Blogs are big business. Today, social influencers are acting as brand ambassadors for brands and monetising their influence. Thanks to their connection to the audience, personal approach and quality content, bloggers now have huge followings and provide the ideal platform for brands to promote appropriate products and services whilst adding value for both parties. 

Fashion bloggers in particular are seen as highly influential trend-setters with a huge sway with their audience, making them ideal targets to work with. With London Fashion Week in full swing, it’s not unusual to see top fashion bloggers sitting alongside Anna Wintour on the front row. With 503,404 mentions across Twitter and 113,348 images tagged on Instagram during SS16 in September, social media has emerged as the true voice of London’s leading fashion event. 

Based on such insights, many brands now see working with influencers as a key component of their overall marketing strategy, as they help raise brand awareness to a targeted audience as well as generating new revenue streams.  

It’s all about measurement 

One of the key advantages of social media over traditional marketing is measurement. It is now possible to track where every social like, website visit and purchase has come from. This data can be stored, analysed and used to provide insights into how the customer has arrived at their site. 

Brands can directly measure the impact of social influencers by looking at aspects such as traffic generated to a website, the number of mentions online, the increase in social followers or new subscribers to a company blog or newsletter. However, as well as the sales return, these influencers are also great at building brand awareness and reaching new customers that you previously might not have engaged with the brand. 

Quality over quantity 

An influencer with millions of likes may seem like the most popular voice on a topic but won’t necessarily get the best financial returns for a marketer. By paying more attention to the quality of the posts being shared and level of engagement and interaction their posts receive from the public, marketers can ensure measurable return on their investment by choosing the right influencer from the beginning of the journey. 

Matching brand values 

In order to make a believable and likeable campaign, influencers should match a brand’s values and be able to showcase clothes in different and interesting ways which will keep readers or viewers engaged. 

For instance, Wolf & Badger recently partnered with Samantha Maria, a fashion blogger and vlogger. After providing Samantha with clothes, Wolf & Badger saw a significant increase in the volume of traffic to its online store and its following on social media grew dramatically.

With both influencers and brands profiting from a relevant and creative partnership, the benefits of an affiliate programme cannot be underrated. Whether in terms of monetary gain, increased brand awareness or new customer engagements, the profit for marketers and bloggers is invaluable. Now that it’s possible to receive in-depth measurement about the results gained from such partnerships, the advantages provided are manifold and the end result is win-win for both the brand and the influencers.