Once you learn how to do influencer marketing for affiliate marketing success the right way, it can be an extremely powerful strategy for generating a sh*t load of profit on the same day!
In fact, you can literally make hundreds to thousands of dollars per day from implementing the technique.
“Influencer marketing” is a super hot method that’s caught my attention fairly recently, and it’s something that a number of marketers are tapping into for shortcutting their way to profits and success on the web within 24-hour windows.
And this is a strategy that you can absolutely tap into yourself as an affiliate marketer, whatever niche market you have chosen.
If you have a few hundred or a few thousand dollars to spare, you can start your very first marketing campaign and become profitable really quickly.
The idea behind the method is a simple one:
You pay an internet marketing influencer to promote your blog, sales funnel, and/or affiliate offer to their MASSIVE list of targeted email subscribers and watch your affiliate commissions pour in.
Your return on investment (ROI) can seriously be off the charts!
YUP, the process is incredibly effortless.
But obviously, for it to be effective, you have to do your homework and also approach the top influencers in the right manner.
I have laid out the steps for you on how to get started with influencer marketing on the web. 😀
Let’s pull back the curtain, and own this beast!
Table of Contents
#1 Give Your Influencers FREEDOM
Online marketing influencers are where they’re at (in terms of popularity) due to working so damn hard at providing folks with so much value and getting their names/brands out there to the masses.
You may think you know what’s best when it comes down to promoting your brand and your affiliate products, but top marketers know exactly what works for transforming peeps into paying customers and commissions.
You must give your influencers full creative control over promoting your blog, product or service.
At the end of the day, it’s their subscriber list, so it’s only natural they are in control.
Play ball and you will hit a home run!
#2 Due Your Due Diligence
Before you hire any influencer, it’s highly important that you grab a shovel and dig down deep for all the juicy information you need on that marketer.
You have to ask yourself whether you want that individual to represent your online business?
Use Google to dig up their blog/website, social media accounts, and also other websites that mention their name.
This is a crucial step because if the influencer has a “bad reputation” as a marketer and you haven’t done your research, it may reflect badly on your biz if they’re chosen to promote your stuff.
Find and approach marketers with the best reputations. They will own high-quality email lists. 😉
#3 Ignore Follower Count – It Counts For Nothing!
These days, big numbers of followers can mean jack sh*t when it comes to social media platforms.
Accounts with thousands/tens of thousands of followers tend to outperform accounts with millions.
You will find that accounts with millions of followers consist of people who aren’t interested in buying your offers.
These types of folks are only interested in the shallow stuff – “hot babe” photos, etc. Sorry, no insult intended, hot chicks! LOL.
But you only need to scroll through Instagram to see my point.
Speaking of Instagram, read my post on Instagram marketing for learning how to make a ton of affiliate commissions from finding and paying top influencers for “shout outs” to their followers.
When it comes to other platforms such as Facebook, search for “engaging” fan pages with over 25,000 to 50,000 followers, and reach out to those influencers.
A much more engaged audience will likely convert into sales.
#4 Always Negotiate
There are some influencers on the net who are requesting $1,000s for promoting your offers to their followers and email newsletter subscribers.
I guess the prices may depend on their popularity, the email list sizes, and even the niche.
But there are times when you can drive down your promotion costs to only $100’s by negotiating with the marketers, especially if you’re buying multiple campaigns at a time.
If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
#5 Don’t be a Commercial
You don’t really wanna be promoting a blog post or a YouTube video of you acting as a “sales man/woman” advertising and hyping up your product or service using the usual cheesy phrases from TV commercials.
Nobody likes a sales pitch!
By all means, create an honest and unbiased blog post or video product review (without the hype).
But put total control in the hands of your influencer (as discussed in step #1) and let him or her create an organic post for connecting with their followers and sending you traffic.
#6 Target Micro Influencers
Let’s say you’re in the video gaming niche and you have a small monthly budget available for ad spend.
You don’t really wanna approach the biggest and most popular gaming marketer with millions of subscribers because just one single promotional post will suck up your entire budget for that month.
