6 Reasons Bloggers and Influencers Avoid Your Affiliate Program

Affiliate marketing is a sweet deal for most bloggers and social media influencers, especially those on Instagram. Almost every day, Instagram influencers get requests from different brands asking them to market their products or services. 

The influencer then quotes the price he or she will charge and the transaction takes off from there. On blogger platforms, the process is simple and straightforward, while the returns can be much higher. However, in some cases, influencers and bloggers may decline a request to promote a particular brand or business. Why do they turn down this quick cash and how can you grow your team of influencers and why do you need them? And why do bloggers and influencers avoid certain affiliate programs? Let’s explore.

1. You are not making it easy

The parameters of affiliate marketing have changed in 2019 and at the same time, for the influencers. Your efforts shouldn’t fall hard on the blogger or influencer because of many reasons. The first one being that influencers are busy people; they have to maintain their social media accounts while still taking care of their social life.

The second reason being that influencers mostly have some other professions as well. It could be acting, singing, or modeling, or maybe studies to take care of and they have to devote time to that as well. Also, if a brand or business approaches a blogger or influencer with a complex affiliate marketing strategy, it will be much easier for them to turn away.

If you are also a student entrepreneur who is struggling to manage time with college or university and your business venture, you can free up yourself to a great extent by using online writing services.

The most important aspect of your affiliate marketing program is the simplicity of it. When considering this point think about everything involved in it, including the marketing material, correspondence with the influencer or blogger and everything involved.

Adding a burden on top of their responsibilities is just foolishness that will lead to the rejection of an affiliate program. Don’t leave everything on the shoulders of the blogger or influencer, rather take up some of the tasks on your own. An influencer or blogger will be much more prone to take up marketing programs that make their life much easier.

A brand or business can accomplish this by supplying all the material that needs to be published on social media or the blog. The material should be delivered in the manner expected or required, depending on the platform.

Comply with the requirements from the blogger fully, which means when a picture with a resolution of 142×90 that is exactly what you should provide. Don’t have the mentality that since you are paying them, they should do everything.

Also, supply the content they will use by writing their articles, infographics and everything else to simplify the affiliate program. When the ball has started rolling, assist the campaign by sharing and liking the posts.

2. There is no attribution being used

Every person would like to get the results of his work to motivate and encourage him to do more. Not to mention if more than one person is contributing to that particular project, every person would like to know how he did.

Affiliate marketing programs are no different. Most influencers would like to track the progress of their work. Also, bloggers would like to know how much of an impact their blogs have had on your marketing campaign.

Despite that, surely you would also like to know which platforms are the best and which influencer or blog is doing wonders for the campaign you are running.

When looking at the bigger picture, the results may seem very good. However, when looking at the broken-down results, there might be a realization that some platforms are seriously underperforming. Influencers and bloggers may not take up any affiliate marketing program without clear attribution.

Attribution is a measuring tool which factors in analytical data to determine the success of each medium. If there is none, bloggers and influencers might be bearing the brunt for other underperforming marketing vehicles. Just as you wouldn’t like working double time for someone else, influencers and bloggers also don’t like doing so.

Attribution will also allow the affiliate marketing program vehicles being used to improve their own craft. That improvement will help your own marketing strategy and will eliminate the risk of wasting money in affiliates that don’t make you profit.

Attribution will track each transaction from the first point of contact, identifying the affiliate, and then move on to the middle point of contact to the final click. It is an amazing way to get the insight into the program, both to you and the affiliate. The results of that will be very good, leading to more revenue and more profit.

3. It is not rewarding enough for bloggers

What is the purpose of working hard on a particular project and not getting compensated well for the hard work you have put in? That is exactly how influencers and bloggers will feel when an affiliate marketing program is introduced to them that doesn’t reward them.

Most affiliate programs, especially for bloggers pay commission for each transaction, however some pay per click. In some cases, an affiliate program can pay per lead, which can be a little more complex.

Above all these payment methods, all bloggers and influencers would like is getting passive income. That means that they will choose any affiliate program that will make it worthwhile.

Before jumping the gun here, first establish how each payment method works before making the offer. The “pay per sale” concept is the most common and works on the principle of a business paying the affiliate a percentage of the value of the purchase. If a brand offers a 10% commission for a $100 purchase, the affiliate will get $10 per purchase.

It is mostly quoted in percentages so to conform to the industry norms, it will be useful for you to quote it in that manner. You must carefully consider the percentage to quote because as much as you want the affiliate program to start working, you don’t want to go bankrupt.

Paying per lead is a complex structure of an affiliate program. Here, the influencer or blogger is required to prompt the audience to visit the brand’s website. However, the potential customer has to fulfill the action desired, like signing up for a newsletter.

