In 2020, Josh Durham launched an impact on the marketing agency that influenced the marketing agency, that the influential industry developed from Halcyon days ten years ago, when the creators of association could generate 5 times revenues.
The influence of the marketing circa 2025, according to Josh, is a long -term game. Successful depends on quality products involved in creative audiences and content that directs more support.
In our recent conversation (his second on the podcast), he and I discussed the basics for scalable, high -performance influence programs.
Our whole sound is inserted below. The transcription is modified for length and clarity.
Eric Bandholz: Tell us about yourself.
Josh Durham: I am the founder of aligned growth. We manage more influenced partnerships for electronic trading brands such as hexclad chicken, stack wallets, phone cases for description and hair care. Some customers already affect programs; Others start from scratch. Our focus is to build a scalable influenced system, either start them alone or help internal teams.
The influence of marketing is not as in 2015, when the post would easily create a 5x return from associated commissions. Today it is difficult to motivate these creators to work on an associated basis. We usually offered free products or in some boxes fixed fees.
Today it is more of a reach, trust and creation of content that supports social, e -maly and other channels. The aim is to build awareness and credibility and strengthen overall marketing.
In a well -algnised creator with an engaged audience, he increases credibility. Where you see your product used authentically in content or have more creators supporting your brand, this affects conversions in a way that traditional advertising cannot.
We focus on the reach of the creators, registration rates, post frequency and average views. For example, with Hexclad, we built the program for three years and created 400 million organic impressions. It came from the creators who really liked the product and published, sometime over the years.
Help with high value. Hexclad has Gordon Ramsay as a brand face and quality is top. It is easy to integrate into the product in your reception videos. The creators naturally use pans in their content. Many of them cook at home, maybe lifestyle creators cook for their family and come up with new recipes using the Hexclad object. It is not exclusively advertising, but they use it and on average three times on the creators. Even 50,000 average views of video over time.
Bandholz: What is the direct impact of income influencers, usually?
Durham: We saw high ROA when using the content influence in ads. We passed the highest performance influence on the content of paid social teams. This content, especially when it feels organic, is exceptionally well performance.
We also have more than $ 1 million to income directly bound to influencing marketing from surveys after purchasing. If you want to see the results, but you have to invest six to twelve months. The influence of marketing is not a short -term game.
Associated links can still work, especially on Instagram stories where Direct-Réspons works better. Stories, however, have a limited reach. Instagram or tiktoks reels are better for permanent content and virality. This is where you can see length durability and organic growth.
Bandholz: Can it gift products to creators to work for items with a lower price?
Durham: Definitely. We have a world with many low prices such as descriptions. They already have considerable capital of the brand, which helps, but the point is to have a differentiated and desirable product.
If your product feels general – for example, another humidifier – the creators will not be enthusiastic about publishing contributions. But if it’s new, beautifully packed or has a great story, it will drive optics and content. The product that excels will generate more posts, views and traction. We can still pay influential persons (versus free products), but after thorough testing.
Bandholz: What size influencing the audience do you usually work?
Durham: We usually focus on creators with 10,000 to 100,000 followers for donation. We like to test the range – a smaller audience (10,000 to 20,000 followers) are often very hurch.
For men -focused brands, the use of creators with engaged male audiences such as girlfriends or husbands shopping for their partners can be effective. There are fewer quality men’s creators and are expensive. It is a testing of various audience segments, increasing the value of the product in the gift package and adjusting outputs or creative rights to improve opt-in and send rats.
Bandholz: Do you take smaller brands as customers?
Durham: Yes. For brands below $ 10 million annual income, it is often smart to operate affecting programs internally. So we created a training product based on internal processes. We use it to train their team – social media managers, influencing potential customers and even virtual assistants.
We provide our standard operational procedures, create our own strategy and support their team by calling Slack and Strategy. The goal is to help them give 100 creators in 90 days. This creates an organic reach and library of content that they can use in advertising on social media. It is a cost -effective way to a full agency without hiring.
Bandholz: Who is the ideal person for managing an internal affecting program?
Durham: Someone who understands the creation of social media and content – usually in a social or creative team that can manage abroad, talents and relationships. The person must be organized and able to communicate effectively with the creators.
The operation of the affecting program is not only overseas – it is building relationships, monitoring content, negotiations for use and reporting rights. But with the right system and support, a small internal team can run a robust program that controls real results.
Bandholz: Where can people connect with you?
Durham: Alignedgrowthmancement.com, or shoot me a direct message to x – @joshjdurham.