In recent years, so-called ‘influencers’ have made money using social media platforms like Instagram. But have you ever wondered how they actually make their money? How do they pay their bills? Where is the money generated? In truth, they can pursue a few different channels depending on their niche and following.
Brand Partnerships
Firstly, influencers can work with businesses and promote their products. As an example, a food company selling healthy meals might partner with a health and fitness influencer. The company pays the influencer to mention their products and services in a post. The influencer is either paid per post or a commission based on the number of sales that the post generates.
Brand partnership and sponsorship agreements can take many different shapes, and King Kong in New Zealand can help businesses to get started with influencers. For example, some businesses pay for sponsored posts while others sponsor channels or competitions. Ultimately, there’s flexibility for businesses and influencers to find an arrangement that works for everyone.
Affiliate Relationships
Like what we’ve just seen, influencers can join an affiliate program and earn a commission for selling particular products. As an example, the Amazon Associates program is perhaps one of the biggest on the internet. Content creators of all types can sign up to the platform, recommend products to their audience, and earn commission of up to 12%.
Naturally, those with a larger following earn more money because more of their audience members click the links and purchase products from the company. On the other hand, smaller influencers must work harder to generate sales and income.
E-Commerce Stores
Influencing isn’t all about selling the products of random companies since some sell their own products through an e-commerce store. Depending on the type of influencer, they might sell products that they make or merchandise. These days, t-shirts of influencers are modern-day rock band t-shirts. Instead of wearing merchandise from famous rock bands, people wear merchandise from their favourite influencers, and this is a healthy revenue source.
Brand Ambassadors
Next, we have a relationship between brand and influencer that doesn’t include commission or sponsored posts. Instead, the influencer can become an ambassador for the brand. Here, the influencer will sign a longer contract with the brand to represent them. Although it might entail the odd sponsored post, it’s likely to also include other responsibilities.
If you own a business, you might sign a contract with an influencer to represent the brand, host the annual awards ceremony, create sponsored posts, and perform other tasks.
Other Platforms
Just because somebody is an influencer on Instagram doesn’t mean that they don’t have a presence elsewhere. For example, they may have a YouTube channel, or they may stream on Twitch. Either way, these are other sources of revenue for influencers. In some cases, influencers also have a website where they sell advertising space. Having a website opens another world when it comes to revenue because influencers can further utilise affiliate marketing and other strategies.
Online Courses
Every year, it seems that more influencers create digital courses and eBooks. With something to offer followers, people pay to acquire skills and learn from the people that they admire the most.
Other Strategies
Just in case this isn’t enough, influencers can also earn revenue through subscriptions, tips, and donations. Often, people are happy to contribute just so that the influencer can continue producing high-quality content. As you can imagine, influencers really start to succeed when they combine the revenue sources in this guide!
