Benjamin.M.V.
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According to a study conducted by Tomoson, businesses make $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. In the same study, 51% of marketers believed they captured better quality prospects with influencer marketing.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a relatively new marketing method that’s been gaining popularity among brands that are looking to increase their sales and reach a wider audience. The idea behind influencer marketing is that you use influential people to market your product for you.
Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that helps businesses promote their products and services with the help of endorsement and product mentions from influencers.
The value of Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is an effective tool for brands due to the trust aspect involved in the process. Influencers are the key people in this, as they are individuals that built a strong community who trust them, look up to them and seek recommendations.
Therefore, influencer marketing can help you raise awareness of your brand, increase sales and gain visibility. And these are just some of the benefits of influencer marketing.
Pros:
✔️ Influencer marketing can influence how people see your brand, and most of the time it has a positive impact
✔️ Build trust and credibility in your products faster and efficiently
✔️ If you are targeting micro-influencers (which by the way, can have similar results to macro-influencers) you don’t need a huge budget
Cons:
❌ You might need to spend some time identifying the best influencers for your campaign
❌ Tracking the performance of an influencer campaign might required for some additional tools
❌ Success is not always guaranteed as many things can influence the final results
What businesses can use influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing can be used in almost any industry: automotive, beauty/fashion, design, education, electronics, entertainment, fitness and sports, food and beverage, hospitality, music, real estate, retail, transport, travel, writing & editing - the list goes on!
How to create an influencer marketing strategy?
- To plan an influencer marketing campaign you have to set an objective. Think about what goals you want to achieve with the campaign - brand awareness, sales, brand identity, lead generation and the list goes on.
- Now you have to start thinking about your audience - where they spend their time, what are their interests, their behaviour, etc.
- Set some performance metrics that will help you track the performance of the campaign. It can be difficult to track the performance, but there are some metrics that you have access to (ex: traffic on your website if you use URL builders).
- Now it’s research time - you have to identify the right platform for the campaign and the influencer that can help you achieve your goals.
- Plan your budget. Keep in mind that you will need money for the influencer collaboration and prize. Stock-rich companies can avoid monetary payments by giving a product in exchange for promotion.
- Reach out to the influencers you selected and ask them if they want to collaborate. It is better to contact more influencers to compare their pitch or proposal.
- Look beyond a quick scan of their social profiles - check post engagement relevant to their audience size, how often do they post, is their audience demographic aligned with yours?
- If you found the one, send the campaign brief - campaign goals, expectations, social media profiles the influencer will publish on, call to actions, messaging points, etc.
- Sign a contract with the influencer where you will clarify any deadlines, ownership of the content, deliverables, FTC guidelines, exclusivity clause, etc.
- Set up tracking methods for the campaign that the influencer can use - Google Analytics, promo codes, UTM links, hashtags, etc.
- Analyse the results and pay attention to what you can optimise in the future.
What are the different strategies of influencer marketing in 2021?
1. Identify the influencers that you want to utilise
Influencer agencies can be of help; however, if your organisation (or funding) is modest, you will need to make this choice yourself. Remember: although the number of followers matter, influencers' content and engagement rates tend to be a lot more significant in developing an effective campaign.
Three ways to find the ideal influencer for your brand:
- Calculate the influencer's engagement rate by dividing the average number of interaction (likes, comments on a post) by the total followers.
- Start looking for the most recent trends and see that which influencers are speaking about them.
- Examine every influencer's articles, background and values, and previous campaigns they have engaged in. Their entire image has to be matched with your brand, product or service.
2. Find the ideal platform to focus on
Many well-known influencers incorporate content across different platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and much more. Each platform has various formats, audiences and approaches. This needs to direct your influencer marketing plan.
If you would like to concentrate on a single platform, Instagram is your straightforward option (especially if you're targeting millennials). Besides stories and images, it also comprises a shopping feature that makes it simpler and quicker for users to buy products.
3. Convert loyal customers into influencers
You should really spend some time identifying and understanding your loyal customers. A happy customer who becomes an advocate of your brand is a lot cheaper than trying to acquire new customers from paid channels!
Capitalise on present audience members that are perfectly prepared to market your product/service. If your brand already has a higher engagement rate on social networking, you might not even have to employ an influencer. Your next influencer may be right within your follower list.
4. Maintain credibility by working with micro-influencers
Micro-influencers are the new trend. They have a smaller audience but are very engaged. With more affordable cost per engagement, they are a great way to market your product and business.
Micro-influencers may get anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000 followers, which may not look like a good deal. However, studies reveal they frequently have higher engagement rates compared macro-influencers since they're perceived as more relatable and dependable.
5. Get creative to stand out in the crowd
Creative thinking is an advantage, but it is particularly vital in a highly saturated market like influencer advertising. Although this strategy appeared revolutionary a couple of decades ago, today's audiences easily accept it. But they have also grown used to it--and there is the challenge.
Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed even more brands toward social media marketing, making competition more fierce than ever before.
What are the different types of influencers?
Influencer are grouped as follows:
- Macro-influencers - 500K+ followers
- Midi-influencers - 100K to 500K
- Rising influencers - 50K to 100K
- Micro-influencers - 1k to 50K
How to measure the ROI of influencer marketing?
Often, brands identify their influencer engagement rates but don't take into account the expense of human work hours which go into generating those reports and numbers. Manually calculating and tracking ROI is time-consuming.
That is why influencer marketing supervisors are working heavily on influencer relationship management (IRM) applications. An IRM platform such as GRIN can monitor each applicable KPI and easily display them in many different easy-to-read reports.
You will also have more time to cultivate influencer connections and concentrate more on your entire advertising plan.
The main KPI in influencer advertising is engagement. Just how much it costs to acquire meaningful engagement informs you how mature your influencer campaign is.
Cost Per Engagement (CPE) = Cost of the Influencer / Number of Engagements
By keeping tabs on your influencer, campaign, and CPEs, you'll see changes month-to-month. These changes will allow you to understand factors that lower or improve your CPE. Again, you aim to steadily decrease your CPE over time since you and your influencers will get better at generating compelling content.
If the campaign comprises of more than one influencer, you would have to figure the average CPE together with all influencers.
You will discover: The lower the price per engagement, the greater the ROI.
