A decade ago, the influencer marketing industry was limited to superstars and a few committed bloggers. Social media influencers have emerged to dominate the market. And, while their audiences may vary in size, these influencers deliver a punch. Their close-knit communities encourage genuine interactions, which leads to increased trust and participation. However, working with digital producers and influencers is a more polished process for marketers. And we’ve got a guide for making sense of it all. Continue reading for advice on developing an effective influencer marketing strategy, avoiding common pitfalls, and more.
Influencer marketing: what is it?
Influencers have many social media followers and are recognized as authorities in their field. Influencers are the people who advocate products and mention them on social media. This is the essence of influencer marketing.
Types of influencers: range and reach
Some social media stars have big, diverse followers including people from many age groups. Others say their groups are smaller, but more targeted and active. To choose the right influencers for your brand, you know what each type can offer in reach, range, cost, and connection. For a more in-depth look at the different types of influencers:
Mega or famous influencers
These influencers have over a million followers and frequently include well-known actors, musicians, athletes, and other prominent celebrities. Their celebrity status enables them to engage a broad audience, making them suitable for large-scale brand awareness initiatives. Think about Cristiano Ronaldo. Mega influencers offer unparalleled brand exposure, but collaborating with them can come with a hefty price tag. Furthermore, while their audience is generally large, their engagement rates may be lower than influencers with smaller, more niche followings.
Here are several firms that could profit from collaborating with big influencers.
- Large corporations with the budget and resources
- Brands aimed at a broad audience with diverse features
- Luxury or high-end brands seeking to create a sense of exclusivity
Macro-influencers
Macro-influencers are well-known figures in their respective niches, with followings ranging from 100,000 to one million. These influencers have built their reputation through constant content creation and engagement over time, and they are now considered thought leaders in their field. Macro-influencers provide a more tailored approach than superstars because their followers typically share similar interests. Collaboration with macro-influencers can increase your brand’s reach, but it can be expensive depending on your budget.
Here are some instances of brands that could collaborate with macro-influencers:
- Startups want rapid visibility, development, and credibility (for example, Canva).
- Nonprofit organizations seeking to raise finances and exposure.
- Hotels and airlines are targeting a specialized but large clientele.
Micro-influencers
The next big thing in influencer marketing is micro-influencers, who have 10,000 to 100,000 very active fans. These stars usually have a lot of followers on certain sites, like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Marketers love working with micro-influencers because their creative content, relatable advice, and real interactions can hook a niche, passionate audience. Plus, they’re less expensive than bigger leaders. That doesn’t mean they don’t work, though. Studies show that micro-influencers can get 60% more people to interact with them than macro-influencers, and they can also help your brand get 20% more sales.
Nano-influencers
People who have fewer than 10,000 friends are known as nano-influencers. However, these leaders frequently form great ties with their followers because the stuff they share is personal, and they genuinely communicate with them. Nano-influencers have the smallest reach, but they can be great partners for companies that want to reach specific groups of people without spending a lot of money. In 2023, more brands want to work with nano-influencers, which makes sense:
A bar chart that shows which brands influencers like best. 39% of brands are likely to use nano-influencers, but only 12% are likely to use mega- or famous influencers. Nano-influencers also work on a small scale, which means they can spend more time and energy on one-on-one relationships. This entails creating content that aligns better with your business and engaging with individuals within specific niche communities to build relationships.
- Local companies that focus on certain towns, cities, or regions
- Small businesses with limited budgets seek to conduct cost-effective campaigns.
- Craftsmen, home-based companies, and specialty food shops sell unique items to specific people.
Influencer marketing: Why use it?
With 56% of millennials buying products after seeing a post from a user they follow, influencer marketing has the potential to be a very effective marketing strategy for your company.
Influencer Marketing Hub estimates: that the sector will generate $16.4 billion by 2022. By 2023, this amount should have increased to $21.1 billion. The market for influencer marketing was valued at just $1.7 billion in 2016; by 2023, it had grown to $21.1 billion. The report delves into the sentiments of marketers on influencer partnerships in the upcoming year. 83% of respondents said influencer marketing was a successful marketing strategy. Additionally, 67% of marketers said in the research that they plan to raise their budgets in 2023.
Avoid these blunders in influencer marketing
Effective influencer marketing can yield substantial benefits. Avoid these possible traps to guarantee harmonious influencer partnerships and fruitful campaign results.
Not establishing specific objectives and KPIs
Prioritize your goals and understand why you are doing this in the first place. When working with an influencer, it’s important to be clear about the objectives of your campaign.
Here are some ways that preparing ahead of time can benefit you:
- Select the appropriate influencers: Having clear goals makes it easier to pinpoint the precise traits and attributes that an influencer must possess to assist you in reaching your objectives. For instance, you can locate influencers with a significant following if your goal is to raise brand awareness.
- Define and quantify success: According to you, what constitutes success? Is it the quantity of traffic to your website, the number of impressions, or the post engagement? Choose the KPIs and data you want to monitor throughout and after the campaign to gauge the success of your influencer marketing effort.
- Make influencers answerable: Influencers feel more accountable when clear expectations and performance standards are set. They will focus on creating content that aligns with those goals because they understand the specific results they achieve.
Putting the number of followers above the engagement
High involvement isn’t always correlated with a large following. An influencer may have millions of inactive followers, yet their interaction may be low. Rather, collaborating with influencers who have a devoted and active following. Having thousands of disengaged followers who probably won’t become customers isn’t as valuable for your brand as having a few reliable influencers. To determine the influencer’s degree of likeability and influence, you can examine their engagement metrics, comments, and interactions in addition to previous outcomes for other businesses.