Moving on to another payment method, which is the “pay per click” system. The pay per click method works on influencing the potential customer to click on the link of the brand from the affiliate’s website.

The payment is dependent on the web traffic of the brand’s site. Choose the one that works best for you and sweeten the deal to limit the chances of being rejected by influencers and bloggers.

4. Punching above their own weight

The situation of a brand punching above its own weight is similar to that of a small business trying to compete with the likes of Coca-Cola or Ford. The chances are very slim that a small business can get the same level of market response as of the market leaders who have spent decades in their respective niches.

In the same way, if a business asks an influencer that is way out of its league, in most cases the business won’t get a response.

The reasons behind this are plenty. If the business is requesting a celebrity with 5 million followers to promote its products, that will come at a price. Most of the time, businesses that need those influencers don’t have that kind of budget, so it’s a waste of time.

Another reason is that those celebrity influencers may consider promoting that product as career sabotage. As the brand is relatively at its grass-roots level, they might think that promoting it will tarnish their reputation and relationship with their fans.

Try to look at influencers that are within your wheelhouse and as you gain popularity expand from there. Influencers can recognize a brand they aren’t willing to promote in an instant and as you await a response from them, a lot of time will be wasted.

The appearance of the brand proposing to be promoted is also quite important at this point. If the proposed brand doesn’t look like it’s worth a million-dollar career, it will most probably get rejected.

Ensure that the brand being proposed has high-quality branding and looks very professional. If you would like to supplement the affiliate marketing program you have arranged, try to use the services of an agency that can connect you with high-level influencers. The agency will then connect you with great influencers. However, you will have to pay a certain fee for those services.

5. Communicating with them

As you might have noticed, communicating with celebrities is incredibly hard. There are thousands of comments on their post and if you comment, it might be easily lost throughout those thousands. Commenting on the targeted affiliate’s social media post is a shot in the dark, which might not reach the target’s eyes and ears.

Even to influencers with a lower following, it can be hard to reach them on their comments. Above that, even when they have seen the comment, they might not take you with seriousness. The reason behind that is because it might not look professional communicating with them in a public environment like that.

Some might say direct messaging is the solution to this problem of reaching the targeted influencer. Although this is true and might work in some cases, others may also not see your message amongst the hundreds or thousands they get each day.

The challenge is especially real because the targeted influencers won’t get the direct message in their inbox, rather it will show as a message request. That message request isn’t labeled how important it is and as a result, may be confused as the other messages of people trying to hit on them. Sending a direct message is also a shot in the dark, so what can be done?

Good old-fashioned email does the trick really well. Some influencers write their email on their profile description if that is the case take that email and send a well-written email.

Don’t write a long email unnecessarily, rather keep it short and concise as possible. In the case of bloggers, most blogs also have a contact form or email listed on their blog. If you can’t find the email of that targeted affiliate, use any tool or communicative outreach at your disposal.

So, what to include when writing the email? Include the value proposition you are aiming for clearly and relay the support that will be available to them. For example, include that they will receive content relative to their niche and high-quality graphics. Include the payment method that will be used when the business relationship begins.

Also, include the businesses niche. All the details about the business and brand that might help the affiliate make a decision should be clearly expressed. The email should be comfortable and let the influencer or blogger know that you are flexible and any recommendations can be freely communicated.

6. Does not fall within the influencer’s niche

One last thing that is a major buzz kill for affiliate programs is not fully understanding the niche of their prospective affiliate. That will lead to wrong emails being sent to someone who can’t really help the marketing program of a certain business.

For example, when a bottled water company requests an affiliate marketing program partnership to a blogger that writes about technological gadgets, the results may not favor the company.

To reach the blogger and influencer, you need to understand their niche and show them that you do understand it. That will prove that you are interested in the work they do and put you in better chances of getting that affiliate quicker.

To find influencers in the niche of the business being promoted, search for hashtags related to that brand. Once the posts on that hashtag appear, look for those with the highest number of followers.

Don’t consider the followers only but also the number of engagements on their posts, that includes likes, comments, and shares. If their numbers are satisfactory to you, reach out to them and ask them to be your affiliates.

Finding an influencer within the niche of the brand being promoted will help the business get more engagements. Those engagements will lead to conversions and more revenue.

The bottom line

Most online brands have used the services of social media influencers and online bloggers. It is the way to go for most businesses and it has shown great results. When scouting for potential affiliates consider ways to make it easier for them to promote your brand. Also consider the payment methods, company niche, and brand size. Once all those factors have been considered reach out to them using email.