Since the popularity of social media has soared over the past few years, with influencers dominating the online marketing trends and single-handedly promoting dozens of brands to their near-million followers, the design of the virtual marketing campaigns has entirely shifted to small-scale models of affiliate and guerrillamarketing. Let us first briefly explore these concepts before comparing them with each other.
What is Guerrilla Marketing?
Guerrilla marketing, much like guerrilla warfare, deals with surprise engagement with unsuspecting consumers. It adds sensational value to the product and if done correctly, can impress the customer in buying the product. It is a strategy for short-term marketing of the product and usually does not incur a huge investment. A good example of guerrilla marketing would be a flash mob exercise that is used to promote a health club.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the line which influencers follow these days to earn money from various brand endorsements. Much like commission-based profit, affiliate marketing involves promotion of a product and earning a specific percentage on each sale you drive via your online endorsement. A good example of affiliate marketing is how an influencer on Instagram promotes a brand by giving a code to their followers, and with each sale that comes their way, they earn a smallmargin of profit through that sale.
Which One Is Better For Brand Promotion?
The debate between the pros of both has been never-ending between ardent followers of both strategies. Settling it means examining their strongest components and their comparison. Let’s jump right in.
- Better Reachability
Guerrilla marketing has a far smaller reach than affiliate marketing because of its clustered structure. It is highly localised, which means it will only directly reach a handful of people who are present on the spot. The rest of it is word of mouth, depending on how powerful the shock was felt by the consumers.
Affiliate marketing, on the other hand, works in a far scattered manner, forming clusters of consumers wherever they land. In simpler terms, your followers will probably share your promotions and form their own little clusters of marketing.
Affiliate marketing is definitely better in reaching more customers with a better flexibility.
- Better Conversion Rate
Conversions happen when the brand reaches its potential customer demographic and they have the demand for the product ready. In the case of guerrilla marketing, this would be a hit or a miss- a lot of the conversions in this promotional manner depend on the intensity of the sensationalized event.
Affiliate marketing might not have the same shocking impact but it more than makes up for it in conversions. Trusted followers go for the products that their favourite celebrities/influencers/role models use and endorse.
Affiliate marketing, again, takes the cake in this one.
- Better First Impression
Affiliate marketing relies on slow and gradual popularity, with brands and affiliates in a relatively longer inter-dependent association. The word-of-mouth links and strengthens the chain of marketing.
Guerrilla marketing tactics are designed to induce shock and surprise that makes a lasting impression on the audience’s mind. The sudden, intense reaction is what gives this type of promotion its USP.
Guerrilla marketing trumps this area of expertise.
Verdict: Even though Guerrilla marketing has its own pros, affiliate marketing fits better in the present structures of online marketing. It has a wider reach, better sensibility and thus, presents better conversion rates as compared to guerrilla marketing tactics.
