Affiliate Marketing Trends

Every industry is susceptible to trends — forces that redefine consumer behaviour with a net-positive effect on sales.

One of these trends in the case of affiliate marketing is: the use of influencers. As it is, affiliate marketing is a partnership-driven enterprise resting on the shoulders of a brand and an affiliate. The influencer becomes another partner — the partner of a partner.

Affiliate marketing is built on trust — the trust between the brand and the affiliate, on the one hand, and the trust between the affiliate and the audience, on the other hand. That circle of trust is now further enlarged by integrating the influencer into the configuration.

A basic principle of consumer behaviour is emulation — the emulation of iconic figures. Celebrities are an example. And, celebrity endorsement is the best example of how marketing harnesses this power of influence.

When George Clooney sips coffee pouring out from a shiny Nespresso machine, Nesspresso’s sales go up. The connection is instant.

It is the same with influencers — they can connect with people instantly. Influencers are celebrities produced by social media. And, their reach is far greater than that of celebrities. Since influencers are a direct product of social media in a way that celebrities aren’t, their proximity to their adoring fans are also in equal measure much greater. What once used to be the exclusive domain of the celebrity has now passed on to the influencer. If the celebrity can sway thousands, the influencer can now sway millions. In comparison to an influencer, the celebrity seems remote, their values unattainable for the Joe and Jane Bloggs.

With the influencers — helped enormously by social media platforms — the gods have come down from high to mingle with the masses. The traditional word of mouth, once the backbone of marketing, has undergone a makeover digitally. You can’t beat that for acquiring brand power.

One reason for preferring influencers over celebrities is economics. Influencers are more affordable than celebrities. They are also more credible. The relationship between the affiliate marketer and the influencer is also likely to ring more authentic because of their alignment — an affiliate marketer promoting a natural product they believe in through an influencer who also shares their values seems like a natural extension. Combined with organic traffic and the trust-based affiliate marketing platforms, nothing could be more genuine. Authenticity sells.

The Proliferation Of Social Media

The social media horizon is expanding all the time. There is no sign of its diminishing. Once there was Facebook only as the primary player. But not anymore. Other players have also entered the field: YouTube; Instagram; Pinterest.; X. While all of them are characterised by the gold standard of social media, interactivity, each has brought its own form of user-experience.

No longer is the user just a spectator but also an active participant. Our emotions now have actionable potential. Clicking, swiping, liking (or, not liking) — these are all forms of enacting felt emotions. People can also upload videos of how they are feeling at the moment — happy, sad, silly. The algorithms of social media are designed to reward these behaviours with more impressions — which in turn can beget more views.  Social media is a forever machine. It never stops.

The upshot of all this is that our inner most feelings are monetisable. Imagine an influencer with a million followers, unpacking — unboxing — a product and shares with her audience how she feels about it. Instant connection.

Affiliate marketing utilises this space to extend its reach.

In fact, the affiliate marketer may have followers themselves in their own social media platforms. These could be harnessed readily even without seeking influencer help.

Aspects Most Relevant to Affiliate Marketing

As we can see, social media have many utilisable aspects. Two at least deserve mention: personalisation and data. These two are also interlinked. Data is the lifeblood of social media. The inherently data-driven nature of social media can be used to sharpen any campaign.

For example, using the data analytics of social media, the number of people who viewed a particular  campaign can be analysed in terms of demographics — age; temperament (likes, dislikes); gender; income; location; education; and so on. This is called segmentation of data.  We can find out which demographic makes up most of the audience.; which has the most income; which has the most education; and so on. We can even pin point which aspects of the campaign the audience preferred most and why.  Once we have determined that we can send them personalised recommendations. Not only that, we can figure out what recommendations to make to those who favoured the campaign less.

With the advent of AI, this process can and has been refined further. Just with a click, AI can scour the internet (or other commercial databases) to tell us where our audience lies.  All we have to do is design a relevant campaign with the recommendations. The design, too, is AI driven.

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