Failing to investigate the influencer
Selecting the incorrect influencers can be expensive and time-consuming for your company. And it occurs more frequently than you might imagine. Studies reveal that 72% of companies manage influencer initiatives internally due to concerns about phony influencers and subpar outcomes.
Completing your homework before entering a partnership is a simple solution. Ensure influencers align with your goals and accentuate the essence of your brand by screening them and assessing their influencer media kit. When looking for influencers to work with for your brand, consider the following important areas:
- Audience demographics: To ensure your campaign reaches the right audience, examine the influencer’s following. Examine age, gender, geography, and interests (Millennials who identify as women, for example) to ascertain the likelihood that they will become your clients.
- Speech, substance, and interactions: Examine the influencer’s content creation process, tone of voice, and engagement rate. For instance, it might not be the ideal idea to collaborate with an influencer whose content is recognized for being formal and business-oriented if your company has a lighthearted, informal aesthetic.
- Authenticity and influence: Your campaign and brand image may suffer from forced collaborations, which come across as dishonest. Work together with influencers who sincerely adore your products and company. You don’t want your brand to overshadow their (and your own) credibility because their followers follow them because they have reason to believe them.
- Knowledge of sponsored content: Has the influencer previously collaborated with other brands? Have they ever collaborated with any of your rivals? Examine their material closely to identify any warning signs and determine the value they can offer.
Five steps to developing an influencer marketing plan
In addition to Instagram, influencer marketing is widely recognized, with many other platforms now emerging as attractive options for influencers. There are influencers on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat who cater to distinct niches.
Here are some pointers for developing influencer marketing strategies that work.
● Identify influencers and understand their payment structure.
As with any approach, the first step is to conduct research. Choose the platform you wish to concentrate on first. Ideally, your brand should already have a presence on this network or intend to expand into it. If you’re not sure where to start, social listening may help you determine where people are discussing your sector and brand—as well as the most powerful voices on each site.
When implementing an influencer marketing approach, it’s also important to consider your sector. Beauty and fashion firms excel on Instagram and YouTube. The video gaming business dominates Twitch. During the research step, consider the types of influencers you’re interested in. Are you looking for celebs with huge followings? Or micro-influencers with less than 2,000 followers? Perhaps anything in the 5-10,000 follower area is more to your liking. The type of influencer you choose to focus on will determine your spending. Compensation varies greatly, so look for typical prices for those influencer kinds. Nano-influencers typically focus on a few topics and take products as money. Larger accounts and celebrities will require remuneration and may even go through a talent agency.
Consider the projected ROI of your social influencer marketing campaign: how will you measure the impact of influencer postings on your overall marketing objectives? For example, compare your expectations for influencers to those of other firms; consider how you may spend for a video production firm’s efforts in making an ad for you versus an influencer creating a video.
● Develop a budget and management strategy.
Now that you’ve learned about the various influencer pay rates, you’ll need to build your budget. Make sure you provide time for developing, executing, and assessing your influencer program. Running a successful influencer marketing campaign is not a set-and-forget method. It will require thorough monitoring and follow-up.
Influencers, unlike more automated ad strategies, are humans who frequently manage many partnerships. Some may fail to meet their posting deadlines or make errors in the tags or calls to action you want. To create these relationships, you’ll need to be more hands-on and learn from experience what works and what doesn’t in your area.
● Determine marketing goals and messaging
The two most typical motives for implementing influencer marketing are to raise brand awareness and sales. However, rather than setting these broad ambitions as your two goals, it is more productive to begin your approach by focusing on what your brand’s demands are. Perhaps you wish to expand your customer base into a younger generation. Alternatively, you may want to target a new user segment with a new product. Or you want to avoid trends and instead use influencers to promote your brand’s beliefs.
● Set up influencer outreach: How to engage influencers
Return to step one: research. With a plan in place based on your network, goals, and the types of influencers you want to target, we can focus on investigating how to identify the perfect influencers to collaborate with.
During this investigation, keep in mind the following:
- Is the influencer already posting about topics similar to your service? For example, if you’re a restaurant seeking to promote a new menu, look for influencers who consistently post about their dining experiences and the cuisine they eat.
- Are they legitimate? This involves scrolling through their feed and clicking on posts. A low interaction ratio to follower count, as well as spam-like comments, indicate the presence of a false account or followers.
- Have they already worked with similar brands? Depending on the type of influencer you’re searching for, a seasoned one will be able to present you with a press kit with a portfolio of work. The more you invest in an influencer, the more you’ll want to screen them.
- You may also utilize social media analytics tools to find potential influencers across many platforms.
● Review and improve your plan
Even if your influencer marketing campaign is continuing, you should set predetermined milestones for measuring progress. The following section of this guide will go over how to track your outcomes. Not all campaigns are successful, but hopefully, you will learn from each one you build.
Grow your business using influencer marketing
Once you’ve established your plan, you can begin testing campaigns and generating business results. An effective strategy will assist you in developing meaningful relationships with your target audience on their preferred channels and with trusted, powerful individuals. While influencer marketing is here to stay, the most effective methods and tactics are continuously evolving. As the industry evolves, brands must develop a strong strategy that catches the attention of their existing audience while also scaling for future growth. Are you ready to get started with your influencer marketing strategy? Schedule a free demo of Influence today.