Influencer marketing is quickly gaining popularity. Despite ample proof of its efficacy, many firms have yet to give it a try. This is rather normal for any breakthrough. Trendsetters, mainstream consumers, and lastly laggards who take their time to explore any new techniques will always be present. Influencer marketing has, however, consistently been plagued by a perception bias. Influencer marketing is still perceived by some as nothing more than dealing with celebrities.
But influencer marketing goes well beyond merely using celebrities to advertise products. It goes beyond Justin Bieber and George Foreman grills donning Calvin Klein briefs, though. Utilizing internet authorities to advertise acceptable items to their niche market is known as influencer marketing.
There are alternative, typically less expensive ways for operating your influencer campaigns, while you may hire a (influencer) marketing firm to develop your campaigns for you in a manner similar to how advertising companies handle conventional campaigns. This manual intends to teach you how to utilize influencer marketing to expand your company.
Influencer marketing: What is it?
Influencer marketing, as its name suggests, entails businesses working with influential individuals to assist them with their internet marketing. Someone who has the ability to influence others’ purchasing decisions is known as an influencer. An influencer is able to accomplish this because of their position, authority, education, and unique connection to their audience. Influencers frequently interact with their followers and have a sizable fan base in a certain industry or subject.
Although celebrity marketing gave rise to influencer marketing, the two are extremely different. Influencer marketing in the modern day involves much more than just famous actors, musicians, or athletes promoting unrelated goods to their followers.
This point is so commonly misunderstood that it merits reiteration:
Marketing based on celebrities is NOT influencer marketing. Influencers are experts with a devoted following who have a common interest. They don’t have numerous apathetic followers since they are superstars.
Influencers invest a lot of effort in developing their brand and fan base. Influencers can be eager to collaborate with you if they can see how your product could help their following. Influencer marketing, however, will only be effective if you advertise a high-quality product. Nothing will result in recurring business if your product is poor quality, subpar, or worse than that of your rivals.
Comparison between influencer and content marketing
In influencer marketing, delivery is everything. In order to spread content, brands partner with well-known individuals in their target area.
There is more to content marketing. It happens when businesses produce and disseminate pertinent, useful information. The aim of the content creation is to draw in and keep an audience. The complete process of producing, disseminating, and utilizing information to further your company objectives is covered by content marketing.
A multitude of techniques are used in content marketing to disseminate material and increase its visibility. Influencer marketing is one of the best strategies for disseminating content. There is some overlap because the influencers frequently produce the information they share, but ultimately influencer marketing is only one of the (best) distribution channels for content marketing.
The Benefits of Influencers for Your Business
You may anticipate influencers to assist you on a variety of levels. Your connection with your influencers will determine how much and what sort of help you may anticipate. It is obvious that you may have higher expectations from a person with whom you have a paid working relationship than you can from someone who is doing you a favor.
Influencers may assist you in a variety of ways, including:
- Creating a blog entry, article, or video about your goods or services
- Sharing content promoting you on their social media pages, for instance, announcing a blog post you wrote
- granting you entry to their website so you may publish a guest article
- posting on Instagram or YouTube videos that demonstrate people utilizing your goods
- Creating or producing marketing materials for your company
However, you can’t count on influencers to provide you unqualified endorsements. They can only be considered influential because they have developed a genuine rapport with their followers.
Setting Objectives
Influencer marketing is useless if you only do it because you heard about its popularity someplace. You must understand WHY you are doing an influencer marketing strategy. This will influence both your choice of influencers and how you evaluate the campaign’s success.
You must associate each of your objectives with a specific KPI (KPI). How else might you evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign?
Common objectives (with corresponding KPIs) include:
- A percentage-based increase in the amount of visits to your website (Social visitors to your website as shown in Google Analytics throughout a campaign compared to the previous period)
- Increasing the amount of social media followers for your company (more people followed your company’s social profiles throughout the campaign)
- Increasing your brand’s exposure to a certain audience (e.g., by having more brand mentions on social listening software or by having higher engagement rates in your social media analytics/insights section)
- Boost product sales by a certain percentage or figure (product sales data)
Identifying Your Target Market
Some firms also struggle with the issue of not knowing who to target with their advertising. If you don’t know whom to influence, you can’t possible choose the finest influencers.
