Charlotte Tilbury harnesses the magic of influencers for advocacy partner programme

Influencer marketing acts as modern-day word of mouth for advertisers to expand their reach to like-minded, engaged audiences. Influencers impact the buying decisions of their followers with curated social posts, blog content or product reviews. They engage with their audience through comments and the sharing of personalised content to create digital connections that transform their content from a business promoting a product to recommendations from a friend. 

Affinity for advertising (and in turn, an affinity for a brand or product), comes directly from those they know and trust. Influencers are effective at building this trust in a variety of ways: online via Instagram and other social channels, their own blog or as a guest blogger, vlogs and brand collaborations. BI Intelligence predicts influencer marketing will have a five-year compounded growth rate (CAGR) of 38% and is, therefore, a huge opportunity which many brands are already capitalising on. 

With different influencer payment models to choose from - including flat fees, pay-per-acquisition, set monthly fees, pay-per-click, pay-per-post and product or service gifting - brands who work with influencers have a vast degree of options to base the goals of these programmes on. But measuring influencer marketing campaigns is tricky. Evaluation should start with the brand giving an indication of what its vision for a successful campaign looks like. Success may mean a certain number of likes, reshares, uses of a specific hashtag, etc. However, for many brands, a direct correlation to revenue or return on investment (ROI) is quickly becoming a more defining feature of success.

Since both influencer and affiliate marketing allow brands to expand their reach and acquire new customers, what keeps the channels separate in the minds and budgets of so many marketers? Pairing modern tracking and payment functionality with an “outside-the-box” strategy means that merging the two channels offers a fantastic opportunity to maximise results. It also allows cross-comparison of reporting with other partner types, which can help streamline processes and develop optimum marketing strategies based on a pay-for-outcome model. 

Charlotte Tilbury is one brand that has been incredibly successful in incorporating influencers as part of its wider partnership marketing initiatives. As one of the world’s fastest-growing beauty brands, Charlotte Tilbury recognised that some of its most loyal users are top makeup artists with large online followings. In order to magnify this affinity via digital, and reward these superfans, the company created the Magic Makeup Stars programme. This partner marketing programme, exclusively for makeup artists, gives them VIP brand access and compensates them for every new customer they drive via their own channels. This transformation of the traditional brand referral programme sparked huge interest and differentiation and has quickly grown to account for 13% of total partnership revenue for the company. To find out more about how Charlotte Tilbury Beauty turned makeup artist influencers into valuable advocate affiliates download the Partnerize x Charlotte Tilbury case study.