The popularity of influencer marketing goes hand-in-hand with the rising popularity of social media. It is not something older generations are that familiar with. However, many millennials and Gen Xers dream of becoming an influencer.
International brands, such as Marriott and Microsoft, already realized the massive power of influencer marketing and launched a few influencer campaigns.
Would you like to try one yourself? You are in the right place. In this post, we are learning about influencer marketing and what it takes to make a good campaign.
What Is Influencer Marketing and Why Is It So Powerful?
Influencer marketing is a modern and highly proficient approach to promotion. It is one of the strongest methods to build your web presence.
The term influencer marketing refers to delegating the promotion of your products/services to social media influencers. From the perspective of marketing, influencers are individuals whose popularity and online reputation can affect the buying decisions of their audience.
The true power of influencer marketing lies in the fact that people can’t try out products they buy online. So, if the purchase is important to them, they will look out for recommendations and opinions.
And this is where influencers step in. Influencers usually own blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, or social media accounts. They use these various channels to share valuable insights about particular topics of interest and interact with their audience. The trick is in the fact that they know their audience very well, and enjoy a great deal of trust among their readers/listeners/followers.
So, influencers are perfect brand advocates, especially if your target audience is younger generations. Around 70% of teenagers and 40% of millennials tend to trust influencers more than celebrities or advertising. Also, women tend to trust influencers more than men.
Influencer marketing is a very creative and diverse form of advertising. It comes in many forms:
- Unboxing and reviews
- Guest-blogs
- Brand ambassador programs
- Social media takeover
- Sponsor posts
- Affiliate marketing
- and more.
How Effective Is Influencer Marketing?
Now, how cost-effective is influencer marketing? On average, for each dollar invested in this form of advertising, you can expect $5.78 to return to you in the form of increased sales. That is a very good-looking ROI.
To make influencer marketing even more powerful, some businesses combine it with other forms of promotion. When joined with email marketing, webinars, and ebooks, influencer marketing makes a winning combo.
How to Build Trust Through Influencer Marketing
Like any other marketing campaign, having a successful influencer campaign requires planning. Here is what needs to be done.
1. Be Detailed About Your Goals
The first question you need to answer is: what do you want to achieve?
Do you want to raise brand awareness, boost customer loyalty, and build credibility among your leads? Or, are you more concerned with increasing sales? Alternatively, you might need to drive traffic towards your existing content.
Of course, you can have multiple goals as well. Whichever goals you choose, make sure to define them as precisely as possible. Do your best to translate your intentions into measurable KPIs. Use as many numerical and time-based parameters.
A detailed definition of goals is vital for tracking the success of your influencer marketing campaign.
2. Know Your Audience Inside Out
Once you know what you want to do, the next step is to know who you are addressing.
Who are the people that are currently interested in your product/services? Segmentation or grouping your audience is essential for successful targeting later on. This includes:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Interests
- Budget
- Education
- Preferred channels of communication, etc.
On the other hand, who are the people that might be interested, but you’ve been missing them out in the past?
In order to define your audience, you will have to tap into internal and external data.
3. Formulate an Effective Brand Personality
Along with boosting sales, influencer marketing is extremely helpful with brand building.
And the reason why brand building is so important is obvious: it makes you stand out from the competition.
Setting a brand messaging architecture means defining the following:
- The promise to your target audience
- Who you are
- Values you stand for
- A couple of unique key ideas and messages you’re advocating, supported by proof points
Of course, before you can formulate a unique brand personality, you need to know your competitors well. You will need to do thorough keyword research, and use an SEO research tool to get strategic insights into your organic search competition.
4. Find the Right Influencers
When choosing influencers, you need to make sure they bring maximum reach, credibility, and audience attention. The most important and complex task of every influencer marketing strategy is finding the right influencers.
Luckily, you don’t have to browse Instagram and TikTok all by yourself. There are online databases you can use, such as TapInfluence.
However, the most reliable and effective way to look for suitable influencers is entrusting the job to agencies specialized in influencer marketing. For example, The Influence Agency has years of experience in connecting brands with suitable social media influencers, based on the products and brands they already use and enjoy.
5. Reach Out to Influencers
In order to make a mutually beneficial influencer partnership, you need to know how to approach influencers.
Remember that they are just common people. As such, they don’t like boring and generic content. Therefore, your outreach strategy should aim for short, to the point, and engaging content.
When contacting a potential influencer partner, you should give them the following information:
- The exact type of collaboration you are expecting (affiliate links, promotional codes…)
- What content you would want them to share
- Your brand voice and guidelines
- Particular products/services you want them to promote
- Administrative practicalities
Remember to keep a good balance between instructing your influencers and letting them be creative. They know their audience very well. So, they will know what to do when you provide them with the information they need.
Also, provide them with tools that will make their promotional job easier, such as product and packaging samples, your logo, and product photography. Remember that most influencers will want to use their own video and photos for most of what they promote, but if you have specifically shot product photos for Instagram, etc., make sure they’re available for use by influencers.
Try to keep influencers engaged, be helpful, and understanding. They will do the best job if they actually enjoy working with you. Also, keep in touch with them during and after the campaign. You want to regularly update them on the progress they are making and how satisfied you are with their work.
6. Loyal Customers Are Your Mini-Influencers
Don’t forget that regular users also have the power to make a difference. In the beginning, every influencer was just another social media user.
Reaching out to your most loyal customers and asking them to promote your brand on their social media accounts has multifold benefits.
First of all, it awards your best customers and makes them feel valued and recognized. Secondly, it shows that you are a brand that deeply cares about its leads. Finally, it boosts your reach in the micro-communities (families and friends).
Turning your loyal customers into mini-influencers can be a cost-effective alternative or a convenient complement to your professional influencer marketing campaign.
7. Track Your Progress
Once the influencer campaign is launched, you should focus on collecting and analyzing data. The more data on social media engagement and sales, the better.
Comparing the real results of the campaign with the goals and milestones you defined at the beginning will enable you to calculate the total ROI of the campaign. Also, it will help you evaluate the overall success.
Finally, don’t be afraid of failure. They are great opportunities to learn and become better next time.
When Is Your Next Influencer Marketing Campaign Starting?
At its essence, influencer marketing is a form of successful social media marketing. However, the difference is that influencer marketing is a form of indirect communication between brands and their customers. Influencers are third parties, mediators between the product and the audience.
In order to fully benefit from the powers of influencer marketing, you will need to carefully plan your campaign in the first place. Later on, perhaps the most important step is to find suitable influencers. Building a mutually respectful and trusting relationship with your influencers is probably the best way to thrive from influencer marketing.