When looking for influencers, bear in mind your ideal target client if you already know who they are. If you’ve used sponsored Facebook advertising or PPC successfully in the past, pay particular attention to the way you targeted those ads.
You must collaborate with the influencers who have the sway over your target market if influencer marketing is to be effective. Choose influencers whose audience closely resembles your target market.
Which Influencer Types Should You Trust?
Influencers are frequently categorized based on the size of their fan base. But don’t let that bother you too much. Just work with the influencers that are the greatest for your industry; you don’t have to collaborate with the largest ones.
We often categorize influencers by size as follows:
- celebrities or “mega-influencers,” who often have at least a million fans or subscribers across several social media networks. Generally speaking, you should only collaborate with these individuals if your target market is large and you offer to a worldwide audience. Their work swiftly reaches a large audience, but they don’t have a strong relationship with their fans. The average cost of these influencers is extraordinarily high—up to $1 million per post.
- Macro-influencers: These influencers are good for advertising to a particular niche since they frequently have enormous, engaged following. However, because they are frequently industry leaders, getting in touch with them could be challenging. They are reasonably priced and frequently use agents. Who they choose to take on as clients is up to them.
- Micro-influencers are subject- or industry-specific specialists who typically have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers—a smaller audience than macro-influencers. They have a deep understanding of and enthusiasm for their subject. Their audience has developed a great deal of confidence in them. They are far less expensive than mega- or macro-influencers. Micro-influencers are used in the most effective influencer marketing.
- Nano-influencers are persons who have smaller audiences (often 1,000–10,000 followers), but who are engaged in their local communities or excel in certain fields. The majority of the time, they have little to no experience dealing with brands. However, they know their followers well and have exceptionally high engagement rates. For start-ups or small enterprises with a limited marketing budget, nano-influencers may be fantastic.
The Three Approaches to Running an Influencer Campaign
Knowing who you should target for an influencer campaign is the first step in creating one. The decision that will have the most impact on the success of your campaign must be made here. Cost is the key distinction between the three methods.
1. The Natural Approach
At first, the only way to launch an influencer marketing campaign was to identify influencers organically. Although you will still need to pay a lot of influencers, there is no cost associated with finding them or running your campaign.
With the organic approach, you handle all of your influencer management, analysis, and selection yourself. The majority of premium tools are not available to you, and you must gradually develop connections with influencers. The worst aspect of this is that there is no assurance that an influencer will agree to collaborate with you, even if you spend months courting him or her.
You’ll need to spend some time every day on social media investigating and examining who has influenced your target market. Then, you’ll need to progressively get to know these folks.
Assuming your objectives have been established, you should be aware of the kind of influencers you are looking for. Anyone who does not appeal to your target demographic may be ignored.
You may choose your influencers with the aid of several free tools. These consist of:
- You may utilize LinkedIn’s great search engine to discover influencers in your sector. Enter your industry into LinkedIn’s search box, then click People. To make a more precise choice, alter the other possibilities.
- The search engine on Twitter is quite strong. You may go through profiles to find people who have mentioned your subject.
- Find the appropriate hashtags that influencers in your niche are using by using Tweetdeck.
- MozBar is helpful for locating authoritative websites. It displays the Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) of a site (PA). For figuring out how important a website is, the Domain Authority is quite helpful (and thus influence).
2. Employing Platforms
There are several platforms available now that provide a variety of tools to assist you in managing your influencer marketing. The following services can be found on platforms:
- Influencer Research
- Relationship Administration
- Campaign Direction
- The Influencer Market
- Independent Analytics
- Boosting Influencer Content
The influencer finding tools in particular may substantially ease your influencer discovery, and even though a membership is expensive, you might easily end up saving money over time if you include in the extra time needed for choosing organic influencers.
If you decide to use a platform, you will usually be asked to list the kinds of influencers you want to collaborate with. Your search parameters will then be used to generate a list of possible influencers from the platform.
