Everything You Need to Know About Influencer Marketing Strategy

If you use any social media platform, chances are you have already seen influencers talk about different products on a regular basis. You might think that they are simply talking about the products to share information with their audience; but trust me, there’s a lot more to it than that!

Using influencers for advertising is a legitimate marketing technique and is being widely used by companies. There are many ways of marketing your product but influencer marketing is surely something you need to explore.

Want to find out more about it and reap the benefits? Then keep on reading!

Guide to Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has become an important part of marketing campaigns. However, this is a relatively new technique and can be confusing to tackle. I have created this guide to help you get the most out of your influencer marketing campaign.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Those of you who are new to the term “influencers”, these are people who have a dedicated social following and are seen as specialists inside their niches. Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing. It is nothing new or different; it’s just built differently, yet with the same idea of attracting clients.

Influencer marketing is compelling because these influencers have a significant social media following, which leads to more eyes on your product. Since the followers already know and trust the influencer, they are more likely to buy the product when advertised through the influencer.

The secret to a fruitful influencer marketing campaign is to recognise the perfect influencer for your product who will work with your budget.

Think of Beats by Dre. It gained value primarily through influencer marketing and was bought by Apple for $3 billion dollars. Beats by Dre relied on every influencer from LeBron James to the Kardashians who showed up in TV advertisements saying: “Hello, you need to wear these earphones. They’re cool. All of us wear them.”.

How Successful is Influencer Marketing

Similar to traditional advertising, think of influencer marketing as an investment for your business. Unlike traditional advertising, influencers act as a better gateway due to their established brand. Joining forces with influencers has been a primary promoting technique for some brands lately. The immediate response to why influencer advertising works incorporate these advantages in a nutshell: you get reach to a greater audience, you can exploit the trust built by influencers, you can brand your product as per your vision and eventually, you can increase your revenue.

Let’s discuss some stats here. Adweek stated that the influencer marketing business is set to reach $10 billion. 74% of the business clients say they rely on others’ referrals when looking for a product to purchase. 70% of youngsters guarantee to confide in influencers more than other celebrities, and 60% follow their recommendations.

At this point, there really is no doubt that influencers do have real power to transform the image and sales of your company.

How to Create an Influencer Marketing Campaign

Like any advertising strategy, an influencer program takes deliberate targeting and planning. You can’t send your products to simply anyone and expect good results.

There are several things that you need to keep in mind while creating your campaign. First, you need to figure out what exactly you are in search of. Do you want to collaborate with an influencer with massive social following on Instagram? Will your product show better in photo or video format? What is your budget? Such clearly defined targets would mean that you are not just throwing your money and the campaign actually yields results.

Let’s look at some points that you need to go through.

1. Select your platform

Start with basic research. Before selecting an influencer, you first need to narrow down on the platform that you are going to use. Beauty and fashion are the two brands that are literally beaming on Instagram and YouTube, whereas the computer game industry is overwhelming on Twitch. The platform you choose can make or break your campaign.

2. Learn from competitors

You can also pick companies that are selling similar kinds of products and try to study their marketing strategy. Remember to choose companies which also have similar price range and branding style. For example, if you are just starting a beauty product company, then looking at Glossier’s marketing campaign will not help you at all. Doing this research will help you better understand the marketing trends and develop a solid strategy.

3. Look at the engagement

While selecting an influencer, you should also keep in mind that follower count isn’t everything. While followers can be faked, engagement is quite difficult to fake. You should be looking for an influencer with a good follower count along with high engagement. Similar to brand loyalty, influencers often have their own loyalty. Low engagement generally means there is little to no loyalty.

4. Ask your audience

You need to find what your target audience likes. Every time you chat with your customers, just ask them which platforms they prefer, which apps they use in order to socialise, or which brands they particularly adore. Use online surveys or emails to know what your audience is looking for. If they are more focused on Snapchat, then choose an influencer from Snapchat. Investing in an influencer that your target audience isn’t following won’t do you any good.

5. Utilise tools

Several websites and tools have been developed to assist in the influencer marketing process. For example, FameBit is a platform where businesses can post requests for influencers to advertise their products. The main advantage is that you get access to a wide range of influencers and negotiable fees.

How Much do Influencers Get Paid

There is a broad range of compensation among the influencers, so make sure to see regular rates for the influencers you are collaborating with. Micro-influencers are generally concentrated on a limited range of topics, and they are more likely to collaborate with you simply for an exchange of items. This is less likely for big influencers who will ask for monetary compensation. Keep in mind, the cost will generally depend on the size of follower base.

Let me give you a brief idea of the average influencer pay rates so that you can decide where to invest.

In 2017, Influencer.Co did research where they studied Instagram influencer payment. They took a gander at the average expense per Instagram post and discovered:

• The general standard cost was $271 per post.
• The standard cost for micro-influencers with less than 1,000 followers was $83 per post.
• The standard cost for influencers with more than 100,000 supporters was $763 per post.

Now that you have all your goals set, an appropriate marketing plan, and an influencer you have decided to hire, you can now move on to the next step.

This is the central part of your cycle which involves you directly coordinating with the influencer. Decide how you’ll be contacting them. For micro-influencers, you could connect directly through a private message on their profile. For bigger influencers who are likely receiving thousands of messages, the better way would be to send an email.

When you contact them, make sure your proposal is formal and persuasive. Remember, your first message would be your brand’s first impression, and you really don’t want to ruin that.

How to make the Best Influencer Marketing Campaign

It is a continuous process, as you are required to monitor the impacts of influencer marketing regularly. It would help you understand how well the campaign is going. If results aren’t satisfactory, you might want to swap to make relevant changes in the existing technique, use different influencing techniques or hire other influencers if required.

There are a couple of methods of estimating the accomplishment of your mission. You can make a particular hashtag, such as #SproutPartner, to follow what your influencers are doing, and keep track of how well is your brand name building up. The Sprout Smart Inbox makes it simple to see what’s being discussed with explicit hashtags or to look for highlights of precise Twitter keywords.

Conclusion

Influencers are here to stay, and their power is not expected to decline any time soon. Yet, their core working principles and strategies have significantly changed over the years and are anticipated to revolutionise even more in the years ahead.

While there are some novel issues to consider while working with influencers, setting up the campaign isn’t really different from other social media strategies. You need to do your research, set up clear goals, make a financial plan, discover influencers and review regularly. And once you have figured it out, keep repeating!

Remember, achievement differs between brands, so don’t surrender if your initial attempt doesn’t work out. Like everything else, there is some trial and error involved. Keep working until you achieve all the milestones you have set for yourself.