How to win at Influencer & Affiliate Marketing in 2025: With Rachel (Canopy) and Sarah (Superfiliate)

This is a modified transcript of a live Q&A discussion between Tim (Storetasker), Rachel (Canopy) and Sarah (Superfiliate) found here on Youtube. 

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For context:

Tim: CMO at Storetasker: A talent marketplace to find eCom talent

Sarah: Head of Creator Strategy at Superfiliate: End-to-End affiliate marketing SaaS

Rachel: Influencer Marketing at Canopy

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Tim: Let’s begin with sharing the story of how you (Rachel) and Sarah know each other, because it seems like you've worked together for quite a while, right?

Sarah: Rachel and I both started on the brand side of influencer marketing. We both had really similar roles. I was at Aloha Collection, Rachel was at Liquid IV. 

We were then both recruited to lead on strategy at influencer marketing SaaS firm where we met. 

As we both left, I stayed in the software space (Superfiliate) and Rachel went back to brand space (Canopy). 

Sarah: What is one of the most important qualities you need to look for in an affiliate / influencer marketer? 

Rachel: Flexibility is huge. I would also say there is a customer service aspect. I work really closely with my team and our influencers / affiliates on what they're thinking about the product, what's working for them, what do they wanna see, and would they like to work with us. 

I'm always wanting to hear what they like. I think really leaning in that influencers know their audience better than anyone else. and being that flexible source and being able to pivot and say, ‘okay, why is this not hitting the way I thought it was? And how can we pivot our strategy?’

Tim: Rachel - If you're a founder of a DTC brand, what would be the steps to build an influencer strategy from scratch? 

Rachel: If you're a founder, You have to be strategic. Let's say you have 3-5 hours a week to dedicate. 

I would take the opposite approach and see who is reaching out to you as your brand. Check your emails to see who is emailing about any events they want donations to. Look at your Instagram DM to see if anyone has slid into the dms.

Also, if you haven't started your brand yet as a founder, I would reach out to maybe 1-5 people that you follow, that you really admire and like, and send a really personalized, authentic email like: “Hey, I've been following you since X amount of days. This is what I love, about your content. Would love to send you our early product to test and try”

I don't always think it's about scale at the beginning. tapping into those few influencers and seeing what works is gonna be hugely instrumental.

Also knowing that you're gonna get ghosted 90% of the time, especially if you start reaching out to larger creators.

Sarah: Yeah and what’s a solid number of affiliates for when you're running an influencer program for Canopy?

Rachel: It's really easy to say ‘I want thousands and thousands’, but it's just not feasible. It really does take time, energy, resources and manpower. 

I think you can start off with 50 - 100. You can really analyze that data.

That will already take quite a bit of manual work. I would say you probably have to reach closer to 200-300 if you're wanting to get that 100 influencer mark. 

But I think that number will allow you to really look and see, okay, what type of influencer is working?

Is it the mommy blogger? Is it the male athlete who's really into Nike running shoes? Is it the foodie who maybe talks about lifestyle?

Having the data to show that is really gonna help. And that's where Superfiliate comes in, where you can look at and see link clicks, where are they sharing their link? What type of content are they talking about? How are they connecting? Etc

Tim: I imagine as a brand owner, you can be quite disappointed if you've spent a lot of time and effort finding these individuals, you've gifted your product and there's no clear direction that you're giving the influencers on what to do once they receive it.

Tell me about those contract structures; do you give guidance to the influencers that you work with about what you expect in return?

Rachel: Yeah, that's a great question. For a gifting program, I think it's realistic to say 50% of people are not gonna post at all. 

You can say, ‘I'm only sending you this product if you post’, but that's probably gonna turn them off. 

I'm not so concerned about that. I'd rather spend my time and energy on people that are excited about the brand. 

Again, when you're gifting, I go about it with saying there are zero posting requirements. I focus on having, someone try the product out and see what their experience is like. 

And then it's on me as the brand to follow up and say:

‘okay, are you interested in affiliate?’

‘This is what we can offer in terms of a commission structure’

‘if you decide to post, we can send you additional products’

‘Are you interested in being featured in our Instagram?’

‘ Do you want X, Y and Z? Can I support your baby shower?’

Sarah, I know you also probably have some thoughts on this. 

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Sarah: I have a lot of thoughts. But I tend to agree with you. So I feel like I can just sit back and nod, which is awesome.

But I'm curious because you're talking about how there are some things you can do on your end as the brand to make this work, potentially gamification or building community. 

What are the solid foundations that you use at Canopy for that?

Rachel: Yeah, I really try to be a human at the end of the day. I think having someone know that I'm Rachel on the other side, and I try to make my emails very personal. 

Something I do is sending monthly newsletters to my influencers where I intro a different Canopy team member so the influencers get to know the team, where they live, what their role is, and how they can support the influencers. 

You have to think influencers are probably getting pitched 100+ brands a week. So how can I capture their attention? 

So there's no real action from these newsletters. But it helps plant the seeds that Canopy is a brand that cares and that I truly want to create this community. I wanna know about their lives. I wanna connect with them. 

Tim: Tell me about this CRM side of things because it's gotta be quite overwhelming. How do you keep track of all these different influencer interactions?

Rachel: Yeah, that's a great question. 

