This post was originally published on November 2, 2021, and updated on April 22, 2023.
Information in this blog post was obtained from Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Engaio Digital.
Picture this. You’re on Instagram just like you are every day when you see the cutest sweater on an influencer you love. You hop on over to their stories and see a full review of that sweater including the price, fit, brand, and a direct link taking you to the website where the sweater is being sold. You continue to engage with that influencer month after month and repeatedly see them promoting clothing items you like. Just like that, a brand you have never heard of has quickly become one you order from often. This resulted from all the power of an influencer.
What is Influencer Marketing?
In the simplest terms, an influencer is someone that can influence people. That person will collaborate with a brand and help promote them and their products or services. These individuals will have a dedicated following base that engages and interacts with their content regularly. According to Hootsuite, more than two-thirds of U.S. marketers will use some form of influencer marketing this year and that is expected to increase to almost three-fourths of marketers by 2022. The number of brands using influencers to help promote has increased dramatically, and there’s a reason why.
Benefits of Influencer Marketing
There is a multitude of reasons why a brand should be active in influencer marketing but briefly touching on these three will give you a greater understanding of the possible opportunities present. An influencer will help:
Increase brand awareness and reach
Build credibility and trust
Drive purchase decisions
Increase brand awareness and reach
Most influencers will have a wide reach in the number of people viewing their content. Brands today don’t necessarily promote like crazy, but instead, they’ve found that a more sophisticated approach with influencers allows them to easily combine brand campaigns into their style and expression. Influencer marketing can help your brand gain more visibility when an influencer recommends your products and services on their profiles. This extends your scope but also increases your brand awareness.
Build credibility and trust
A key factor in influencer marketing is that an influencer makes the advertising activities more engaging and genuine for the target audience. When individuals are bombarded with thousands of advertisements every day, you want your product or service to be the one that stands out. You strive to build a genuine relationship with your brand and audience. Influencers are a way of making that happen.
Drive purchase decisions
Influencers drive the customer’s purchase decision-making process because people trust and respect certain influencers. This gives the customer a positive feeling towards your brand and creates the internal feeling to submit purchases. It has even been recorded that 49% of people reported that they have made purchase decisions based on an influencer’s referral. Read more about this on Engaio Digital.
Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy
Influencers will continue to exist, but the face and workings of the influencer marketing world have changed dramatically in a short period of time and may look very different in five years than they do today. This guide will help you begin to build your strategy, but like any social strategy, it's important to be prepared for change.
Developing a marketing strategy
Using your influencers is a crucial step in the process and it is the first thing that needs to be done. Just like in many things, you should begin with research. Your brand needs to decide what social media platform to begin with and already have some type of presence on it. Look deeper into the size of influencer you want, and consider the pay that will be associated with that specific type of influencer.
Set a budget
Once you have some idea of what you want to do in your influencer marketing strategy, you will next need to set a budget. The budget chosen should best reflect the needs of your brand. There will be times when you may have to alter things here and there. It is not a set-in-stone strategy and it will involve tweaking and close monitoring to develop the most success possible.
Deciding on goals and the message
Next up in your marketing strategy is deciding on goals and the message you want to display to your audience. An influencer is there to bring brand awareness and drive purchases for your brand. However, it’s important to dial in on the goal of your brand and what you want to accomplish. You want to provide a message to your audience that they can relate to and that they see as a genuine act. As discussed on Sprout Social, your message is just as important as your goal. What you don’t want to do is restrict your influencer’s creativity, but you have to make sure they are also sharing content related to your campaign.
Reaching out to influencers & fit your brand best
The final steps include reaching out to influencers you believe are going to fit your brand best, and reviewing and refining your strategy. There are a few key factors to look at when deciding on an influencer for your brand. Look at the content they are currently posting and see if it’s similar to what you would use them for. In addition to that, look to see if they’ve worked with brands similar to yours. Lastly, ask yourself if they’re the real deal. The whole point of bringing an influencer to your brand is for their help, not to harm you in any way. When these steps have all been completed, the last thing to do is go over some final reviews and complete all refinement necessary.
Types of Influencers
Deciding on the right influencer for your brand can be hard. Luckily, there are a variety of options when it comes to how big of an influencer you want to bring to your team, and the budget you will be able to use on them. The types of influencers are:
Nano-influencers- 10,000 followers or fewer
Micro-influencers- 10,000 to 100,000 followers
Macro-influencers- 100,000 to 1 million followers
Mega-influencers- 1 million+ follower
Pricing varies across different platforms and the size of influencers you decide to work with. The size of your brand will play a factor in your partnership as well. According to Hootsuite, for many brands, influencers with a smaller and more dedicated or niche follower base might be more effective. Those with 15,000 followers oftentimes have some of the highest engagement rates on all platforms. As shown, influencers could be a great addition to your brand, but it’s important to take the time and necessary actions to decide what your campaign strategy is, and who will fit in best with the message you want to display to your audience.
Resources
Chen, J. (2020, September 17). What is influencer marketing: How to develop your strategy. Sprout Social. Retrieved October 28, 2021, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/influencer-marketing/
Newberry, C. (2021, August 10). Influencer marketing in 2021: How to work with social media influencers. Influencer Marketing Guide: How to Work with Social Media Influencers. Retrieved October 28, 2021, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/influencer-marketing/
What are influencer marketing and its benefits? Engage Digital. (2020, August 12). Retrieved October 28, 2021, from https://engaiodigital.com/influencer-marketing/
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