3. Using Influencer Agencies for Outsourcing
Similar to how they handle traditional advertising, some businesses opt to take a hands-off approach to their influencer marketing. If it applies to you, you want to think about collaborating with an influencer marketing company.
The majority of the labour necessary in locating appropriate influencers for your company will be handled by the agency, which will also manage your campaign. But you’ll still need to specify your objectives. The organization of your campaign by influencer marketing organizations may be superb, but it is still your campaign. Even the most skilled agency cannot do miracles in the absence of appropriate goals.
Some platforms operate backward. You design a gig and specify your influencer requirements. On their site, you post an ad for your gig, and after that, influential members approach you with offers.
How to Use Outreach to Influencers
Working with an agency has the benefit of reducing the amount of influencer outreach required. You give the company money to do this for you. Similar to this, certain platforms, especially those featuring an influencer marketplace, assist in reducing the requirement for influencer outreach by shifting the emphasis from companies finding influencers to influencers finding brands. Additionally, some platforms suggest influencers who have been thoroughly screened and have previously shown a desire to collaborate with the right businesses.
Influencer outreach, however, is a crucial step for any firm intending to use influencer marketing in all other circumstances.
You need to take the gradual and methodical stages of developing connections with your potential influencers after you have compiled a list of influential individuals who are beneficial to your company.
Keep in mind that influencers are not at your disposal. Regardless of how large or well-known your brand is, this does not guarantee that an influencer or their audience will be interested in you.
You’ll need to invest time in establishing connections with prospective influencers. You must resist any pressure from above to find a quick resolution because this might take some time.
Analyze the influences you’ve chosen. Try to ascertain what makes them so well-liked. Why do so many people decide to interact and follow them?
Whether you connect with influencers you discovered on a platform (who are accustomed to dealing with businesses) or whether you contact them unexpectedly will determine how much interaction you get at this point. The budget you have is another factor. If you want to pay influencers to promote you, it will be lot simpler to get in touch with them than if you just want them to do it for free.
You may frequently move right to pitching through email if you want to engage with influencers who have previously shown a readiness to collaborate with companies and you are ready to discuss a fee. Additionally, certain systems include capabilities for encrypted communication.
However, in other circumstances, you’ll need to court prospective influencers. Begin by friending or following them on their most significant social media platforms. The next step is to engage with them. Like their images, videos, blog entries, and other information; comment on them; and share it. You must approach your interaction with them online in a manner akin to how you would approach a genuine friendship. In the early stages of your relationship, avoid attempting to make any pitches or engage in any sales talk.
A Potential Strategy for Influencer Outreach
Following might be a potential order for naturally engaging with influencers:
- Check out the blogs and social media accounts of your influencers.
- Respond to any welcome emails they may give you; you’re more likely to get them if you subscribe to their blog rather than one of their social media accounts.
- Share the content posted by the influencers.
- Answer any queries that your influencers pose to their audience
- Comment on the social media postings and status updates of your influencers.
- Put a link to your influencers’ articles
- Create an ego-boosting post that features the influencers you are concentrating on.
- Contact any prospective influencers.
You might be able to skip to Step 8 if you’re interacting with influencers through a platform (or agency) who have previously shown a desire to collaborate with companies. Otherwise, resist the urge to cut corners.
What Makes Influencer Outreach Successful?
According to Jay Baer, an influencer pitch needs these three essential components to be effective:
- Describe the advantages
- Detail details
- Set up deadlines
Make careful to mention prospective influencers by name when you communicate with them. Avoid using the formal salutations “Dear Sir” or “Dear Madam,” as they seem impersonal and chilly.
One of the beginning sentences from the list below might be used to start an email:
- I really enjoy your [TOPIC] article.
- I wish to send you a sample of a [PRODUCT].
- On your [SOMETHING THE INFLUENCER CARES ABOUT] endeavor, I believe we should work together.
- I share something with you that you do as well.
- I wish to discuss your [TOPIC] article in greater detail.
- I want to offer your viewers some free things.
Your subject line ought to be intriguing but also specific enough for any customisation to stand out.
Begin your email with a short friendly greeting. Either write a brief paragraph introducing yourself, or simply sign off at the end, with your name, role, and company name.
