If you are into online marketing, chances are you have come across terms like Influencer and Affiliate marketing. So, what do these terms mean anyway? How will they affect your business? Is one better than the other? In this article, we will discuss everything and more. So, let’s swoop right into it.
So, how are they different?
If you grow like a social media channel and you have a boatload of followers, you become an influencer. Companies and brands then will offer you money to mention their products. By far, the biggest challenge to influencer marketing is that you need tons of followers. It’s probably going to get even more difficult as everyone is fighting for attention. The reason this sounds cool and appealing is because someone like Kim Kardashian plays this game where she has a massive, cult-like following. Us? We are not that significant. Which is why affiliate marketing is the game we should play.
Affiliate marketing does not require us to have many millions of followers. With affiliate marketing you want to make a list off the internet as quickly as you can. Then, use that list to promote products to just a few people. Plus, when they do buy your product, you can keep a whole lot of the money, depending on what business you are in. Selling a few products from an email list sounds way simpler than procuring tons of fans and then having companies pay you to sell their product, right?
The biggest challenge for an influencer marketing agency in India is changes to the platform they are using. Social media platforms keep on changing so it’s not a good idea to depend on just one platform. As an influencer, a little change in the algorithm may cause your “influence” to die because your business relies on it. It’s different with affiliate marketing because you own the list and you are not as much on the mercy of platforms like YouTube and Instagram.
Another big challenge to the influencers is fake followers and fake likes. There is a whole business on buying likes, followers and reviews. An influencer loses money from people trying to cheat the system and companies are losing money as well which makes them skeptical about doing it. Another challenge with influencer marketing is you need to always be on. What that essentially means is that you need to show up and create stuff fairly regularly. There is a pressure, you need to be active. That is another point in favor of affiliate marketing where, if you are inactive for a little while, it will not hurt your business as much.
Bottom line
It all depends on the type of business you are trying to run. “Better” is a subjective term here. Only you can decide what’s better for your business. Market awareness is very important and you are going to have to keep up. However, one thing is for sure, affiliate marketing is much easier than influencer marketing.