Your best option is to choose a number of different influencers with smaller followings because “micro influencers” have more engaged followers.
It will also make your budget stretch further and you can mix up your audiences.
#7 Track and Measure
It’s crucial that you understand whether the efforts of your influencers are having a positive impact on your online business’s success or not.
A successful campaign isn’t simply down to the number of social likes, shares, and comments, etc. That’s just classed as “engagement”.
You must monitor your traffic, leads, sales, and profits. If all these are through the roof, the marketing clearly works like a charm.
You can use Google Analytics (if you have a website) and also your affiliate visitor/sales stats back office area of whatever affiliate program you have joined.
#8 Don’t Ignore Your Other Marketing Projects
Yes, INFLUENCER marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways to make a TON of money online.
It’s a real game-changer for any affiliate marketer or any other business owner, and you will more than likely be popping plenty of Champagne corks. 😉
But don’t put your eggs in one basket and ignore your other digital marketing strategies because there a number of highly effective ones that will bring you a hell of a lot more success…
Blogging, SEO, building sales funnels, email marketing, YouTube video marketing, social media advertising (paid Facebook ads, etc), solo ads, Google Adwords and Bing Pay Per Click advertising, to name the main ones.
Don’t leave money on the table. Implement as many marketing techniques as you can.
However, if you’re lacking in the “knowledge” department when it comes to internet marketing strategies, I highly recommend that you read my review of Wealthy Affiliate.
The Bottom Line…
Influencer marketing can be a highly profitable technique when you follow the steps I have outlined and put them into practice.
Whether you want to send LOTS of targeted traffic to your blog, funnel, YouTube vids, webinars, affiliate links or wherever else you choose – there are massively successful marketers who are prepared to do business with you.
Flash the cash, put the influencer behind the wheel, and watch the magic unfold!
Your Friend, Neil 😀
(I’d like to Thank Chris Luck – founder of this platform for the ideas within this article).
If you have any questions or feedback on getting top marketers to promote your stuff, please fire away by dropping your comments below…
Wow, what a great idea! It’s really pretty obvious when you hear it, but I don’t think many of us even consider finding influencers in our niche. I think it has to do with either intimidation or fear of not being able to afford it. Either way, these are some great tips to get started getting the “big players” to help us get our own foothold in our niche!
Yes, indeed it is, Steve! 🙂
I also think that some online business owners are quite intimidated by the experts, and obviously, money can also be an issue for some newbies like you say. But folks never know unless they try Influencer Marketing and start out by approaching the less expensive influencers.
Thanks very much, and it can be a highly effective process.
Hi Neil! I am personally a blogger and affiliate marketer and I really find the points that you listed really useful! I am trying to do influencer marketing but is there any guidelines as to what stage of your business works best? Does it work better in the early stages or later stages?
Really nice article and looking forward to your reply.
Glad to hear it, Fernglow! 🙂
When it comes to influencer marketing, I guess the best way is to approach it from different angles for finding the most effective results. If you’re asking influencers to simply share your raw affiliate links with their audience, it doesn’t matter. But in my opinion, if you want them to share your blog, I think it’s important to have some high-quality content beforehand.
How many posts are needed? I do not know lol. But my best advice is to try influencer marketing at various stages of your online business.
Hey Neil,
First, thanks for the great post. Influencer marketing can be one way that you can really gain some traction, especially with a new blog or website. I’ve tried this in the past, and if you can find a very relevant offer, this traffic can ultimately convert well for you.
With that said, I was wondering if you have any recommendations for metrics when it comes to finding an engaged Facebook audience? How many comments should you be looking for on posts before approaching, etc?
Thanks once again for the post and I look forward to your response!
Hello, Tony! 😀
You’re welcome, man! Indeed, Influencer Marketing is powerful stuff!
Good for you! If your affiliate product is a high converting one, then you’ve definitely hit the jackpot.
To be honest, I don’t think there are a certain number of comments that you should be looking for on Facebook because as long as the fan pages and posts are generating plenty of positive engagement, that’s good enough for me. I guess it’s down to your own needs as a marketer that determines which influencers to approach for your campaigns.
You’re very welcome!