There’s a lot of tech tools out there help with this. We use Superfiliate, which has social listening tracking. We also use a tool called Archive. We have a Tracker called Polar, which allows us to find all that data. So I think having the right tech really does help, and time management.

Looking at the content is honestly the most beneficial thing. I'm looking at tagged photos every single day, 4-5 times a day. 

On Monday, I actually share all tagged photos with our marketing team. We go over them. So when someone posts on over the weekend that was excited and said ‘Hey, I wanted to try the shower head’. Like, that's an opportunity for me to slide into email, send the product as I already have their address.

You have to have time to review the content, because there's so so much value there. And then also it's a little bit of gut instinct. 

Someone with 200,000 followers may take 3-4 products before you're actually getting a post out of it.

So you can setup calendar reminders, for example. I know Superfiliate has some really awesome automations in the dms. I think a lot of influencers live in the dms, not necessarily email. So having the right tech helps. 

Sarah: How many resources do you need to make affiliate a viable channel? Are you a team of one right now?

Rachel: I'm a team of two. Amy's actually on the webinar in attendance right now. 

Sarah: So can you talk a little bit about what made you feel like you needed to bring someone like Amy in? Or when do you feel like your team should expand?

Rachel: Yeah, that's a great question. I think there becomes a point when you almost tap out of reaching out to new influencers and invest additional time in  managing current influencers. It really becomes almost like a time management piece. 

Sarah: Yeah, that was great because I think a lot of companies still struggle to justify putting 40 hours a week into it. But then we (Superfiliate) get on calls with influencer / affiliate teams that are 7+ a lot of times. 

Tim: Rachel - I want to pick your brain on influencer versus affiliate.

We talked about gifting to folks who you think represent the brand quite well and you give them a product and they're gonna post about it. 

But then you did mention in some cases you might say “Hey listen, want to join our affiliate program?”

I want to know more about the affiliate side of things. How does it all work at Canopy?

Rachel: Great question. I think the terminology is a little gray, but I think affiliate in the truest sense is getting that kickback commission. 

So at Canopy the two programs (influencer and affiliate) are quite similar. 

In our affiliate model, I would still say there's still an influencer component. There's still that gifting, there's still that relationship building.

I think some influencers naturally have Amazon creator storefronts. They have their target creator storefront, they have their ‘link in bio’ and there are true affiliates out there that love sharing that way. 

Whereas maybe some influencers wanna integrate more naturally. If they're IG influencers and they're doing IG reels, they're not necessarily gonna be tagging and linking a CTA drive to purchase a product. 

There's also customer referral programs often called affiliate programs as well.

Tim: And is this affiliate program something you promote? 

Rachel: We promote it. It's on our website footer. I bring it up quite frequently via email.

I would be shocked if a brand doesn't have an affiliate program, if they're doing any sort of social media. It's almost like you have to be doing one. There's a lot of different tools out there. Superfiliate makes it really easy for any affiliate or influencer to just sign up.

I think what's great is there's really no downside to affiliate. Someone driving sessions and clicks towards your website, like what could be better?

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Tim: Sarah, on the Superfiliate side, you've seen lots of brands, be quite successful on the affiliate marketing side of things? Have there been brands that have just totally changed the trajectory of their growth purely via affiliate?

Sarah: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I have, we talk to brands where 20% of their revenue is driven just from influencer, which is a massive channel.

I can talk with really small teams of 10, but 3 of them are on influencer marketing because that is one of their sole channels.

I don't recommend it as a sole channel. I do think it's part of this greater 360 marketing where you need other acquisition channels. Influencer is much more of the top of funnel, and affiliate is kind of between top and bottom of funnel, because you are looking for that last click attribution. 

But yeah, it is actually been crazy to see some of the growth of different brands over my time at Superfiliate.  

From the crowd: Is it ‘faux pas’ to talk about general commission rates to influencers? 

Rachel: No, I think you should definitely be upfront and let them know what your commission rates are. Generally commission rates tend to be between 10% to 20%.

Sarah: Yeah, and we see a lot of programs too that will also outwardly say “Hey, once you reach this sales goal, your commission bumps up from 10% to 15%.”

But please keep your AOV in mind. If you have, you know, like a $40, $45 AOV and you're offering a 10% commission, that is not very enticing if you think about what that is per order. Whereas I've also worked with furniture companies whose AOV is +$1,000 that we can bring commission down to 2- 5% range. 

Tim: Rachel, last question: How is influencer marketing evolving in 2025? 

Rachel: I'm really excited about YouTube. That's one of the channels I'm really excited about into 2025, 2026. And being, being open because things can change on the dime. Trends die within 24 hours. 

Sarah, do you have a hot take for influencer marketing 2025?

Sarah: One of the things I've been talking with my team about is “relatability”. Especially in this current economic context. 

I think there's two sides to it. We have a side of Becca Bloom. She's a ultra rich creator. But she is almost offering this sort of escapism aspect. And then you have other creators that are just kind of like overtly displaying their wealth where it's not rubbing some people the right way.

So I think relatability, and influencer is still down to the comment section. Like, as much as AI tools are helping this industry a lot, I think there's so much that can be learned still in 2025 from just scrolling through comments before you book talent.

Tim: Awesome. Thanks both, this was awesome.

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