How to Work Together with Influencers
Genuine influencers will only collaborate with you if they think your product will benefit their followers. Influencers would swiftly lose credibility if they tried to sell unrelated or inferior items to their followers. Working with influencers whose audience is unrelated to your target market is a waste of time.
You have a variety of options on how to collaborate with your influencers:
- Give your influencers complimentary samples (but remember most experienced influencers nowadays expect to receive payment for their posts, not just free product)
- Request product evaluations
- Give influencers things to giveaway to their followers
- Conduct a contest for your influencers.
- Sponsored articles are compensated
- Write guest posts—this is especially important for influencers who run a successful site.
Relationship Management with Influencers
How you find your influencers has some bearing on how you handle your relationships with them. An influencer that you have spent a lot of time courting and developing an organic connection with is very different from one that you discovered through a platform or agency search.
You will have higher hopes of success if you formally agree to work together. Additionally, certain platforms and agencies offer capabilities that make managing influencers simpler.
Cost is a key element in this. The more money you spent on finding and working with influencers, the more power you had. Your influencers will have greater power in the relationship if you have naturally wooed them.
The connection between your influencers and their audience is crucial. You have little motive to interact with the influencers if there are no genuine ties there.
Influencers are aware of the kind of material that resonate with their audience. By attempting to impose your content on them, you will not gain anything. Giving your influencers creative freedom and working with them to develop content can help you get greater results.
Making a plan to monitor your interactions with influencers is an excellent idea. This will enable you to choose the ones that will benefit your brand the most. Additionally, it ensures that you don’t miss their requests and communications. You may modify a customer relationship management (CRM) solution you already use to handle your clients and leads to help you manage your influencers. Some of the platforms offer tools to assist in managing influencer relationships.
Influencer Integration for Your Campaign
Some marketing initiatives rely only on influencers. In other instances, influencers are only a component of a larger marketing plan. Influencers might be used in many facets of your business, from market analysis to campaign implementation.
Influencers might be viewed as “super customers” since they do regular consumer-style shopping and product purchases. You may get feedback from hundreds, even millions, of other customers from them. Your influencers won’t hesitate to provide you their honest opinions on whether a product from your line of offerings is effective or not.
You might allow your brand’s narrative be told through your influencers. They typically spend time online telling tales, whether in writing, video, photos, or other formats. Therefore, a good influencer ought to be able to communicate your narrative to their audience more effectively than you can.
How to Measure the Success of Your Campaign
It is now much simpler to calculate the ROI of any influencer marketing campaign thanks to the development of influencer marketing.
However, there is no standard ROI metric for influencer marketing campaigns. It will differ from campaign to campaign, and throughout the course of a certain amount of time, you may utilize a variety of analytical analyses.
Setting goals for your campaign would have been the first step in the process if you had followed our recommended procedure for managing an influencer marketing campaign. As a result, you must evaluate how well your campaign accomplished those objectives. Each of your goals must be measured and tracked using pertinent key performance indicators (KPIs).
You should compare your Instagram follower counts before and after the campaign, for instance, if your aim is to grow your following on Instagram by a specific percentage. Imagine that during your campaign, you wanted to boost product sales by a specific proportion. You would have to concentrate on the product’s sales trends at that time.
Brands often want to know the following facts regarding their influencer marketing campaigns:
- For each post an influencer makes, the reach (impressions) and engagement (likes, comments, and shares) are calculated.
- As a result of the influencer marketing effort, more people visited the website.
- Extra sales made in comparison to the influencer marketing expenses
- which marketing messages are most effective with your target market
You should establish a quantifiable target based on the number of impressions if your goal is to raise awareness. The engagement rate will be more important to you if you want to strengthen your brand. Keep a careful eye on if your sales have grown after the campaign if conversion is more important to you.
Using Google Analytics on your website, it is especially simple to observe where these additional purchases are coming from if you offer products online. This will display the traffic’s origin for your website. You’ll be interested in any adjustments brought about by your influencer campaign.
You ought to be able to request the post statistics of the paid influencers you collaborate with about your campaign. Dashboards that provide pertinent statistics for your campaigns are offered by several platforms and organizations.
