Affiliate Marketing and Fitness Influencers:
Introduction
The influencer industry has transformed significantly in the early 21st century. Originating from personal blogs and forums, it has become a professional career path. Influencers are now seen as entrepreneurs who manage their personal brands, engage with audiences, and collaborate with companies. This shift has led industries, especially in fashion, beauty, and consumer goods, to heavily invest in influencer marketing as a vital component of their marketing strategies (“The Ins and Outs of the Influencer Industry”). This is because influencers impact consumer behavior by shaping purchasing decisions through personalized content. Industries such as retail, fitness, and travel benefit significantly from influencers who can sway consumer preferences and introduce new products and experiences effectively to target audiences. In 2017, Entrepreneur reported that “92 percent of consumers trusted influencers more than traditional advertisements or celebrity endorsements” (Hund 113). This has led to a more direct connection between companies and consumers, surpassing traditional advertising strategies.
The influencer industry has created new job opportunities and economic avenues, particularly for people who are outside traditional employment sectors. This includes not only influencers themselves but also a variety of support roles in marketing agencies, digital content production, and analytics. The influencer industry has seen shifts in business models, from relying primarily on ad revenue to sophisticated monetization strategies involving collaborations, sponsored content, and affiliate marketing (“The Ins and Outs of the Influencer Industry”).
With the ever-changing digital landscape, influencers serve as trend-setters on social media to many different facets of life including beauty, health and wellness, travel, culture, and more.
Fitness influencers, for example, are seen as important leaders in the fitness community for many on social media. Many brands use fitness influencers to communicate with their audiences through different influencer marketing strategies such as sponsorships, endorsements, and affiliate marketing. Here are some popular fitness influencers:
What is Affiliate Marketing?
“Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where creators, influencers, and entrepreneurs earn money by promoting a product or service for a retailer” (Shopify). Affiliate marketing is advantageous for content creators as well as brands. The brand is a vendor, merchant, product maker, or retailer who has a product or service to offer. A service like cosmetic lessons or a tangible item like household products can also be the product (Shopify). An affiliate (in this case, an influencer) is a person or business who markets a seller's product to prospective buyers. For influencers, “affiliate marketing programs can reward you for leads, free-trial users, clicks to a website, or getting downloads for an app”, and influencers can receive a commission in return for any sales or other marketing actions that come about as a result of the affiliate link (Shopify).
How Brands Select Affiliates
From the brand perspective, choosing affiliates involves careful consideration of various factors to ensure a successful and authentic partnership. We asked Adriana Autie, Senior PR and Brand Partnerships Manager at Milk Makeup, how brands select their affiliates.
In the context of fitness influencers, brands select their influencers in a similar fashion. Fitness brands like Lululemon, Adidas, Bowflex, and more use their extensive networks and use affiliate marketing programs as a way to expand their outreach to different audiences.
How Brands Leverage Fitness Influencers
Brands use influencers to connect with their audiences through a more authentic, personalized experience than traditional advertising. Brands tend to witness high engagement rates from campaigns with fitness influencers, with some studies citing as high as $20 in return for every $1 spent (Sway).
Gymshark heavily relies on influencer marketing to boost engagement and increase their sales. Gymshark is known for working with different influencers, who Gymshark refers to as “Gymshark athletes.” Ben Francis, CEO and Founder of Gymshark, selects its athletes based on a mix of personal admiration for fitness influencers and organic growth in their community interactions, rather than a premeditated strategy (Francis). Initially, the brand was heavily inspired by fitness influencers on YouTube, whom the founders admired. They started by sending their products to these influencers, hoping to get feedback and improve their offerings (Francis). This process was not just about promoting the brand but also about refining their products based on the input from these influencers as well.
The selection of athletes evolved naturally from these early interactions. The influencers who resonated with Gymshark’s values and who provided constructive feedback became the first members of what would later be recognized as the Gymshark athlete team. This group of athletes grew as the company expanded its presence at fitness events, allowing them to meet more influencers and fitness enthusiasts who shared their brand vision (Francis).
Challenges with Affiliate Marketing from a Brand & Influencer Perspective:
From an influencer’s perspective, it is important to select quality products to promote, which aligns with maintaining credibility and building a long-term brand as an influencer. Generating traffic and converting it into sales is also vital for affiliates (Voica).
Both perspectives highlight the relationship between brands and influencers in the affiliate marketing ecosystem. Brands like Milk Makeup rely on influencers who can authentically endorse their products and connect with a target audience, while influencers must choose collaborations that align with their values and offer potential for growth and engagement.
Adriana provided insights into how brands navigate the challenges of affiliate marketing.
Creative Pay Gap with Influencers
In 2021, a study was released discussing the influencer racial pay gap, and showing that BIPOC influencers earn 29% less than their white counterparts, with the gap expanding to 35% between White and Black influencers specifically (MSL).
While the influencer community is also predominantly female, there still remains a large pay gap between men and women as well. A report from 2019 highlighted a pay gap where female influencers earned $128 less than their male counterparts (Jackson). This massive pay gap within a predominantly female industry shows a much broader issue of inequality.
Chanel Tyler, Influencer and Head of Creator Business Development at Howl, explained to us the creator pay gap.
The Future of Affiliate Marketing with the Evolution of Social Media
Influencer marketing continues to evolve. Forbes projected the increase of micro-influencers, “individuals with smaller but highly engaged followings,” because consumers crave authentic relationships (Patel). Brands are likely to invest more in these smaller influencers, recognizing that their endorsements may be perceived as more genuine and effective.
Overall, the future of influencer marketing is projected to be more integrated, data-driven, and centered around genuine influencer-brand relationships that command consumer trust, and these trends are likely to redefine the ways brands and influencers collaborate.
We asked Adriana about the trends, as well as the future of affiliate marketing within the industry.
Photos courtesy of Chanel Tyler
References
Francis, B. [Ben Francis]. (2018, August 9). *How to become a Gymshark athlete | How we recruit for the Gymshark team* [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5rqFq0OwWE
Hund, Emily. The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media. Princeton University Press, 2023.
"The Ins and Outs of the Influencer Industry." HBR IdeaCast, Harvard Business Review, 2023. www.hbr.org/podcast/2023/02/the-ins-and-outs-of-the-influencer-industry.
Jackson, M. (2024, February 25). The pay gap in influencer marketing. https://www.meltwater.com/en/blog/pay-gap-influencer-marketing
MSL. (2021, December 6). MSL study reveals racial pay gap in influencer marketing. PR Newswire. Retrieved from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/msl-study-reveals-racial-pay-gap-in-influencer-marketing-301437451.html
Patel, Lomit. "10 Marketing Trends That Will Dominate in 2024." Forbes, Forbes Business Development Council, 18 Dec. 2023, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcouncil/2023/12/18/10-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-in-2024/?sh=340867ce3586.
Sway Group. (n.d.). Fit for success: The effective brand marketing power of fitness influencers. Retrieved from https://swaygroup.com/fitness-influencers/
Voica, P. (2023, October 20). Top 5 challenges in affiliate marketing and how to overcome them. Medium, https://medium.com/@petervoica/top-5-challenges-in-affiliate-marketing-and-how-to-overcome-them-a618fdf04f92
"What Is Affiliate Marketing? Everything You Need to Know in 2024." Shopify Blog, Shopify, 7 Sep. 2023, www.shopify.com/blog/affiliate-marketing.