User:Nadoryy/sandbox

Influencer marketing
Origin of social media influencers to marketing

According to real influencers that were interviewed for research purposes, social media influencers or Internet Celebrity originated from lack of an opportunity to advertise on digital social platforms. Brands noticed a major benefitting factor of using influencer marketing is the reach and engagement it garners. They positively affect purchase behaviour due to their authentic real-life content that consumers trust and prefer to see. For marketing purposes, advertising agencies choose influencers based on the content they put up. The trust is built from consumers relating to life experiences of the influencers' which builds a relationship between influencer and their audience. This is due to their fan's loyalty, after following certain influencers for a period of time, it is more likely users get invested in an influencer, often believing they know them personally. Thus, whatever likes and interests a influencer has, often this reflects their audiences likes also.

Social media platforms evolve more over time which means multi-media content becomes more relevant in the endorsement aspect of influencer marketing. As internet influencers have attained celebrity status in today's networking platforms, with millions of followers to reiterate their positions, brands are taking this to their advantage to publicise themselves in partnership with these influencers. Thus, social media and digital strategies need to integrate full range of paid solutions in order to benefit from the opportunities coming from the marketing targeting tools. Brands and companies are able to identify communications and market strategies that require taking these developing changes into account and building comprehensive digital strategies, involving multiple stakeholders from within the organisation.

Micro-influencer

Some organisations use micro-influencers instead of profiled influencer because they tend to cost more for a single post or any engagement from consumers. An example of this would be celebrities of the likes of Kylie Jenner who can charge around a million dollars for one post on Instagram. Micro-influencers are individuals with a specific niche for their content and between 10k-100k. Or often companies may prefer to generate affiliate links for smaller bloggers on social media that allow them to attain some money per viewer that clicks on to certain links and products with an associated brand. Profiled influencers can drive better traffic with brand endorsement but are less cost effective for companies and don't necessarily focus on one interest. Although, an influencer with less followers may have less influence than someone with thousands, a focused interest from a micro-influencer could promote more engagement and be an effective marketing technique. Bloggers that engage in commutative relationships with their viewers, gain more trust and likability with their followers as they continue to engage with them which may lead them to share themselves, or influence them to buy a product because of a personal recommendation.

Influencers vs traditional celebrities

Influencers build their careers on media platforms and typically evolve around one particular domain of interest. Whereas, ‘traditional’ celebrities join social media being already identifiable to their audience. It is commonly known that influencers receive compensation for their endorsement. However, because influencer marketing is ‘essentially word-of-mouth marketing’, unpaid influencing of a brand or product happens to exists. 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising, according to a study conducted by Whitler. . Therefore, influencers posts are perceived to be more trustworthy because consumers are more familiar with them. In a study, comparing the twos effectiveness of endorsement advertising, results find that ‘perceived similarity mediated the relationship between type of endorser and attitude toward the ad and purchase intention’.In simple terms, based on endorsement, consumers tend to have a more positive attitude towards influencers because of the similarities they carry with ‘ordinary’ people, unlike traditional celebrities who are perceived to have better lifestyles.

Affiliate network
Affiliate marketing is an effective and cost-effective tool for associated companies which are known as an affiliate network as they support each other for financial gain. The network consists of affiliates that will promote products or services for another organisation.

Uses

It is also common for affiliate networks to charge merchants a percentage of the commissions paid to affiliates, this is known as an 'over-ride' and is payable on top of the affiliates commission. According to a survey by the Forrester Group, a massive 83% of companies use affiliates to secure deals with publishers which provides evidence of its use being effective, especially with online purchasing being of critical value to business. The process of affiliate network goes like this:

•	Both advertisers and publishers must first sign up to the network. ‘Once accepted, advertisers can add their programs to the network and publishers have instant access to a huge range of affiliate programs and promotional material’.

•	Publishers can apply to be accepted onto any program they wish to endorse

•	Once they have been accepted as an affiliate partner with the advertiser, they have access to a choice of promotional texts or creatives that can be used across a variety of platforms, such as social media, emails, or websites.

Affiliate network benefits over Affiliate marketing

Some benefits of affiliate network:

•	Managed affiliate solution – An affiliate network streamlines the process of managing the program by providing account management, technology, and end-to-end tracking. There are also better privacy and security options available.

•	Effective use of your advertising budget – this ensures that budget is spent in the most effective way possible, as well as allow regular monitoring on budget spent throughout the month.

•	Your products are only promoted by approved publishers

•	Compliance monitoring is part of the service

•	Brand awareness – it is easy to maintain your brand identity through affiliate networks by uploading your logos and creatives that are associated with your brand for your publishers to use.

Nike affiliate program

An early adopter of internet marketing, Nike, Inc. owns an affiliate program which selected websites, bloggers or brands that become affiliates can earn commission through promoting Nike products. They need to be accepted by Nike and can earn up to ‘11% commission on valid sales ,’ which means the chosen affiliate may receive a small commission at no cost to the viewing person, if they intend to make a purchase. Nike hold a strong association with football as they make several endorsement deals with famous football players. According to VigLink, Nike is a participating partner- and they were paying out, in June 2018, 6.83% commissions.