Term
Influencer Marketing
noun
Influencer marketing is a type of marketing where a brand collaborates with an influencer having an established following and credibility to promote its products.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a type of marketing where a brand collaborates with an influencer having an established following and credibility to promote its products. The influencer typically does brand endorsements and mentions to drive interest in the offerings. In return, they either receive cash-based compensation or a free sample of the product.
Benefits of Influencer Marketing
There are several benefits to adopting influencer marketing as a growth strategy. Here are some of them:
- Increase your reach: Based on your goals, influences can help you reach niche audiences or tap into a broader community in an industry. Naturally, improved reach typically results in higher social engagement for your business.
- Get more earned media value: Earned media value (EMV) is the word of mouth you get from third-party responses to a campaign. When you collaborate with an influencer, you stand a better chance of getting more social mentions on different platforms (which can translate to more sales).
- Forster deeper relationships: The idea behind influencer marketing is that the influencer uses authentic presentation to build trust with their audience. Brands with a matching audience can leverage this trust to foster deeper relationships through their association with the influencer.
Types of Influencer Marketing
You can do influencer marketing in several ways. Here are the five common influencer marketing strategies.
Sponsored Posts
Sponsored content is one of the most common types of influencer marketing. This involves creating a social media post containing an ad for a product or service. You can think of sponsored posts as a celebrity endorsement in the digital world, a hybrid of the old and new ways.
The content goes on the influencer’s social media platform, usually with a call-to-action button that invites people to buy a product or service. Influencers usually talk about how they used the product or service in question and how their experience was. Personal anecdotes work well as a strategy because they establish trust between the influencers and their audience.
Affiliate Links
Everyone loves a good discount, and influencer-specific discounts are even more powerful. Companies track such discounts using affiliate or referral links. Even if the brand does not offer a discount, they still use referral links for tracking and analyzing the campaign. Discounts usually go well with sponsored content.
Giveaways and Contests
Free stuff gets a lot of people to develop an affinity with brands. This is especially true for people who follow influencers. You can collaborate with an influencer to host a giveaway/contest. But before you do, make sure to come up with a prize that the influencer’s audience will be highly interested in.
Collaborations With Influencers
Most influencer marketing campaigns let influencers post content on their own platforms. But sometimes, you can flip the strategy to freshen things up. Asking the influencer to appear on your channel can drive a lot of engagement and impressions on your platforms. This is also called a ‘takeover’ of your channels by the influencer. You let the influencer access and go live on your social media channels, usually for a 30-minute session or a day.
Brand Ambassadors
If an influencer’s persona fits right with your brand’s messages, you can make them your brand ambassador. A brand ambassador works for your brand for a long time and on an extended contract. This deal has many advantages for the brand because it is long-form marketing instead of short-term strategies on this list.
How to Do Influencer Marketing
Now that you know how influencer marketing works, you’re probably wondering: how do I use it for my business? Below, we cover the steps involved in implementing influencer marketing. It begins with:
Choose Social Media Platforms
Before looking for influencers, identify the right social media platforms for your brand. You might find that Instagram is better suited to your business, whereas another store might do well on TikTok. Revisiting your brand image and customer persona will help you pick the ideal platform for success.
Create Brand Guidelines
You can give influencers the liberty to choose how to represent your brand, but it’s a good idea to create some general guidelines for the person to follow. The guidelines will act as a “playbook” and ensure the influencer communicates your products in a way that’s consistent with your brand values.
Find Influencers
After setting guidelines and choosing a platform, you can start looking for influencers. You can choose from mega-influencers, macro-influencers, mid-tier influencers or micro-influencers. Don’t always go for the bigger influencers, instead, choose relevant influencers who can communicate your brand message better. When reaching out to influencers, be polite and present your offer in the most respectable way.
How to Work with Influencers
After finding some influencers you want to work with, it is time to set up an influencer marketing campaign. Here are a few ideas to help you start:
Giveaway
If you are introducing a new product or service and giving away samples, then getting an influencer to promote this offer is a great way to boost the exposure of your new offering. You can start by hiring social media influencers to run a campaign on their platforms. Make sure that you work with someone aware of general rules and regulations in your location.
Behind-The-Scenes
Ask the influencer to post behind-the-scenes content of how you do things in your business. For example, if you are a fast-growing brand, you can ask the influencer to promote a product design session for a day on their platform.
Roundups
Influencers can also do roundups that feature your product or service. Make sure that you encourage them to feature your MVP or main product with a mix of complementary products. For example, if you sell paint, the influencer can do a roundup of home renovation items, including paint.
Live Takeover
Invite influencers to connect and engage with your audience in real-time on a live takeover. Using a feature like Instagram Live or similar, the influencer can take over your account and share their opinion with your social media audience. This opportunity is good for live events, product launches, promoting a sale, and even general strategy during a pandemic.