just a glorified version of
affiliation!