What comes to mind when you hear the term “influencer marketing”? For many business owners, it’s synonymous with big names and wild campaigns. Pro-athletes and superstars may come to mind.
But these high-priced names are just the tip of the iceberg. Influencer marketing is here to stay, and there are many ways you can easily bring it into your company for maximum exposure.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
An influencer is someone who can influence a decision. By talking about a product or service, they influence another’s opinion enough to move them to take action.
In its simplest form, we’re all influencers. Have you ever raved about a new restaurant in your neighborhood? If family and friends listen to you and try it too, you’ve influenced their decisions on where to go for dinner.
That’s the sweet spot for influencer marketing. It’s about finding people with enough traction in your particular field or specialty who can help you grow your business simply by talking about what you do. According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s “Benchmark Report,” influencer marketing is on track to be worth $24 billion by the end of 2024.
Influencers utilize social media platforms where they can best reach their individual audiences to share about a brand or service that resonates with them while encouraging their community of followers to try it for themselves. While just a couple of years ago Instagram was favored by influencers, TikTok is the new number one, with 69 percent of the market. The savvy influencer understands success is about more than just choosing the most popular channel, however. Instead, it’s vital to know the audience they’re speaking to and meet them where they’re at. This can make influencers a great partner for any business with a similar target market.
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Defining Different Levels of Influencers
Influencer marketing is more than partnering with a big-name celebrity or a trending TikTok sensation with a huge following to tout your wares. A smaller, more dedicated niche can be very effective in finding new traffic sources. The cost will also be much lower.
Before you begin, it’s important to understand audience size and their potential.
- Nano-influencers: fewer than 10,000 followers—but many have raving fans who listen to their every word.
- Micro-influencers: 10,000 to 100,000 followers
- Macro-influencer: 100,000 to 1 million followers
- Mega-influencers: more than 1 million followers
Don’t be dazzled by the numbers. It may seem like a larger audience will reap more rewards. That’s not always the case. Working with smaller influencers can oftentimes insight and exposure you could never get with a busier platform. Smaller influencers have a major advantage over their counterparts with larger followings—engagement. Influencers with small followings don’t just have fans, they have community, and that community is more likely to engage with the influencer’s content simply because of the connection they have with the influencer as a result of their authenticity. And that can make a massive difference to your bottom line.
How Do You Build an Influencer Marketing Strategy?
Like any marketing campaign, the way to succeed is to build your strategy first. If you understand your target market and your goals, you’re much more likely to find success.
Set Your Goals
The desired outcome is to reach more people and convert them into sales with every marketing goal you create. That doesn’t change with influencer marketing. But it is important to note that part of the process may be to build a more robust funnel that gives new people a chance to learn more about you before they complete the sale.
An influencer’s job is to introduce new prospects into your sales funnel. They can talk about a product, share why they like it, and show it being used. They can push someone over to your profile to learn more about what you do. But without a strategy from that point forward, you can lose them. Setting your goals early can help you look at your entire campaign and build the pieces accordingly.
Know Your Target Well
While an influencer may look good on paper, do they truly have access to people who want to do business with you? Are they aligned with your target demographic’s generation, and can they speak to a specific need that your brand can fulfill? This starts by fully defining your customer avatar and understanding why they do business with you. The more you get into the mindset of your clients, the easier it is to locate them through social media. It’s also easier to create the campaign that influencer marketing will ultimately be a part of.
Understand the Influencer Process
It may seem easy to find someone on Instagram, for example, and assume they would be a perfect fit for you. You enjoy what they post. They have similar personalities. They sell things related to what you do.
But trying to optimize that relationship without thoroughly understanding influencer marketing campaigns can leave you at a disadvantage. The FTC has specific guidelines to ensure agreements with influencers are met. That changes from country to country.
Do Your Research
This can be one of the most challenging parts of the entire process. While you may have a general understanding of accounts that target complementary audiences, are you sure they’re best? Have you performed adequate research to ensure you have the best?
That’s where it helps to work with a digital marketing company well-versed in influencer marketing. Our Social Influencer team has years of experience and a proven track record of success, and we can help connect your brand with a variety of influencers to elevate your marketing strategy. We have the strategies to find the perfect target accounts with the right audience. With these accounts in place, you can determine how wide you choose to cast your net. You can start small and test the waters while improving your campaigns as you grow.
Measure Your Results
It’s easy to be excited as you launch a new campaign. But you need to ask if it is producing results. The only way to find out is to track it. This is where it pays to understand what your goals are. Likes and comments may be exciting, but what is your true return on investment? What does the conversion process look like?
If you’re using multiple influencers, it’s important to treat every campaign separately so you can fully understand what each one brings in. This can help you decide which influencers to continue using and how you can change your campaigns for better results.
Is Influencer Marketing Right for You?
Whether you’ve used influencer marketing in the past or it’s a brand new concept you’re ready to try, it starts with a conversation about how this can help your bottom line.
What questions do you have? What can we answer for you? We look forward to helping you create an effective influencer marketing campaign to achieve your marketing goals.
